A "true" manual lever is all hands-on and has no spring assist as many of them do have. On various forums the latest/greatest thing going around is pressure profiling. For many years it was temperature control and now that seems to have been mastered, people are taking a closer look at brew pressure. Funny thing is pressure profiling has been around for decades in the forum of the manual lever machine.
I proudly use/own an Olympia Cremina lever machine. Great story behind my acquisition of it too. Around 5 years ago I made a friend on another forum. He had just lost his wife to illness and was cruising a coffee forum asking for help with the all-too-common steam "espresso machines" and I befriended him and helped out because that's what I had just graduated from using at home. Found out we share the same birthday, just 30+ years apart. He will drink pretty much any form of coffee and LOVES yard sales. Over time I encouraged him to move onto a decent espresso machine/grinder and he started enjoying what he was drinking... One Saturday he was at a local yard sale and ran across a 1977 Olympia Cremina marked for $1. He asked the older woman about it and she said "oh no, that's the wrong price marked on that... it's $10." He said "well it surely isn't worth that much how about $3" and so it was his for a whole $3. He knew nothing about the Cremina or levers in general, just loved the old school look and styling. He researched it a bit and tinkered with it for a few months and asked me to take a look at it because it was leaking all over the place and just didn't work as he had seen they should in videos online.
He sent it to me and I found all the o-rings, seals, etc. to be esentially dry rotted/brittle from years and years of use. It wasn't abused by any means, just needed all new seals and a descaling. I stripped the entire thing down piece by piece and was lucky to find a full rebuild kit for it. Parts for the mighty Cremina are few and far between, then expensive when you do find them. I took my time, slowly cleaned/descaled it and rebuilt it. Got the pressurestat set just right for optimal brew temperature as well as steam pressure and it was good to go.
In the process of wrapping it up I accidentally scratched the flawless (infamous Olympia) "turd brown" paint on the housing. He wouldn't have cared, but it was now a flaw I caused. I sanded the paint on the cover and gave it a couple good coats of hammered copper Rustoleum and a light clear coat. That was an excellent color choice to match the look of that machine. I sent it to him and he was so blown away with the look/performance of it he willed it to me in case he died first. Maybe 1-1.5 years went on and a box arrived at my door one day with that Cremina in it. I called my friend and he said he just didn't use it enough to be worthy and knew I'd take great care of it and appreciate all it had to offer. I told him I agree and proudly use it every chance I get.
Once you get a good lever machine dialed in it's hard to settle for anything else. That thing cranks out some of the best espresso I've had yet and I've had my fair share over the last few years.
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