This is my review of the famous Rancilio Silvia espresso machine – the latest version (at the time of writing) the Silvia E V6 2020.
You may disagree with this, and respond that surely the Silvia Pro is the latest version of the Silvia, and maybe you’re right. In my humble opinion though, the Silvia Pro is not the Silvia… but more on that shortly, and I will include details on the new Silvia pro, too.
So the Rancilio Silvia was one of the really first true home barista espresso machines, and though I don’t have any sales figures, I suspect that it’s still probably basically as popular a machine now as it was back then.
Yes there are more home barista machines on the market these days, but when it comes to getting towards commercial grade, single boiler machines intended for home use, there still isn’t a huge amount of competition.
Commercial espresso coffee machine manufacturer Rancilio truly made it as a limited edition run in the late 90s, as a gift to say thanks to some of their best-performing distributors.
“Miss Silvia” as it was referred to at the time, was a hit with those it was gifted to, and Rancilio decided to make it available to the public.
It quickly became a success, and there have been a few tweaked versions over the years, the latest being the Rancilio Silvia E V6 2020 – and this is the version I’m reviewing.
Over the years the Rancilio Silvia has consistently been regarded as one of the best, and indeed among the most popular single boiler espresso coffee machines.
If the term “single boiler” has you stumped – there are three forms of boiler formats: Single boiler, heat exchanger, and dual boiler.
The cheapest domestic espresso coffee machines don’t tend to have boilers, they usually have thermoblocks, which are on-demand water heaters. Many of the £100-£200 cheaper espresso machines have these on-demand water heaters vs actual brew boilers.
Nearly all home barista espresso coffee machines (with a couple of exceptions) have brew boilers and are either single boiler, heat exchanger or dual boiler.
The exceptions are the entry level Sage (or Breville if you’re across the pond) machines, the Bambino Plus, Barista Express & Barista Pro, which (in my modest opinion, but everyone is entitled to theirs) deserve to be considered entry extent home barista machines quite than as standard domestic espresso machines.
These are thermocoil machines, by the way, mildly more reliable and better performing, more modern version of the thermoblock which have a copper coil inside the block as opposed to the water running through a coil shaped channel in the block.
Thermoblock or thermocoil aside, when it comes to boilers, single boiler machines are the cheapest to produce, as one boiler is obviously cheaper than two, and they don’t require the bits & pieces necessary in a heat exchanger machine.
Single boiler espresso coffee machines can often be more compact, and as well as being cheaper they can work with a little bit less electricity too, as there’s only one boiler to heat, and heat exchanger machines usually have a bigger boiler to heat up than with single boiler machines.
The only inherent con with single boiler machines, simply, is that you can’t steam milk and pull shots at the same time, you have to do one at a time. For most people although, this isn’t a big enough deal to warrant the jump in price from single boiler to heat exchanger or dual boiler.
I would hazard a guess, although, that many people who do decide to go for heat exchanger or dual boiler machines are doing so more (or solely) for other reasons other than truly being able to steam milk and pull shots at the same time.
Truly, I know there are a number of people who have such a machine who still prefer to do the two things separately so they can put more focus into the quality of the shot.
The other reasons to go for a heat exchanger or dual boiler machine are that mainly speaking, manufacturers tend to put the best features on these machines, as they’re usually the higher end machines.
The one obvious exception to this being the ECM Classica PID which has the same high-end features (adjustable PID, E61 grouphead, pressure gauge, shot timer) as their flagship dual boiler machine the ECM Synchronika, nevertheless with a single boiler.
Up until now I’ve primarily used single boiler espresso machines, and not being able to steam the milk while the shot is pulling basically hasn’t bothered me, and I do generally make milkies.
I’ve recently started using the Sage Dual Boiler in order to review it (spoiler alert – I flipping enjoy that machine!) and though when I have remembered that I can do both at the same time, it’s definitely much quicker, half the time I forget and do it separately anyway ;-).
Dual boiler machines just have two boilers, a brew boiler and a steam boiler, so they don’t need much explanation.
Heat exchangers have one boiler (usually a bigger boiler than with single boilers, for example the Oscar 2 has a 2L boiler) with a pipe running through it to heat up the water for the shot.
