Product Features

• Premium Grade Construction
• Pod Adaptable

From the Editors

The newly redesigned Rancilio Silvia is one of the most popular traditional espresso machines. As is the case with commercial brand espresso machines, the inside of the Rancilio Silvia is full of brass parts. A brass boiler, brass lines and chromed brass group head and porta-filter all help to maintain temperature and heat distribution. It's robust premium-grade construction ensure that the Rancilio Silvia will deliver consistently delicious espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, mochas, americanos and more for many years.
Product Description

Customer Response

So you want some good tasting espresso without paying the price?
So you want quality espresso without having to dish out $1.50 for a single shot at your favorite coffee shop, then this is the machine for you.

It takes some time to get use to if you've never used a manual machine before and believe it or not Manual is BETTER! Has anything in this world tasted better when done automatically?

This machine produces very good quality espresso. You can't go wrong with this machine, but here are some things you'll need to know that haven't been said. This machine has only one boiler so you have to wait from the point of making a shot of espresso to heating up the boiler again for the steam process.

Also DO NOT follow the instruction dvd that they give you on how to steam milk. Look at youtube and always do your shot of espresso first than steam your milk, not the other way around.

1. Get a quality grinder. The Rocky is OK to Good. If you can afford a step up than go with a the Mazzer Mini. I just bought my Rocky about 4 months ago and see the down falls of this grinder but it works.

2. It doesn't have a PID controller which will accurately set the temp the perfect degree which will give you a consistent quality shot everytime. Ebay has them as well as WholeLatteLove.

3. Get a quality tamper (the thing you use to press down on the espresso in the portafilter) Spend about $50-75. The one it comes with the machine is a joke.

4. Do not buy any special 3 hole tips for the steamer on this machine. The tip it comes with works perfect for steaming milk that looks like perfect snow.

5. Get a few cleaning brushes, 12oz and 20oz pitcher for when making 1 or 2 drinks and cleaning solution for your machine. Deep clean at least once per month

6. Remove the white film on the top of the espresso machine.

7. Get a timer to time your shots. Should be about 22-25 seconds long.

I would give it 5 stars if it had a PID controller and a better knob to turn on the steam wand, but nothing comes close without paying $1500

Very good expresso machine
This expresso machine make very good coffee. It is quite small so you don't need lots a space in your kitchen. This only thing is that it takes very long for it to get hot so you need to leave it on all the time and also consult how to on youtube.

Stellar Mod Work
Rating primarily the mod work, I just got mine and the mod work that HiTech Espresso does on installing the PID (exactly between the steamer arm and the brewhead, sticking out front by maybe 1/4" but otherwise looking fr all the world like it just belongs there) is fantastic. Massive kudos to HiTech Espresso for this service.

The short of the PID is that it controls the internal temperature of the machine very precisely such that if you know how much of a change there is between the thermometer and the brewhead, then you can set the PID to roughly 201F plus that difference (mine came at 220, I dropped it a couple degrees) and have it give perfect-temperature water on all of your shots instead of hoping you're catching the boiler at the right spot in its heating/cooling cycle. Very nice for whoever's making the morning shots of espresso in the house (and that would be me where I live).

The key thing you need to be prepared for after researching the Ms. Silvia (she's very popular amoung amateur coffee geeks like myself) is that, with or without PID, Silvia needs to be accessorized. The tamper she comes with is garbage -- it simply doesn't fit. Her portafilter is fabulous, but it really really needs a knockbox. She doesn't come with a brush for her brewhead. She doesn't come with a dedicated 1-shot portafilter (despite having a 1-shot basket) which may or may not be a problem for you. And you must expect to but at least a $200 proper bur grinder or else Silvia will do whatever Silvia bloody well feels like doing and you'll be wondering why you spent all of your money on her. Do yourself a favor and budget accordingly.

Sturdy construction, not easy to learn how to make great coffee
We bought this unit about 1 month ago, and have been experimenting ever since.
Between the Rancilio grinder and the espresso unit, it has not been easy to find the right comnbination. Which coffee beans to use, how fine do you need to grind the coffee beans, how much coffee to use, how much to tamp the coffee, how long to let the steam go through the coffee, etc. Many more variables than you would think of, any any one of them can turn the result into an undrinkable bitter or watery mixture.
At this point, we can produce drinkable espresso, but only produced 2 cups of great coffee that would rival a Tully's or Starbucks.
There is definitely an art to this, and it takes time to get good at it, at least we hope ....
Providing a neutral recommendation as there is nothing to say bad against the machine per se, except that it takes a lot of practice to do it right. I do not know if other machines are "more forgiving" or not, since this is our first ....

Useless without a good grinder...
Would you buy a ferrari with a 4 cylinder chevette engine? that exactly what people do when they buy an espresso machine without a competent grinder. The grinder is the key... i would say that grinder, coffee machine then coffee bean are in importance order.

That being said, i've done extensive researche before buying this machine ( still big money for coffee) and after reading and analysing i choose this one. The two others possible contender in this class range was the mokita and the solis 70. The 3 way valve and build quality make me decide on the silvia plus it seem an obivious choice when you do a bit of reading. The 3 way valve remove pressure from the basket, that way, no exploding puck all around the kitchen ( and belive me that a pain when it happen)

Paired with a rancilio rocky it give me pretty good coffee all time. The crema is rich even with older stale coffee. If you become more picky on the taste you gonna want to surf the temperature to have the right spot or put a PID. For me 25 to 30 seconde after the heater turn off i start my coffee and.... miummm. Also the machine have to be preheated for around 1 hours or the first coffee will not be that good. There is simple trick to reduce this time to 10 minutes like starting it on steam mode then let the water flow thrue the group head.

Anyway, the quality of this machine give no doubt. But you dont plan to buy a good Grinder at least a solis ginder or a baratza meastro. Forget all the cuisinart, kitchen aid, krups, Delonghi grinder of this world for espresso. Like most of you, i have no pleasure throwing my money by the windows, and i looked around to see if a 50$ or 100$ grinder could do the job. you know that kind of unknow product that sometime exist and give you extraordinary value for your money.... there's none.

Final word if your ready to invest in a good grinder for this machine then you can make no mistake. The resell price on ebay is incredibly high. But if your not ready to buy the grinder with it. Go with a presurized model like breville or delonghi do. They will never give a good coffee as the silvia can, with a good burr grinder. But better then what the silvia can do with a cheap grinder...

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