I'd buy this machine again in a second and recommend it to anyone. These have been compared to the Silvia and most say it's about 9/10ths as good, very well built with all commercial grade type parts. Grab one NOW!
Positive Product Points
- Fantastic espresso. - Great grind quality from the built-in stepless Lux grinder. - Looks great. - Huge water tank. - Huge drip tray. - Easy to clean and maintain.
Negative Product Points
- Grinder is loud and sometimes throws a few grounds to the side. - Need to remove the 'safety bars' from the grounds exit of grinder. - Froth aid steam tip isn't great - I replaced mine.
Detailed Commentary
Ok this is a really well built little machine with integrated stepless Lux grinder, brass boiler, brass grouphead and portafilter, 3-way solenoid valve, huge water tank - about 3 1/2 quarts, complete stainless steel body, huge drip tray etc. Bought new and have been using it for a year and a half now and couldn't be happier, a great upgrade from the Gaggia Carezza. There are many incarnations of this machine, rebranded or rebadged by many different companies with slight differences between them, some have a slightly different steam tip, some have a pressure gauge and some have different switches. Some rebadged flavours of these come from Mokita, Quaha, Le'lit and La Pavoni and others but the real kicker is that the Nemox is mostly a couple hundred buks cheaper than the rest making this machine a smoking hot deal.
I did make a few modifications to the machine shortly after buying it - the first BIG problem were the 'safety bars' on the grinder where the coffee grounds exit, the exit gate so to speak. Supposedly these are there by law so you can't stick your finger in the grinder but you just cannot grind fine for espresso without the exit gate clogging solid! Pull these little safety bars out with a pair of needle-nose pliers and bingo - works like a dream.
The second issue is the froth-aid on the steam wand - it might be ok for amateurs but if you are looking for great microfoam it needs to be swapped out. No other steam tip or wand that I could find would fit so a little modding was required. I bought a Silvia V2 steam wand for the replacement, removed the original steam wand then took them both to a local machine-shop to have the Silvia wand re-threaded so it would screw right into the swivel ball mount of the Nemox. The machinist ended up not having the correct sized tap/die so I had them silver solder the wand onto the swivel ball. Brought it home, installed and instantly began creating wonderful creamy microfoam, perfect fit and looks great too.
Buying Experience
Communication from the online web store StudioLX' was very poor, expect no after the sale service from these guys at all.
