Lelit Mara X V1 and V2 – the differences
EfrainPR I have had my Mara X V1 for two years, added flow control kit and has worked flawlessly. Last month I purchased a V2 GICAR Box from “lamachinnadecaffe” in Italy for 82 euros (89 USD) and had it shipped to the USA. Swapped it after confirming with Lelit that there were no other hardware required. Also did the OPV water reroute as Lelit has on the new V2’s. For 82 euros ($89 USD) I have a Mara X V2.
So how do you find the new V2 Gicar box compared to the V1 Gicar? Is it an improvement? Can you describe the difference?
New member of the forum here. I currently have a Breville Barista Pro (2 years plus) and a new Niche Zero grinder.
Am strongly considering upgrading and the Lelit Mara X is pretty much at the top of my list, so this conversation is timely for me and quite interesting, although I’m missing some of the context since I’ve never used a Mara X.
I am the only coffee drinker in the house and typically have a milk drink in the morning (usually about 3oz of oatmilk), then a couple of shots and/or Americanos during the rest of the day. Not a “power user” at all.
I’ve been trying to understand the differences between the coffee vs. steam priority modes and find myself somewhat confused as to which of these modes would best work with my workflow/habits.
If I want to leave that priority setting on coffee priority, for instance, can I still steam milk reasonably quickly (or at the same time) as I’m pulling a shot?
I do understand that the coffee priority will keep my brew temperature rock solid which is definitely a preference for me. I just don’t understand how it may affect my steaming.
I do occasionally have visitors, most of whom want milk drinks. For those occasions, would I switch to steam priority?
What is a typical workflow for someone like me?
Thank you for your patience…. :)
JPORIS Coffee mode is the new mode and as you say designed to prevent overheating and give very good temp control.
Steam boost mode is similar to the old coffee mode with a longer boost.
HX mode has gone.
Welcome to the forum.
I should have added, you will be able to steam, in coffee mode, but not large quantitites or quickly, but in a pinch I guess you could steam small amounts. Far better to switch it to steam boost mode if you want to make lattes etc.. Or just use steam boost mode if you don’t know what you will be making.
Doram The V2 does behave a bit differently, the steam boost last longer and a bit more powerful. I steam 12-14 oz of milk (I do 25 grams in 50 grams out of espresso for my lattes, like them strong)and I can now finish a bit more quicker and the temp is hotter ( I like my milk to be 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit), and there is still enough steam/power to do another 12-14oz of milk right after if I have family/friends visiting. So that feature does works better for me and my work flow. I only do milk drinks in the morning, the new coffee mode suits me perfect, since I now can switch to this mode for the rest of the day and have a very stable temperature. Is it worth to change the GICAR box to V2? It all depends on your work flow. I like to tinker with my “toys” the engineer in me says yes, (thats why I added flow control kit) but only if you can buy the GICAR box for under $100 USD.
JPORIS I had my “new” V2 Mara X in the new coffee mode for few days in the morning when I was checking the new features and yes you will be able to steam milk it will be slower, but if your doing 3-4 oz like you mentioned then you can probably leave it in this mode all the time and switch too steam mode if you need to do larger amounts of steam milk if you have company.
Thank you for your replies! Helpful.
Another benefit of the v2 is that my stress levels will be lower when cleaning! I got a v2 recently but it had a v1 manual supplied. I was backflushing in Xmode steam (pos 1) which was in retrospect a bit silly as every flush would boost the pressure, correlated with a rise in anxiety! Now I can put it in Xmode coffee (pos 0) and have a stress free cleaning routine backflushing without causing the pressure to rise!
Hi all,
I have been an observer on this forum for a few months, and now I finally have created an account. 🤠
Last month I made the plunge and purchased the new V2 Mara X. To figure out how the Xmode Steam and Xmode coffee operated, I installed a Raspberry PI to observe the machine’s temperature readout. (I’m not the original creator, I just followed instructions from another post).
Fair to say that I got lots of interesting information, along with the fact that I have the V2 hardware with the V1 software 😓
Since installing this logger, iv noticed that sometimes it will have issues with the brew temperature settling after the steam boost period.
@DavecUK in your review you mentioned there’s a 5min window before it will take around 15mins+ for the machine to settle back to its original setpoint temperature. I do understand there are so many different variables for cooling rates but it seems like the PID is sometimes finding it hard to settle.
My software version says: C123b
In this photo, I pulled 3x (flush + wait ) to observe the brew temp impact, (indicated by the spikes in the blue graph) followed by a proper shot on the 4th. I guess I must have triggered multiple steam boosts? because then it took over 3 hours for it to stabilize.
You can see pretty large temperature oscillations in the heat exchanger temps till it settles.
