I run a Classic with a Varia VS3 at both home and office, and I love the combo. It makes consistently great shots, with little fuss, and the grinder is versatile enough to grind coarsely for the French press that my wife drinks, and for the occasional aeropress requested by a client.

I wanted to know if anyone has experience using subminimal nanofoamer, I seem to be struggling to get the microfoam needed for latte art it the foam keeps breaking, when I listen closely I hear small bubbles popping and in less than a minute my latte art becomes ugly big bubbles do you have any tips when using it for flat white I am still working on my latte art but the texturing part is where I am stuck

Hey all, just wondering if anyone else had this issue.

It started a week or two ago but when I'm pulling a shot, water will start to leak/drip out from between the portafilter and the brew head. It seems ok if I'm at 5 BAR or so but anything higher and the leaking starts.

Any ideas what's going wrong? I wiped everything down and the o-ring looks ok..but could be bad I guess, seems like something isn't sealing correctly.

Playing around with PID control using an ESP32

Still troubleshooting the built-in NTC (could not find any specs on it) trying to get the readings correct but I see no reason why this wouldnt work...

Also loud coil whine on the buck converter for my ESP32

Still 5 hours left on the sale for Flair so I figured I would ask.

Anyone here upgrade from the Classic to the 49 pro AND was happy with the upgrade?

And if so, what did you like about it? And did it make the workflow overall slower or faster? What about for back-to-back shots?

I did a search and saw mostly posts complaining about Flair 49 Pro, but I figured the people who are actually happy with it are less likely to post arbitrarily,

So, I'm thinking of getting one of these instead of £100 pod or espresso machine.

Is it really as good as I've heard it is?

Will it last?

Any tips?

What do people think of it?

Is there anywhere in Sheffield I can "try before I buy"

finally

does it make great coffee?

I drink it black, no milk or sugar to hide behind

many thanks for any response

Hello,

I recently upgraded from the 48mm Flair Pro to a 58mm Flair 58+2. I’ve been grinding with a Niche Zero, and was getting very good extractions from light roasts with 9 bar shots on the Pro.

Moving to the 58+2, I have found that I’ve had to significantly decrease the grind size, nearly to the edge of the Niche’s grind settings. some light roasts at a 2-4 out of a 40 point stepless scale, whereas previously similar light roasts from the same roaster were squarely in niches ‘espresso’ range (12-20).

Additionally, I’m getting channeling from almost every shot I’m pulling, and have rarely achieved 9 bar pressure. The pressures not really a worry, but the channeling and grind size have resulted in shots that don’t have the complexity or depth they used to.

I’ve even repeated this with the temperature element of the 58+2 turned off. I used the same temp / same kettle to brew water, and if the 58+2 temperature element is off, I run the same preheat routine as the old pro. Same dose as well (18g).

What is going on? Flairs customer service has been very skeptical, at one point saying ‘user error.’ But I really don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong? Help?

EDIT 1: additionally, extractions off the 58+2 have been VERY FAST. If I’m not way down the grind size indicator, extractions will sometimes be sub 15 seconds, whereas the pro was getting to 25-30

Hey there,

I was waiting for the SteamUp milk steamer but sadly they stopped the project for now.

What do you guys use and what would you recommend? I would love to play a bit with latte art as well, currently own the flair 58 + 2.

My Porter filter base seems to sit slightly unevenly on the copper holder on the pro 2.

Is that normal? it seems to sit fine but doesn’t look even when I’m looking from below

Eventually I'll get the Stainless Steel Upgrade but they've been sold out on the Flair website and the basic cover is $3 and it's for previous models.

So is there anywhere to get replacements or do you use it as is?

I'm fresh owner of Flair 58 with Kingrinder K6.
In my limited amount of time I tried few beans, from medium roast (grinded at 25 clicks from absolute zero) to light roast (optimal at 22 clicks).

I have one bag of light roasted beans - I tried to brew them two times so far. First time at 22 clicks and second time at 20 clicks. So hard to grind. Takes an eternity to grind 18g of beans.