So as far as single boiler machines go, the Rancilio Silvia has been one of the a lot of popular since its introduction – and if you were to ask anyone who knows a little bit bit about espresso coffee machines to suggest a shortlist of potential single boiler espresso coffee machines to go for, I’d be surprised if anyone wouldn’t include the Rancilio Silvia in that list.
Nevertheless, it’s not wonderful. Arguably, no espresso coffee machine is great – nevertheless certainly, at the entry-level, you’re going to find some imperfection, so what I’m actually hoping to learn by reviewing the Rancilio Silvia, is what are the pros and cons of this machine, and who might it be perfect suited for.
By the way, the Rancilio Silvia was provided (on loan only) for this review from my friends at Shop Coffee in Cambridge. These guys are the retail, home barista side of Coffee World, an incredibly reputable coffee roaster who’ve been at it for decades.
Rancilio Silvia E V6 2020 – Specs
I’ll quickly share the specs of the latest Silvia version, and then I’ll get on with my review.
- Stainless steel casing
- 2 L water tank
- 300ml boiler, marine-grade brass, insulated
- 1100W stainless steel internal heating element
- 58mm heavyweight, angled commercial portafilter.
- Solid brass group head
- 3 way solenoid valve
- Stainless steel steam wand on a ball joint, with a single hole steam tip
- 23.5cm wide x 29 cm deep x 34cm tall. 14Kg
- Stainless steel tamper with a black wooden handle
Rancilio Silvia E V6 2020 – Price
Check Price – Shop Coffee
The Rancilio Silvia is among the best priced entry level single boiler espresso machines. If you think this is an expensive espresso coffee machine, well – welcome to the world of home espresso coffee, as this is actually an entry degree home barista espresso machine.
If you’re shopping around for this machine, I’d advise you do your due diligence, especially if you find it cheaper – as there are only a few actual UK based suppliers of this machine, and it’s unlikely you’ll find it much cheaper than the price Shop Coffee retail it for.
There are some suppliers who grey import from Italy, so just make sure you’re buying a machine which does have a UK warranty, you don’t want to have to return a machine to Italy if it callsfor warranty work.
My Rancilio Silvia Review
Initial impressions
The Silvia was really well boxed, I understand this doesn’t impact on the machine itself, but it helps in terms of not getting a machine which has suffered damage due to poor internal packaging during transit.
On unboxing the silvia, I was very impressed overall with the obvious build quality of this machine. It’s a fairly heavy machine, and it does look, to me, like a small commercial espresso machine, and not like a domestic, kitchen grade espresso coffee machine. I’m impressed with the build quality for the cost.
I was very impressed when I picked up the portafilter, to feel the weight of it. These are the same portafilters that Rancilio utilize in their commercial espresso machines, so they’re “proper” heavyweight commercial portafilters.
I was impressed with the size and maneuverability of the steam wand, and of the look of the low-profile drip tray.
Using the Rancilio Silvia
I have to be honest and say that as far as espresso goes, I didn’t get on brilliantly with this machine to begin with, there was a little of a rocky start.
I think this was partly down to the basket which comes with the Silvia, and likewise partly down to me not realising at this point that the hex bolt that holds in the shower screen is ginormous.
I didn’t RTCM to begin with (Read The Chuffing Manual) so I was trying to do the standard 18g of ground coffee to 36 of espresso, while I ought to have been using 14-16 grams with that basket. There was a huge hole in the top of the puck that I’d usually associate with over dosing the basket.
I then RTCM and discovered that the basket which comes with the Rancilio Silvia is a 14/16 basket, to which I replied (internally) “why??” – and then jumped on ‘tinternet and bought an 18 gram IMS basket from Shades of Coffee.
Initially, I was confused as I was still getting that chonking fantastic hole in the top of the puck even when underdosing the puck, leading to an incredibly sloppy puck with a big hole in it, so apparently under dosing and over dosing at the same time, how odd.
I then discovered that the hex bolt that holds the shower screen in place is roughly the size of a small dog. Once I understood that this hole in the puck was there to stay, I stopped worrying about it, and at this point I got on better with the 18g basket.
I’m sure I’d have got on fine with the 14/16g basket too if I’d have figured that out, but still, I’d prefer 18g than 14 or 16g.
It wasn’t plain sailing with the milk steaming side of things either.