Annotated:
This is what a typical shot looks like with a nice settling behavior down to the target temp.
So, I’m not really sure why sometimes the machine takes hours to settle. Any ideas I’m willing to try and post a log of it 😀.
IsaacM So, I’m not really sure why sometimes the machine takes hours to settle. Any ideas I’m willing to try and post a log of it
I tested a machine, but I think there may have been some minor changes made in production. I only reported on what I found with my machine, usage pattern and circumstances I did the charts to try and help people…but of course things could have changed slightly.
As for the machine taking hours to settle, I never experienced it….perhaps noise from a temp sensor?
I do have the V2 software Gicar box to install and will get around to putting it in when I return from ECM at the beginning of May. I just have a few important coffee projects on, that are eating up my time.
I don’t know if it will help for the MaraX, but you could try turning it on and off again to see if that speeds things up. As PID learn based on the previous conditions you can end up in a non optimal position. Restarting resets all the learned terms.
With the first PID I installed this helped after pulling a shot to counter the imbalance to the system that the shot caused.
Thanks for the reply!
That will be super interesting once you get around to testing the V2 software.
It seems to only go unstable when I take multiple shots during the steam-boost period.
Tomorrow ill try replicating the same shot sequence, followed by a turn-off & on to see if it settles faster :)
This mornings shots, followed by the same oscillations:
Is this something that I should bring up with the Lelit warranty? I’m concerned that by observing the Gicar box’s serial output Lelit might deem that as a void warranty 😖
What’s the consensus on this upgrade? Is it worth it upgrade to the v2 Gicar? I mostly make small milk drinks with my v1 MaraX. I don’t steam more than 100ml at a time.
logjames What’s the consensus on this upgrade? Is it worth it upgrade to the v2 Gicar? I mostly make small milk drinks with my v1 MaraX. I don’t steam more than 100ml at a time.
I think you should ask yourself a two-stage question: 1. Is it broke? 2. Will the v2 Gicar fix it?
The new software potentially will give you more steam power in the steam boost mode, and potentially give you more temp stability when making back to back espressos. So the first question is: are you short on steam power? Are you making back to back shots and feel you are not getting the same results due to temp swings because of the steam boost kicking in?
If you are always making milk drinks (so would not use the no-steam-boost mode); or if you are usually making just one drink (so will not care about steam boost affecting temp stability for further shots); or if you are steaming small quantities of milk as you said you do and have enough steam power (so will not benefit from extra steam power) - then I think you have no reason to want a V2 Gicar.
From my reading and understanding, the V2 Gicar would be good for the following situations:
1. You only use the machine for non-milk drinks AND you make multiple back-to-back shots. In this scenario you would benefit from the no-steam-boost mode, which isn’t available on the V1 Gicar.
2. You make huge milk drinks, and when you try to steam a bucket of milk you run out of steam power. In this scenario you would benefit from the longer steam boost in the V2 Gicar.
If one of the above applies to you, then a V2 Gicar might give you a better experience. But if it doesn’t, I don’t see what benefits you would get from replacing the box. For me personally (most of the time I make one drink, most of the time I steam milk and my flat whites are always small so I have no steam power issue), I don’t feel any need to update the software.
Doram It seems like the revised steam boost might cause the overheating after a shot to last longer than the 15 (ish) minutes that it is now. I typically ride that wave in the mornings, make a drink, make another 20 minutes later, my wife might steam some milk too for her chai tea latte. This doesn’t seem to improve that workflow, unless I sacrifice steam power in the new cafe plus mode, where there is no steam boost.
EfrainPR Boost stops, but the group has heated up beyond the set point and needs to cool, hence the overheating…on my V1 that means about 15 minutes. The steam boiler pressure idles around 0.6 bar, this results in a group temp of around 91 +/- .5C in the medium temp setting, based on a group head thermometer I have installed. When I pull a shot, the temp rises up to 92.5 +/- 1C for the duration of the shot, and cools down to 89/90 for the first minute after. If I don’t pull another shot, the group temp will climb to 93 in 3 ½ - 4 minutes, while the steam pressure holds around 1.5 bar. When the steam pressure starts to drop after the heater stops, the group temp will have reached 95-96c before falling back down to 91 +/- .5 C in 15 minutes.
Hi Everyone - I have been trying to get to the bottom of how to identify if a MaraX gicar is the right one for V2 software. I have been talking to Bella Barista about getting hold of one to fit in my V1 MaraX. They have a recently manufactured gicar I can buy, March 2022 date on it and it has V1.90 printed on it.
Can anyone who has a MaraX V2 gicar box either take a picture of it for me or let me know what is printed on the bottom of the label on it please?
Thanks
