Mara X Series

People talk about whether you want single or dual boiler and if you make multiple drinks… I have the Profitec Go and though a fantastic machine I predominantly only make milk drinks so I would recommend a dual boiler for sure. After two years of single boiler workflow… just kind of sucks. Not the machines fault but I just ordered a Profitec Ride and cannot wait for it regardless if I only make 2 drinks a day for myself. Also aesthetics are huge for me and though subjective. All that being said when You first pop into the world of Espresso LM always comes up. When I first started my journey that’s what I wanted so bad (beautiful looking and built very well)… but honestly I’m glad I didn’t jump to this right away. Now knowing there’s a lot of machines that are just built with same quality or actually has WAY more features than the LM I would expand your horizon. Here’s a few to look into… if budget isn’t necessarily a thing without spending crazy amount… Profitec Drive, ECM Synchronika II, Lelit Bianca V3 (these are probably the most popular dual boilers at least here in the states and provide flow control if that’s something you want to venture) if you’re looking to spend a little less there are heat exchangers (people hate on these but there’s nothing wrong with them just a flushing work flow) the two I would go for here is ECM Mechanika Max or the Mechanika Slim PID, or Lelit Mara X . If budget isn’t your thing stay away from Single boilers but if you think you’re only going to do espresso the honestly just stick with SB however don’t knock milk drinks… cortados or flat whites is chefs kiss if you ever though lattes were to milky… so yeah double boiler ftw

Man I hear you. I have first one since it came out.   I have replaced the computer due to over heating when turning on. Would make so much noise.  My leds are hit and miss. So haven’t fixed them.  My gauge was half busted pretty much since new. Now it’s fully busted so I have just replaced that. I will actually see what steam pressure it’s at finally.   It has had so many leaks as well. Hopefully after this service I willl be leak free and a working gauge.   And yes the worst bit. No steam!  But I have had it for a while and made a buttload of coffees from it. So it’s not all bad. 

I have a Lelit Mara X which is an HX system. I consistently pull four shots with only about 90 seconds between each which for me is just about how long it takes to knock and rinse my basket & portafilter, measure out my next dose, grind in my single dose grinder, fluff, tamp, and be ready to go again. I give my wife one shot, pull another and drink that one myself, then I pull two more shots to make a cappuccino for each of us with milk steaming in between. The Mara handles this beautifully with no issue. As long as you give it that 90 seconds between shots, it's super consistent and the fourth shot is pulling just as nice as the first three. Got mine on sale for $1350. They're back up to $1700 but I've got it on good authority that they're going to go back on sale in March.

Welcome to team Mara! Love mine also. One thing to keep in mind is your extraction time is probably going to be increased by 8-12 seconds for the built-in pre-infusion.

What you are buying with a more expensive machine is 1) quality/durability, and 2) consistency. Buy a Bambino and it will be in a landfill in 10 years. Buy a Lelit (owned by the same company), or a Profitec, or a Gaggia, or a Rocket, or an ECM, or a Rancilio and it have something that will be consistent and reliable for a long time. I have a Lelit Mara X and it takes 25 minutes to warm up. But for $8 I bought [this](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7FQ93QN?ref=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apan_dp_X0ZZ0MRTDV5BJZJE73EM&ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apan_dp_X0ZZ0MRTDV5BJZJE73EM&social_share=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apan_dp_X0ZZ0MRTDV5BJZJE73EM) and set it to automatically turn on every morning at 6:00am so when I wake up at 6:30 it's ready to go and I don't even think about warmup time. If I have guests over and anticipate needing it for after dinner, I just open the app and start it up from anywhere with an Internet connection.

I had a budget of around £1000 ($1333 rn) and got a Lelit Mara X for £1050 about 4-5 years ago. It's very well built and I use it once or twice a day. It's a single boiler heat exchange so you don't get superheated coffee for your espresso (which is bad) and PID controllers maintain the internal temp and pressure based on whether you have it set to steam or brew mode (so what temp it prefers - I always have it on brew mode), without needing a second boiler which helps bring the cost and energy usage down. It doesn't come with flow control but there is the ability to add it with a kit.

I see people saying Ascaso has QC issues, and perhaps that’s true but I have had nothing but problems with the Mara X (first gen) and all the parts are custom Lelit sized and outrageously expensive, just spent $40 CAD on a group head gasket (a $3 dollar piece or rubber), $200 to replace the water tank (plastic must be expensive in Italy), both of my indicator lights stopped working after 2 years and I refuse to pay $150 dollars for a wiring harness replacement two cheap LED lights, and more recently my steam pressure has disappeared and the machine will not generate steam as expected, can’t wait to see what that fix costs me.