La Marzocco Owners Chat (All welcome!)

I thought about having an LM tech come out and do mine but feels like it would be a waste of money after only 18 months.

I’m almost certain the official LM service checklist is aimed at commercial users because it seems hugely overkill for home use.

My 12 month (on a Linea Mini) looked like this:

Remove case and check inside for any signs of leaks, general visual inspection of components.

Replace group gasket

Replace shower screen and dispersion screw

Then just my monthly cleaning cycle - PulyCaff back flush, remove/wash tank, drain steam boiler and then clean water back-flush and pull a shot and tip it away.

Tbh even the screen/screw replacement was unnecessary as they looked fine, but since the parts cost very little I did it anyway.

I’ve said it before but if you’ve been to the London Coffee Festival you’ll see that a lot of stands use LM’s for the course of the weekend and probably pull more shots in a weekend than most home users do in a year.

Good water, a good cleaning practice and a new gasket each year is probably all they need to run happily in the home environment for many many years.

I will not do any servicing (or unless something leaks or sounds odd).. i have 3 screens I randomly rotate - might change the seal if needed.

Not even sure how much a service costs - and how that works if you live in far flung corners of the UK.

I have been using someones cleaning routine 😂 weekly clean of the screen and backflush - then do the deep chem clean everynow and again.

Forgot to ask are ppl using the black gaskets or swapped to the orange ?

I recently purchased a black one from espresso solutions. It’s labelled as one for the Micra.

I made a little tear in the current one trying to remove it 😭

Also purchased the IMS nano shower screen. No idea if it’s better then the stock one.

What baskets you folks using btw? I purchased a 21g vst a while back. Thinking of lowering my does to 18g as I’m churning through beans quicker now.

The stock LM 17g doesn’t work well with my normcore tamper.

Erm… couple of pullman 871

IMS curved bottoms

IMS big bang

IMS flat bottom with the coating

And a superfine one as well. Sorry out so the decriptions are not detailed 😂

I understand that the gaskets are hard to get out so they normally will end up ripped/destroyed

I should’ve clarified that I do a weekly water backflush, wipe out the tank with a damp cloth but leave it connected.

On the gasket, I switched to the orange LM silicone when I did the annual service. I prefer it. It’s a slightly softer feeling when you lock the PF in, and easier to turn as the standard black ones are very stiff when new.

HarveyMushman Replace shower screen and dispersion screw

This does seem rather over the top for a domestic machine!

Blimey! Replace safety valve and vacuum breakers!

Replace baskets and steam valve rebuilt kit!

That’s crazy!

MediumRoastSteam I suspect the mini was seen as a small commerical - hence the instructions 😂

Commercial la marzocco machines don’t need that much maintenance either. Our engineers said the silicon gaskets can easily last 2 years in a commercial environment (but they replace them and the shower screens more frequently)

Thought some might be interested (not had the chance to watch yet)

HarveyMushman I see the prices for the extras and just walk on… black plastic for me 😂

Well finally got round to watching the tour video…. Wow what a cool factory.. reminds me a lot of how Gold Note work (in a factory in another part of Italy)

Really liked getting to see the innards up close of the mirca… interesting that they complete (at the time) about 60 a day.

So and this is a question for the LM mini/micra owners - as we don’t have fancy flow controls - or on the fly programmed shot like the Decent… how to you go about dialing in a new coffee on your machine.

What’s your thought process workflow… I am after ideas being a newbie and all in making sure i dont waste too much coffee getting a good (milk based on the whole) cup.

Here my basic process so far…

Choose a starting point on the grinder (I have a vaguely set range where I know I can kill it or its so fast it over in seconds).

Pick a weight of coffee - usually 18grams - well it’s kinda the defacto standard right.

Go for the defacto 1:2 - 18 in 36 out in the usual range 28-32 etc.etc.

Now I will have a taste - I admit I dont think I have a palate to distinguish too much but depending on what I think then I will adjust the corse/fine ness of the grind and try again.

Do you do something different.. do you tinker much with temperature or dosage dependent on the type of Coffee ?

Cheers

Matt

Tbh you’re not limited without flow control.

While I’m not sure you have a gauge to show the pressure at the puck

If you got a high flow baskets say the Pullman 876 from square mile £20 del, and then a bottom paper, ground a bit coarser. You can do a turbo, it would just be bit hit and miss and dial by taste but I had success on the bianca and that’s the pump set at 9 bar but the machine just couldn’t get the pressure do to the grind setting 😁 so less limited than you think really

Hi,

I clearly wrote my post unclearly 😂 I am quite happy that the number of variables the LM gives me is limited -

So was just trying to see how others reach their own tasty coffee. I do agree the LM makes it easy to get a good cup - I was trying to figure what tastes good 😂…