A relative newbie looking for help...
I stumbled upon this forum while browsing chriscoffee.com and must confess, I am blown away by the wealth of information on just La Spaz Vivaldi on this site! After spending a week educating myself on La Spaziale S1 (almost entirely on this site), I purchased one used yesterday. The machine (V1) and the spaziale grinder cost $1100. Judging by what others are saying here, this seems to fall in the "reasonable deal" ball park.
Now I have to learn how to use it well, so here I am with a few questions. Hope you will pardon any of the stupid ones....
- Where is the "plate" showing serial#, date of manufacture etc. located?
- My 5 year old is Curious George. Is there a way to child-proof the steam knob? Perhaps I should also invest in a no burn wand. Any other child proofing tips will be most appreciated.
- I am currently running the machine off of a gallon bottle. A FloJet is on order and should arrive by Wed. There seems to be a bit of a debate on whether a constant positive inline pressure is necessary. Many have pointed out that it makes any difference in the espresso quality since the pump puts out a pre-configured pressure regardless of the inbound pressure. I made the decision to go with the FloJet, however. It doesn't appear that you can go wrong with it (correct me, please if I am being naive). The pieces that should go with the FloJet that I have not looked into are a) Check Valve and b) Accumulator. I have a few questions here - what is an accumulator? What does it look like (could not find any pics)? Who makes it? How does it attach to FloJet? Pictures of your setup will be a great help to look at. Lastly, is the check valve available at your neighborhood hardware store or it it something I would need to order from a specialty place like CC?
- The grinder that came with the machine is pretty sturdy and weighs maybe like 25lbs. But I haven't a clue what specific model it is. Nothing listed on the body anywhere. Do any of you own this specific grinder and/or know what this thing is?
Thanks for your help.
Kiv