Noticed today that the Rancilio Silvia v6 coffee machine qualifies under eBay's current spend and save promo which means a saving of $100 off the machine + free shipping. I've been eyeing one of these machines for months and they don't ever seem to go on sale or get discounted so thought I would share the deal here!
This is my first ever deal post so please excuse any mistakes :)
Mine’s 7 years old, and agreed - well worth it.
I didn’t experience too much fiddling around and was a beginner then. Well worth the quality over others, even if simple in features. Does the job well.
I have a v1 with a 2003 build date, so 19 years old almost! Still goes well, keep it maintained and it'll last a lifetime
I have a V2 and its still as the day I bought it, my friend has a V1 and has just had it serviced, changed some parts etc and its good as new.
That's the main reason I bought mine. No electronics to go wrong, and all the parts are easy to source. Pretty much all that changes is the look, everything else stays interchangeable between models. It's not the best machine on the planet, but in that price range, it certainly punches well above its weight.
Mine is close to 20 years old too - the only thing that eventually kills the Silvia is rust :(
Given the part/s that seem to rust, I reckon you could probably pickup the relevant sheet metal and go to a local hackerspace and see if someone can use a brake press and create a replacement for pretty cheap
New ones have stainless steel chassis
Yeah the longevity of these machines is what sold me! They also seem to hold their value way better than other models.
Good machine but for the price maybe consider a Lelit, aside from the 57mm accessories, it's more beginner friendly. Rancilio is known to require a bit more fiddling around at the start
That’s true, I bought a second hand ranciiio V2 and used for a couple of months, the thing that I like was the steam power but I didn’t like the temperature surfing, I ended up selling and bought a Lelit instead. With PID (LCC), it works better.
Which model did you get?
@PB: Only $51.84 off now. price is $984.99. Would be cheaper via Jetblack @ $969.
https://www.jetblackespresso.com.au/shop/p/lelit-PL41LEM/
Nice machines (own one).
@Kaise: Great machine - I’ve had mine for 1.5 yrs and love it.
Although I’ve recently tried a dual boiler (Rocket) and was blown away. Maybe one day I’ll have the Lelit Bianca, but not ready to splurge on that just yet!
I bought Kate which is a combo with grinder.
Yeah the Lelit Anna with PID (PL41TEMD I believe) is one I have been considering at a similar price point. Jetblackespresso used to have a good condition second hand one which I almost pulled the trigger on, but someone snapped it up before I made the call
Lelit is not on the same level of the silvia in build quality
Why, mine seems decent build inside and out and comes with PID?
@Borg: Thinner gauge metal for the chassis, teflon and push fittings for boiler connections which will fail over time, less brass in group head and boiler, brass on brass hot water tap, as opposed to the ruber gasket found in the Silvia
@triple675: Couldn’t care less about the thinner gauge metal, but the other two points are interesting - fittings could potentially fail over time for most machines though?
I guess it’s a build quality vs features trade off, and I’d happily take the Lelit with the built in PID.
@NedStark102: Not really. The silvia uses a copper pipe and a brass compression fitting. That has the potential to last forever. The lelit relies on a o ring encased in plastic. Both a prone to heat so they will fail.
The brass on brass will wear, so does the rubber seal. When the brass does wear youre up for a new tap vs a seal.
PID is great if you use the feature. If not its a lot more complex and prone to issues compared to a thermostat system
@triple675: For what it's worth. I have a Lelit PL41TEM (older Anna model) for the past 10+ years and used daily. Never a problem to date (touch wood). The steam wand drips a little as too lazy to fix but I don't use it very much. I just heat milk in a aerochino or microwave hahaha! Not too worried about "Milk Art"
A beautiful machine. My v2 has been running daily for almost 10 years now. It has not missed a beat!
Not a pro with PID =(
At this price?
