The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

I have been lurking some time here. Then had the opportunity to buy a used Vivaldi 2 from 2008 last month and enjoying the machine now very much. Even installed the original drain. It works fine as long as you don't try pouring a lot of water at once in the driptray. Last week the temp probe of the coffee boiler stopped working. Though La Spaziale is made in ear by- Italy, the machine is not well known in the Netherlands, where I live. Spare parts are difficult to obtain. In the end they were send to me via an Italian dealer.
One thing, I missed in the forum is how to regulate the steam pressure, or rather I read it can't be done. On my machine it quite possible to increase or decrease the steam pressure:
Start on stand by, press single cup 3 sec. Two yellow lamps light. Press hot water button to decrease pressure, press two cup button to to increase pressure. Press single cup to finish set up.
Maybe this works only on European machines.

Very interesting. I checked the manual I wrote which has a table on the very last page that documents all the known modes and this is not on there nor is this combination of button presses defined for any other purpose. If you do the same thing but start by pressing the two cup button, it adjusts the coffee boiler temperature so it makes sense that the one cup button would adjust the steam boiler temperature and, therefore, the pressure.

I have the new Dream model which supports steam boiler temp/press as a direct menu setting. Can someone else with a V2 try this button sequence and see if it works on your machine? You may have discovered the first undocumented feature in several years!

I will test that when I get back from office - right away :) great find!

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I have one more request for feature testers. I am sure there is a limit up and down that you can't go beyond. In the case of the similar group temp setting you can only go three button presses in either direction i.e. up or down by 3C.

I am sure there is a range limit with this feature as well and I want to be sure I include that range in the documentation. Since the adjustment is actually being done internally in degrees C but you can only see the pressure difference, please give an approximate total pressure range and if you can tell how many total up and down change increments there are.

Thanks!

And it works on my V2 as well !!

Took some notes as to what preasure ranges can be set - expect some uncertainty reading my build in gauge.

Number of hot-water-button press and related range (bar):
3 = 0.92-1.05
2 = 1.00-1.10
1 = 1.10-1.20

Number of double-cup-button press:
1 = 1.15-1.30
2 = 1.20-1.35 (my new setting)
3 = 1.27-1.40 (my previous setting)

So a very neat feature I thought would never be posible - thanks Kilo. And Chas, time to update the manual

Also confirmed by Chris Coffee:

Yes I tried this on our display room model, it works, only about .3 bar -&+. This may be a new feature we were not made aware of. In the past, conversations with Italy this could not be done, the only way we could accomplish reducing or increasing steam boiler pressure was by adjusting the crystal on the board.

I will make a note of it to update our manual after I can confirm the bar increase and decrease .

Thank you and Regards,
Tim Catalfamo

For my machine, one press changes the pressure 0,1 to 0,2 bar. You can press the button max 3 times in one session. Probably to avoid getting to deep in the red zone.

Just for clarification I captured this picture from the Vivaldi II manual:
When pressing (24) for 3 sec. the yellow (17)+(18) will come on solid and pressing (25) will add (19) then each additional press will add (20) then (21). One additional press will have it looping back to (17)+(18) on only. You can get no higher than (21). Pressing (23) will likewise add (16) then each additional press ad (15) then (14). And loop back to (17)+(18) at an addional press. You can get no lower than (14).

If you then save this setting by pressing (24) and go back again by pressing (24) for 3 sec. you enter where you left last time. So no possibility to get lower than 0.9 bar and higher than 1.4 bar. It make a lot of sense.

I already know mini owners that now bennefit from more steam power with their smaller steam boilers....

Lav, a few more question for you or anyone else testing those features.

1) You mentioned that when increasing the steam temp, lights 19. 20, and 21 light up to indicate which of the three possible plus settings are active. Can I assume that in the negative direction, lights 14, 15, and 16 light. If so what is the order in which they light 14-15-16 or 16-15-14?

2) When you first enter the steam pressure programming mode are either 14-15-16 or 19-20-21 already lit to indicate where the unit was previously set or does the mode start with all those lights off and revert to whatever the default value is?

Thanks in advance. Since I don't have one of these machines, I want to be sure I know exactly what happens before I start tweaking the documentation.

1) It's 16-15-14

2) What the unit showed the very first time I entered the steam pressure programming mode I can't recall... I see two possible scenarios:

• Only the two yellow (17) + (18) blinking, indicating this is the first time...
• Indication of where the unit was previously set

But second time I entered the programming mode it remembered the previous setting - and it still does. But you can't add to that setting - it will go back to sequence 16-15-14 (with button 23) or 19-20-21 (with button 25)

Hope this makes sense

Thanks, I assume the first time you tried it was probably at the default setting so you got no lights.

What button presses would be needed to make the change in the following scenario?

I am at the +2 setting (lights 19-20 are on) and I want to go back to a +1 setting (only light 19 is on). Do I press button 25 three times? (first press causes lights 19-20-21 to come on, 2nd press causes all three lights to go off, 3rd press cause light 19 to come on?)

Now I got home from work to investigate further.

chas wrote:I am at the +2 setting (lights 19-20 are on) and I want to go back to a +1 setting (only light 19 is on). Do I press button 25 three times? (first press causes lights 19-20-21 to come on, 2nd press causes all three lights to go off, 3rd press cause light 19 to come on?)

That is exactly what you need to do - and yes all three lights go off at the 2nd press. So actually the 17-18 (on) could indicate a 7th setting in the middle of the full pressure range.

Same looping sequence goes for the pressure reducing settings with button 23

Now that my unit has heated up I can see that the 17-18 (on) give the midpoint pressure 1.15-1.25 bar. I will add it to my table above.

Also I see now that when entering the pressure programming mode the lights 17-18 come on solid and not blinking as I wrote previously. All other lights will be blinking through out the whole programming sequence. I will correct my previous post and then..... I'll probably have to make a short video clip to illustrate how it looks

I am wondering if LaSpaziale put this undocumented feature is purely as a factory setting. Given manufacturing tolerances of various sensors, service voltage differences at various locations, etc. perhaps they pick the option at the factory that comes closest to 1.2 bar. So if you have a machine where all these factors require a +3 setting to get to 1.2 bar you may be SOL in being able to use this feature for getting more steam.

In such cases getting less steam would be the only option. Otherwise, I would think that the settable range might be more like 1.0-1.6 bar or perhaps even a little higher.

Excellent. Thanks!

chas wrote:perhaps they pick the option at the factory that comes closest to 1.2 bar

- or they planned to market the function as is, then found out that component variability was an issue and decided not to make it public. If you are right in your assumptions I wonder why one of my friends S1VII mini was on the far low side before he learned how to increase it (still within the green area). And then my unit with the big boiler, that was almost in the red area (1.4 bar 'ish)

Anyway, will be interesting to hear what LaSpaziale's respond to the whole thing...

The S1V2 and S1V2 Mini Users Manuals are now updated to include the information on steam pressure adjustment.

s1v2/

Note that many users of post 2008 S1V1's may also be able to use this mode by switching their machines into S1V2 mode. Check out either the S1V2 or S1V2 Mini manuals to find out if your S1V2 has a dual mode capable controller board.

Well done Chas - easily understood and to the point

One minor comment to your table. I took the liberty to rearrange it to become a bit more intuitive:
The default setting seem to always be in the middle of the pressure range of the unit. In this way the top and bottom row represent the span of the pressure you can adjust. What do you think?

Worked on my S2 Mini. A nice little boost in steam pressure. Thanks for posting.

For historical purposes I will add that I believe this has been added with the software upgrade (the pre-infusion one) as I cannot replicate on my machine.