Pavoni - Europiccola

You need to budget for the grinder too. That would be more important. Assuming a hand grinder similar to the KINGrinder k6 ($100$), that leaves enough for a second hand la pavoni. It’s tiny and as retro as they come. That said, it is jumping off into the deep deep end of espresso with a steep learning curve. It won’t be very reproducible to start with (shots will vary from sour to bitter). But if a super auto will suit you, you should be able fine with the less than stellar shots while you learn.

Ah! Then definitely treat yourself to an electric. I’m upgrading to a lagom casa soon ($600), and that might be worth looking into for your aesthetic. Honestly any of the millenium lever la pavonis would be fine/similar. Spring lever (Stradivari) would probably exceed that budget.

Keep an eye on the used La Pavoni market. Much easier routine than the Flair, steams milk, can find one well below $1000. If you have any bit of grease monkey in you they’re maintainable forever — mine is from ‘79.

The Flair workflow is a pain, especially when making multiple drinks. I have one and a La Pavoni and the Flair only gets travel use. (Edit: Didn’t realize the 58 has a more “normal” workflow than the classic Flair). I bought my mom a Bambino Plus + Sette 5 years ago and she absolutely loves the setup. The machine hits a real sweet spot as a step up from a Nespresso, as the instant heat is EXTREMELY practical for exactly your use case (early morning pre-coffee caffeination), to the point where I’m shocked that nobody has really nailed that in the “step-up” machines. There are better grinder options today, and you have some choices with the machine (you can find a second-hand La Pavoni around that price range, or any of the options you listed). If I were to swap pieces of my setup for my mom’s, I’m fully confident I’d get a similar (or perhaps better) shot out of her machine with my grinder, but the gap between her Sette and my Mignon XL is serious (though the price sweet spot may be somewhere in the middle).

Any decent machine past a certain threshold can last you a life time with appropriate servicing. My Gaggia classic is now 14 years old and has only been serviced three times and had a few gaskets changed!My la Pavoni Europiccola is a 1991 model that I bought second hand 3 years ago. It looks almost brand new and works perfectly.

That’s really similar to my seconds setup. I’ve purchased second hand both a 1991 La Pavoni and a Profitec Pro 600. Both looked and worked almost new when I bought them except needing a bit of lubricant and a bit of wear on the on the Profitec’s drip tray. It pays to be patient!

I use my 600 just about everyday. I’ve got it on a smart switch so that it is warmed up in advance; so on workday mornings, it’s just easy to get a great no milk espresso out, especially if the beans are at least light medium roast. I use the La Pavoni occasionally on weekends when I want to work for it:) From most reports, it doesn’t sound like the Olympia Cremina offers a great deal more than the La Pavoni, but I guess in espresso it’s all about increments. I’m hoping that the Meticulous becomes a viable mass commercial product, at which point I may buy new! But I’m not holding my breath on that because my current setup works so well. The other option is to go the other way and get a Cafelat robot.

Most traditional coffee machines in that price are going to easily last 10 years with reasonable maintenance. Even much cheaper ones will last 10 years easily. My old gaggia classic which I just sold lasted me 13 years. It still worked like new and just needed some regular very easy maintenance. I’ve got a 1991 La pavoni that works perfectly. I went to the La Marzocco show room and after testing the Micra out, decided that the micra wasn’t for me. The coffee output was good, but was only comparable to any other PID pump machine, but has no lever like pressure control through the duration of the shot. I can live without lever like pressure control, but the cup clearance and non-adjustable OPV valve is a non starter for me at that price. You actually can adjust the OPV but it’s inconvenient and the sale rep told me it voids the warranty. Something g the the ECM synchronika 2 is cheaper as maybe has a better balance of features, offset by slightly longer heat up time.

I have Lilet Mara and La Pavoni 1978, Europiccola. The lever is fantastic. Love them both but the lever makes better coffee.

I have Lilet Mara and La Pavoni 1978, Europiccola. The lever is fantastic. Love them both but the lever makes better coffee.

LaPavoni Europiccola. Mine is manufactured 1997. Every part is still available. As they are still produced, the parts will be available for a long time.

lol this thing always getting hate on here. I preordered mine as soon as I saw it mostly because of how great the Aiden has been for us. My first espresso machine was a vintage dual switch La Pavoni Europiccola. Bought it on eBay in 2018. It’s the only espresso machine I’ve ever owned. I learned how to make espresso with it. I’ve always wanted a fancy newer machine to go next to it but it’s just always worked fine and I didn’t wanna spend the money. It should be noted my wife flat out refuses to use it lol. I never had any kind of coffee machine. I just made pour overs, French press, siphon, etc. When the Aiden was first announced I did some research and I took a chance. I was really impressed watching the devs talk about how it actually worked. I read all the same garbage on Reddit about build quality or whatever from Fellow. Not only do I use it daily but my wife does too. We both love the thing. And we have never had a single problem w it after over a year now of daily use. I mean I’m not discounting the people who have problems but like, who goes on the internet and touts about how the product they bought works as expected? lol. Maybe I’m wrong for that. I thought because of how much she also loves the Aiden, maybe my wife would use the espresso series 1 machine too so I figured it was time to add it to the mix. So I’ll just be enjoying my vintage lever machine until whenever the series 1 finally makes it here. But I mean everyone’s situation is different. That’s just my story w the fellow machines. I haven’t used their grinders so I can’t speak for those either.

I have a la Pavoni from 1971 and it works really incredibly well. I’d be pissed if I had to replace something like that every 10 years even.

La pavoni europicola (used)

Not all of those things are true for all lever machines, only for the ones with no boiler... I got our first-born a La Pavoni Europiccola when they moved out and they are very happy with it. A certain amount of practice on my Elektra was of course a pre-cursor to that.

Interesting categories. I'd probably go with * Manual levers (Flair, Robot, etc.) * Semi-automatic levers (La Pavoni Europiccola, Olympia Cremina, etc.) (some call this "classic lever") * Spring levers (Profitec 800, Olympia Cremina SL, etc.) * Pseudo-levers (Decent, Wendougee) (i.e. non-levers but digital controls to simulate lever profiles) * Programmable Levers (or whatever the Meticulous is)