The first time I tried to steam milk with the Silvia, I turned the steam on and waited for the heating light to go off, as per the instructions (I RTCM at this point) – and I nearly blew a hole in the kitchen worktop!
OK, maybe I’m being slightly dramatic, but wow – I’ve never seen steam power like this, even on commercial machines.
Steam power is great, nevertheless only if you can control it, and I can’t even imagine latte art master Dritan Alsela being able to manage this kind of steam pressure.
Very, who am I kidding? Dritan could probably produce great milk texture from the orient express & pour mega latte art from a bucket.
I was heating up around 250ml of milk (in a 500ml jug) to around 65C in something like 12-15 seconds, and I couldn’t get the kind of texture I wanted, as the steam was just blowing the milk all over the place, although I have to say that the milk texture even from this 12 to 15 seconds of obliteration, was actually very quite good, I’d just liked to have a little more control of the aeration.
I did some testing and found that this huge blast of steam lasts around 20 seconds after “officially” being ready to steam, so one thing I could do would be to just blast off the steam for 20 seconds or so until it drops to something a bit more manageable.
That worked, and at that point I found the steam still to be in reality powerful, nevertheless manageable. The problem with that, though, is you’re looking at two to two and half minutes before after turning on the steam button until you start steaming, which seems like a long time.
I then remembered that the Gaggia Classic has a similar quirk. With that machine I find that if I turn the steam on, wait really 7 or 8 seconds, and then start steaming regardless of the fact that the machine isn’t telling me the steam is ready yet, it works brilliantly.
So I experimented and found that depending on the recent boiler temp, somewhere between 30 – 45 seconds after turning the steam on was the sweet spot for beginning steaming, and that’s good as it cuts down the overall time it takes to make a milky.
I carried on utilizing the machine a good few times per day, and over that time I tried various different things to try to develop the best workflow with the Rancilio Silvia, and in the end, this is what it ended up looking like.
My temperature surfing routine with the Rancilio Silvia V6
I’m sure if you’ve spent any time at all researching the Rancilio Silvia, or the Gaggia Classic, you’ll be familiar with the term temperature surfing.
It just means to get the machine to the right temperature (ish) and it’s usually connected with shot temperature. What I’ve found even though, with the Gaggia Classic too to be fair, is that without a PID fitted, you need to temperature surf for both the brew temp, and steam temp/pressure.
It’s the opposite way around with the Gaggia classic though. With the classic I find that if you wait for the steam light to indicate steam is ready, you tend to run out of steam due to the tiny boiler, however if you start much sooner you have decent power for longer.
Grinding & puck prep
I’ve been steaming milk first and pulling shots second with the Silvia, as I’ll get to shortly, so I got into grinding and doing puck prep first, and putting the portafilter down ready to go, so that I’m not leaving the milk cooling down for too long while I’m faffing about grinding, distributing and tamping.
I’ve been using the Eureka Mignon with the Silvia, the Specialita version which was likewise provided (on loan) by shop coffee. I’ve used this mill before, and using it with the Silvia reminded me of what a wonderful little coffee grinder this is, for the relatively low cost.
I’ve been doing the same puck prep routine that I usually do with other espresso coffee machines, which involves doing the WDT (Wiess Distribution Technique) with this inexpensive mechanical keycap puller that I literally snipped the ends off.
Research study done by folk a lot more technical and experienced than me appears to suggest that utilizing two tools may produce the best effects, 0.4mm diametre pins for deeper DWT and then thinner (around 0.2mm) pins for dealing with the surface.
So I’ve bought this 0.4mm equipment, and this 0.25ml equipment both from Etsy, along with some other tools from various places that I’m going to be experimenting with, I’ll create a video about this once I’ve figured out what I think works best, and I’ll update this post accordingly when I’ve done that.
In the meantime, for an in-depth video on WDT at the moment I think this one from Lance Hedrick is probably the best:
Milk First
This is a contentious subject, and I usually favour shot first, milk second when working with a single boiler machine, meaning I can’t pull the shot and steam milk at the same time.
I learn the arguments for the other way around, but in my humble opinion, when you’re creating a milky (flat white, cappuccino, latte, etc.,) given that many of the liquid in the cup is the milk, it’s the milk cooling down that is a lot of likely to negatively impact the overall pleasure of the ingest.
