“First, like many of you, it's a journey and a rabbit hole that never ends. NEVER. LOL. I can tell you that I would purchase this machine repeatedly in the end - and I'm only two weeks into my espresso journey. I boiled it down to quality and consistency; that's what I was looking for in a machine. Knowing I could finance the purchase, I wanted to ensure I was getting the most out of my dollar; so far, so good! Undoubtedly, the best feature is its flow control and pre-infusion settings for someone learning how to pull shots initially. Once I got the hang of dialing in, adding flow control took extraction to another level of flavor and helped mitigate channeling. I'm nowhere near perfection, and from what I gather, you never will be. You will dial in your shot best as possible and to your specific liking and enjoy! I'm getting some tasty shots in just two weeks after burning through a bag of specialty beans, lol. It takes time to get to know your grinder and machine. Still, it falls into place with the support of the coffee community and the retailers you purchased your gear from (thank you, team C&P). For someone pulling shots for myself and my wife, the Binaca has zero issues delivering back-to-back consistency and then some! As a beginner, here's my process, I take the recommended recipe from my roaster. Adjust my grinder to the average range for grinding espresso. Measure out my dose, and apply water spray (RDT) per my manufacturer's recommendation. Shake them beans! Grind into my bottomless portafilter (with included funnel from my Lagom P64), Sworks WDT to break up clumps in the basket and even out the coffee puck. Tamp down with a calibrated Bravo tamper (58.5mm). I'm using Pullman baskets. I finish the puck prep with a Normcore puck screen (58.5mm), blow and or brush away any loose grounds, so they don't get stuck/pressed up in the group head of your machine. The puck screen is my favorite accessory for one key reason; it keeps your machine's shower screen clean and aids in even puck saturation. Still, do your daily and weekly cleaning routines. And be sure to follow Lelit's water guidelines, which I might add; Lelit's care team is super responsive and will answer any question via email. If I include flow control, I add the time of flow control onto the full recipe's time. So if I'm pulling 19g in, and 55g out, in 25 seconds (per my roaster), and I want to add 4 seconds of flow control to the recipe, I'm stopping the extraction around 29-30 seconds, depending on how well the extraction is going or tasting...trial and error my friends. I'm having good results with this process so far, but again, I can't stress it enough, pick up the phone, call C&P, and have a conversation. Also, if you are at the end of the line and on the fence with the Bianca, get it, lol.”
“This is my first espresso machine. Decided to take the plunge on a nicer machine (buy once, cry once?) and I definitely don't regret it! 2 friends who had bought more entry-level machines (Gaggia Classic, Breville Bambino) came over and were thrilled to use a machine they felt didn't hold them back, particularly with respect to steam pressure and capacity. No regrets!
Set up was extremely easy. The machine was well-packaged. While I managed to precariously unpack and lift the machine alone, I would recommend another pair of hands. I have a narrow countertop, so the flexibility of being able to place the reservoir on the side let this machine fit where other machines would have hung over the edge. No complaints about the build-quality once I got everything unboxed; however there is plenty of mirror-polish stainless steel surrounding the machine so I live in perpetual fear of leaving scratches! Lastly, Lelit is very generous with the accessories. I only needed to get a scale, knock-box, and frothing pitcher to make my first latte. The box includes water hardness test strips, 2 portafilters & baskets (IMS), water filter, etc.
Warm up time to pull an espresso shot is ~10m, and then another ~10m for the steam reservoir to hit 3 bar. The portafilter is easy to lock in without looking. The walnut points of contact all around the machine are a pleasure to use. The brew valve has developed a slight squeak after the first month of use, but I don't find it bothersome. Having the grouphead pressure gauge and built-in shot timer in the LCC significantly cuts down on the faff required to dial in a good shot on a E61 machine. Steam pressure is more than adequate. In fact, steam pressure is probably higher than new baristas are accustomed to: just Google "why is my espresso steam wand SCREAMING?" for some great reading (tl;dr high steam pressure = more prone to cavitation. keep the tip closer to the surface!). While I haven't played around with flow profiling extensively, I'm happy to know it's there for me to fiddle with as I advance in my skills.
tl;dr -- no regrets after ~1mo of using it as my first machine. friends are jealous. I am happy that it's a machine I can grow with.”
