Rod's Beans: My machine

I believe my La Pavoni Europiccola is the model 2.3 made from 1984-1991. I based this on the detailed model description provided on Francesco Ceccarelli's website. Mine looks like the one shown below except that the drip tray cover on mine is plastic, not chrome, and the outer rim of the plastic base plate is thinner.
I bought it second hand about 15 years ago and did a basic restoration — seals and gaskets (available from Coffee Addicts).

Photo courtesy of Francesco Ceccarelli.

I upgraded my La Pavoni by adding a pressure gauge on the boiler tank. The La Pavoni Professional comes with a pressure gauge, but my Europiccola model requires a custom thread adapter (available from Coffee Addicts) that replaces the cap screw on the top of the sight glass. This is M12 male to the 1/8" M BSP female thread required for the gauge.
The gauges on espresso machines always measure pressure in bars; 1 bar is equal to 14.5 psi.

BPlus make an extended adapter which raises the gauge higher though I would think it would interfer with handling the tank knob.

The tank pressure should be around 0.6-1 bar. At that amount of pressure the water temperature will be about 94°C which is the desired temperature for espresso.

They also make an adapter kit to measure the pressure of the pull as you would find on most automatic machines. This pressure is substantially higher than the tank pressure, from 6-12 bars, with 8-9 as the optimum. The modification adds a gauge to the top of the piston shaft above the lever as seen in the photo below.

To extract the coffee with a pressure of 9 bars (130 psi) on a La Pavoni requires a force of approximately 30 lbs (13.7 kg) applied to the lever.

I also replaced the stock steel roller "nut" (more like a bushing) on the pull lever with a roller bearing version available from Coffee Addicts. I added the Normcore shower screen which helps disperse the water more evenly on the grounds. I also have in stock a replacement thermal fuse in case mine blows. This protects the boiler and element from overheating and being damaged if the tank runs dry. I could replace the thermal fuse with a resetable thermal breaker.


Lever bearing	Normcore shower screen	Thermal fuse	Resetable thermal breaker

I may get the IMS precision filter basket which is considered a worthwhile upgrade to improve extraction. James Hoffman upgrades his basket with ones from VST though these are only available in 60mm diameter. My portafilter came with the dual spout but I would like to get the single spout. They are available as the standard curved version or two different version of the straight spout: short and tall. They are available from CoffeeAddicts.ca.


IMS filter basket	Single portafilter spout standard curved	Single portafilter spout short straight	Single portafilter spout tall straight

My Setup

Beside the La Pavoni espresso machine I have the following espresso setup:

The 1ZPesso-JX-Pro is one of the finest quality manual espresso grinders available, giving two of the most desired features: a very consistent grind and very fine adjustment, everything from the finest Turkish grind through espresso and to French press.


	Adjustment dial

1ZPresso grinder	Grinder chart

A scale is really needed to meter the exact amount of coffee. The Neouza and IKAPE tampers result in a level tamping and are calibrated to give a consistent tamp pressure.


Miicoffee Nano scale	Neouza tamper	IKAPE Espresso V3 tamper

The Grindenstein knock box is used to dispose of the used coffee "puck." The Rattleware frothing picture is perfect for frothing milk.


Grindenstein knock box	Rattleware frothing pitcher

The dosing funnel makes pouring ground coffee into the portafilter easier with less spillage. The Yeater WDT is the tool for breaking up lumps and evenly distributing the coffee grinds in the portafilter basket.


Dosing funnel	Yeater WDT	Puck screen holder

The tamper station makes for a tidier countertop with places to store the portafilter, tamper, basket, WDT tool and dosing funnel.


NC Coffee Tamper Station

I have the two basic types of cups that should be on hand: espresso and cappuccino. A regular coffee cup would do for cappuccino. The insulated glass espresso cups add a modern touch and keeps the espresso warmer longer.