As long as you’re not leaving a shot sitting there for much longer than a minute or so, I personally don’t find it changes noticeably in taste by the time you’ve poured a jug of milk into it – it tends to take a little bit longer than this for the crema to start breaking up.
I started out with milk first with the Silvia just because of that 2 minute wait time for the steam. If you’re going to be waiting that sort of length of time until you start steaming, I think it steeps sense to steam the milk first rather than leaving the shot sitting there with the crema slowly disappearing.
In my opinion, if you’re steaming the milk within 30-45 seconds of turning the steam on, given that at this point it’ll only take around 30 seconds to steam the milk, I think you could choose to steam first or pull the shot first, whatever you prefer – nevertheless I actually got into steaming milk first with the Silvia and carried on like that.
Temperature surfing the milk
As I’ve explained, I do this with the Gaggia classic by turning the steam button on, and then purging the steam and starting steaming after just 7 or 8 seconds – and with the Rancilio Silvia, I’ve found it’s somewhere between 30 – 45 seconds.
The bigger gap between sweet spots is, I assume, simply down to the larger boiler in the Silvia. I did find that you can gauge this by putting your ear close to the machine so you can hear the boiler, there’s a slight drop in volume which means it’s ready to start steaming.
If you wait the full 2 minutes, you’ll hear a total drop in volume at the point the light goes off, but as I’ve said, I found that there’s too much steam power at that point without spending 20 seconds or so letting that out.
You could wait for the full approx. 2 minutes and then not open the steam valve fully, I have seen some doing this on YouTube, however that doesn’t seem to make the a lot of sense to me. The steam power isn’t very stable at this point, and why wait 2 minutes and only open the valve slightly when you can wait basically 30 seconds and turn the valve fully?
So, I turn the machine on – and if its the first shot I’ve pulled or if the machine hasn’t been on extremely long, I’ll usually leave it about 45 seconds – if the machines been on for a while or it’s the second or third beverage I’m creating, I’ll literally leave it 30 seconds after turning on the steam, I’ll then give it a quick blast to lose any condensation, and start steaming.
When I’ve aerated the milk and have moved to the rolling phase (which is only after maybe 10-15 seconds with the Silvia), I’ll turn the steam button off part way through the rolling phase so that when I close the steam valve and move on to pulling the shot, it doesn’t take quite as long to bring the boiler temp down.
Temperature surfing the shot
So with the milk done, and the steam button already turned off, and without the portafilter in place (as I’ve already ground the coffee into the basket so this is ready to go) I press the shot button, and open the steam valve. Water will start to flow through the wand, and after a little, the heating light comes back on – now is the time to insert the portafilter and pull the shot.
I’ve started the video below at the appropriate point so you can get a visual of what I’m going on about.
As you’ll see, it’s a little bit bit messy, you do get water splashing on the kitchen worktop a little, but it’s nothing a cloth can’t handle ;-).
The Good Stuff
The build quality looks and feels great, it extremely is a solid-looking little unit, and it does have a commercial espresso coffee machine look to it, which I like.
It’s extremely simple to utilize in terms of the controls, there’s just an on and off button, a shot button, steam button and hot water button – and the steam knob.
The portafilter is a actually nice quality, commercial quality portafilter which helps the machine to look and feel more like a small commercial machine than a domestic kitchen appliance.
The potential shot quality once you discover what you’re doing with the machine, is extremely good.
The steam power is an amazing, as I’ve said.
The Meh Stuff
I’m referring to these things as “Meh” rather than bad, as feels unfair to refer to these things as “bad” as such. These are just the quirks of this machine, they’re fixable or work aroundable, if that’s a word, apparently not according to the spell checker.
The main thing for me is the temperature instability of this machine without fitting a PID, and the truth that you never discover exactly where you’re at when it comes to brew temperature or steam pressure. It’s always going to be more of an art form than a scientific research with this machine unless you fit a PID.
This is the same with the Gaggia Classic, though to be fair to the classic, that’s about a hundred quid cheaper.
As I explained earlier, I’m utilizing the Sage Dual Boiler at the moment, too, and with this machine I discover exactly what the temperature is when I’m pulling a shot, plus I can fix this in one C increments.