“I mean, I think this is hands down the best home machine out there. It has so many thoughtful features, like the built in filter in the tank, the storage under the drip tray, etc. the fact that you can move the water tank to either side makes the machine the least deep prosumer machine out there, not dominating your typically 24 inch counter space but actually leaving room in front for your tools. The flow control is super fun to use, consistency is superb. Overall, haven’t seen a machine that can beat it, and so well priced on top of it all. For me, easily first place”
Hi Ogi!
Thank you for leaving such a nice review.
We're glad to hear you're enjoying your new V3 from Lelit! Should you ever have any questions, we are always here as your dealer.
Christine F.
Order Management
“This machine is just so darn nice to look at and produces AMAZING espresso! I especially love the wood accents and the flow profiler which takes espresso making to the next level! Love everything about this thing and I’m thrilled that I have a 3 year warranty with it to protect my investment.”
“This is a great machine. My previous experience with home espresso machines was with a Rocket Mozzafiato, which is a very nice heat exchange machine. The Lelit Bianca has overall been a nicer machine to use. I will compare the two machines, as these are the only machines I have any real experience using:
- In terms of build quality, I think both machines are pretty comparable. They both seem to be very sturdy with good build quality. The machine I received had a bent bottom plate, which houses the front legs and holds the drip tray. Cliff & Pebble gave me a partial refund for the inconvenience and is working on a damage claim with UPS, so I will hopefully be able to exchange for an undamaged machine once that is resolved.
- The Lelit has an incredibly fast warmup time, being somewhere around 15 minutes in my experience. The Rocket was closer to 25-30 minutes.
- The Lelit has adjustable flow rate, along with the paddle/programming for low flow mode. I was able to set the flow rate to around where I find ideal. I think the flow rate of the Rocket was too high, but is not easily adjustable to my knowledge. I believe this led to channeling occurring semi-frequently, whereas I rarely have this occur with the Lelit. This has greatly increased my consistency when pulling shots.
- The Lelit has temperature control for the brew boiler, whereas the Rocket did not. I never had any issues with brew temp when using the Rocket, so no complaints there. With the Lelit I had to spend some time adjusting before I found a temperature that I was happy with.
- The Lelit allows for much higher steam pressure than the Rocket. I am able to get perfect texture milk much easier and more consistently than with the Rocket.
- The Lelit allows for the water tank to move to any side of the machine, which is a nice perk, but I never had any issues with the Rocket. Both machines are able to be plumbed in.
- I think both machines are beautiful, but the Lelit is hard to beat with its wooden handles/knobs. This was a huge part of why I picked the Lelit over something like the Rocket R58. To add wooden accents to machines typically costs several hundred dollars, but was simply a stock feature for the Lelit.
- In terms of accessories, I was very impressed with the Lelit. The tamper that comes with the machine is very high quality. In addition, the baskets that come with it are nicer than any stock basket I have seen, so I don’t think that upgrading the basket is mandatory, but that being said, I did upgrade mind.
Overall, I am incredibly happy with the quality and performance of this machine and I think it holds its own against any of the similarly priced machines, while being one of the most beautiful in my opinion.”
“Amazing prosumer machine that has all the bells and whistles you could ever dream of. The dual boiler makes back to back lattes a breeze, allowing you to steam perfectly silky milk while pulling a shot.
The flow control paddle allows beautifully long preinfusions to bring out every flavor in lightly roasted beans. Even if you don’t want to use the flow control paddle it is very simple to program in a flow profile that can be precisely repeated shot after shot by using the LCC.
After using the machine for almost a month and pulling over 5 shots a day I can confidently say this has been the best purchase of 2022 so far.”
