As a BDB owner, you definitely can’t control turning off the steam boiler, but it heats up faster than the E61! Steam basically ready in minutes so nice when you just want a hot chocolate in the evening :)
I was thinking they should add that feature for even better energy efficiency if you're not making a milk drink or like me, make some espresso shots then do one milk drink later sometimes. But I forgot the BDB preheats the fresh water going into the brew boiler with a heat exchanger system! So when fresh water is introduced to the small brew boiler the temperature isn't thrown off. But if you had the steam boiler off that might mess with that system. So I understand why they didn't add that ability.
I have had a BDB for 4 years now thinking to upgrade to this model, apart from the consumables I sent my BDB for repair once which costed $200; Can you elabroate on the maintenance and repair cost for the Synchronika, if any?
I only had it for 2 years. Had a steam wand clog issue I fixed myself, which I posted a video about. Just needed to flush out the wand. I did preventative maintenance of replacing the plastic T connector known to get brittle and fail over time with a metal one (it was a cheap part, but they say the new versions now come with the part in metal) and once had the flow control valve start acting inconsistently so again fixed it myself soaking the mushroom flow control valve in a little citric acid. Some scale or something must have gotten in the tiny opening and caused a disruption. Also had to relube the cam after using a detergent backflush to keep the brew lever nice and smooth you can get a small packet of dow 111 molykote for like 5 bucks. I probably spent like $50 canadian in parts total. I actually downgraded to a breville dual boiler and seem to be getting a much higher success rate with how many shots are turning out good vs bad. I'm not sure e61 is an upgrade from the BDB so you might wanna rethink that move. It's possible its becaause my OPV / max pump pressure was set a little too high on the synch but they seem to come set that way so i figured there was a reason maybe that would have helped. But been getting more consistently good shots out of the BDB and it's much quicker to start up.
I just upgraded from BDB to synchronika. Be honest, if I could return it without loosing a whole bunch of money on it, I would. Been looking at ECM for the last couple of years, finally pulled the trigger this year and it’s totally not what I hoped for. The good: nice quite rotary pump, super solid build, ability to plumb, quality craftsmanship. The bad: takes super long time to heat up (takes more than 20min), if you’re making americano, the water spout spits water at extremely high pressure/steam, pretty much blows your shots out of your cup, if you adjust the steam pressure down to remedy that, it actually runs hot water but then produces less than half the cup, which makes no sense. And then it goes back to heat cycle which takes a while to heat up, so if you’re making more than one americano, you’re screwed. BDB has a fantastic feature to fill up the water tank through the opening on the front of machine, this one is all the way in the back, and if your counter space doesn’t allow, you have to move the machine out every time you need to refill the tank ( I get it the idea is to have this machine plumbed in), but at 50+lb refilling the tank is a real challenge. I’m using freshly roasted coffee and B grinder, comparing the shots pulled side by side, in no expert by any means but I could not taste the difference, actually maybe I’m biased now towards the BDB but I think it tastes a little better. Another thing I don’t like about ECM is that the steam wand is on the left. I’m right handed, and this just feels awfully awkward when steaming milk. Maybe I’m just too used to having it on the right on Breville. All in all, the ECM is fantastic machine but if I could find replacement parts for my BDB (which you can’t get most of the parts for it nowadays), I would just stick to Breville. Just my unbiased opinion on both. Hope this helps in making your decision.
@@chudak27 left or right steam wand position doesn't seem to bother me, maybe I am a bit ambidextrous but I think you'll get used to it. You could likely sell your synch and not lose much if you wanted. No one uses e61 hot water spout for americanos you'll also kill your steam power that way although I guess you don't need to stream milk for Americano usually heh. Here's a workaround. You can use the steam wand to steam a pitcher of regular water up to your desired temp. Shouldn't take too long and is safer and less splashy. Also easier to get your exact amount.
@@BensCoffeeRants so what’s the purpose of hot water spout then? Not being sarcastic, serious question… I mean, if you can’t dispense hot water out of it, what’s the point of having it on then? BDB has water spout and does phenomenal job, it dispenses exactly a small cup of water and stops automatically… and thanks for the tip about using steam to heat up water, may have to try that
@@chudak27 I guess it is supposed to be for Americanos or rinsing / heating cups but people mainly use it for refreshing the water in the steam boiler. Because if you're only using steam you'll get concentrated minerals In the boiler (basically your steam is distilled water and the leftover stuff in the boiler is the leftover stuff) so a lot of people recommend using it occasionally to refresh the water in the steam boiler. If you've been using it for americanos though you've already been doing that. Oh another thing is that water if it's been in the steam boiler for so long it's not very good tasting. That applies to any machine that has boilers and isn't refreshing the water frequently. I had a rocket hx machine and I thought it tasted gross and coppery and that stainless steel was better. The synch with stainless steel boilers doesn't have the same coppery taste but still has it's own gross stainless steel taste after being kept at high temp and pressure for so long. It's not like a stainless kettle where the water is just boiled once.
