There are reasons why World Champion Baristas use La Marzoccos. Interested?
Positive Product Points
The LM Linea is a fantastic machine. The best in its class. Recent LM's (including mine) come stock PID'ed which makes the most temperature stable machine in the world even more stable. Great aesthetics also add to the prestige of the machine. Fantastic portafilters, very heavy and excellent quality, very comfortable to use in your hand. And the baskets, well what can one say, they are simply the best in the world bar none. Great back ups built into the machine, if the automatic shot program panel breaks you can use the manual overide buttons for example.
Negative Product Points
In the first two months of operation the temp probe broke on me, it was replaced under warranty but really when you are paying that kind of money you expect parts to last longer than 7 weeks! The machine is rather short width wise (for a three group) which makes it a bit difficult for multiple users to operate the machine at one time.
Detailed Commentary
My LM Linea is an awesome machine. It came stock with a PID so the machine's thermal control is incredible. You can program in the band and set your target temperature. As you can imagine the shots come out fantastic, however because the machine is so precise it will highlight any of your errors, such as staling coffee, imprecise dosing, inaccurate tamping etc. The Linea has saturated groups, so brewing water actually circulates through the brew heads keeping brew head temp as close as possible to that of the impending shot. As a result shots comes out slowly oozing with amazing crema. As mentioned before the PF's are incredible, so easy to hold and use, even in high volume. They are weighty and contribute to the overall thermal stability of the machine. Because LM's have a dedicated steam boiler the steam power and type (extremely dry) is very powerful, it took me quite some time to adjust to the power of the steamer. Latte art is made easier on the LM because it is possible to get an incredible texture almost cream-like with the Marzocco. Basically all operations for the Linea have manual back-ups so in case there are problems you can use the manual buttons to refill the steam boiler for example or start and stop shots manually using the overide button. I would definitely purchase my Marzocco again and would thoroughly recommend them to anyone wanting the best.
Buying Experience
I bought my LM Linea from Five Senses coffee, fantastic service and support
Three Month Followup
I have had my LM Linea for a little over 7 months now (a bit lazy with the 3 month update!) The Linea is a great machine. At first it had a issue where it blew my PF's out of the groups but this seemed to be a combined issue of having new head gaskets and the pressure set a little too high. Anyway this issue has now dissapeared. The LM works great, it has very good steam power although it does seem to have hills and valleys in regard to it's consistency of steam power. Being a PID'ed machine means that shots are very good, although you also need very fresh roasted coffee to fully take advantage of the machines capabilities. I would buy this machine again, but like any machinery it does have it's good and bad days. Amazingly, although it is left on permenantly, it does seem to work a little differently at different times.
One Year Followup
This particular Linea machine has been a little tempremental at times. We have needed to clean out our steam valve assemblies four times because of a build up of milk although we wipe and purge after every single use. The Linea does produce wonderful espresso but you really need to understand how to tweak it. At the moment we seem to have an issue with one of the volumetric panels seeming to work a little inaccurately. I think the Linea is an amazing machine however like any man made machinery it will break down at times. Our tech support has been very good, the guys come out very quickly and solve problems on the fly. We now have two Lineas in our store and I have to say my staff and I still love them.
