“This is a great machine. My previous experience with home espresso machines was with a Rocket Mozzafiato, which is a very nice heat exchange machine. The Lelit Bianca has overall been a nicer machine to use. I will compare the two machines, as these are the only machines I have any real experience using:
- In terms of build quality, I think both machines are pretty comparable. They both seem to be very sturdy with good build quality. The machine I received had a bent bottom plate, which houses the front legs and holds the drip tray. Cliff & Pebble gave me a partial refund for the inconvenience and is working on a damage claim with UPS, so I will hopefully be able to exchange for an undamaged machine once that is resolved.
- The Lelit has an incredibly fast warmup time, being somewhere around 15 minutes in my experience. The Rocket was closer to 25-30 minutes.
- The Lelit has adjustable flow rate, along with the paddle/programming for low flow mode. I was able to set the flow rate to around where I find ideal. I think the flow rate of the Rocket was too high, but is not easily adjustable to my knowledge. I believe this led to channeling occurring semi-frequently, whereas I rarely have this occur with the Lelit. This has greatly increased my consistency when pulling shots.
- The Lelit has temperature control for the brew boiler, whereas the Rocket did not. I never had any issues with brew temp when using the Rocket, so no complaints there. With the Lelit I had to spend some time adjusting before I found a temperature that I was happy with.
- The Lelit allows for much higher steam pressure than the Rocket. I am able to get perfect texture milk much easier and more consistently than with the Rocket.
- The Lelit allows for the water tank to move to any side of the machine, which is a nice perk, but I never had any issues with the Rocket. Both machines are able to be plumbed in.
- I think both machines are beautiful, but the Lelit is hard to beat with its wooden handles/knobs. This was a huge part of why I picked the Lelit over something like the Rocket R58. To add wooden accents to machines typically costs several hundred dollars, but was simply a stock feature for the Lelit.
- In terms of accessories, I was very impressed with the Lelit. The tamper that comes with the machine is very high quality. In addition, the baskets that come with it are nicer than any stock basket I have seen, so I don’t think that upgrading the basket is mandatory, but that being said, I did upgrade mind.
Overall, I am incredibly happy with the quality and performance of this machine and I think it holds its own against any of the similarly priced machines, while being one of the most beautiful in my opinion.”
“Amazing prosumer machine that has all the bells and whistles you could ever dream of. The dual boiler makes back to back lattes a breeze, allowing you to steam perfectly silky milk while pulling a shot.
The flow control paddle allows beautifully long preinfusions to bring out every flavor in lightly roasted beans. Even if you don’t want to use the flow control paddle it is very simple to program in a flow profile that can be precisely repeated shot after shot by using the LCC.
After using the machine for almost a month and pulling over 5 shots a day I can confidently say this has been the best purchase of 2022 so far.”
“My first espresso machine. Pair it with Niche zero. What a great starting combo. Very happy with the purchased but I still have a lot to learn.
The machine is very easy to use and maintenance. I really love Lelit idea that included water filter in the reservoir tank to minimize the lime scale problem. That was the main factor that I chose this machine.”
“This is my first espresso machine, coming from fully manual lever machines. I absolutely love it so far and have been able to dial it in pretty quickly. Espresso comes out very tasty and milk frothing is super consistent. Usually ready to brew within 15-20 minutes, so a little faster than stated, but I do have it set up on a smart plug to turn on automatically at specific times.”
