New Steam Wand for the GS/3

As mentioned earlier I was most unsatisfied with steaming on the GS/3 with the no-burn wand. Not that it lacks steam power but the steam is wet and you need to purge a lot of water from the wand before steaming and as result I was never able to produce good micro foam. So I went ahead and ordered the newer version "burn-me" wand from the Danish La Marzocco Importer.
The wand or rather all the parts came with the mail today. I had to assemble the wand from different parts which was confusing at first as the LM exploded diagram that comes with the parts, is not precise on how to assemble this in "IKEA style". I also managed to install it in the machine using the Chris Coffee Service assembly video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrJ81UG9n_c  - Excellent video!!

So, has the steaming improved?  Most certainly, yes!

You still have to purge water from the wand before steaming and whether it's less than before I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that steaming improved instantly and I had the nicest micro foam in my first attempt. It was like night and day!
The improved steaming capability could also be contributed to the 4-hole steam tip which seems a lot better than the stock 3-hole my machine came with.

New baby!

Four years with my beloved ECM Giotto has come to an end. It has been a wonderful journey and the coffee has been great but when I recently had a good offer on the espresso machine of my dreams, I just could not pass. My kitchen counter now stars the much coveted La Marzocco GS/3. The machine is from 2008 (S/N 0315) and the former owner has not been using it a lot. In fact it's still using the original brew head rubber gasket which is still relatively fresh and soft.

First impressions:

So does it brew better espresso than the Giotto? No Sir, it does not. Once you nail it with all the cooling flushing and the works, the Giotto makes excellent shots. The GS/3 just does it much more consistently. It's almost too easy ! Except for one thing; Steaming! The machine has massive steaming capability and you will not run out of steam but I must say I made better micro foam on my Giotto. The milk tastes great but it is near impossible to get bubble free micro foam and believe me, I have tried !! You need to purge quite some water from the wand and the steam is not completely dry. I should mention that my GS/3 is equipped with the no-burn steam wand as the early models and I believe all European GS/3's now ships with the "full-burn" steam wands largely due to the same issues I'm experiencing. I'm going to order the newer version steam wand to improve things on the steam side.
As I was not sure about the exact history of the machine I went ahead and descaled both brew and steam boilers and luckily there were no scale what so ever. Opening the machine in order to descale the steam boiler also allowed me to take a closer look at the internals and I must say that the LM guys really shoe-horned a lot of high end espresso machine technology into a relatively small case. After descaling I removed the water reservoir which is located behind the drip tray and hooked the machine up to the mains water supply (via Brita softening filter) and installed the waste drain.
Build quality is very good except for at couple of things. The drain box itself is good quality and with great capacity but it's loose at sits askew. Later models have tray locking taps under the drain box taking care of that problem. Also I have noticed that the drip tray top (rails) design does not drain too well and water will spill. The craftsmanship of the drip tray is not up to standards with cutting sharp edges and the before mentioned spilling. Again this has been changed on later models.

Stay tuned for more updates!

New grinder and pump upgrade

Wow! Has it really been over a year since my last update! ..and so much has happened with my espresso setup.

It's still the good ole Giotto but I have added an external Rotary pump and motor. The pump and motor went into the lower kitchen kabinet and brewing is now niiice and quiet. No more shouting to overcome the vibration pump noise and no more rattling from the cups and glasses on top of the Giotto.

To get more control of my cooling flush and brew temperature I bought an EricS Thermometer Adaptor for E61 brewgroups. How have I ever coped without it??

But thats not the only change...

You can say there has been a "Major" change in the grinding department as my loyal Mazzer Super Jolly has been exchanged with a Mazzer Major. Not as big an upgrade taste/grind-wise as going from the Isomac Granmacinino to the Mazzer SJ, but the Major delivers just a little bit better and fluffier grinds at record super speed. I have my timer set at 3,5 seconds which gives me 17-18gr of espresso grind in the portafilter. I bought the Major second hand but it was in very good condition and after a change of burrs (these guys are intimidating 83mm) and the usual Mazzer mods (see earlier posts) it was good to go.

Have a look at the updated setup on this video

and check out the (whisper) quiet brewing with the Rotary pump action.

Giotto Steam/Water Wand modification

Wow, It's been a long time since last update and a lot has happend since then.

I was newer quite satisfied with the steaming performance on the Giotto Classic and went

through all kinds of tests in order to improve this. I tried descaling and changing the boiler water level but it didn't make much difference. After speaking to fellow coffee freaks I came to the conclusion that the ECM Giotto Classic Steam and Water Valves are simply not cut for the job the machine is able to deliver. After seeing a fellow coffee nerd at the Swedish coffee forum http://www.rigtigtkaffe.se making steam mod using Izzo Alex part, I believed I had the answer.

The Izzo valves lets out more steam and as a bonus you get ball jointed mountings.

So lets get started.

Here you see the Giotto Classic before Waterwand was replaced.

This is the new and complete water wand

A picture of the old valve in place.

The old valve taken out

Replaced with the new valve - Voila!

Here's the final result! Replacing the steam wand is exactly the same operation. You may however need to spend more time adjusting the cobber pipes though.

Here a short video of the steam power after the mod.