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Londinium small, light, compact spring lever
I've been lurking for awhile debating on an espresso machine. I've narrowed it down to a Londinium L1 or a home lever from another manufacture.
The only issue that has prevented me from pulling the trigger on the L1 has been size. My kitchen has limited counter space. This is the reason I am debating between the L1 and a home lever.
I stumbled upon this today from the member forum.
"secondly, we are working on a small, light, compact spring lever espresso machine which we plan to fit our very own in-house spring lever group to so I'm pretty excited about that too"
I was hoping more information is available?
The only issue that has prevented me from pulling the trigger on the L1 has been size. My kitchen has limited counter space. This is the reason I am debating between the L1 and a home lever.
I stumbled upon this today from the member forum.
"secondly, we are working on a small, light, compact spring lever espresso machine which we plan to fit our very own in-house spring lever group to so I'm pretty excited about that too"
I was hoping more information is available?
Comments
thank you for your enquiry
our all new compact lever won't see the light of day until very late this year, but the focus on small and light means it is going to have a very different architecture to our existing line up
it is too early for me to discuss, other than we plan to forge our own design of compact 58mm spring lever group
if you are after a lever machine with a small footprint the list that i would describe as worth owning is quite a short one if you intend to buy new
You have la pavoni and you have olympia cremina, and in open boiler design the beautiful work of Wouter Strietman which you can find here and i couldn't think of a nicer guy to support if an open boiler machine meets your needs
kind regards
reiss.
I lack experience with espresso machines. What I have determined is that I like the manual interaction of lever machines.
I've been getting surprisingly good results with a ROK espresso maker, ROK grinder, and stove top frother.
From everything I've read spring levers are the most forgiving and consistent. The other machine i was looking at is the Ponte Vecchio Export. The enclosed boiler and design appeal to me. Maintenance does not intimidate me, so servicing the group does not look overly challenging. What it lacks is consistent quality (confirmed by a reliable US importer on the east coast USA) and good customer service. In my mind, if I'm going to make the next step up from the export, why not step up to commercial. This is why I am considering the L1. This is where the counter space comes back into play.
Now if the option was or will be available to have Londiuium quality and customer service in a smaller package, that seems like an easy decision to me.
I'm in no rush to make a purchase.
I tend to wait for the right option, instead the option available right now.
When I made the next step up I plan to do it once with the right machine.
I've already purchased a grinder (LY HG-1).
Given your immediate response, as well as, the widely discussed and respected customer service, i might just take a gamble and wait to see what happens....
ours won't have the glorious exposed copper boiler of the earlier machines, and nor will it be direct fill
so in terms of looks you can expect a smaller stainless steel box that looks as similar as i can make in appearance to the rest of our product line; clean, simple, and functional
No doubt since you're now heading to winter
I am also interested in term of size if the extraction quality isn't reduced.
You have a wonderful guy here in Quebec (Vincent) who invited me to have a look and try the machine, he is a real Londinium afficionado. (thought you should know when you distribute some rewards
So without revealing too much, would you be able to let us know what will be the + and - of the smaller beast compared ot the L1?
same stuff with a smaller boiler ? or some noticeable differences ?
cheers.
You mean you accepted his invitation and did not bring a bottle of fine wine or did not ship him a bag of excellent beans but decided someone else should do that for you ;-)
Nope haven't taken the time to visit Vincent but as his welcome was wonderful I took the opportunity to mention to Reiss during a post here.
But thanks for mentioning that Vincent likes wine, good to know.
See you in the next hijacked thread with a non relevant topic...just kidding, have a great day !
The wording of your mail reminded me of a friend who'd gone on a very cheap vacation in a 3rd world country and on his return he had the generous idea to ask me and others for a donation with which he would personally go back (again) to give it as a present to the grateful and humble folks he had enjoyed the hospitality of. So he figured by prompting someone else to give, he could be good without it costing much.
You of course could not help this. It was merely a thing that struck me when you suggested Reiss should send out presents on your behalf. It was silly of me. Sorry!
we expect to start work at the end of this month, it is a matter of getting a place in the development queue
our commercial need is to have a product that retails around the £1000 mark, all in (the L1 is about £2000 all in and the L1-P about £3000)
the L1 leaves the cremina for dead in terms of consistently exceptional espresso, commercial grade steam power, a hot water tap, and several hundred dollars in your pocket to put toward a grinder, but the cremina is undeniably smaller and we are losing some sales to it as a result which we need to address
a smaller machine will drastically reduce shipping costs
i can almost guarantee the espresso will not be as good as the L1, in the same way that the L1 is not as good as the L1-P, otherwise there would be no reason to buy our more expensive offerings
The compact machines will not have water taps for example, as they add a lot of cost and weight and in a small boiler machine you don't really have sufficient water on board to feed them anyway
you will find pockets of opinion in places like HB that claim that a manual lever beats a spring lever, but these are the same people that fancy beating the house in las vegas in my view. it is certainly possible now and then, but over time a spring lever will beat their efforts into a cocked hat
our compact machines will have a full fat 58mm group, which offers owners the greatest amount of choice in baskets
we plan to offer two variants; a single boiler with no steam wand so we can really get the size and weight down, and a twin boiler model that will have a steam wand
we are also planning to forge our own group which I'm very much looking forward to
yes, vincent is very pleasant isn't he?
kind regards
reiss.