LONDINIUM - Vectis

img Wore out a la marzocco GS3, needed a smaller footprint machine, did some research and settled on a Londinium vectis. This thing is unbelievable and thats coming from a GS3. Exactly zero regrets. Not for someone thst wants continuous experimentation.

I switched from a GS3 to a Londinium vectis and have exactly zero regrets. It's an incredible machine that pulls my daily driver (George Howell Alchemy) better than any shop including George's roastery. It's incredible value for money

This perspective is resonating with me more and more. I wound up going down the lever rabbit hole, and I picked up a Londinium Vectis. I quite like it so far, with the exception of the lever being so tall (it's hard to find a good place for it; I may need to build an espresso cart). If I end up selling it, I might pick up a Puristika or Classika. If my tastes or needs change down the line, I can always pick up a Ride or, more likely, a Drive.

Ended up going down the lever rabbit hole and picking up a Londinium Vectis. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm still not 100% sure that I'll keep it. If I end up selling it, I may pick up a nice E61 single boiler, like a Puristika or Classika (I wish Profitec made one!). Are you thinking about picking up one of these?

I ended up going down the lever rabbit hole, and I've since picked up a Londinium Vectis, Londinium Compressa, and also an ECM Puristika. The Vectis is a cute machine that reliably pulls tasty shots, but I wasn't able to pull thicker, syrupy shots, and I had to refill it nearly daily. After some reading and speaking with Reiss, I decided to try the Compressa, and I definitely like it more. It pulls much thicker, full-bodied shots, and I don't have to refill it. I'm going to sell the Vectis soon. As for the Puristika, I thought it was a cute machine and could be a fun project—I may swap out the pump and throw in a linear potentiometer for pressure control. Sorry that I don't have Profitec-specific feedback for you!

My hot take: Short answer is no. Even as a moderate discretionary expense, it did not represent great value for home use. It's very limited in capability (flat 9 bar, no pre-infusion without plumb-in, don't blather about pre-brew), but it does what it does extremely well. However, unless that is basically brewing a dozen shots back-to-back while steaming milk simultaneously on the regular, I don't see the value. So I installed it at the office, where 20-30 people abused it to the tune of 50+ shots per day and it was a champ. Easiest -- and the most heroically consistent -- with medium/dark italian style spro and milk drinks. On the other hand -- anyone who says the price premium is for the brand/badging alone hasnt looked inside. It is an exquisite piece of intentional and at times clever engineering. From the quality of the fittings and valves to the self-cleaning gicleur and cold water mixing at the grouphead -- this thing will outlive you if it's maintained well. It's just a pity that it seems to lack even basic modern niceties (proper pump pre-infusion, shot timer) There are other annoyances that soured me personally: the La Marzocco Home app and cloud integration is stupid stupid stupid. I mean just stupid. Why do I need the cloud to be able to schedule power on or set the fucking brew temperature? Don't bother, we all know the answer, and it is tragic that marketing dunces convinced someone at La Marzocco that IoTing appliances is a good idea. To add further (perhaps controversial) perspective: I had the LMLM on my bench alongside a Slayer Single, Flair58, and Londinium Vectis. Best in cup (but worst workflow): Flair58 for all roast levels. Next was the Vectis (for medium and light roast coffees), followed very closely by the Slayer. LMLM trailed except for darker italian style ristrettos that explicitly preferred flat-9 extractions. /end rant

Yeah, Personally, I think the most forgiving dial-in -- and most versatility -- comes with hybrid spring levers. The pump pre-infusion, the ability to decide when to release the spring (based on time-to-first drip, basket fill-rate, etc), and the ability to modulate pressure by manipulating the lever -- all these let you adapt to a shot and gives you a good intuitive sense of where to adjust grind/dose, all in real-time. Yes, it's a manual process. I personally think it's easier (and more fun) than *programming* a machine at the crack of dawn. But, YMMV. That said, some Thoughts and Feelings ^(tm) about machines: **Bezzera Strega** - My personal runner-up, great value for money - But, requires some tinkering IMHO: - Fairly temp stable but needs a PID (fairly straightforward) - No OPV for pre-infusion; Ulka vibe pump is duty cycle limited to 11bar, which is too high for my tastes. I would prefer to replace the pump and install an (adjustable) OPV - no exhaust solenoid. Some crazy nut installed one, though, with a button no less! **Nurri Leva** - Well, I ordered one :P - Caution: uses La San Marco (55mm) grouphead. A dearth of accessories. **Londinium R24** - The original hybrid spring lever. - Incredible in cup - clumsy engineering and janky manufacturing. relies heavily on a british contract CM that is...not robust. **Profitec Pro 800** - A really well-executed dipper - A bit pricey? Lack of pump pre-infusion is unfortunate given cost - You can plumb in, but pre-infusion still limited to boiler pressure **Londinium Vectis** - Compact dipper style spring lever - great in concept, fast heat-up time - limited shot volume, needs lower doses, thin on body, great in-cup, small boiler which is moderate levels of ass-pain to re-fill. - launched during pandemic, has the QA woes to show for it. recent iterations have improved many of the issues plaguing it (defective grouphead casting, self-destructing pstats), but again relies on a contract CM that is not keeping up. **Odyssey Argos** - Spring or direct lever dipper style - Best bang for the buck of all time? - Basically unobtainium due to huge popularity/lead time. - temp stable via PID control of boiler pressure, comes at the expense of steam stability (but you don't care about milk steaming) - pain in the ass to re-fill the boiler - Very clever air bleed system enables multi-pull Fellinis to increase shot volume, without destroying the puck.

