La Marzocco GS3 V's Linea Mini - Which coffee machine should you buy?
What's the difference? It's a very common question that we get asked with our customers looking to choose between the La Marzocco GS3 and the Linea Mini. In this video we answer that question in a side by side comparison.
At their core the GS3 is modeled off it's big sister the La Marzocco Strada and the Linea Mini is modeled from the La Marzocco Linea Classic. In the video Luke tells you which machine he thinks suits an espresso drinker and which machine suits a person who prefers milk based coffee.
Watch our video to learn more.
Video Transcript
Today we're taking a look at the difference between the La
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Marzocco Linea Mini and the La Marzocco GS3.
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Both awesome home machines for here in the Australian or worldwide market.
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But what really is the difference?
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Why is the GS3 $3,000 more expensive?
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What do you get for that?
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Is that something you'd use as a consumer at home?
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Well, I'll take a deep dive into these products and at the end I'll let you know
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what type of machine these suit as you as a specific
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coffee drinker.
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So the Linea Mini
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and the GS3 are absolute staples and premium
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coffee equipment here in the Australian and also worldwide market.
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You know, it's a real desired kind of piece of equipment
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to have in your kitchen like here at home.
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I've been lucky enough to have the Mini and upgraded to the GS3 at the moment.
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But really you as a buyer, do you think,
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okay, why would I spend $3,000 more for this item?
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And is that something I'm going to enjoy or use in the machinery?
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Well, there are some significant things that are different
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inside these machines that people don't realize.
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But you've got to take a look at
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the heritage of these individual machines and where they've come from.
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So the GS3 has been around for quite a few years,
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and it's modeled around the Strada which is La
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Marzoccos high end machine that was built several years ago.
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So it's got the similar brew heads
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and a lot of that amazing technology that they had inside this machine.
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The Linea Mini is based around
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the Linea Classic, which is the heart and soul of the cafe environment.
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You would have seen them everywhere, and that's where it gets its look from.
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So it's a newer machine, probably about five years old,
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and it has those sort of parts inside.
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So when comparing their heritage, the Strada is the top
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end model, and the Linea Classic is the entry level model.
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So that's where these two machines have got their heritage.
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On paper when you look at the easy specs, of these two machines,
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there's a lot of similarities.
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They both are dual boiler machines.
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They've got the E61 group heads, which are saturated groups.
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So it gives a great thermal stability to your coffee puck as the water comes in.
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You've got cool touch steam wands.
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Hot water and some really nice styling.
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They have an in-built three litre water tank.
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They've got the rotary pump, which allows you
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to give great consistent nine bar pressure, but
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also allow you to plumb this into your mains water at home.
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Through a water filter.
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I think it's a different kit.
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You've got to buy off these models.
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They both have the IOT connectivity to the apps that allows you
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to turn the machine on.
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Look at Brew recipes, ratios, change boiler
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temperatures and a lot of other little things there, which is pretty cool.
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Standardly, the Linea Mini does come in a whole range of different colors
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where the GS3 does come as a standard stainless steel and black,
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but it does come in the manual paddle option that I do have here today.
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And the AV, which is automatic volumetric.
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I'll touch back on that in a second.
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And it's very popular in the home market now to customize these machines.
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So you can get timber paneling around this brew head
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or on the sides on your group handles for both of the models.
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But this does come already sort of customized
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with the color options of the actual machine.
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So taking a look at the machines on how you actually utilize the features,
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they're a little bit different in the steam tap over here.
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We've got a turn knob, which is again, the same as the Linea Classic
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to give us the steam and the same for the hot water,
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where on the GS3 we have a press
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button over here which opens a solenoid to activate that hot water.
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And we have a little lever down here which activates the steam in the GS3.
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So a little bit more technology and that can be set to a volumetric control
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to give you an exact amount for your long black or teapot.
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With the brew activation, you can see that they're both levers.
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The Linea Mini is significantly different to the GS3.
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As you activate this, it basically turns on the switch up in the top here
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to make the pump work.
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It also turns on the LED lights, which is nice, barista lights.
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It goes into a pre infusion mode and then you have to turn this off at the point
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that you're going to be having with your water extraction or brew recipe.
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So it's not a timed amount. On the GS3
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you do have to activate this yourself because this is a manual paddle.
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We turn it on and we turn it off.
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But with this version, it's very different because if we pop in a blind basket
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here, we can vary the pressure that is being applied to the bed of the coffee.
