ST30B As previously posted BB have given a nod to Profitec for better build quality overall when folk had contacted them regarding a purchase.
Giving a nod to the Profitec can mean that they think it is better quality, of course. And there are a few other possible reasons to recommend it over “their best selling machine” (I don’t need to spell them out, right?).
In my opinion, it’s up to the buyer to make up their minds about this sort of thing, and personally I would usually tend to give less weight to opinions comming from a party with a possible interest which might not coincide with mine.
ST30B Regarding cooling flushes - from what I can gather (not much out there) it doesn’t come across that the PRO 400 is being sold as a standard HX, to me at least. WLL video just states 3 brew temp switches, use the 3rd one for a steam boost.
As @MediumRoastSteam explained, if you know how an HX works, it prioritises the steam boiler temperature. The temp in the heat exchanger will gradually move towards the temp of the steam boiler and eventually get too hot for brewing (and therefore require a cooling flush). The three settings on the Profitec let you easily change the set temp of the steam boiler. If the steam boiler runs cool enough for brewing, then you won’t have enough pressure to steam. If you do have enough pressure to steam, even on the low setting the group will eventually overheat and require a cooling flush.
Mara X approaches this problem differently: it priorities the temp of the heat exchanger (and keeps it right for brewing), and then it boosts the temperature automatically for steaming once the machine is used. Yes, it also has three temperature settings, but these are for the brew temperature, so not the same as the 400. This is why the Mara X is BB’s best selling machine. I’m not sure what the perceived quality differences are, but perhaps they had to fix more Mara X’s because they sold so many more of them than other machines?