i had to beat the schnitzel out of the bellows, along with moderate RDT to keep retention 0.1g or less. This was using one of the first batches of Mark 2 Shurikones. However, they were also prone to trapping shards or whole beans in the pre-breakers at lower RPMs. I regularly had to open it up and clear the pre-breakers with a chopstick With Version F of the Mark 2 Kones, retention was consistently lower and the stuck bean shard issue seemed to go away. Note that the Version F required a new shaft with different diameter and much tighter tolerances. Kafatek kindly upgraded the shaft as part of a burr replacement due to an unfortunate encounter with a rock. You might already be aware of this, but just in case: thwacking should only be done when the grinder is stopped. Otherwise, grounds can accumulate behind the silicone chute -- screwing with retention -- and eventually dislodging it. hope that helps

thanks i need to update that. i have unloaded all 110v gear because we're in the middle of retiring overseas. Only have a Flair58, the EG-1, and VL at the moment. But I have a Nurri Leva on order! The Vectis was...an adventure. I had one of the first models and it was janky AF. Lots of fit+finish issues, along with the defective grouphead casting (shattered cam) and self-immolating pstats. Listed it for sale a few days before Lance Hedrick's review - and all three prospective buyers bailed, lol. So, I kept it as a project machine. New cam, new seals, new valves + sight glass, polished the case. A friend of mine is a proper EE and coffee nerd and designed a new pressure regulation system: we replaced the pstat with a digital pressure sensor, solid state relay, a microcontroller+custom firmware, and a knob for setting boiler pressure. The Vectis ended up being my daily driver. In the cup, I preferred it to the Slayer and LMLM. Especially for light roast coffees. I think the latest batches fix a lot of the issues. Reiss finally conceded that the XP110 pstat is grossly under-spec'd for the Vectis' thermal design and upgraded it to the XP700; the entire group head is now sourced from an Italian shop; QA in general seems to be improved. Some miscellaneous: - Heats up fast (20 minutes) but best at 40minutes or so. Worked great with a timer. - While the group head temp is pretty stable, it will creep up over time; by the end of the day, you will be getting steam out of the grouphead. Weirdly, this doesn't seem to have nearly the negative impact on extraction you'd expect -- I think the declining pressure and temperature profile makes things very forgiving. - Output volume is limited, like with most dipper-style levers. I liked to down-dose and grind coarsely enough to see beading within 10-15 seconds. I was doing 14-16g gram doses, with 24-36g shots, depending on roast. - You can do Fellinis, but without a relief valve you will risk unseating the puck. - Steam power is great, but needs a couple minutes recovery. - The hot grouphead and steam pre-infusion makes for awesome trad spro light roasts. Loved it to death. - The relatively low pressure peak means body on the Vectis is not the best. I do miss the Vectis. The early models had lots of issues, but it still managed to be awesome, but mainly because (spring) levers are awesome. It'll make spectacular coffee within its contraints.

As the saying goes, You Will Eventually Own a Lever Yes, they seem to make the best tasting espresso. Yes, Achille Gaggia seems to have accidentally hit upon the best extraction profile in the 1940's when he first invented the spring lever espresso machine. Yes, it is notable that the most popular profile on the Decent is one that apes the Londinium's low-pressure preinfusion and declining pressure shot, by a country mile. Yes, I personally think we lost our way with the E61 and its flat 9-bar OPV + electric pump. Sure it improved temperature stability, came with a modest soft preinfusion ramp, and saved barista's shoulders and backs and workflows by replacing the effort with a button. But my favorite reason of all is a giant, steaming pile of irony: the ancient spring lever, it turns out, is monstrously good for ultra light roast espresso. You can prolong contact time with steam pre-infusion to push extraction, and the gentle pressure+temp decline ensures an even flow through finely-ground pucks. Sweet, syrupy goodness rains into your cup. I had a flair58, vectis, slayer and linea mini side by side for a while, with access to an R24 and Decent. The Flair made the best shots, hands down, but had the worst (most manual) workflow. The next best? R24 and Vectis, hands-down.

