dang2484 when you come to a specific brand forum, you only see people come there to ask/complain about their problems, so the essential “feeling” is overwhelming by the errors. but you will see same with other brands/machines. (With the caveat that Bianca is very popular due to its performance/price so the total number of errors reported will be higher, but I expect the rate to be roughly the same)
the only advice I can give, regardless of the machine you pick, is to buy from a reputable seller who is true to their words. and learn how to fix small things. Espresso machines work with very hot water and/or high pressure so things like valves will eventually fail. they should be fairly easy to fix if you know how. if you want to keep your machine for a very long, long time, that is
Nearly decided on a new set up
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It’s my birthday today… I’ve just pulled the trigger on a Bianca and Duo. Will also order an Acaia and nice jug. Any advice on distribution tools? I’ve seen some mad ones lately.
FedEx tracking for delivery tomorrow received within the hour. Nice work.
Seand It’s my birthday today… I’ve just pulled the trigger on a Bianca and Duo. Will also order an Acaia and nice jug. Any advice on distribution tools? I’ve seen some mad ones lately.
Happy birthday, I would wait as far as other accessories go and see how you get on. Then if you find you need something, drop hints at Christmas.
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Seand unless if you are sure you need Acaia (for whatever reason). it is great but also very expensive/overkill. A Timemore black mirror works well enough (accuracy/responsiveness) for a fraction of price
A simple WDT should do the job well. I have a blind shaker from 3MH-BOMBER which is a copy cat of Weber, which works well given it’s around $20 buying from Aliexpress.
My tip is that refrain from buying too many accessories. A scale and a WDT are two things that I’d consider essential. Nice to have are coffee brush( is included with Duo I think), a blower, puck screen. Buy quality but not luxury thing (say, Weber), unless it’s your thing.
And Happy birthday!
Seand happy birthday, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in your choices and can crack out some great espresso 😉
I agree on the tools, not much is needed other than a wdt tool. I did get a 3bomber palm tamper which makes tamper a lot more consistent but I’m sure there’s cheaper versions! I’ve got a cheap scales from amazon that works fine and is still going!
Lovely. I’d like a Bianca, it’s certainly on my radar as a 40th present to myself. Got the duo already and it’s brilliant, very repeatable results from it.
As above. Tamper, WDT tool, scales and milk jug are the bare essentials. I’ve been using cheap WDT tools and they all do a decent job.
Have fun!
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dang2484 think when you’re paying thousands for a hot water machine reliability should be as standard!
LM Linea Micra and Mini. More expensive than most E61 machines. LM is a “premium” brand. Yet… there are failures.
MediumRoastSteam the sooner someone accepts everything can fail, and will likely fail during their ownership, the happier they will be (or at least, less unhappy stuck in a dilemma) 😀
Sure we should avoid notoriously bad machines with a reputation of unreliable, but well, it’s not that different amongst the rest
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I think that a lot of these ‘failures’ are not the machine but of parts bought in. My Evo ‘failed’ after 8 months….actually it was the pstat and nothing to do with the design of the machine, but they all count!
delta76 - I think the whole dilemma is not about failure rate, but about warranty and repairability.
Buy a machine with standard parts and a reputable brand and you are likely to be OK. If something fails, hopefully you can contact the distribution network, obtain spares and fix the machine relatively effortlessly and inexpensively. That’s why I chose the Lelit Elizabeth over the Sage Dual boiler.
It’s my contention that the more standard generic parts used in a machine, the better. If they are high quality parts, that’s a big bonus. In the olden days La Spaziale and a few other companies were truly terrible for having bespoke parts.
This applies to grinders as well, those fancy screens are not standard parts and on some makes can cost £300 for something you think should cost less than £20 and in fact they should cost around that, but the manufacturer knows you can’t get one anywhere else…enter ceado.
DavecUK - same for gicar boxes, LCC and similars, right? My understanding is that you can only get those from the manufacturers directly, so technically they could charge whatever they want 😔
Stunning service from Bella Barista. Ordered 3pm Thursday. Arrived 1pm Friday. Not so slick from Niche - up to a week for despatch so I won’t be able to use it until I return from my epic 2 week adventure to the Italian Grand Prix and Prague (no apologies for the brag). I’ve borrowed a Sage Smart Grinder in the meantime, which is obviously awful. Finest setting and tamp hard! What I’m impressed with so far is how quiet it is compared to the LR. Also, all the accessories, especially the tamper and plumb in kit. I also like the external water tank and its movability, it just felt weird having hot water in the tank on the LR. Not so impressed with the plastic wood
Accessories wise, I’ve ordered the Timemore Black Mirror Nano, a Meross smart plug and Motta jug. I’m very keen on recommendations for a WDT tool and levelling tool. I had the Normcore WDT previously and thought it was awful. The prongs got bent very easily and it wasn’t long enough when using a funnel.
In summary, she’s looking very good and I’m excited to play around over the next couple of days before I leave. I’m going with the advice of normalising without messing with the flow control to begin with and may set the auto pre infusion for the time being. One other thing - what is the setting which is recommended to be changed from 0.8 to 0.4 for?
Many thanks for all the suggestions and discussions thus far.
Don’t need a levelling tool
Wdt needle tool and a normcore funnel
And this tamper
It’s a copy of the £170 force tamper I’ve had both and the copy is very good
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
The settings should be good to go from factory these days
In terms of the pre infusion use that. Font bother with the paddle unless you go way to corse on grind.
Set the low flow for 5-8s and then it will jump to normal flow.
Bianca is a top machine
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
Yeah it’s spring loaded
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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Also there’s this from Bella Barista:
Looks like an imitation of the Bravo Tamper, but if the description is accurate, the mechanics are different.
MediumRoastSteam I have this one and is a levelling tamper as well. It’s nicely made but sure there’s cheaper versions!
I bought one from AliExpress, around £30, came today. Didn’t realise it was one that clicks back after you fully compress it which wouldn’t have been my first choice. Any issue with the puck becoming unsettled or cracked as a result?
The shots this evening seemed fine on that front, but I think it was a Lance H video ….that said the puck can become disturbed by these sorts of tampers, I will see if we get any bad shots over the next few weeks and make up my own mind.
But kudos where it’s due, it tamps pretty level, Certainly more level than the normcore v4, so on that front we’re in business, cheers for the recommendation.