Posted Wed Jun 25, 2008, 4:40pm Subject: Bought It
Well because of love of coffee and the positive reinforcement of this group I bought it.
Rancilia setup: Miss Silvia and Rocky. Got a bunch of stuff thrown in as well as the metal tray w drawers. Portafilter, basket, brush, scoop, tamp, cleaner , pitcher, etc. I got the no doser model grinder. It was a little over nine. I figure one espresso a day for a year at $3 will cover. This setup will fit under my cabinet.
I will be reading and trying to grasp the seriousness of all this from y'all. What I have most of is enthusiasm.
Posted Mon Jun 30, 2008, 7:25pm Subject: Re: Bought It
Good thing you got in before the price increase (yet again) starting tomorrow, July 1st. That's a nice setup with the matching base, and it should last you a long time if maintained. There's probably information on just about any possible Silvia question or issue somewhere here or on other coffee sites which is nice due to its popularity.
Posted Wed Jul 2, 2008, 12:51am Subject: Re: Bought It
Thank you. I expect the machine in tomorrow as its been about 5 days since ordering.
I bought over phone w 1st Line out of New Jersey. They seem very stable and will warranty any and all. I have fixed a place on the kitchen cabinet area for this machine to have a permanent home.
I bought 6 red espresso cups w saucers and they've come in and are so cool. I can hardly wait. I have limited experience w Espresso and I'm looking forward to the whole thing. I have downloaded a bunch of helps and info on the Rancillio. I'm as excited about this as a kid going to 6 Flags. Again thanks for the interest, I hope y'all are enjoying your Silvias.
TomP10 Senior Member Joined: 31 Dec 2005 Posts: 414 Location: New Jersey Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: LaSpaz S1 Grinder: mini E-B; Virtuoso Vac Pot: Yama; balance brewer Drip: Presto, Aeropress Roaster: SC/TO, Poppery II
Posted Wed Jul 2, 2008, 3:00am Subject: Re: Bought It
Rocky & Silvia really are a good pair. I had the same set-up (I also bought from 1st line).
With Silvia you really need to temp-surf (or PID). I presume you have read about that, right?
With Rocky, I found a big improvement when I did the very easy teflon tape mod. It eliminated the play in the burrs. My grind was much better after the mod. It takes about 5 minutes. Oh yeah, removed the finger guard. It just gets in the way. (Unless you have young kids).
Enjoy,
- Tom
--------------------------------------------- Three Musketeers?? Nah... Four M's.
Posted Thu Jul 3, 2008, 2:48pm Subject: Re: Bought It
The Rancilio came in by Fedex Ground yesterday. There were 3 boxes in the big one and it was heavy as a bale of hay. The metal tray had a laser covering, as did the Silvia to guard the metal from scratches.
After opening everything, I set it up in the area of the cabinet I had cleaned out and given room for. Sitting on the tray it barely fits under the cabinets. Drat! So I rearranged to take off the tray, tray being to the side and the Rocky and Silvia directly on the counter and under the cabinet. Still it will be too tight to refill water and beans. I worked out a system to pull out and put back after filling these. I gotta work on this system. Then I read so much stuff on the Rancilio that it got too late to start experimenting with it.
So this morning I ran beans through the grinder. First at 10. When I put the double barrel portafilter on it was very hard to manipulate attaching. This espresso came out saloooow. Next batch adjusted grinder to 13, changed to single portafilter, still tamping a double load of grinds. Easier fit and coffee came out faster. Eureka, espresso came out w crema. I did not try the steam wand, but added a little half and half, wow. Really good. Really strong.
So I fixed a couple more the same way. They came out nice. So after 3 doubles, first one rank and the other two presentable, I had a big mess. Since now I am caffeine wired, I had no trouble cleaning up. So 2 hours later I am still eyes wide open, optimistic about the complexity of all this becoming easier and eventually I hope orchestrated.
I am happy I bought this rig and feel certain I will be using it everyday. The teflon tape and PID I will tackle as soon as I understand and fine-tune what I have. Please excuse the length of my message. Thank you all for help and comments.
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