Rather surprised myself by winning a nice looking Ponte Vecchio Lusso on Ebay for £139, which seems a bit of a bargain (it was a speculative rather low bid on the off chance no-one else was that interested), even if it needs a bit of a descale and spring/gasket replacement. However it does have one slight problem - and this may explain the lack of other bidder interest - it is missing its drip tray cover.
I've contacted Bella Barista/Towability Trailers who import the PV into the UK to see if they can help, but they are not planning any further orders through PV in the foreseeable future (maybe poor sales in the UK?).
Although not a standard spare, I can't believe that it is completely impossible to source a replacement tray cover. Does anyone have any ideas as to distributors in Europe (or I guess the US) who might be able to help? I've emailed the guys at Ponte Vecchio a few days ago, but haven't heard back yet. In the meantime, I'll improvise with a temporary cover made out of a bit of an old grill, but it would be nice to have the machine back into perfect shape - they are spectacularly attractive machines.
Cheers Dave - is there a PM facility on CoffeeGeek? - can't find an email address in your profile.
FWIW, my emails with the seller were perfectly civil. From the sound of it, the machine needs a good descaling at the very least, and probably an overhaul of the valves. But given the simplicity of the design, I'm hoping all reasonably fixable. I guess I'll find out in the next few days when it turns up. But if it turns out to be a dog of a machine at least I haven't spent a whole lot of money on it...
Well - the machine arrived today. A bit dusty, but fully functional. Lots of scale and general gloop in the boiler, which has had a couple of descalings this evening. But all now running clean and clear. And everything looking a bit more shiny. Looking at the pressure gauge, its been running at somewhere over 2 bar, which probably explains the "steam out of the water pipe" problem the seller described. Tomorrow the case comes off and the pressurestat gets tweaked. And Ponte Vecchio have come through with the drip tray - for 50 Euros including postage. So a nicish PVL for less than my Europiccolo. Now to find a nice grinder to match it (the PVL is going in the office), and I'll be sorted...
Posted Sun Apr 27, 2008, 10:14am Subject: Re: Replacement drip tray cover for Ponte Vecchio Lusso
Congrads on your aquisition of a Ponte Vecchio Lusso (PVL). The PVL has become my main machine. Relative thermo stability and relatively forgiving nature of the machine results in pulling consistent, quality shots with this machine. Significantly less sink shots than the Elektra Micro Casa a Leva.
There is no vacume breaker on the boiler. You may need to open the steam valve to release the false pressure and then flush the grouphead to break any vapor lock in the grouphead thermo syphon system. I've adjusted the pstat to 1.0 (+/-0.05 bars). At this setting after the unit has warmed up a simple quick single pull flush boosts the grouphead temp. At 1.0 bars combined with the indirect grouphead connection design the inital shots seem to run a bit cool for my taste and most my SO and blends.
If ordering parts from the USA is not a problem couple sources are: www.vanelis.com and The Good Coffee Company in Seattle (no webpage, 1-206-622-5602)
Check out the Lever Machine Smackdown thread at home-barista.com if you have not yet done so.
Noel Mano dell 'operatore> Macinadosatore> Miscela> Macchina espresso
Thanks for the post. You're right - the PVL is an extremely impressive machine. A bit rough and ready in terms of workmanship, but the overall effect is beautiful, and the coffee that comes out is surprisingly and consistently good. Less of the mega foamy "keg lager" type shots that I seem to get out of my PIded Classic, instead smaller, more subtle and - to my taste - more appealing espressos. They remind me of what I tend to get served in small backstreet Italian cafes, and are all the better for it. Once the double filter arrives from Italy, its going to get even better...
Having installed it at my work, it now provides good coffee all day (and has helped turn a rather sterile work kitchen into a surprisingly popular coffee club, with all manner of people coming out as espresso obsessives). Having now partnered it with a battered old style SJ salvaged from marktplaats.nl I now have a bit of a workplace retro-coffee shrine coming together.
All in all, the PVL experience has been great, boosted by the superb responsive customer service of Ponte Vecchio in Italy, who were amazingly willing to help out with supplying parts for very little money. Thoroughly good chaps. A shame that no-one is actively distributing their kit in the UK.
In fact, the one negative is that superb consistency of the PVL spring lever has revealed the appallingly poor quality of my Europiccola shots...
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