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Permalink Reply by Audrey on December 3, 2008 at 6:23pm

Although I've never touched her (!!), the Sylvia gets props in my neck of the woods. I work on the industrial Rancilio (manual) at work and find it to be a top notch machine with easy-to-use water pressure adjustments. I'm also super-psyched to be on a manual machine after 4 years of pushing a button to "make" an espresso shot.

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Permalink Reply by John on December 3, 2008 at 7:01pm

I'm just getting used to a new Rancilio Epoca Semi-auto. What Model do you use, Audrey?

Has anyone here used the Silvia? I wonder if it would be adequate to use as a compliment for a low volume shop (like 20 espress-based drinks per day).

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Curtis on December 11, 2008 at 4:26pm

My mom has one and I have used it quite a bit. I would NOT recommend it for a shop. I wouldn't recommend it to a household who wants to make more than a couple small milk based drinks at a time. IMO in you Need a heat exchange - it takes far too long to switch between steam temp and brew temp. And for not too much more you can find a heat exchange machine, and a used one for less than a new Sylvia.

From what I've experienced you can leave it on at brew temp, but if left on at steam temp it overheats. So you could have it on at brew temp, when someone gets a milk drink you could heat it to steam temp, steam the milk, then bleed off the steam until you get back to brew temps - then pull the espresso. So how do you work this if there is two milk based drinks?

Build quality is excellent.

John Kijote said:

I'm just getting used to a new Rancilio Epoca Semi-auto. What Model do you use, Audrey?

Has anyone here used the Silvia? I wonder if it would be adequate to use as a compliment for a low volume shop (like 20 espress-based drinks per day).

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on January 8, 2009 at 9:55pm

Miss Silvia is strictly home use, entry level at that compared to most prosumer machines. Besides needing to wait going from brew temp to steam temp it's even harder to get back down to brew temp from steaming. Not to mention has a wide deadband tstat (not pstat) meaning shot temp varies a good 30f and must be surfed. PID'ing boiler helps but then you must also deal with passively heated group. Which means if pulling a series of shots group temp will rise a good 12f shot one to shot 6! If you want to flush enough to stabilize the group for consistent production guess what, you just about drained your water tank and gotta fill it again. Not to mention you'll need to do the flushing slowly or the boiler temp will dive anyway. (Though I had mine modified with an in tank float-valve to auto-fill the reservoir.) Beyond that boiler does not have auto-fill so if doing much steaming can run boiler dry and fry heating element should the overheat safety fail.

Missy was on my kitchen counter for 4 years before ugrading my home machine to a decent HX 3 years ago.

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