Ok...here are my first impressions of the new Bezzera BZ07 I just received yesterday... Since I have not had much time practicing yet, I will provide my initial feedback, which is mostly from initial impression since there has been very little written about the BZ07 (Not quality of shot...at least not yet, as i am still practicing with different grinds and somehow stale 3 wks old beans)
PROS (so far):
Machine seems to be extremely well made and built with quality components (although L-T reliability remains to be determined, given the new grouphead design, but Bezzera has been in the business for so long (circa 1901) and manufacture so many machine
BZ07 looks much more appealing in person, than in stock pictures. Stainless steel seems to be of very high quality
Size: BZ07 is a perfect size for a countertop.... looks very serious but very elegant, not very overpowering (even gets a nod from the wife, who is very protective of countertop Real estate). Under regular cabinets, it measures about 14.25 inch leaving about 4 inches to allow for water refill.
Quick Heat up: Machine seems to get up to temperature rather quickly...and when boiler pressure drops, slighly, it quickly kicks in and within seconds, it is back up to 1.2 bar.
Does not seem to require much flushing...(I will have to experiment with different flushing times) but initial impression is that the shorter the better, which is a Big plus for people like me...who do not want to go through the hassle of long flushes (which lead to more refills...which lead to more drip tray emptying)
Steam: BZ07 seems to be a steaming beast...however, the standard 4 hole steam tip does not create micro-foam with small 4oz. Skim milk
Sound: Machine seems to be very quiet when extracting....actually, sound is louder in boiler refill mode than when extracting, which is a really pleasant surprise
CONS (So far):
Drip Tray: I felt that the drip tray was somehow small....and could have easily been twice the size....that is a design aspect, as the drip tray, "looks" big and deep, but in fact, it is shallow and small....it seems a lot of wasted and unused space...but that wold force me to clean it more often than I do with my Isomac Brio which has a huge tray relative to its size.
Steam: See steam above.....the 4 hole steam tip seems (at least initially) an overkill for small amounts of milk. Luckily, there is a 2 hole upgrade, and I read on a german coffee enthusiasts site (where the Bezzera BZ07 is very popular) that several people upgraded to the 4 hole 0.9mm tip (same used on the Vetrano, Giotto, Giotto premium etc....vs. the standard 1.3mm 4 hole that comes standard.....I will measure tonight but I believe the BZ07 steam tip is a 8mm male thread)
Feet: although this is one the most compact heat exchange machine in terms of overall size (WxH) and even though it looks pretty nice and proportional as is, it seems that from a design aspect, the feet could have easily been designed to provide the flexibility of lowering the maching to allow more clearance (above for water refill under the cabinet) where it is most needed. Again, I really Like the size as is and machine is very proportional, but it would have been nice to have the flexibility of gaining another inch on top (since feet are approx. 1.75 in high
gauge: Again, from a design, it would have been nice to have the gauge pressure on top of panel vs. bottom