Going from Vivaldi II to Dream

[KimH]

Hi,

I recently replaced my 9-year-old Vivaldi II with a brand new Dream, and after a few weeks of use wanted to share my experience and raise a few questions. I like the Dream and the coffee quality is at the same level as before, but in some areas I find the Vivaldi II better. So in my opinion these machines are still the best value for money dual boiler machines available here in Europe.

• Basically, I like the extra options I now have with the display, but find navigating the menu a bit old fashioned. Some features simply require too many clicks in the menu. And a simple thing as going back from menu to normal operation takes many clicks. It would be nice if daily used functions was in the beginning of the menu and rarely change setting at the end or placed in sub menus. E.g the group cleaning feature, which is something I would use daily is just so many clicks away, that I tend to just use the manual button for back flushes. Also, when programming the coffee doses, it annoys me, that I have to pull a shot to save the time and Imp. It could be nice to being able to change this without pulling a shot. (Maybe I must look into USB transfer options for this?)

• Using the steam arm and knob, I don't feel the same degree of freedom and space as before. It feels like the steam arm cannot be angled to the same extend as on the VII, and the knob is now smaller and placed horizontal instead of perpendicular to the machine, which makes it feel like things are cramped together.

• The hot water outlet takes approximately double the time to deliver the same amount of water as the VII. It basically looks like a scaled faucet when drawing hot water. Is this normal?

• The brew pressure screw seems to be a pretty loose fit and does not contain a lock-nut, as it did on the VII. This results in brew pressure getting less over time, so I have to adjust the screw now and then, to keep consistent brew pressure.

• I used to descale the VII once a year, when replacing the cadridge in my water softener. This was easy because I could simply have it suck a citric acid blend from a bucket. It seems that the Dream is not cable of sucking water, even if the pressure sensor is turned off in the menu. Anybody have an alternative solution to force citric acid blend into the machine without having to disassembly the thing?

• For the VII I always wished to be able to turn on the machine via an App. Unfortunately, the "Vivaldi MyTimer" solution made by jopa in these forums, seemed too complicated for me to implement. On the dream, the built-in timer is an improvement in the right direction, however I would like a more ad-hoc solution. So, I did a little test, and realized that the Dream will turn ON, when connected to power in a timeslot programmed as ON in the timer function. This means that I will be able to set the timer to be ON from 00:00 to 23:59 and use a Wemo or other smart switch to turn on/off the machine remotely when needed. I only had the Wemo connected for 1 day, so I cannot speak to the usability over time, but for now it seems to work fine. Has anybody tried this? What is your experience?

• The build quality seems to have taken a hit since I bought the VII. An example is the bottom plate under the drip tray contains bobbles, which I fear is due to corrosion under the paint. Also, the paint job on the drip tray only covers the areas visible when mounted in the machine, which feels a little cheap. It is recommended to tighten the 4 foots for minimal noise, but 1 of them cannot be tightened because the stamped hole with thread is broken.

• About the MAT feature. Does somebody know if there are any compatible steam arms out there that can be recommended for the Dream? Could be nice with a no-burn MAT steam arm.

Maybe some of the issues mentioned is just a matter of habit, after having used the VII for many years. So, I hope to get used to the Dream over time.

/Kim

[chas]

Hi,

I recently replaced my 9-year-old Vivaldi II with a brand new Dream, and after a few weeks of use wanted to share my experience and raise a few questions. I like the Dream and the coffee quality is at the same level as before, but in some areas I find the Vivaldi II better. So in my opinion these machines are still the best value for money dual boiler machines available here in Europe.

• Basically, I like the extra options I now have with the display, but find navigating the menu a bit old fashioned. Some features simply require too many clicks in the menu. And a simple thing as going back from menu to normal operation takes many clicks. It would be nice if daily used functions was in the beginning of the menu and rarely change setting at the end or placed in sub menus. E.g the group cleaning feature, which is something I would use daily is just so many clicks away, that I tend to just use the manual button for back flushes. Also, when programming the coffee doses, it annoys me, that I have to pull a shot to save the time and Imp. It could be nice to being able to change this without pulling a shot. (Maybe I must look into USB transfer options for this?)

The USB is only for backup and restore of your configuration.

• Using the steam arm and knob, I don't feel the same degree of freedom and space as before. It feels like the steam arm cannot be angled to the same extend as on the VII, and the knob is now smaller and placed horizontal instead of perpendicular to the machine, which makes it feel like things are cramped together.

Agreed. On the V2 they used the longer S5 steam arm but on the Dream they seem to have gone to a shorter arm.

• The hot water outlet takes approximately double the time to deliver the same amount of water as the VII. It basically looks like a scaled faucet when drawing hot water. Is this normal?

I haven't noticed this on my machine

• The brew pressure screw seems to be a pretty loose fit and does not contain a lock-nut, as it did on the VII. This results in brew pressure getting less over time, so I have to adjust the screw now and then, to keep consistent brew pressure.

That's wrong. You should have a lock nut

• I used to descale the VII once a year, when replacing the cadridge in my water softener. This was easy because I could simply have it suck a citric acid blend from a bucket. It seems that the Dream is not cable of sucking water, even if the pressure sensor is turned off in the menu. Anybody have an alternative solution to force citric acid blend into the machine without having to disassembly the thing?

I haven't tried this on mine.

• For the VII I always wished to be able to turn on the machine via an App. Unfortunately, the "Vivaldi MyTimer" solution made by jopa in these forums, seemed too complicated for me to implement. On the dream, the built-in timer is an improvement in the right direction, however I would like a more ad-hoc solution. So, I did a little test, and realized that the Dream will turn ON, when connected to power in a timeslot programmed as ON in the timer function. This means that I will be able to set the timer to be ON from 00:00 to 23:59 and use a Wemo or other smart switch to turn on/off the machine remotely when needed. I only had the Wemo connected for 1 day, so I cannot speak to the usability over time, but for now it seems to work fine. Has anybody tried this? What is your experience?

• The build quality seems to have taken a hit since I bought the VII. An example is the bottom plate under the drip tray contains bobbles, which I fear is due to corrosion under the paint. Also, the paint job on the drip tray only covers the areas visible when mounted in the machine, which feels a little cheap. It is recommended to tighten the 4 foots for minimal noise, but 1 of them cannot be tightened because the stamped hole with thread is broken.

Mine seems fine.

• About the MAT feature. Does somebody know if there are any compatible steam arms out there that can be recommended for the Dream? Could be nice with a no-burn MAT steam arm.

I am not aware that a MAT steam arm has ever been released.

Maybe some of the issues mentioned is just a matter of habit, after having used the VII for many years. So, I hope to get used to the Dream over time.

/Kim

[KimH]

Thanks for your input Chas. I have attached a picture of the pressure screw. As you can see it is definitely different compared to the VII. Anybody else having the same issue, that the preasure drops over time, and the screw has to be tightened on a regular basis?

Drem screw.png (539.83 KiB) Viewed 13368 times

[goodboyr]

Can you not just unthread that conical piece back to hold against the adjustment nut ?
Btw, my dream does not look like that. It's got a conventional adjustment lock nut.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[chas]

That adjustment mechanism is not only different than stock, the metal is shinier. It looks to me like this part has been replaced by the previous owner.

[goodboyr]

Yup. Here's mine......upside down....
[IMG]//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 50013b.jpg[/IMG]

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[KimH]

Can you not just unthread that conical piece back to hold against the adjustment nut ?
Btw, my dream does not look like that. It's got a conventional adjustment lock nut.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Nope, this one has to be tightened. Otherwise there will water all over the place.