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And the more you move this lever along, the more pressure you're going to get.
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So we might say here is three, six and then full nine bar pressure.
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And that is a huge difference in the way you can brew coffee or play with coffee.
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So if you love Espresso and Long Blacks, that is a feature that you will learn
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to use and grow into and just make your coffee taste very different.
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So we can start by perhaps going with three
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bar and then go up to six.
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Ramp it up to the full nine bar pressure and then finish off
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your extraction, maybe back down at three bar.
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The excess pressure ends down into your drip tray.
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So you just got to make sure that it doesn't overflow.
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But we do have another video specifically about that feature.
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Now, the drip tray on the GS3 is far larger, which is great.
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And you can see that that would be where the water tank would be.
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I've taken mine out because it's plumbed and then in the mini
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it can simply take the drip tray out and you've got your water reservoir there.
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So really easy to fill.
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Pop the water in make sure it's filled with water and you're ready to go.
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In the GS3 you've got a little display up here
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which gives you the time and the temperature displays,
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which you can't see on your Linea Mini.
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You can see that via the app, but it does give you the shot timer as well.
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So that's a huge benefit when you are doing your recipes.
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So let's take the top of these
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and I'll show you what's happening inside these machines to be different.
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So in here, we can see all
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the same gear that we see in the commercial Linea Classic machine.
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We've got the rear boiler here,
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which is hot water and steam, and that's a three litre capacity.
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In the front we have our brew boiler, which is 170 mil.
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And that's great because we can change that temperature without having to have
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a huge amount of water to basically dump if we're going down to lower temperatures.
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Now, both of these elements are a little bit smaller,
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so the power usage on the Linea Mini is 1820 watts.
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But everything else we see here, the commercial steam tap, the hot water
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tap, the solenoids, the whole lot is identical to the commercial model.
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Now, in the GS3, we've got the three and a half litre boiler.
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So it is a little bit larger
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there for your hot water in the steam and you'll see the front boiler here.
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That's 1.5 liters.
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And the brew head is actually welded and connected to the boiler.
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So that's the heritage of the Strada I was talking about earlier.
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It's a larger mass.
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It can hold the heat stability very good in the brew head
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and can handle a lot more volume.
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With that in mind it does have two larger size elements in there.
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So both of these have a wattage of 2300 watts.
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It's the same commercial parts again inside the solenoids,
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the pumps, the whole lot.
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It's just built beautifully.
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I do have the MP or the manual padde version here in the GS3.
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It does come as an AV which is auto volumetric,
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which basically means you've got buttons on here that you can set
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to give you the exact amount of water flow through your coffee bed.
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So I hope that's given you
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a bit of an understanding as to why these machines inside are a bit different
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and there's a bit more value there of that $3,000.
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Now, which one actually suits you as a coffee drinker?
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This is a question that we get all the time,
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and this is why we did the video.
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So if you're a person that loves coffee,
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loves espresso, and loves to play with your black coffee
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and do different types of extraction and loves long blacks,
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I would look for the manual paddle GS3 because that gives you the ability
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to not only change the temperatures of the brew,
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but also the pressure that you apply to that brew head.
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If you then have a partner in the house that might have a milk coffee, it's
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got great steam, plenty of hot water for tea, and it's just going to make
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an amazing set of all those coffees, milk and black coffee.
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You might not be ready for the pressure profiling, but it's something you're going
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to develop into overtime because you love all that single origin coffee
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or just love to go down this amazing coffee journey that we're all on.
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If you're a person that loves milk based coffee and doesn't
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want to drink straight espresso, the Linea Mini will be amazing for you.
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It has one of the best steamers.
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It's dry and clean and it just works so beautifully with alternative and dairy
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milk and the espresso extraction that you can get out of this is fantastic.
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So the Mini is the machine I recommend for people that love milk based coffee.
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And if you're an espresso person, you go the GS3.
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So I hope that's helped
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you guys get a better understanding of these two awesome machines.
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Either one would be fantastic in your house.
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As I said, I've had both of them and love them immensely.
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And if you've got any other questions about either the race models, please
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leave a comment down below. Will happily answer them for you.
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And thanks very much for watching Artisti YouTube channel.
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We really appreciate your support.
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Please do subscribe and like this and share it with anyone else
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that might be looking for one of these machines
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because this will give them a lot of understanding
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of which machine will suit them best.
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Thanks very much, Cheers. We'll catch you next time!
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