@@BensCoffeeRants well it looks like u have so many nice tools for coffee but i want to give u heads up if u cleaning u group head u also need to flush out boiler every 3 months to prevent black scale build up in side boiler to do that u need a solution running water for 2 hours about
@@cybergift56 I've never heard of that before , if you use good water you shouldn't have to do that. I know a lot of people like to flush out the steam boiler if you're not using the water spout and just using steam then you get gross water since you're essentially distilling the water out of the steam wand leaving everything else in the boiler. But you can do that but just using a little bit of water everyday or some every week which introduces fresh water into the steam boiler.
Upgraded to a Breville dual boiler :D Checkout the text in the description. I kinda added some stuff now that I've experienced using that machine I believe e61 machines are more temperamental and not the best for home use. It's old tech designed for commercial machines in the 60s. I thought it worked well but some days no matter what I'd just get a bad coffee day I thought it was me or just the stars not aligning right but I think it's the e61 group!
I like the Happy Tamper, if you want a button / palm style one that you can configure the weight / resistance to. I like that I can switch bases so it works with my 51mm Europiccola or 58mm machine! My Fav which I've since sold was probably the Decent (v3) tamper since it had no weight calibration and gave you full feedback from the coffee being compressed. Normcore was alright but I'm not happy about ordering a Normcore v4 58.5mm tamper one which was ACTUALLY a 58.35mm and then acting like there's no way they could have mixed them up and sent the wrong one :D
I noticed puck screens prevent the oils or fine particles from lubricating the cam but even pulling some shots without a puck screen didn't always help and felt like it needed the relube! I've done that when it wasn't too bad and pulling some shots (without a puck screen) did help a little.
It seems a lot of your issues were caused by water choice. I use RPavlis water, a 4.2% solution of baking soda in distilled water. Look up his recipe, great results and scale free. My ECM is happy as well.
I'm not sure, I've mostly used good low mineral water. I've tried doing my own water with Potasium Bicarbonate, maybe I added too much because it gave me bad results lead to over extraction too easy. Same thing seemed to happen with full dose of Third Wave water, half the amount worked much nicer. I really enjoyed Perfect Coffee Water for light roasts but it has Chlorides in it which may be corrosive to stainless steel over time (at high pressure /temps). I'd think Baking Soda would also leave a residue? I've seen someone post something recently showing what looked like a very powdery mushroom from their E61 group!
As a BDB owner, you definitely can’t control turning off the steam boiler, but it heats up faster than the E61! Steam basically ready in minutes so nice when you just want a hot chocolate in the evening :)
I was thinking they should add that feature for even better energy efficiency if you're not making a milk drink or like me, make some espresso shots then do one milk drink later sometimes. But I forgot the BDB preheats the fresh water going into the brew boiler with a heat exchanger system! So when fresh water is introduced to the small brew boiler the temperature isn't thrown off. But if you had the steam boiler off that might mess with that system. So I understand why they didn't add that ability.
My Synchronika steam wand is an instant On/Off. So maybe just something going on with yours.
I have had a BDB for 4 years now thinking to upgrade to this model, apart from the consumables I sent my BDB for repair once which costed $200; Can you elabroate on the maintenance and repair cost for the Synchronika, if any?
I only had it for 2 years. Had a steam wand clog issue I fixed myself, which I posted a video about. Just needed to flush out the wand. I did preventative maintenance of replacing the plastic T connector known to get brittle and fail over time with a metal one (it was a cheap part, but they say the new versions now come with the part in metal) and once had the flow control valve start acting inconsistently so again fixed it myself soaking the mushroom flow control valve in a little citric acid. Some scale or something must have gotten in the tiny opening and caused a disruption. Also had to relube the cam after using a detergent backflush to keep the brew lever nice and smooth you can get a small packet of dow 111 molykote for like 5 bucks. I probably spent like $50 canadian in parts total.
I actually downgraded to a breville dual boiler and seem to be getting a much higher success rate with how many shots are turning out good vs bad. I'm not sure e61 is an upgrade from the BDB so you might wanna rethink that move. It's possible its becaause my OPV / max pump pressure was set a little too high on the synch but they seem to come set that way so i figured there was a reason maybe that would have helped. But been getting more consistently good shots out of the BDB and it's much quicker to start up.
I just upgraded from BDB to synchronika. Be honest, if I could return it without loosing a whole bunch of money on it, I would. Been looking at ECM for the last couple of years, finally pulled the trigger this year and it’s totally not what I hoped for. The good: nice quite rotary pump, super solid build, ability to plumb, quality craftsmanship. The bad: takes super long time to heat up (takes more than 20min), if you’re making americano, the water spout spits water at extremely high pressure/steam, pretty much blows your shots out of your cup, if you adjust the steam pressure down to remedy that, it actually runs hot water but then produces less than half the cup, which makes no sense. And then it goes back to heat cycle which takes a while to heat up, so if you’re making more than one americano, you’re screwed. BDB has a fantastic feature to fill up the water tank through the opening on the front of machine, this one is all the way in the back, and if your counter space doesn’t allow, you have to move the machine out every time you need to refill the tank ( I get it the idea is to have this machine plumbed in), but at 50+lb refilling the tank is a real challenge. I’m using freshly roasted coffee and B grinder, comparing the shots pulled side by side, in no expert by any means but I could not taste the difference, actually maybe I’m biased now towards the BDB but I think it tastes a little better. Another thing I don’t like about ECM is that the steam wand is on the left. I’m right handed, and this just feels awfully awkward when steaming milk. Maybe I’m just too used to having it on the right on Breville. All in all, the ECM is fantastic machine but if I could find replacement parts for my BDB (which you can’t get most of the parts for it nowadays), I would just stick to Breville. Just my unbiased opinion on both. Hope this helps in making your decision.
