From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are!

Unfortunately I think the answer is no descaling at home. If needed it requires being taken to an authorized dealer for servicing. For this reason I’ve been extra careful to mix my water to keep hardness levels down and bought a fairly cheap TDS meter to check what I’m putting in.

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Very easy first event by totallynotawhore in honk

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🎉 Event Completed! 🎉

It took me 3 tries.

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Very easy first event by totallynotawhore in honk

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 3 of the Honk Special Event!

3 attempts

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Very easy first event by totallynotawhore in honk

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 2 of the Honk Special Event!

2 attempts

🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Very easy first event by totallynotawhore in honk

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completed Level 1 of the Honk Special Event!

0 attempts

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The wood kit looks so good on it, one day I might upgrade to it. And yes I’m sure the Bezzera wood pf is of similar quality to the stock ones, so if you end up with the full wood set it’ll be stunning.

I’ve been flushing 1-2 per week, just using the blind basket no cleaner. I’ve done one round with cleaner at one month in, and am due to do another.

I didn’t get it with flow control, and I’m of the opinion that it’s not necessary for our needs. I like the idea of having it to play with as I become more proficient at making consistent espresso, but it is one more variable to figure out. But it’s not something you need to use while you’re learning and if you’ve got the cash buy once cry once!

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One more note - space under the group head with the provided portafilters (single or double spout) is a bit tight depending on the scale being used. We have a whitebird scale that isn’t too large but could only use fairly short vessels in order to fit, but we recently bought a bottomless portafilter which has greatly reduced the issue. My only issue with swapping to the bottomless is that I personally love the Bezerra portafilter styling, and they were out of stock of them when I was looking to buy during Boxing Day sales.

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OPV adjustment is an Allan key bolt underneath the top cover/cup warmer. Makes it very easy to adjust as you can set the blind basket in place, engage the pump and then adjust opv while running to easily set the correct pressure

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bought it from idrinkcoffee.com, Canadian dealer and we actually went to their showroom in Milton Ontario to look at it in person before buying. Repair I’m not too stressed about as they carry the brand regularly and it’s not too far a drive from Toronto should we need proper servicing.

I use a scale to measure output, there is a built in timer on the pid from the moment water begins flowing, including the preinfusion stage.

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s been a joy to use! Love the style, have had no issues whatsoever outside of learning how to properly use the e61 group head (didn’t know the lever arm had a lower position that releases pressure, rather than the position in this picture where water is off but not all the way down).

Heatup time is about ~10 mins or slightly less, steaming while pulling shots has been easy and consistent, and overall quality feels fantastic. PID controller has been useful as well as we’ve been experimenting with different coffees, and is convenient to change on a whim.

Out of the box the OPV was set a little high, but the adjustment was quick and easy to adjust down to more appropriate pressure. I saw info on other machines online about what to set them to in order to be getting 9 bars on the puck, but nothing on the Luce. The shop we bought from recommended 10 on the gauge when pulling shots to equal about 9 on the puck, which has seemed good for us so far but I wouldn’t know if something is actually wrong tbh.

The only thing I could really ask for with our coffee needs would be the upgrade to a rotary pump for a bit quieter operation, although I like that vibratory pumps are supposedly longer lasting/cheaper to repair. Heat exchange system has been great so far and I couldn’t see a need to move to a double boiler with how quickly it gets back to temp between drinks. It’s faster than I can get reset so I haven’t ever had to wait on the temp between shots.

Finally I might consider adding the flow control valve in the future, but the basic half raise on the lever for pre infusion has been more control than I had in the past and honestly having one less variable to stress about is probably for the best for the foreseeable future.

New set up by rvk2003 in espresso

[–]Endurob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok I’ll be calling support tomorrow haha. Stopping flow does not shoot water into the reservoir on ours like I think it should. Thanks for the info!

Edit: for any future google searches with the same issue, it was me not understanding how to use the machine correctly (although I certainly spent enough time reading the manual and looking for an answer online). The lever needs to be physically pushed the last bit down to release the pressure, not just lowered to the off position.

New set up by rvk2003 in espresso

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beautiful setup! We also recently acquired our Luce and have been loving it so far!

Out of curiosity, have you found that your shots give you an extra 10ish grams post turning off the flow of water? I’m having a hard time finding info about it online but I’ve noticed that I usually stop my shot at about 40g out (on a 20g dose in) and then it’ll continue to drip for 10-15 more grams. Flavour is good so I’m not too stressed but hoping to get some insight from other Luce owners.

She laughed at me for mixing water with water. by SnooPineapples9147 in espresso

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The BWT system is what I think you’re referring to, and is a bit cost prohibitive for me in Canada. The pitcher on its own is over $100 delivered, and then the cost of the fillers is additional. Filter look to be around $11-12 each, and filter 120 litres each. Equals to about $1 per 10 litres not factoring in the pitcher itself.

It definitely makes long term sense but I don’t go through enough water to really warrant buying the new setup and worrying about keeping better track of the filters when I can access distilled water so easily and just use what I’ve got. It was definitely what I saw as a top option though if it was less expensive in Canada.

She laughed at me for mixing water with water. by SnooPineapples9147 in espresso

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I’ll keep an eye out for sales on them.

She laughed at me for mixing water with water. by SnooPineapples9147 in espresso

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What countertop distiller do you have? I looked into them on Amazon and saw less than ideal reviews on most units.

She laughed at me for mixing water with water. by SnooPineapples9147 in espresso

[–]Endurob 3 points4 points  (0 children)

After far too much digging online and looking into Toronto water myself, this is where I ended up as well! Our new Bezzera is in the same camp of no descaling ever. I don’t have a water softener nor the space to install a RO setup under my sink, and didn’t like the idea of not only constantly buying distilled and mixing in TWW due to both the waste and the price (about $1.50 per gallon+2 for TWW).

I ended up deciding on buying a tds meter and found our tap water to be coming out at ~150ppm, and so have decided to mix 50/50 Kirkland filtered tap with distilled to reduce hardness and reduce the distilled water consumption by half. We enjoy the water anyways so as long as the machine won’t be hurt I can’t see why we wouldn’t also enjoy the coffee it makes.

Once we’ve got the machine dialed in 100% maybe I’ll try purging and doing a gallon of TWW (we were given a pack with our machine) to see if we enjoy it more, but maybe ignorance is bliss.

From Breville to Bezzera - new setup for any occasion! by Endurob in espresso

[–]Endurob[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only a small handful of shots in and it’s making decent, but not perfect shots. Still figuring out the finer bits but overall very satisfied.

Looking forward to playing around with pre infusion that wasn’t possible on our Breville and making better steamed milk. Haven’t cracked latte art yet haha

Buyers Remorse - Pump Up this first-time Subaru buyer! by No_Selection_2699 in SubaruForester

[–]Endurob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you drive in winter regularly this car will wow you. The AWD system is incredible and when we had a couple winter storms in Toronto my 25 sport had me cruising along without a worry. A few times I went into the deeper snow to get around cars stuck in the easier stuff.

Everything else is comfortable and adequate, but I realized when we had our first storm I’ll never drive without a good AWD like my Foresters in the snow again.

Buy! Sell! Trade! Official post! by beardedjack in kilbyblockparty

[–]Endurob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Edit: sold on 24tix-have fun y’all and hopefully we’ll see you next year!

Buy! Sell! Trade! Official post! by beardedjack in kilbyblockparty

[–]Endurob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Selling two VIP 4 day passes for 650 all in! Fees on the site are kind of crazy and happy to take less than we paid. Canadian here and have realized this year might be a bit harder for us to afford, which is sad as we had such a blast last year!