ECM TECHNIKA two year review

After moving into our new homestead much of our furniture and appliances looked decidedly pathetic in the expanse of the new living area and kitchen. Besides, we had a new butler’s pantry to hide away anything that spoiled that sleek modern no-sign-of-life vibe.

I would like to take the opportunity to remark that our previous coffee machine (Rancilio Silvia) was a trooper, having lasted us several years before finally requiring a pump replacement. But it was while I was waiting in the showroom of the repairs centre I saw our future coffee machine. After a quick rundown of user requirements, the salesperson was suspiciously quick to recommend a coffee machine. At the time I remember thinking these were probably the machines they had the highest margin on.

When I returned home, Silvia underarm, I couldn’t get the idea of a new machine out of my head. We did have a small gripe with the Silvia, it’s a known issue with smaller domestic ‘heat pump’ machines. They have trouble with maintaining optimum temperature on successive coffees. A pain for busy morning households.

So, I started researching ‘next level’ machines half-heartedly as we had just reinvested in our Silvia. But the Silvia did look a little sad sitting in the corner of the butler’s pantry, and I happened to have tax return moneys in the bank.

If you have read some of my other rants you might have picked up I’m a huge proponent of requirements gathering, no matter how informal. In this case, a coffee machine had to :

• easy enough to operate by a non barista trained wife.
• satisfy more snooty needs (of myself).
• make successive coffees

I wasn’t especially concerned with aesthetics at the time, but I did remember the very shiny machine the salesperson recommended. It was in fact an ECM Technica which we ended up purchasing, even after the aforementioned semi formal procurement.

After some research I discovered the ECM machines are highly reliable, easy to work on and adhere to industry standards. Coffee repair centres in Australia and the US are not looking for more work, they want machines that are easy to service.

As it turned out my repair centre were highly competitive on price and the new machine was ours. Turns out the salesman knew his stuff. ECM is a German company that uses well established coffee machine components such as the E61 group head. The build quality is truly exceptional. It’s extremely easy to operate with only two gauges (boiler and pump/line pressures) and three levers, one for the group head, one for the steam, and one for the hot water. The Tecknka has the flexibility of being able to be run from its own internal tank (should you wish) or plumbed into the water mains.

Plumbing into a water supply has the added convenience of never having to fill the internal tank and being able to predose shots with line pressure. This saves on any need for a flow regulator or pre-dosing hardware.

I chose to install the line myself (the Tecknka comes with a beautiful quality stainless steel line). I only needed to acquire the additional hardware: a masonry bit to cut a hole in my Caesarstone bench and a brass flow control valve and tap fitting. Less than $100 and there are plenty of YouTube videos showing you how to go about this.

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I have to stress the machine is impossibly easy to operate. Perfectly suited to novices and experts. A simple upwards pull of the group head lever for your desired volume of coffee/water and there you have it. Espressos or long blacks happen without any fuss. Perfect coffee every time. You can make the process of making a coffee even easier with the addition of an automatic grinder and a tamping station. This way you can control the exact volume of coffee in a ‘dose’ and the grind ‘granularity’ for a perfect shot. The dose will be dispensed directly into the portafilter only requiring a quick tamp, and then locked into the group head ready for a shot. We purchased a few months later the matching ECM S-64 Automatik Coffee Grinder. Note: we did not purchase a ‘doser grinder’, but rather a timer grinder. Doser grinders are not suited to low volume situations as the ground coffee can oxidise in the doser chamber. Its been over two years and the Tecnika hasn’t missed a beat. I have only recently booked it in for a service as you should service coffee machines, after all they are a significant investment, its sensible to service them. Some of it’s best features are: • Its super quiet. • It doesn’t take long to heat up. • It’ll match a twin boiler in shot quality. • It’s cheaper to operate than a twin boiler.

In addition to the machine and grinder I have put together a coffee station. Looking a bit like an ECM fanboy, I have the matching tamper station. It was in fact, like the Tecnika, it was solid value for money. The quality of the stainless steel and the polish makes for a very easy cleaning routine.