ECM - Mechanika V Slim

I just went down this path and am upgrading to the Sanremo YOU from an ECM Mechanika Slim V. I’ve had the ECM for over 6.5 years and overall have been satisfied, but it has the same quirks as the Appartamento due to the HX. I ordered last week and am hopeful to receive it sometime next week. My thought process was very similar to the rabbit hole you went down. In my case, I was also considering a machine which had temperature control over the hot water spout. I am a daily americano drinker and am not a fan of the workflow with the Mechanika Slim. The water from the steam boiler is much too hot and just ends up burning the shots. My workaround to date has been to heat up water with a separate kettle. Having a machine where I can do away with an extra appliance would be a considerable time saver. Otherwise I am also a big fan of the immense amount of control the machine offers, including that manual paddle for feedback. I eliminated the Decents from my list as neither the DE1 or the Bengle have a hot water spout. I’m also in Canada and would need to deal with customs for shipping replacements parts. I’m also not sure how familiar local techs are with these machines. I also thought the R9 one felt dated for its interface and also added the GS3 to this pile given the price to feature ratio. Unlike you, I never considered a LM Mini or Micra because I don’t find them aesthetically pleasing personally. I briefly considered the Wendougee Data, but felt the YOU offered a better product overall, albeit at a higher price. The fact that the app isn’t required to operate the machine is also a win in my books. The company’s openness and response to customer feedback also looks great, even if they appear to be pretty slow to roll out updates. Truthfully, I also wasn’t initially fond of the looks of the You and would have probably waited for the Bengle if it was the deciding factor. I ended up purchasing a white YOU with an oak accents kit and think it should look nice on my bar with my similarly configured white Z1. To wrap it up, I’m happy you are reporting with positive feedback after 1.5 years. It certainly makes me feel better about the purchase to read these types of posts. I’d love to see more of these long term reviews on YouTube, but haven’t found much if any for this machine beyond a month or so.

I’ve read a bit of the replies and there’s some good info here. Just to relate to your request: my wife and I drink mostly americano also. We have a single boiler ECM Mechanika V Slim. No issues making 4 plus drinks at a time when we have visitors. Never had to wait for reheat in this situation. As for the coffee cup fitting, we use cappuccino cups and they do fit with a scale and using a bottomless portafilter. They will not fit with a double spout portafilter though. As for the additional functionality you requested, flow control can be added at checkout if you use whole latte love and the machine has a three position temp control. You generally shouldn’t be adjusting pressure as a regular adjustment. Also, in my opinion, adjusting all these settings is not much necessary. Your biggest adjustment on dialing in will come from a quality grinder.

When dialing in a new bag of beans you play around a little bit with the timer and grind fineness so that you get your desired amount (say 18.0 grams) and shot time/taste. And then each time after that you just grind straight into the portafilter. Things change a little bit over the few days the beans are in the hopper, but in my experience it doesn't change the end product all that much. I tend to go with 1KG bags which ends up being around 3-4 hoppers of beans. I store the unused beans in the freezer, in the original bag which I put in a freezer Ziploc. For me the end product is better than 95% of coffee shops, but there are those higher end places that are still better. But given the cost/time savings its well worth it for me. Personally I use an HX machine (ECM Mechanika Slim V).

I had a single boiler for years and eventually found it annoying. I was convinced I needed a double boiler but eventually settled on a HX machine. (ECM Mechanika Slim). I'm thrilled with it. I can steam in less time than it takes to pull shot, doing so at the same time. And, now that I've used it daily for about 6 weeks making multiple drinks (about 1/3rd milk drinks), I see little upside to a double boiler over a HX. Faster warm up times would be nice, I suppose, but a smart plug resolved that fully.

Absolutely. For someone concerned about heat time and switching intervals, a good HX machine kicks single boiler butt. I’d consider one of the Profitecs like the 400 or ECM Mechanika Slim to get more PID control. Switching is easy and fast with these machines.

I’m going from an ECM Mechanika to a Victoria Arduino Prima 1 Exp (custom). Will let you know in a few months…

It takes 25 minutes to heat up an E61 group head. At least it has for the past 9 years with my ECM Mechanika heat exchanger. I run milk for guests. I used a smart plug to start the boiler a half hour before I wake up. Now my wife gets up an hour before I have to and flips on the machine. If she doesn’t it means I’m in the dog house for some reason.

This is the list. I may quibble a little on warm up times. As more expensive machines are engineered to be turned on, and left on unlike cheaper machines. My ECM Machanika from "off" takes 30 minutes to warm up. From standby, its like 5 minutes.

ECM, La Marzocco, Profitec, Bezzera, Rocket, Faema and basically every E61 group head machine.

We have an ECM from idrinkcoffee. Their store/showroom is in Milton for anyone in the GTA. They're awesome.