The Mazzer Super Jolly modifications

The Mazzer Super Jolly (SJ) is an excellent grinder and if you can fit it into your kitchen, you are good to go for years without the need for upgrading (maybe!!). The SJ produces a better and more consistent grind than the Mazzer Mini E and is often cheaper. In fact the SJ plays well in competition with the large and much more expensive conical grinders. As the Mazzer SJ is the defacto standard espresso grinder in small to medium sized café's, there is a large volume of Super Jolly's around making it possible to get very good second hand deals. If the grinder has not been totally abused (e.g. check if the drive shaft is bent) then just change the burrs and it's as good as new.

However the SJ has a couple of issues which becomes a bit irritating for home-use. The doser doesn't sweep the doser reservoir clean from coffee. Secondly when distributing into the portafilter the doser throws coffee to the left of the portafilter fork often leaving a mess on your kitchen counter, not to mention the waste of coffee. There are well known fixes to these issues and I have applied a couple of these.

Modifications to the Mazzer Super Jolly:

1. The Short Mazzer Mini Hopper. Using the after-market Mini hopper will take down the height of the SJ to 46 cm which is about the same as the Mazzer Mini.
2. Replace the standard burrs with Dura-Mill "Duranium" burrs. This will cut down the grinding time for a double (17gr) from 9 seconds to 7!!
3. The Sweep Modification by Teme. See Espresso Passione by Teme: http://temesblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/mazzer-mod-no3-sweep.html
4. The "Elvinator". Mess-free distribution directly into the portafilter: http://www.home-barista.com/grinders/elvinator-mazzer-mod-t10908.html
5. Photo timer/Dark Room timer to cut grinding after a desired amount of seconds. Further - as my SJ is an Automatic, I have disabled the doser auto switch.

Here a picture of the "Elvinator". Thanks and credits to Elvin.

For the lack of better reference you can see most of my mods in the following video:

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.