Lever Espresso Machines

Lou

I love this thread. Every coffee nut ultimately wants a lever one day, don't they??? I do.

Lou

AngerManagement wrote:

Lou wrote:

I love this thread. Every coffee nut ultimately wants a lever one day, don't they??? I do.

Is a man thing ???

Not for me.

Lou

But you are a man. It's not a man thing for me because I'm not male - I'm female. Keep going with your rels!

Koffee_Kosmo

AngerManagement wrote:

Lou wrote:

But you are a man. It's not a man thing for me because I'm not male - I'm female. Keep going with your rels!

Thanks Lou, I keep using Google translate to try and get better wording for the rels; but it is not always exact. Can't ask my wife to do it; as she would then be aware of what I am up to.... And she just bought me a compound saw for my Birthday... err I bought and gave her the recite ;D As to am I a man.. I think so: but my daughter thinks i am a Wimp ;D Anger on who am I ;D

Photos say more than words So send photos and then say Look for something like this Gracia porfavore KK

Lacehim

KK, That's a Ponte Vecchio Lusso 1 group (and it's know by other names, SAMA, DAMPA and Ponte Vecchio). Probably Attilio's idea of "tiny, immorally overpriced kitchen ornaments masquerading as quality coffee machines" 😉 My personal opinion is that it's what ever floats your boat. What I like, another won't like. I personally can't justify having a 60kg machine sitting in my kitchen. My vote KK is that if you wait for the plumbable model with no pump. KISS. Less to go wrong, and it's plumbed too. Lovely. AM, Plenty of machines on the Italian ebay, just pull a few photos off to give them an example. Oh and get me one too 😉 Your wife should be happy! You could take her to Sicily for a holiday then you can find them yourself and fill a container send it home and refurb them back here and make a killing. AM's lever paradise. 🙂

beanflying

Lacehim wrote:

Probably Attilio's idea of "tiny, immorally overpriced kitchen ornaments masquerading as quality coffee machines" 😉 My personal opinion is that it's what ever floats your boat. What I like, another won't like. I personally can't justify having a 60kg machine sitting in my kitchen. My vote KK is that if you wait for the plumbable model with no pump. KISS. Less to go wrong, and it's plumbed too. Lovely.

I suspect the Elektra at $2.5k+ may be more the immoral sort of thing rather than the Lusso. At to 60kg on the bench easy really total cost to me of about $3.5k with the grinder ;D

takeaim

Those of you that have used various lever machines, how do they compare taste wise?

Koffee_Kosmo

AndreasM wrote:

Those of you that have used various lever machines, how do they compare taste wise?

My direct comparison from a newbie user against the Bezzera BZ40 1) A little softer flavour in cup and a little more flavour definition 2) It smells & aromas are a lot different in the cup KK

beanflying

AndreasM wrote:

Those of you that have used various lever machines, how do they compare taste wise?

Different to be a bit vague, softer but with better clarity when compared to standard 9 bar pumped machines. It would be really interesting to compare my 2 commercial ones to a pressure profile machine or even one of them in standard mode. To obscure the answer even more both of mine on the same beans have a different taste and I prefer the Izzo by a touch generally over the Fioranzato. There is some stuff written by Gwilym Davies on Levers that will be worth a search. Best bet is shout yourself a holiday pack some beans and come for a play.

takeaim

I've only had a few shots from a 50's Faema Urania that I helped source for The Maling Room but that was years go. Wondering how much of a difference there is between say an old Faema and Boema and also between a modern lever.

