ginalola Senior Member Joined: 2 Jul 2009 Posts: 203 Location: USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II; Pasquini... Grinder: (2) Baratza Vario
Posted Sun Mar 21, 2010, 4:44pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
o3, I am awaiting my Duetto from the second batch coming from Italy around the first of May. I'm still undecided about using the 15 amp that we have or installing a 20 amp. Chris assures me that the 15 is fine, but I don't know if I want the power alternating(?) between the steam and coffee boilers. How is that working for you?
geoffbeier Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 339 Location: Arlington, VA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II, Gaggia... Grinder: Macap M4 Stepless, Faema MPN
Posted Sun Mar 21, 2010, 10:11pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
ginalola Said:
o3, I am awaiting my Duetto from the second batch coming from Italy around the first of May. I'm still undecided about using the 15 amp that we have or installing a 20 amp. Chris assures me that the 15 is fine, but I don't know if I want the power alternating(?) between the steam and coffee boilers. How is that working for you?
I'm obviously not o3 :-). But I've been using mine since mid January in 15 amp mode even though I've got it plugged into what is effectively a 20 amp dedicated circuit. By "effectively" I mean that it's not technically dedicated, but I've got nothing else plugged into the circuit.
I notice no harmful effects from the power alternating between brew and steam boilers. FWIW, I keep the brew boiler powered on most of the time and power the steam boiler whenever I need it. It takes about 10 minutes for the steam boiler to warm up when I do that. YMMV of course, but the only scenario where I could imagine a difference is if you were catering and had two people working the machine. Once everything's warmed up, I can't run my shot preparation fast enough to outpace the recovery, even in 15A mode. I would not notice if the initial warm-up time were a little faster because both heating elements could be powered at once.
ginalola Senior Member Joined: 2 Jul 2009 Posts: 203 Location: USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II; Pasquini... Grinder: (2) Baratza Vario
Posted Mon Mar 22, 2010, 5:51pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
Thanks for your reply, Geoff; I appreciate any and all information. How long does it take the steam and brew boilers to warm-up for making a cappuccino? That is my first drink of the day, and I do not use a timer...yet. My awaking time varies each morning, so I don't really have a schedule. Thus, using a timer never quite fit my lifestyle, but perhaps that will change with the Duetto??
geoffbeier Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 339 Location: Arlington, VA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II, Gaggia... Grinder: Macap M4 Stepless, Faema MPN
Posted Mon Mar 22, 2010, 6:46pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
ginalola Said:
How long does it take the steam and brew boilers to warm-up for making a cappuccino? That is my first drink of the day, and I do not use a timer...yet. My awaking time varies each morning, so I don't really have a schedule. Thus, using a timer never quite fit my lifestyle, but perhaps that will change with the Duetto??
TBH, I only infrequently power the brew boiler down. (e.g. if I know I won't be using the machine for 24h) Since it's smaller and has a smaller heating element, it doesn't seem to use a terrible lot of power, and my schedule is unpredictable. So most of the time, for my morning latte, I just power the steam boiler on and hop in the shower.
On those occasions where I've needed to use the machine when both boilers were cold, I've waited 40-45m and been happy with the results. The boilers came up to temperature well before that. The reason I waited was to let the group and portafilter holder get hot.
If I didn't use the machine in the evenings, I'd probably just set a timer for 45m prior to my earliest awakening time and not worry beyond that. Or defer my first drink of the morning until after the dog walk.
ginalola Senior Member Joined: 2 Jul 2009 Posts: 203 Location: USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II; Pasquini... Grinder: (2) Baratza Vario
Posted Mon Mar 22, 2010, 7:04pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
Would you say that starting with a cold machine and doing a long warming flush to get the portafilter and group hot, the Duetto would be ready in 20 minutes to make a cappuccino?
ginalola Senior Member Joined: 2 Jul 2009 Posts: 203 Location: USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II; Pasquini... Grinder: (2) Baratza Vario
Posted Mon Mar 22, 2010, 7:17pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
And what's up with the "Hand Rails" for $50? The photos on chriscoffee shows 2 pictures of the Duetto, one with the rails and one without the rails....both look identical to me. Am I missing something??
geoffbeier Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 339 Location: Arlington, VA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II, Gaggia... Grinder: Macap M4 Stepless, Faema MPN
Posted Mon Mar 22, 2010, 8:42pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
ginalola Said:
Would you say that starting with a cold machine and doing a long warming flush to get the portafilter and group hot, the Duetto would be ready in 20 minutes to make a cappuccino?
Just a guess, but I think you'd likely be OK for the one shot for a cappuccino. The boilers are certainly up to temperature at that point. I let the whole thing get stable because I usually pull a straight shot followed by a big latte with 2 double shots and ~10oz milk for my first drink of the day and I want to be sure those back-to-back shots will be really good. But I suspect 20m+flush+shot prep+pull would get you a good one. I can't be certain because that's not my routine.
ginalola Said:
And what's up with the "Hand Rails" for $50? The photos on chriscoffee shows 2 pictures of the Duetto, one with the rails and one without the rails....both look identical to me. Am I missing something??
No. It looks like they updated the photos on the site to show the new water tap and fogot to post one with the rails installed. Here's the old shot, courtesy of my browser's cache. (I *think* they're identical to the ones this H-B poster added.)
Posted Fri Mar 26, 2010, 12:16pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
I tried to draw a warming flush for my first shot of the day this morning (machine had been left on overnight), and the pump ran, but no water exited the group head. I ran it for 5-10 seconds, did the same thing again, and on the third attempt water came out as normal.
I noticed the PID temp had gone down 20 degrees by this time, so I assume water was being pumped somewhere. There are no leaks inside the machine. Is this related to the "air in the hose" leak you were talking about before, Dave?
Side question:
How forceful should the pump motor start be? If I have the top off, I can see the motor jump and move practically every part inside (even the steam boiler moves slightly) when I flip the lever.
ginalola Senior Member Joined: 2 Jul 2009 Posts: 203 Location: USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II; Pasquini... Grinder: (2) Baratza Vario
Posted Fri Mar 26, 2010, 12:40pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
Geoff, I appreciate your posting that photo of the hand rails; do you have them on your machine? I contacted Chris Coffee, and they e-mailed a photo as well. They will also install the hand rails for me since I plan to fetch my Duetto in person; they will also do a demo to help me with the learning curve. I'm thinking that the Duetto will not be a huge leap from a Pasquini Livia 90 Automatic?...unless the E-61 a difficult animal to control??
geoffbeier Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 339 Location: Arlington, VA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex Duetto II, Gaggia... Grinder: Macap M4 Stepless, Faema MPN
Posted Fri Mar 26, 2010, 4:39pm Subject: Re: Alex Duetto Owners-Please speak up!
ginalola Said:
Geoff, I appreciate your posting that photo of the hand rails; do you have them on your machine? I contacted Chris Coffee, and they e-mailed a photo as well. They will also install the hand rails for me since I plan to fetch my Duetto in person; they will also do a demo to help me with the learning curve. I'm thinking that the Duetto will not be a huge leap from a Pasquini Livia 90 Automatic?...unless the E-61 a difficult animal to control??
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