So if I open a bag of coffee and it’s a little bit on the lighter roasted side I’m taking the brew temp up mildly to help with the truth that light roasted beans can require a bit of a higher temperature to adequately extract. Likewise the steam boiler temperature is consistent too, so as soon as I open the steam I get the necessary pressure, and that’s likewise adjustable.
With the Silvia, it’s not simply that you can’t troubleshoot the temperature, it’s the fact that you’re guessing at it. At the point the heating light goes off or comes back on, you don’t understand exactly what temperature you’re at, it’s always a guestimate.
This comparison isn’t fair, as the Sage Dual boiler is really over double the cost of the Rancilio Silvia, nevertheless I’m just explaining what it is about the lack of temperature control that I’m not keen on.
Probably a more fair comparison is the ECM Casa V, it’s almost £300 more than the Silvia, and it doesn’t have a PID – but the kind of group it has (saturated) implies the temperature is a lot more stable, so although you can’t alter it, you find out that when you’re in brew mode you’re going to at or very close to 93C, which the machine is set to (200F).
The gargantuan hex bolt on the shower screen seems an odd choice. I’ve pointed out in other posts and videos a step in puck prep discussed as “Do not disturb”, which simply implies once you’ve distributed and tamped, you don’t want to disturb the puck of coffee or you may end up with channeling as a result.
Putting a ruddy excellent bolt in the group which is larger than the headspace for the basket, is a spanner in the works when it comes to not disturbing the puck. As soon as you lock the portafilter in, this bolt digs a hole in the surface of the puck.
Does this basically impact on cup quality, I’ve no idea, however I don’t like the idea of it regardless – and I would assume that it indeed can’t help in terms of avoiding channeling.
As I explained in my video review, you can fix this with the flat shower mod from Pidsilvia.com – the only issue there is that though this is fairly inexpensive ($30, including the screen, the countersunk screw and the drilled jet breaker) – it’s in the US, so by the time you take delivery cost into account you’re talking somewhere between forty to fifty quid.
You can do a DIY job by getting an M5 12mm screw, nevertheless if you want it to be totally flush, you’d need it to be a countersunk screw and you’d need to drill out the jet breaker (the bit of metal the shower head screws into), so it becomes a bigger job.
Another little niggle is that because the drip tray is low profile, at its highest position to the side, the steam tip isn’t rather high enough to exit a jug without tipping the jug, which can lead to spillage.
I can’t help nevertheless feel they could have crafted the drip tray slightly higher profile, given it a little of a bigger volume, creating the whole machine a bit taller, allowing the user to take the wand out of the jug without spilling milk.
There’s an easy way around this even though, which is to get a knockout draw to stand the machine on top of, which will raise the machine up a little bit, and give you a little more clearance, while likewise giving you a tidier solution for used pucks than a basic knock box.
Another tiny niggle, is that the rubber feet are just stuck on with adhesive, and one came off at one point when I was moving the machine. I put it back and it stayed put, but the rubber feet on the Gaggia classic go into a hole in the bottom of the frame rather than relying on adhesive, which seems like a better move. Not a massive deal even though.
The drip tray is likewise a little unusual, in that when you remove it it’s literally a tray of water, there’s no lid of any description, so you do have to be careful if it’s full, not to chuck it all over the place. This isn’t helped by the fact that there’s no drip tray full indicator, either.
I do hope that the above doesn’t come across as if I’m slagging off this really well-known and extremely well-respected espresso machine. That’s not the purpose at all, I’m extremely trying to very honestly point out what I think are the good bits, and the not-so-good bits, so you can decide whether or not it’s the right machine for you.
The important thing is, I think, most the above can be worked around, either with routine or with modding.
What I would do if I bought the Rancilio Silvia
I’ve not bought the Silvia, I have to give it back soon – at which point I’ll be reviewing another espresso coffee machine from Shop Coffee, nevertheless if I were to buy this as my main home espresso coffee machines, I’d do a couple of things.
I’d put it on knock-out drawer as I pointed out above, it would still be short enough to fit under kitchen cupboards.
I’d either do a DIY job of getting rid of the hex bolt, or, more than likely I’d just buy the kit from PidSilvia.com, due to the fact that I’ll do DIY stuff – only to coffee machines, in case my wife is reading this, who knows that my idea of DIY is Do It (in about a) Year – at a push, but only if I extremely have to ;-).
