Product Description
Europiccola Italian made espresso maker features are many, including a 38 ounce boiler capacity. Makes 16, 2 ounce cups of espresso. It has a dual frothing cappuccino system and internal thermostat to control pressure. It also has a mounted pressure g
Buy La Pavoni PR-16 Professional Espresso Machine with Red Base at Amazon
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have owned this machine (in chrome) for over ten years and everyday when I make my morning cappuccino I love it more. You can spend more for a machine that measures the coffee, tamps it, pulls the water through and steams the milk for you, but you can tip the kids behind the counter at Starbucks and they’ll do the same thing. Making espresso should be a little art and a little science and this machine an impeccable balance of the two. If you aren’t the kind of person who takes joy in mixing the perfect martini, making a risotto that whispers with flavor, or whipping a meringue to impossibly tall peaks, this probably isn’t the machine for you.
The La Pavoni is for the person who will find tremendous joy in going to the lengths required to make a perfect cappuccino by hand everyday. (And don’t bother using anything less than Illy Cafe coffee in it.)
most recent blog entriesMajor steam leak at the the housing joint for the steam wand (you can see the small black valve handle on the left side of the picturem, wand is on the right). This is nothing less than an defective design for three, if not four, reasons.
1. The brass fastening nut is on the *inside* of the housing, making it impossible to tighten without a specialized tool. You cannot get a normal socket inside the housing, nor a wrench, nor a pair of needle-nose pliers. It takes a specialized tool for this specific purpose (to tighten the nut).
2. The relief valve (right side of the boiler, while the unit is facing you) has a nut on the inside and the outside of the housing, meaning you can tighten at least one nut to secure the connection. Since the inside nut probably isn’t reachable, you can use a wrench to tighten the nut on the outside of the housing. This is likely why that joint doesn’t leak.
3. It would cost a few extra dollars to *include* a tool to tighten the inner nut. Just like the tool that is always included on a chain-saw for cinching up the chain, or the straight-slot screwdriver that comes with a exercise equipment.
4. The joint design could simply be “robbed” from the relief valve design, using the exact same housing joint for the steam wand. You’d have two joints that are interchangeable — one would simply have the normal spring relief valve, and the other would have the screw valve for the steamer wand. This would totally increase profit margin for this unit since you’d just have two of the same parts for the unit.
No matter how this design is viewed — the engineering division, the marketing division, or the accounting division (returns for this have GOT to be topping 20%) — this is the most atrocious design possible.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
most recent blog entries