Using hard water will ruin your espresso machine. Soft water no higher than 50ppm is required to keep your espresso machine running for the long term. Using hard water will void the warranty.
I went from a DF64 gen 1 V2, and this has every upgrade I could want. Much more clean, retention went from 10% to 0.5% grinds much quicker, quieter, with a larger normalized distribution of grind size. I am using DLC espresso burrs. I have not compared them to others on a DF83v, but I am very happy with their performance so far. And feel no need to upgrade to anything else.
Matches the other cup that came with my Turin grinder.
Saves time making two espressos having two dosing cups.
Very fast shipping. I prefer this dosing cup to the more expensive ones available elsewhere.
I received my machine earlier this week. Had it out of the crate set up and paired with the app in no time. Machine build seems very solid and a quick peek at the internals when I took the top off (2 screws) to remove the protection film revealed a beautiful, well executed and roomy interior. Gear pump is something I never thought I’d need but it is amazing. I love the joysticks for steam hot water. Also I am accustomed to dual boilers and find this dual boiler, saturated group machine to heat up very quickly.
Huge plus, Tablet not even needed except to set machine parameters and run premade profiles (either pressure or flow) or make your own and you get feedback on your pull from it. Currently I just made a 9 bar flat 30 second profile to dial it. Will get into more elaborate preset and my own profiles as I get time.
I bound that 9 bar flat profile to the paddle, meaning unless I want to dive deeper I can run it just like any other machine with a switch and not even need a tablet. I have the option to just use it like a basic machine.
That flexibility and actuators for steam and water are just a couple of the features set apart from other machines that basically need the tablet to run.
Cup clearance is insane, I can fit a 12 oz paper go cup on my Acaia lunar with ease.
Imo even without the advanced features, this machine is as better than anything else in the price range.
I’ve been happy so far - pleasantly surprised even. Considering how little this cost, it is a good machine. As long as you have an OK grinder (df64 gen2 in my case) you can make totally acceptable coffee. The steam bloc being separate from the brew boiler means there’s no heat up/cooldown between brewing and steaming milk though it cannot do both at one time and I am yet to really put it though it’s paces as far a brewing back-to-back shots (as far as temperature stability/consistency). I don’t have outsize expectations for such a small machine but so far it’s been pretty good. The steam power is adequate for a small home machine like this - takes a little longer to steam milk than a commercial machine and I’m not sure it can handle great volumes of milk at a time but who honestly needs that at home at 7am? Another thing that’s kind of nice to have is easy access to the adjustable OPV without needing to open the machine. This is a perfectly suitable budget-friendly machine in a form-factor fit for small kitchens with limited counters, like mine.
