Bit of an update... ordered (and been delivered) some parts from CoffeeParts, wand holders so i dont burn my fingers and some new knobs for the steam/water. They dont quite fit (Square vs. D) but i can work on that

Have noticed a problem though... have the device about 10 days now and following forum advice ive essentially backflushed it twice. After doing so on both occasions ive noticed issues with pressure management afterwards. Maybe this is the reason it was sold but ill need to get to the bottom of it.
Two symptoms occur... (1) sometimes - twice so far the pressure builds to around 1.7 bar and something inside vents and (2) once of twice after a flush producing a shot sees the pressure raise upto the same kind of level as (1). It looks like theres some kind of back valve not quite working.
Ive contacted the manufacturer to see if I can get a response... hopefully google translator will do its job.
Its rather odd though... give it a day, a few shots and it all settles down again...
Ive also got a decent tamper - a Jetblack model... made a huge difference and now have some decent beans. Its amazing how much coarser i can run the grind compared to the crappy stuff and the crema is much much better.

I just cant bring myself to waste that much power per day. I did some testing when I got the machine before Christmas - 25mins warm up is absolutely identical to leaving it on for 1 hour which is the same as 2 hours... The thing heats up to stable operating temperature in <30mins. So there is no need to leave it on.
) then it costs about 12 cents for my two lattés.. Of course, if youre doing a whole bunch of shots the unit cost comes down since the bulk of that price is the 30minutes of sitting idle heating up.
The Expobar Minore I now have has a "cool touch" wand - which is nice, but when I use the machine in the tea room (which is not cool touch) I tend to burn myself :
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