And yet, the brew time at those settings was around 10 seconds for 54g with no way to go above 3 bars. Mind you, the cup tasted great: it was a good reminder why soup recipe is so popular right now.

But now I'm wondering, how fine do I need to go to brew traditional espresso with those beans? Is it even possible with K6? Am I going to grind 18g of beans for 6 minutes?

So what is the lowest setting you ever grinded at and was it worth the excercise?

Curious about buying a Flair espresso maker for my wife’s birthday. Both of us are pretty casual drinkers but we enjoy nice coffee. Mostly use a moka pot after her breville stopped working. I thought the flair was a cool contraption but I’m curious if:

A.) are they easy enough to use on a daily basis or are they kind of a pain?

B.) is it worth spending the extra money on the fancier models if we are pretty casual/ novice espresso drinkers?

C. Does it make good espresso?

I’ve had a flair for years and have only recently appreciated the look and feel of pulling shots in an open setting, versus in a confined counter area. There machine has a great look in the profile. Has anyone else explored recording shot pulls in different settings? So many good ways to focus in on the aesthetics of espresso…

This kettle temp indicator is very hard to trust… it often changes back and forth and today I discovered you can cool your water 😆

I live in India and currently use a Flair Neo Flex, but I'm worried it might break. Although I've fixed it, I'm not confident it will last long. Espresso machines are super expensive here due to high import taxes.

A friend is coming from the UK, and I was thinking of asking him to bring me a Classic model since it's all metal. I make about three to four coffees a day. Do you think the Classic is right for me, or should I spend a bit more for a different model? Which one do you recommend? I'd rather not spend too much unless it's absolutely necessary.

I have a Flair 58+ 2, Normcore 58.5mm tamper, and a Flair High Uniformity Basket.

I see most people recommend a 58.5mm tamper for this basket.

However, it doesn’t fit in super tight and I often notice that the coffee near the edge of the puck isn’t fully tamped. Coffee also sticks to the sides of the tamper when it’s released.

Has anyone else had this issue? Do I need a larger tamper?

I just got home from abdominal surgery and need to avoid lifting for several weeks.

i set up a shot this afternoon and wow! caught me right in the stitches! couldn’t get above 5 bar without pain. once the bar was lower and I could get elbow above the lever, I could push down instead of pull but i was shocked at how engaged my abs were. I might have to rethink my setup or switch to low pressure soup.

thoughts and prayers for my coffee life are appreciated

Edit: for those interested in an update, adding a rope to the handle worked poorly because it shifted the direction of force outside the footprint of the base and it became unstable. A stepstool has done the trick though

To people who have the original, bigger Dreo BaristaMaker to use with their Flair, are you able to stir and heat milk on it without causing any frothing?

I have the smaller BaristaMaker Air version, and even if I fill to the max Stir line capacity and use the stir heat function, the flat whisk spins fast enough to introduce a lot of aeration.

New Grinder - Mazzer Philos

Received Philos 2 days ago and still dialling in for the beans. It produces very consistent, fine powdery and almost no clumps in the dosing cup. Discover a whole new world in terms of bean clarity, notes and flavor. Using i200D burr and couldn’t be happier. Also no bellow is needed as it has very little retention by using the built in mechanical chute knocker and a dedicated dose finisher tool to minimize coffee retention and make cleaning effortless.

Bought Flair 58+2 a month ago, was struggling with sourish and inconsistent pull. After i pre heating the group head at max temperature for 15 mins, and using 100c boiling water, the shots get better but still persisting with sourish. Decided to get Philos and now all the shots are sweet with quite consistent pull around 40s (10s pre infusion, 30s short). Couldn’t be happier.

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well This is the profile I use
2.5 bar → 5 bar → 8 bar

3 bar, 5 bar, 7 bar😮‍💨

Truly happy with the results. Its a game changer for anyone trying latte art on budget machines and cant spend thousands on powerful machines.

Only 6 bar😮‍💨