Flair 58 vs Flair Classic

Well, the answer to that isn't a clear cut. yes or no. If the only reason you're considering an upgrade to the Flare 58 is because you expect it to ma...

Having owned this machine for a while I feel like I can offer a detailed review. As an avid coffee connoisseur, I procure green beans from reliable sources and roast to my specifications. For comparison I own over 40 brewing apparatuses. Asthetic design: very nice

A used one should still fit your budget and those machines are made to last. Pair either with the DF64/G-IOTA grinder and you have yourself a nice little setup.

I used too much force to press down the lever with too fine ground coffee, and the round metal piece that was sitting on the top of piston withstanding all the force from the lever popped out of its place, and the lever broke the top part of piston. It was partially my fault using too much force, but I still think that something should not break with a force that a person can possibly put on. A stainless steel piston would make this machine almost perfect although the price will go up. I wouldn't mind paying extra for a stainless steel piston if available

Milk drinks can be prepared by using milk frothers that are also easy to maintain. The quality may not be as good but I think the students will have fun and experience and you don’t have to invest in giant commercial machines and rely on students to maintain and use.

Considering your wants and preground coffee, I'd advise against the Flair. The Flair seems to work well with coffee ground for espresso and preground coffee will not provide that. If you had a grinder, it could be considered. However, since you're looking for ease of use and cleanup, the Flair isn't it

They still suffer from the old heat problems that plagued them decades ago too. La pavoni levers are a dinosaur compared to newer budget lever machines like the Flair 58. I hope they either decrease prices or introduce a better group head that can compete with the Flairs as I just dont see how they can stand still whilst all these new lever machines beat them at every metric.

Flair sells an accessory pressure gauge/piston from their company website, and IMO this is absolutely critical to using the machine effectively. Without the pressure gauge you will find yourself constantly guessing how much force to use and when, and to be frank there's enough guesswork and trial and error involved in using this thing without all that. These three things make the Flair considerably more user-friendly. Once you've done that, prepare to set aside a half hour or more each time you buy a new bag of coffee to dial in the grind size, tamping pressure, and water temperature particular to your new beans

Stay away from E61 HX machines since you don’t care about steam that much and their temperature control generally isn’t good. Or if you only need to steam occasionally, save some money with a single boiler option such as Breville Infuser or Lelit Victoria , both of which still have programmable preinfusion and PID. If you can accept some out of the box solution, get a Flair 58 which should have reasonable temperature control while letting you do Pressure Profiling like a $3000 machine.

You have to let expensive espresso machines heat up for half an hour to get a good temperature (but can still have little control over the precise temperature). But with the Flair, you can heat the parts up in minutes and easily control the temperature. The process takes about 5 minutes, including setup, hand grinding, heating up parts and water. Cleanup is quick and simple

Fellow Flair 58 user here. Yes it is channeling, I had the same issue when I first started out where it looked very "thin and stringy" as opposed to that nice full looking shot of espresso. I was using a Breville Smart Grind Pro when my 58 first arrived but since then I have upgraded to a Mignon Specialita which has made a world of a difference in the quality of the grinds and shots.

So my flair signature came today. My overall impressions.. starting with the most important, does it make espresso? Yes