I have a bunch of machines, including spring lever and manual lever so I can give my 2 cents here. It's kind of funny with a spring lever. It just makes good coffee. You have some control, in my case via the ma-ter (boiler pressure, only really relevant for temperature and water pressure during filling the group head/pre infusion), then grind size, dose and pre infusion time and that's it. Find a good dose for your coffee, good grind size and pre infuse shorter for dark roast and longer for lights. Try out a couple of ratios until you find a good one and that's it. Great coffee. It is really hard to pull a bad shot. Even my botched first and so so second attempt tasted nice, and that was with light roast. It is incredibly simple so I have a hard time imagining a lot of failure points. Even if there ever were to happen anything, I could just go to the next hardware store and buy a replacement, except maybe for the Ma-Ter. And I am not even that technically inclined. I felt with my Flair it was kind of an involved pull, trying to hit your desired pressures at certain times, if you fuck up, it can actually taste bad. That amount of fuck up is really hard to do with a spring lever. The only other machine that lets you do it like a spring lever is kind of the opposite, something like a decent or in my case, a modded Silvia. And even then, it's not AS idiot proof or forgiving out of the box. That being said, you have to accept them for what they are and let go of some of the control you maybe wanted before. I find it liberating, some might find it frustrating. Also, I tried a bunch of lever machines and the Vectis is the only one I really enjoyed so far. The Cremina, the only other spring lever I tried, makes incredible espresso, but I really don't like the form factor. It's too short so it can potentially dip forwards when you pull. I don't like how hot everything gets, since you kind of have to stabilise it with your hand or arm and that is outright unpleasantly hot, even when you use your sleeve or a towel as an improvised oven mitt. In my opinion, there is really no excuse for that in a machine at that price. They can keep it almost as is and make it a lot more user friendly by using a single wooden part for better heat insulation to hold on to and a drip tray that is minimally longer. The Flair I had, the Pro3 is so labor intensive, it gets kind of old when you are not really into every step of it and you have to really pay attention when pulling. It is however capable to make mind blowing coffee. The La Pavoni suffers from the same problems the Cremina does but it gets even hotter, so hot that it can burn your coffee. And the drip tray is absolute shite, which is annoying in a lever machine. It is however priced a lot more fairly. On the Vectis, so far nothing annoys me. The drip tray is HUGE, The form factor makes it virtually impossible to tip it and it out of the box makes better coffee than the Silvia Gaggimate, Pop Up and ECM Classika I have. The Flair might be capable of better shots in theory but being that consistent and dialled in with it will probably not happen for most users.

Anything beyond a decent spring lever machine. I don't need PIDs, or any other pressure profiling guff. The right group, boiler and spring combo gives me amazing espresso consistently, without having to think too much about it. If I need to sit and reflect on the taste, it's there when I need it. If I'm just banging it back, nothing changes. Same prep, same routine. I personally feel that's the ultimate in espresso enjoyment. For me, that's the Londinium R24, but even that's overkill. If the Vectis had been around when I got the R24, I would've gotten that instead.

When I talk to people about what kind of machine they want, it's always about what they're going to want in the future, not just now - particularly when it comes to machines you spend a lot of money on. Because for a machine at this price point, you expect it to last decades - and your life can change a lot in that time. I've been through many stages in my coffee-loving life. From my early days with one of the cheapest Breville machines you could buy, through to a single-boiler Barazza, building my own roaster and experimenting with my own blends, to much more complicated machines, and a massive Compak E10 on the kitchen bench, and now finally a much simpler setup. Life got complicated, but my love of coffee didn't - I stopped wanting to screw around with endless variables, and just wanted to be able to make great coffee every day. For my wife to be able to pull a great shot without feeling intimidated by the setup. To get consistent, flavourful coffee without much mucking around. I also found that I hated being without my coffee machine for weeks on end whenever it needed a service. That's how I wound up with a lever (great coffee without having to try too hard, but still enough room to experiment), and specifically the Londinium - supported DIY maintenance & repairs. Apart from the footprint, the R24 would be pretty damn good for your needs, has a hot water tap, by default the steam wand is on the right, and being a lever, will give you great joy with every shot you pull. And pre-infusion pressure is managed digitally, which you can change via the app. These days I'd prefer to go even simpler with the Vectis, but I'd lose one thing that I quite like - the water tap. That said - everyone's at a different stage of their journey and you should get the right machine for this stage in your journey.

