After looking at PIDs for the Silvia on and off for the past few years. I finally decided that I would put in a bit more effort searching to see if there was anything that could be installed inside the machine and maintain the same functionality of the existing buttons. Came across a review of the meCoffee from August 2015: http://www.rojtberg.net/1109/mecoffe...ncilio-silvia/
Other than the review and their website, there was little info about it, but decided to give it a try as it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for plus on ~$200. I ordered it on Sunday 17th January, received postage confirmation on Wednesday 20th January and it arrived yesterday 1st February. Not too bad considering it came from Netherlands and had been opened for Australian Customs inspection. Makes sense I guess as the Customs scanner would just show small package with a bundle of wires and electronic box.
Attached are a couple of pictures of what was in the package and one installation was complete. I forgot to take a picture of the install prior to tucking the controller inside the unit.
The install instructions are easy to follow with checks at the end of each step to ensure everything has been connected correctly. It is also handy having the install video to reference especially for how to tuck the controller into the Silvia. With the wife's help, we did all install steps except for the last one for the timer as don't feel too comfortable having the machine warm up by itself.
Have only made a couple of coffees and played around a bit with the pressure (pump dimming), so only have some initial impressions. The preinfusion seems to work well, and seemed to hit a nice ~25 second double shot. The coffee seems to be less bitter from both mine and my wife's thoughts. Not sure if this is placebo as didn't have an non-PID coffee to directly compare it to. However we did run the meBarista app to watch the temperature tracking and it does return back to set temperature for the next shot very quickly. For note, the meBarista app is not required to operate the system as the boiler light indicates when it is at the right temperature.
With the milk steaming set to 135 degrees, the steam reaches temp quickly and the boiler kicks back in quickly once steaming is commenced. Not sure if we noticed a difference in quality, but steaming was good as normal non the less.
So far so good, but will start to play around with some of the settings and see what differences are made. I would be interested to hear thoughts from @rayuki who has also purchased one.
Other than the review and their website, there was little info about it, but decided to give it a try as it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for plus on ~$200. I ordered it on Sunday 17th January, received postage confirmation on Wednesday 20th January and it arrived yesterday 1st February. Not too bad considering it came from Netherlands and had been opened for Australian Customs inspection. Makes sense I guess as the Customs scanner would just show small package with a bundle of wires and electronic box.
Attached are a couple of pictures of what was in the package and one installation was complete. I forgot to take a picture of the install prior to tucking the controller inside the unit.
The install instructions are easy to follow with checks at the end of each step to ensure everything has been connected correctly. It is also handy having the install video to reference especially for how to tuck the controller into the Silvia. With the wife's help, we did all install steps except for the last one for the timer as don't feel too comfortable having the machine warm up by itself.
Have only made a couple of coffees and played around a bit with the pressure (pump dimming), so only have some initial impressions. The preinfusion seems to work well, and seemed to hit a nice ~25 second double shot. The coffee seems to be less bitter from both mine and my wife's thoughts. Not sure if this is placebo as didn't have an non-PID coffee to directly compare it to. However we did run the meBarista app to watch the temperature tracking and it does return back to set temperature for the next shot very quickly. For note, the meBarista app is not required to operate the system as the boiler light indicates when it is at the right temperature.
With the milk steaming set to 135 degrees, the steam reaches temp quickly and the boiler kicks back in quickly once steaming is commenced. Not sure if we noticed a difference in quality, but steaming was good as normal non the less.
So far so good, but will start to play around with some of the settings and see what differences are made. I would be interested to hear thoughts from @rayuki who has also purchased one.







Comment