I’m using stilosa with bottomless pf. So far my main issues seem to be inconsistencies across my workflow. Using same grinder settings and puck prep, shot times are almost always different. Sometimes it will just decide to choke the machine, other times what used to be a 30s shot will turn into a 25s or lower shot.
I know that some of this can be attributed to the beans themselves as they age, but I still feel like the machine is what’s causing most of my headache.
However from what I’ve learned, the stilosa uses a boiler where as some other espresso machines use an induction heating mechanism? I’ve read that while boilers take longer, they’re supposed to have more consistent temperatures. Not sure if that’s true.
I’m worried that if I go to the BBP, I’m mostly going to run into the same issues.
Gotcha – yeah I can confirm the thermocoil (at least in the BBP) isn’t very stable. If you don’t care about simultaneous steaming & brewing, to get good stability you could go for a single boiler machine with PID like the Profitec Go, Lelit Victoria, or Ascaso Steel Uno. Note the PID is important – it’s basically a smart controller to avoid the boiler overshooting the target temperature, so you get much better consistency.
I’m using stilosa with bottomless pf. So far my main issues seem to be inconsistencies across my workflow. Using same grinder settings and puck prep, shot times are almost always different. Sometimes it will just decide to choke the machine, other times what used to be a 30s shot will turn into a 25s or lower shot.
I know that some of this can be attributed to the beans themselves as they age, but I still feel like the machine is what’s causing most of my headache.
However from what I’ve learned, the stilosa uses a boiler where as some other espresso machines use an induction heating mechanism? I’ve read that while boilers take longer, they’re supposed to have more consistent temperatures. Not sure if that’s true.
I’m worried that if I go to the BBP, I’m mostly going to run into the same issues.
Gotcha – yeah I can confirm the thermocoil (at least in the BBP) isn’t very stable. If you don’t care about simultaneous steaming & brewing, to get good stability you could go for a single boiler machine with PID like the Profitec Go, Lelit Victoria, or Ascaso Steel Uno. Note the PID is important – it’s basically a smart controller to avoid the boiler overshooting the target temperature, so you get much better consistency.