As a follow up to our original video, here we have a 3 month user review of the La Marzocco GS3. Luke has been using the GS3 espresso machine every day now for the last three months and he has quite a bit to say about it. Mostly great things but there are a few things that do bother him. The GS3 is available in two models the AV (automatic volumeterics) or the model with a manual paddle that allows you to play around with pressure profiling.
The model that Luke has been using is the manual paddle and the machine is an upgrade from a La Marzocco Linea Mini which he owned previous to this one.
If you have any questions about the GS3 please leave us a comment.
Unedited Video Transcript
i've been using the La Marzocco GS3 at home
for three months today i'm going to give
you my three month
user review
[Applause]
[Music]
welcome back guys to my home and the
artistic youtube channel
i want to share with you um my
experiences of the gs3
now i'm three months in of using it at
home day in
and day out we did do the unboxing video
and we did use it initially um and we
had
you know our perspectives of the machine
then but now i'm in a little bit further
i feel i've got to share a couple more
things with you
so if you're after the specs on the
machine check out our other video
today i'm just going to go through the
things that i love about it and some of
the things that
i don't quite like about it firstly i
want to talk about
the machine overall it looks beautiful i
love the steamer still
it's still amazing the hot tap is great
the drip tray is huge i still love all
of those things about it
i love the pressure profiling and being
able to play with the gauge
it is very sensitive so i've worked out
that i'm putting my finger
on the front of the brew head and then
pushing up to it so that i can get my
specific
three or six or whatever bar ratio i'm
actually putting into
that water so i found it very
finicky i know other users that have
been using this machine
really struggle with that so they tend
to go straight up to nine bar
and then you know cut it off when they
need to so
it is a delicate process it is for the
i guess the barista that's searching to
get that really nice
specifics out of coffee whether it be
ramping from three to six to nine bar
and coming back
so it's a bit geeky so if you're not
geeky
i would not get this model just get the
av model which will automatically brew
it for you
in my previous review i did want to do
some mods to this machine i just haven't
had the time
so it is all still black and i do feel
i'd love those those features still to
happen so again one day i'll get to that
and hopefully share that with you
as far as brewing coffee i have had to
change the grinder that i'm using with
the gs3
so initially i had an entry level
grinder i've upgraded now i'm
using the anfirm best on demand grinder
but to be able to get the most out of
this machine
and to be able to play with the
different pressures you've got to be
able to change the different
grinds and have a nice
good reference point to be able to
really taste the differences
on the other end so for me i just found
i was unable to achieve a better quality
extraction and flavor profile
when i was using a poorer quality
grinder so
i felt i was doing this whole technology
of pressure profiling
and temperature changes and injustice by
not having
something that was very standardized the
ant from best on demand i went with that
because commercially we use
the sp2 and we also use lamazockos
in our machines so i really wanted to go
to that next level
on how can i make our coffee better when
compared to commercial models
so for me that was a good way to be able
to pair up
to do a few tests the app i've been
using it
on and off turning the machines on
changing the temperatures it's handy
it's pretty easy
i do still have a few connection issues
when i've got my wi-fi
um you know on the other room so
that's a little bit of an issue but
other than that once it's connected
it does allow you to do you know some of
the basics that you'd want to
and give you some reports about your
extractions as well so
yeah dive into that had a bit of a play
i'd love to hear what you think about
the new iot app that's available in this
machine and
the mini as well so with the flexibility
of being able to
have different pressure through the head
you're basically bypassing that water
into the drip tray
i've spoken about that in depth on the
other video what does that do for me
to be honest i find i run out of water
so often it is frustrating when i go to
hit this lever the pump kicks in for
like two seconds
it wets the puck and then it's all over
and it says refill tank
i can't tell you how many times that's
happened to me now i know the machine
comes with a plumbing kit
i would highly advise plumbing this from
day one because
when you start to really play with this
three six or nine bar
you're just using so much water and i
just feel it's a waste
it is being caught in the really large
drip tray which is great
but i cannot tell you how many times i
have to keep refilling this tank first
thing in the morning and it is
a real frustration
in terms of the steamer the arm is is
still really great the tips still
really hot and it does hold a little bit
of moisture so just give it a really
good purge
i did find a couple of times that just
had a bit of moisture in there and it
did wreck the milk so
just plenty of purge and you're ready to
go
the hot tap is great i've adjusted that
to get the right temperature
we do make a lot of teas out of this
machine and i think that is
linking to why it keeps running out of
water and we do a lot of long blacks as
well
so yeah that's
sadly what my biggest gripe is about the
machine
so this just shows you how much your
brewing coffee or water usage is
now 25 of it is water for us now i don't
know if that's using the hot tap
or it's just being water when there's
not coffee in there so i'm not really
sure on that exact amount but
look 25 of just water is probably why
i'm a bit more frustrated in running out
of it so often
so in my first video this was an upgrade
from the linear mini
um do i regret changing from the linear
mini to the gs3
as far as steam pressure and brewing
quality
and all those things that are standard
with lumozako they're the same
really happy with them if i didn't want
this pressure
profiling there is no way i would advise
anyone to spend the extra money
in getting the gs3 over the mini that is
the distinct difference
that you're spending a lot of money on
and to be honest if you're not going to
play with the coffee
don't worry about spending the money the
leaning mini is going to do an amazing
job for you
so overall guys i really do love the gs3
i love how the lamazoko has been able to
get a really great home machine that i
can brew coffee how i enjoy making it
it's got a lot of flexibility a couple
little quirks there
but again i just love it so if you guys
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thanks so much for watching everyone
have an awesome day
The steam wand in GS3 is fully metal without the black plastic like material, and it looks more art and professional commercial grade. I hope the Mini will be upgraded with an option like this but I don’t think so. Overall that was a real awesome review please tell what is your water filter for this machine? What do you use?