Ascaso - Steel DUO PID V2

Ascaso steel duo PID v2 here and for the most part I really enjoy it. Household of 3 and 2 drinks a day for sure sometimes 5 throughout the day and no issues when scattered. Consecutive shots are the problem. From what I have gathered consecutive shots cause the group head to get hotter and hotter causing shots to pull faster and faster. They become sour and thinner. This isn't a frequent occurrence but 2 weekends out of the month we pull 3 shots consecutively or would. Because of this volumetrics are not used. I prefer to manually control the shot any how. Steaming is fine, no issues. The reported noise in my opinion is minute. For the most part it's pretty solid but I am considering the Lelit Elizabeth. I just prefer to know that each shot will be very similar to the previous. I don't want to think about it and how to adjust . For the use you described it should be great. Good luck.

Ascaso steel duo PID. You will be surprised with some of the best floating around in Facebook marketplace. It goes quick though.

I’ve had a duo pid v2 for 3 years and I’ve never had any problems with it. I really love the machine. In my opinion the only reason to go e61 is vanity. Buy you like what you like. I would look into the Mara a little more because I was considering it years ago too and if I remember right it would be hard to do back to back milk drinks because of the settings you need to select brew priority vs steam priority.

And on the other hand, I've had my Steel Duo PID v2 for 2+ years at this point: no issues except that the steam wand oring seems to need replacement (I get a drop here and there once a week) which isn't suprising for multiple usages per day.

I've been using the Steel Duo PID for about 6 months now. It is volumetric, which doesn't *quite* work but once you get your beans dialed in, you can expect roughly the same results every time. It's dual boiler, heats up super fast and has treated me well thus far! Good looking machine, too.

Ascaso Steel Uno for fast heat up (or the Duo if you can stretch the budget a bit)  The Specialita should be good 👍🏻  Also Mahlkonig grinders are known for their build quality, so maybe check out the X54. 

Coming from a Breville , went with Ascaso duo PID , and it’s been great . 6 minute heat up time is awesome, as well as pre infusion . Almost went with the Move but I’m not waiting 15+ minutes for heatup with any of the boiler machines. Now just waiting on my Lagom Casa in September to replace the smart grinder.

I had a Breville bambino plus with smart grinder for four years before I jumped down this rabbit hole of a sub . I wanted something with pre infusion and temp control . I did a tremendous amount of research and ultimately narrowed it down to lelit Elizabeth, Silvia , profitec move and Ascaso duo . I ended up narrowing it down to the move and Ascaso duo, and went with the duo. What sold me was the fast heat up time thanks to the thermal coils, all the features, it looks damn good on my counter and has a small footprint. I bought it directly through Ascaso and there is a 10% coupon available . While I have money on hand I used the 0% interest shop payments for 6 months. I paired it with a Lagom Casa I’m still waiting on.

I have also chosen the Ascaso Duo over the Move and I am very happy about it. Pros for the Duo: - cheaper (1400€ vs 1900€, here in Germany) - faster Heat up (2-3min vs 10+) - easier to descale

I hear you, you sound like me if I listened to the voice of reason lol. Ascaso Duo would be a potential upgrade, I used to have one and the heat up times were amazing. PID would be a big improvement but definitely not over $1k worth of improvement. Youve definitely found a sweet spot, cheers.

I’d go for the standard steel duo as it is on sale on coffeefriend for 1.390€ - just fyi. You can upgrade the shower screen yourself, don’t think that the 1000€ more are worth the steam handle (although it’s really nice) and the cosmetic changes. As written you will drink more coffee with the Duo as you’re able to pull shots within 5 minutes and don’t have to wait 30min. Also on the duo the hot water comes from the group head thermo block and not from the steam one as on other machines, meaning it won’t burn your tea or tongue on an americano 😄

The Ascaso is in fact very easy to work on if needed .. don’t be fooled by the look when you open it - they had to fit a lot of stuff in the small footprint. Also the steam is more than sufficient, if you know what you’re doing you can also get super silky milk from a barista express f.e. and the Duo is way ahead. The lelit is a good machine but takes a long time to heat up, you will drink more coffee with the Ascaso - I can assure you that.

Ascaso duo water heats up in 2-3 mins. Group and portafilter hot in 7-8 mins.