This or the dual boiler? For a complete beginner. Also open to something cheaper if it makes sense to learn on that first :-)
Unless you doing multiple coffee all the time, don't really see the need for dual boiler… It's just a short wait (with rancilio for it to heat up for steamer) or you can do the milk first then do the coffee
Either would work well, but I'd vote for the dual boiler (used both), the pressure reading is useful, the dual boiler has a more consistent temperature. Silvia has a heavier build, more likely to serve for longer.
The grinder may have a bigger impact on the result.
Milk drinks? go a dual boiler. If you are a beginner, just get the Breville and call it a day.
If you drink espresso, give this a good hard think as it is a great machine and the community out there for modding is legit.
I had one of these 15 years ago when there were no other decent options at the price range, and did all the usual mods. I would 100% get a dual boiler these days. The main advantage of this is it's simple and built like a tank with easily replaceable parts, so will last for years.
Dual boiler machines for home are generally terrible, even more so in this price range. The time they save you (which isn't much), is taken up by the fact you've got twice as many parts to go wrong, and your boilers have to be smaller (a LOT smaller, about 1/3 the size).
I say this as someone who has owned a couple of twin boilers before settling on a Rancilio.
This Rancilio Silvia has 300ml boiler. Are you saying dual boiler machines have 1/3 the size of 300ml boiler ie 100ml boilers?
They generally have 2x 100ml boilers in this price range, or a smallish coffee boiler, and a thermoblock for steam (these tend to burn out pretty quickly).
You're better off with a single bigger boiler. It literally takes less than 30 seconds for my 8 year old Silva to get to steam temp.
@sortius: I am not aware of a double boiler machine with 100ml boilers, unless you referring to Breville BDB machine, which they never mention the specs or size of their boilers!
I understand that Rancilio Silvia is solid built and last many years, however it lacks a lot of required features, ie PID, pressure gauge, no OPV, small size / bad design of waste tray, can't brew and steam same time. So by the time you include some of these mods, you already spent considerable amount of additional $$$ and voided your warranty.
Whoa! I bought this 7-8 years ago for around 550 - something must’ve improved considerably since then but price is almost doubled!
Was that the V6? Would have thought that would be closer to a V3/4
Have anyone replaced the screen shower filter and the gasket?
Yeh, I have. They're about $40 for the precision kit, $20 for the basic kit. Use a socket wrench to get it off (easiest).
I regularly take mine off for cleaning, just to get the copper block behind the screen thoroughly cleaned.
Have you replaced with this ims sr200rnt or similar?
I generally buy the genuine Rancilio kits (gasket, screen, and glue), but yeh, that should work fine.
Plus this machine I think has a very small water collection tray. Still a great machine but when it first came out, was around the $600 mark, then the price shot up. We are talking a long time ago so for it to still be on the market, it must have something going for it.
And as everyone has stated.. Three important things for a good coffee. The machine and equally as important the grinder and finally, fresh coffee.
I’d say the grinder is more important - a machine like this paired with a niche zero, will almost certainly make better coffee than something like a rocket apartamento with a breville smart grinder.
Does anyone have any tips on grinder settings to get a good espresso shot? I will be using a Breville Smart Grinder Pro.
Hey mate, I have this exact combo. Depends on the beans, but I do my double shot at 16.4 grind and fineness to 8
Thank you! I'll use that as a starting point to begin experimenting with :)
Oh wow. Interesting to hear other settings. I'm at 13.0 grind and fineness at 5. I used to go lower but it stopped working for me for some reason. I pull the shot for 26 seconds.
I'm no coffee fanatic, but it does poor a nice shot.
Each batch of beans will be different. I have the same grinder and what i do is adjust one parameter at a time (grind size, dose amount, tamp pressure etc) until i get a good shot.
Also important to note that your grinders performance will change over time and you might even need to install a shim (essentially a washer to allow you to grind finer).
Rather than looking at time, try to single-dose & go off weight with a small set of scales. Look at something like 20g of beans = 35g of espresso in about 30 seconds. Anything around those numbers should produce a nice coffee.
Well worth buying. Mine's 8 years old, and still going strong.