Delivers great quality drinks in the everyday home setting & won't let you down when entertaining.
Positive Product Points
Consistent brew water temperature. Piping hot cappuccinos. Plenty of steam. Large boiler capacity.
Negative Product Points
Wish that the boiler pressure switch and pump were quieter. Love the polished (chromed) metal finish on cup warmer, however prone to scratching. Being a commercial machine, the units size might be larger than some homeowners prefer.
Detailed Commentary
I got 'the bug' to step up to the Epoca (heat exchanger machine) after 2.5 years of daily high quality cappuccinos by Silvia (single boiler). The main reason was to have the ability to pull a shot and steam simultaneously.
In short…Epoca ST-1 is what Rancilio advertises it to be: A commercial grade, pour-over, heat exchanger style machine which can be used at home.
Warmup: I allow 30 minutes from turn on to first espresso. After turning on, the machine reaches boiler pressure setpoint of ~15 psig (factory set & user adjustable) in less than 14 minutes. In order to heat up the portafilter and group head I leave the portafilter in the group head for another 15 minutes, then pull one shot of hot water thru the empty portafilter into my cappuccino cup to preheat cup. After this, I consider Epoca ready for action.
Water temperature stability/consistency: Very stable. To illustrate: Once the boiler reaches its ~15 psig setpoint the boilers heating element cycles off/on, maintaining the boiler pressure between ~15 psig and ~12 psig. This translates to a boiler steam/water temperature of ~250 F and ~245 F, thus exposing the brew water heat exchanger to a tight temperature band.
Frothing power: Plenty of frothing power. This latest version of Epoca has the “Clever” steam switch. Turn the “Clever” counter-clockwise 1/4 of a turn and the steam valve locks at 100% open. If you prefer to vary the steam flow while frothing just turn the “Clever” clockwise and you can control steam flow from 0% up to 100%.
Controls / Safeties: The unit has two switches - Main Power & Boiler Power. Both are on the front panel, under the group. The Main Power switch turns on power to the units pump, controls, and safety features. Unit controls include boiler autofill via water level sensor in boiler and pump diverting valve which delivers water to the boiler instead of to the grouphead, boiler heating element operation (once Boiler Power switch is on) via pressure switch in boiler and water level sensor in water reserve tank. The Boiler Power switch enables power to the boiler heating element. Unit safety features include cutting off power to boiler heating element & pump when there's a low water level condition in the water reserve tank. Power is restored once water reserve tank is refilled. There are also two indicator lights on the front panel - one indicates low water level condition in the water reserve tank (thus boiler heating element & pump are locked off) & one indicates water is being pumped into boiler.
Notes: I typically make one cappuccino in the morning and then power the unit off until the next usage (i.e. late afternoon or the following morning). I've noticed that when I turn on the Main Power, the unit automatically refills the boiler to full water level even though it obviously hasn't reached low water level. I like this 'auto refill when powered up regardless of water level' feature because, with the boiler at full water level, the heat exchanger is inmersed in the maximum possible thermal mass for the unit. This should contribute to the consistent espresso shots.
