Appartamento

HX machines have to manage a 50°F/30°C temperature drop from the steam boiler temperature to brew temperature. That's a tall order and none do it perfectly. Traditional HX machines such as the OG Rocket Appartamento (not the new TCA version) tend to overheat while idling, and need a cooling flush pr

I had the exact same dilemma 3 months ago (single boiler or hx) and went for the heat exchanger (Rocket Appartamento in my case though) and couldn’t be more glad I did.

Sharing an observation as a long-time Rocket Appartamento owner who upgraded. First of all, I wouldn’t say that flow control is necessary (and the massive amount of people regarding the Linea Mini as end-game seem to agree). In fact, if one is only starting their journey into espresso I would say th

Not exactly true because the boiler size plays a role as well as the general construction of the machine. If there’s more mass to heat up, it will take longer. The Linea Micra needs like 5 minutes if I remember correctly and something like the Rocket Appartamento will be close to 30 minutes.

I was in the same boat, but had some size constraints so I ended up going heat exchanger (Rocket Appartamento) instead. I had the same criteria as you though, and I was aiming for the Profitec Move @ $3K CAD. If your budget is $6K.. just go La Marzocco Micra. It's a BIFL machine for sure, and pretty

There really isn't a big market for cafe tier machines, so I'm not surprised the price is that low. There's good reason most consumers don't want these machines - they index high in features that consumers don't need (massive output capacity) and often index low in features consumers benefit from (s

I don’t know about the Rancillio, but the rocket has a heat exchanger and lets you brew espresso and steam milk simultaneously, if you’re interested in doing milk drinks as well. I’ve been using the Rocket Appartamento for the last 4 months and have been nothing but very satisfied with it. I appreci

I was considering the Profitec Go or Lelit Victoria PL91T (you can see it in my post history; I don’t even know anymore if they are only single boiler?), but my girlfriend convinced me to spend more (bless her) to get a HX and steam simultaneously. We drink mostly milk drinks, though, occasionally e

Besides the pressure, you can also buy a temperature gauge if you have to TCA. I got one gifted and it really helped to get an overview of the 4 levels of controllable temperature and also see when the machine is actually warm / stable enough to pull shots. Unfortunately that made me realise that th

As an owner of both a rocket appartamento and a stone, the stone definitely feels like a better machine, albeit just not quite as premium of a build (mostly because of that clunky drip tray) It acts much more like a dual boiler than a hx with that actively heated group head. No flushing required. So