The Winner is: Mini VII

[chas]

Chris told me yesterday that the Mini VI is outselling the Std VII by a margin of 60:40.

[Endo]

Makes sense.

There are a lot of people that simply want a quality machine they can take out of the box, plop down on the counter, and easily make great capps and lattes. Rewiring for 20A, installing filters and water fittinngs, drilling holes in counter tops, is just too much work for a lot of people (sadly). Not to mention all the renters out there.

For me it was mostly the price. The Mini was $500 cheaper in my case.

I think La Spaziale could have easily fit the rotary pump in the Mini and made it "plumb-in optional". That would have been sweet. But I guess La Spaziale thought "from a sales point of view.....why not make both and give people a price option?"

[JohnB]

Since the S1 can be run in 15A mode there is no NEED for rewiring but I do think if you are going to plumb it in you might as well go all the way. Convenience is king so I'm not surprised that the MIni outsells the S1. As far as cramming the rotary pump in with the reservoir it requires compromises that the owner has to live with. The GS3 with its noise/vibration issues or the Duetto with the vertical mounting are two less then ideal examples.

[chas]

Chris tells me the new GS/3s have fixed the noise issue by:

1) Moving the pump a little to the right
2) Putting a rubber dampener piece between motor and pump
3) Slight rerouting of the water line from the pump

Unfortunately, it's not a user upgrade option. Also, I'm not sure they've started shipping std GS/3s yet with this fix, but it is on the Paddle model.

[JohnB]

What is really disappointing is how long it took them to figure out the problem. All that tweaking the mounting bolts & stuffing little shims under the motor bs was pretty funky. I've read about a slightly longer hose to allow rerouting as a fix. Maybe with that moving the motor wouldn't be necessary? Is there anything immediately to the right of the motor that would stop you from moving the mount by drilling new holes in the base plate? Alternatively you could move the pump right out of the case & solve the whole problem.

You probably don't want to hear it but the Speedster comes with a rubber dampener between the motor & the pump coupling.