When I talk to people about what kind of machine they want, it's always about what they're going to want in the future, not just now - particularly when it comes to machines you spend a lot of money on. Because for a machine at this price point, you expect it to last decades - and your life can change a lot in that time. I've been through many stages in my coffee-loving life. From my early days with one of the cheapest Breville machines you could buy, through to a single-boiler Barazza, building my own roaster and experimenting with my own blends, to much more complicated machines, and a massive Compak E10 on the kitchen bench, and now finally a much simpler setup. Life got complicated, but my love of coffee didn't - I stopped wanting to screw around with endless variables, and just wanted to be able to make great coffee every day. For my wife to be able to pull a great shot without feeling intimidated by the setup. To get consistent, flavourful coffee without much mucking around. I also found that I hated being without my coffee machine for weeks on end whenever it needed a service. That's how I wound up with a lever (great coffee without having to try too hard, but still enough room to experiment), and specifically the Londinium - supported DIY maintenance & repairs. Apart from the footprint, the R24 would be pretty damn good for your needs, has a hot water tap, by default the steam wand is on the right, and being a lever, will give you great joy with every shot you pull. And pre-infusion pressure is managed digitally, which you can change via the app. These days I'd prefer to go even simpler with the Vectis, but I'd lose one thing that I quite like - the water tap. That said - everyone's at a different stage of their journey and you should get the right machine for this stage in your journey.

Espresso is I’d say about 70% grinder, 25% machine and 5% technique with puck prep. Inconsistent shot times I would say are either the grinder (very likely) or puck prep. For a grinder since you don’t seem very concerned about exact flavor separation of light roasts in particular I’d say a Niche Zero would be a massive upgrade for you. It’s a very solid grinder that performs great on dark and medium roasts while still being able to handle lights from what I’ve heard. And just generally I know there is a huge temptation to get the newest shiniest thing but I would HIGHLY recommend sitting back and letting the community get their hands on them and see whether they are ACTUALLY as good as they seem. The P64 earned its reputation over the years as an extremely consistent grinder. The P80 will probably follow suit but it’s not a guarantee. I wouldn’t gamble over a thousand bucks just assuming that. As for the machine how handy are you? Are you open to doing a wiring upgrade to that machine? If so I’d highly recommend Gaggimate Pro. $250 will get you WAY more capability and consistency: PID temperature control, it’ll help out your steam pressure and it even does automated pressure profiling which you won’t find on anything below a Decent ($3k). Note that the steam power will basically never be what you get from a dedicated larger boiler but it’ll help. For machines generally I would look at boiler size, as the larger boilers will get you more temperature stability although most of that is done by the PID temp control. Spring levers are a whole different thing and I must say they look super interesting: I would look at the Londinium Vectis and the Olympia Cremina. Possibly the Argos as well as a more affordable option.

Because you don't need functionality for delicious coffee. For 99% of people profiles are useless. And the more functionality a machine have, the more can break. More money can sometimes buy you easier maintenance or better looks or the enjoyment of silence. I agree though that more money won't necessarily give you better coffee. I have the Londinium Vectis — way cheaper — and I don't think that there are a lot of machines give you better coffee. The more expensive Londiniums have less drawbacks (water wise), but don't taste better.

Lots of love for the Vectis here - bit hard to come by where I live. What I DO have close by is a Quickmill agent, and I've been eyeing the Rapida. Any thoughts on this? Doesn't seem to generate much discussion when levers come up. I do have a Flair Pro 2 and appreciate the deeper puck and being able to profile completely manually, but I do make milk drinks and currently steam with my old Lelit Anna.

Probably an unpopular opinion but if you're doing mostly Amricanos or Long Blacks to me that means more emphasis on a good pull and trying to get the most flavor out of your beans. Maybe you should loom at a lever machine? Londinium comes to mind as does the one from Profitec. Pair that with a good grinder and you might just get to perfection my friend.

I have basically the exact same use case as you and ended up with a Londinium lever machine. I would’ve gone with a profitec 800 had I not found a Londinium locally, as Londiniums have a bit more complexity compared to your standard lever machine. Still, I was able to DIY all repairs I had to do and the owner will happily FaceTime/walk you through any repairs that you need to do. Go on home-barista and do some light reading on lever machines. Very easy to maintain vs your standard pump machine! I have a Cremina now, but definitely miss the bigger machine on the days I need to pump out 4 or 5 cappuccinos in a short amount of time. All that said, I’d probably opt for a Profitec 800 if I were to go back to a bigger machine.