The one thing I’d definitely do, is I’d fit a PID. This would do away with the need for temp surfing, and would allow the brew temperature to be adjusted, and for you to pull shots at a specific temperature, which may come in handy if you’re wanting to use a range of roast profiles.
Is the Rancilio Silvia Worth it?
In a nutshell, yes – I think it is.
To explain that respond to – at the price without the mods I’ve discussed, you’re getting a extremely capable espresso coffee machine that callsfor a little bit of taming either via modding or with routine.
Rancilio could have fitted a PID, nevertheless then it wouldn’t be at the low price point it’s at, and you wouldn’t have the preference of whether to work around these quirks or invest in fitting a PID and a couple of other bits to get around them.
Extremely Rancilio have now released a version with a PID, the Silvia Pro:
Rancilio Silvia PRO Dual Boiler
Check Price – Shop Coffee
This is a perfect looking machine, actually – I saw it when I was at shop coffee collecting the Silvia. Its very humble to look at, understated, and it does look like the Silvia nevertheless a little bigger – it’s truly not, though, it’s nothing like the Silvia at all, in fact.
Personally, I wish they’d release a single boiler version of the Silvia, with the factory installed PID, with the shot timer, and without the small-dog sized hex bolt. That version could probably have been known as the Silvia Pro. What they’ve released as the Silvia Pro bares only aesthetic similarity to the Silvia.
This is a dual boiler machine, a PID control, dedicated water outlet, water extent indication, pre-programmed wake up time – and a shot timer.
To call this the Silvia Pro is like Ford releasing the Ford Fiesta, and then calling the Kuga the “Fiesta Pro”. They’re clearly completely different machines.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the new Silvia Pro, it looks wonderful, and for the price I think it’s going to do very well – as it’s an extremely competitively priced dual boiler machine from an extremely trusted name.
However it’s not literally an alternative to the Silvia, it’s a totally different type of machine at a much higher price point, and with much more advanced features.
So going back to the original Silvia, at a similar price, even if you do decide to go to the expense of the demonstrated mods, there’s really nothing else for the same kind of price that extremely competes even when taking modding into account.
To get a pid which controls the brew temp, steam temp and also provides you pre-infusion, you’d need KIT-RSPb from Auber instruments. I’m unsure if there are other pids available which give the same degree of control, however this is the more expensive of the PIDs that Auber make, it’s $199, and the cheaper one is $149.50 but that will only give you control of the brew water temp.
So this is £109 or £145. Shipping (I’ve just got a quote) to the UK at the time of writing is $32, so £23 ish.
About £20 for the IMS basket, and then either about a fiver for the DIY choice to be able to utilize that hex bolt as a doorstop instead, or $30 (about £22) for the kit from Pidsilvia.com.
Pidsilvia.com don’t list a UK delivery cost but I’d assume it’s going to bed similar, although I have emailed them to ask if they would consider allowing UK customers to give them Auber’s respond to for delivery and I’ve emailed Auber to see if they’ll ship the flat screen kit with their PID to UK customers, as this will save you some cash. I’ll update this article when I get a reply.
So if you go for the more advanced Auber PID and the DIY screw replacement you’re looking at a total cost including the Silvia of about £720, and if you buy the flat screen kit, about £770 – though hopefully this will come down a bit if they agree to combine postage.
For around £700-£800, there’s nothing I understand of that you can buy off the shelf which would compete with the Silvia you’d have invested in. The “Silvia Pro” is a LOT more money, as that isn’t literally a version with a PID, as I’ve discussed.
There’s the ECM casa V for a little more money, but that doesn’t have a PID. There’s the Sage Dual Boiler, however that’s four or five hundred quid more.
The only option off the top of my head that I think would compete, would be a used or reconditioned Sage dual boiler, however then if we’re talking used or reconditioned that’s not a fair comparison either, I’ve just done an advanced eBay search and I can see Silvias with Auber PID already fitted have sold for between three and four hundred.
So that’s quite a long winded way of saying yes, I think the Rancilio Silvia is worth it.
At the box price without a PID it’s an incredibly cheap machine for what it is, and you can get good results with some practice. At the fully modded price you have a machine which would be difficult to compete with, without spending rather a lot more money.
This article first of all appeared at Coffee Blog – The UK Specialty Coffee Blog – For Lovers of REAL Coffee!
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