@@chudak27 left or right steam wand position doesn't seem to bother me, maybe I am a bit ambidextrous but I think you'll get used to it.
You could likely sell your synch and not lose much if you wanted.
No one uses e61 hot water spout for americanos you'll also kill your steam power that way although I guess you don't need to stream milk for Americano usually heh.
Here's a workaround. You can use the steam wand to steam a pitcher of regular water up to your desired temp. Shouldn't take too long and is safer and less splashy. Also easier to get your exact amount.
@@BensCoffeeRants so what’s the purpose of hot water spout then? Not being sarcastic, serious question… I mean, if you can’t dispense hot water out of it, what’s the point of having it on then? BDB has water spout and does phenomenal job, it dispenses exactly a small cup of water and stops automatically… and thanks for the tip about using steam to heat up water, may have to try that
@@chudak27 I guess it is supposed to be for Americanos or rinsing / heating cups but people mainly use it for refreshing the water in the steam boiler. Because if you're only using steam you'll get concentrated minerals In the boiler (basically your steam is distilled water and the leftover stuff in the boiler is the leftover stuff) so a lot of people recommend using it occasionally to refresh the water in the steam boiler. If you've been using it for americanos though you've already been doing that. Oh another thing is that water if it's been in the steam boiler for so long it's not very good tasting. That applies to any machine that has boilers and isn't refreshing the water frequently. I had a rocket hx machine and I thought it tasted gross and coppery and that stainless steel was better. The synch with stainless steel boilers doesn't have the same coppery taste but still has it's own gross stainless steel taste after being kept at high temp and pressure for so long. It's not like a stainless kettle where the water is just boiled once.
Hay do ur boiler flush
I don't understand.
@@BensCoffeeRants well it looks like u have so many nice tools for coffee but i want to give u heads up if u cleaning u group head u also need to flush out boiler every 3 months to prevent black scale build up in side boiler to do that u need a solution running water for 2 hours about
@@cybergift56 I've never heard of that before , if you use good water you shouldn't have to do that. I know a lot of people like to flush out the steam boiler if you're not using the water spout and just using steam then you get gross water since you're essentially distilling the water out of the steam wand leaving everything else in the boiler. But you can do that but just using a little bit of water everyday or some every week which introduces fresh water into the steam boiler.
You sold it? What do you get in its place?
Upgraded to a Breville dual boiler :D Checkout the text in the description. I kinda added some stuff now that I've experienced using that machine I believe e61 machines are more temperamental and not the best for home use. It's old tech designed for commercial machines in the 60s.
I thought it worked well but some days no matter what I'd just get a bad coffee day I thought it was me or just the stars not aligning right but I think it's the e61 group!
What do you recommend normcore tamper or decent tamper or happy tamper ?
I like the Happy Tamper, if you want a button / palm style one that you can configure the weight / resistance to. I like that I can switch bases so it works with my 51mm Europiccola or 58mm machine!
My Fav which I've since sold was probably the Decent (v3) tamper since it had no weight calibration and gave you full feedback from the coffee being compressed. Normcore was alright but I'm not happy about ordering a Normcore v4 58.5mm tamper one which was ACTUALLY a 58.35mm and then acting like there's no way they could have mixed them up and sent the wrong one :D
Force Tamper is also good. That's my usual one, but I might eventually sell it and get another Decent tamper :D
On that squeak just after you backflush let the e61 go for a few days after your detergent flush so the coffee oils grease the cam
I noticed puck screens prevent the oils or fine particles from lubricating the cam but even pulling some shots without a puck screen didn't always help and felt like it needed the relube! I've done that when it wasn't too bad and pulling some shots (without a puck screen) did help a little.
It seems a lot of your issues were caused by water choice. I use RPavlis water, a 4.2% solution of baking soda in distilled water. Look up his recipe, great results and scale free. My ECM is happy as well.
I'm not sure, I've mostly used good low mineral water. I've tried doing my own water with Potasium Bicarbonate, maybe I added too much because it gave me bad results lead to over extraction too easy. Same thing seemed to happen with full dose of Third Wave water, half the amount worked much nicer. I really enjoyed Perfect Coffee Water for light roasts but it has Chlorides in it which may be corrosive to stainless steel over time (at high pressure /temps).
I'd think Baking Soda would also leave a residue? I've seen someone post something recently showing what looked like a very powdery mushroom from their E61 group!