RichardM

I know this is a long shot, but considering the number of new coffee machines bought, and the number of old people dying (my tact is out the window tonight, sorry), that a fair few of these kinds of machines would be thrown out when their kids come to "clean out" the house, not realising what they are. Would there be many of these go to scrap metal places, the tip, salvo's etc?

beanflying

Small domestics are a bit different to commercials for throwoutability. Over time I have seen them come up on evilbay for sale with don't know how it works, went back to instunt, found in shed etc In most cases the people who finish up with them just don't know and won't have a grinder so whatever they make will be worse than international roast. The numbers of quality old italian commercial machine in Oz seems to be fairly low and a lot of them change hands by word of mouth or extended word of mouth more than evilbay.

kualitycoffee

Lacehim wrote:

KK, That's a Ponte Vecchio Lusso 1 group (and it's know by other names, SAMA, DAMPA and Ponte Vecchio). Probably Attilio's idea of "tiny, immorally overpriced kitchen ornaments masquerading as quality coffee machines" 😉 My personal opinion is that it's what ever floats your boat. What I like, another won't like. I personally can't justify having a 60kg machine sitting in my kitchen. My vote KK is that if you wait for the plumbable model with no pump. KISS. Less to go wrong, and it's plumbed too. Lovely. AM, Plenty of machines on the Italian ebay, just pull a few photos off to give them an example. Oh and get me one too 😉 Your wife should be happy! You could take her to Sicily for a holiday then you can find them yourself and fill a container send it home and refurb them back here and make a killing. AM's lever paradise. 🙂

Amen Amen Amen to that! he will then need to convince the good women, maybe more than one, to build a new workshop (garage)!!! But hey AM this idea does have some merrite just think of the attention you will receive from the good women? Does she make better coffee than you? You see she justs wants a machine that works. I'm lucky my lady does not like coffee in any form. This is good for me of course.

Cuppacoffee

There was a 3 group Bo-ema lever for sale on an auction site that was just passed in without a bid. Like me, I'm guessing a number of members here saw it. It looks to be in good condition and just wondering why you feel it wasn't snapped up?

askthecoffeeguy

RichardM wrote:

I know this is a long shot, but considering the number of new coffee machines bought, and the number of old people dying (my tact is out the window tonight, sorry), that a fair few of these kinds of machines would be thrown out when their kids come to "clean out" the house, not realising what they are. Would there be many of these go to scrap metal places, the tip, salvo's etc?

I'm in regular contact with a gentlemen from Italy who specialises in buying and restoring lever machines and he regularly has a few at his disposal -so feel free to pm me folks if you're genuinely interested in the goods - although if it was parting with that kind of hard earned, I'd wanna fly over and inspect first hand! Also there seems to be a few available in NZ from time to time, on a local auction site...

UNM

Cuppacoffee wrote:

There was a 3 group Bo-ema lever for sale on an auction site that was just passed in without a bid. Like me, I'm guessing a number of members here saw it. It looks to be in good condition and just wondering why you feel it wasn't snapped up?

In my limited experience, 3 group machines of any type get passed in far more often than 1 and 2 groups. Perhaps that is why and iirc beanflying got his 3 group Izzo for a good price after it was passed in at least once.

coffeehorse

Partly the brand - Boema have produced some /really/ awful products, partly the age - late 80s/early90s is unfashionable and had poor QC, and partly the 3gr nature means they're often 20A instead of 15W with the possibility of getting them down to less than 11A. Also weight - 80kg+ is a lot different to 40-65kg. The combo of brand, weight and age means perceived difficulty selling on, while probably no-one wants a machine they can't sell in times where money is hard to come by? Just guessing here.

Cuppacoffee

I wouldn't have considered owning a 3 group Bo-ema until recently. In an odd way, they're kitch, and I do like them much more now. Having sold my lever recently, despite still having possession of it, I miss it already. The Aussie brand appeals to me. I've made some enquiries to the owner and might end up owning it. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

beanflying

Different thing buying a 3 group for the home kitchen, I suspect the SO approval factor would be below zero. I was having a little drool over at the KVW site last night and I was wondering if the lady uses a riser block behind the counter to get to the levers 🙂 Rancilio Class 6 I think.

RichardM

beanflying wrote:

Different thing buying a 3 group for the home kitchen, I suspect the SO approval factor would be below zero.

My missus let me have a 1m wide bench. Whatever coffee gear I can fit on that, I can have 🙂 🙂 - Wouldn't leave much space for a grinder though.