Height - Width - Depth: 380mm x 230mm x 330mm
Weight: 13 kg
Voltage: 230 V-50Hz, 110 V-60Hz
Power: 1200 W
Water Tank Capacity: 3 litres
Boiler Capacity: 0,4 litres
Pump Pressure: 12-14 bar

Review. (thanks to Coffeegeek.com)

The Isomac Venus is shipped in plain jane box, something you usually see from the Italian companies for the more expensive machines. Isomac usually packs these boxes as "so so" in my books - it could be a lot more protected, but there's enough.

The Venus is a heavy machine, no doubt about it. It weighs in at 13.8kg on my scales (13kg claimed), and you can see where the beef goes - it's beautiful in person, all shiny, polished stainless steel (with thick walls) and rounded corners. The frame is solid and heavy, as it should be. The group and boiler are attached to each other, and make up a huge hunk of brass and chrome.

The machine is also large, larger by a fair amount when compared to the Silvia. It stands 38.5cm tall, 23 cm wide, and is 33.5 cm from front of the drip tray (which sticks out a bit from the rest of the machine) all the way to the back panel.

Isomacs may be boxy machines, but they make up for that with a bit of flair and uniqueness in their designs.

The Venus also features very retro and solid pipe-rocker switches for turning various things on and off. These are very solid switches, giving a total sense of quality and build. I really like them, personally.

And the Venus features something I've long requested in single-boiler machines - a pump pressure gauge, right up front. It's hard to miss in fact - there it is - a nice big dial that shows you the active pressure on the boiler when you activate the pump switch or the hot water switch. Yeah, it's all so much eye candy, but I like it. I like it a lot.

The portafilter is a true pro job, with a nice heavy weight and the standard 58mm basket. Isomac's supplied singles and doubles are fine, but I like to use La Marzocco baskets, especially the Swift baskets, which do a fantastic job on most machines with commercial portafilters and groupheads.

The drip tray is large and deep. Always a bonus in my book, especially after suffering for over two years with the Pasquini Livia's tiny afterthought drip tray. On the Venus, it is all steel, which is nice, and recesses into the back portion of the machine, where a 3 way valve has access for discharging (the Venus is equipped with a 3 way solenoid valve for instant release of built up pressure in the portafilter and grouphead once you complete an espresso shot.

The reservoir is a bit hard to reach, but not too difficult - it's a plain jane 3 litre tank. There is a huge bonus though, and something too many espresso machine makers omit - the Venus comes supplied with a water softener attached to the intake hose. Normally you would pay up to $35 or more for this as an aftermarket item. Very nice to see it included.

The machine does deliver hot water out of the steam tap, and the steaming tip is better than the Zaffiro for this kind of work - it has two holes, but they are more angled downwards, preventing splashes and potential scaldings from pouring hot water. Activate the hot water switch and open the steam valve, and off you go.

The area where you brew is a lot higher than most other Isomac machines - you can easily wedge in a 12oz mug under the spouts. By comparison, all the other less expensive Isomac machines have a much shorter clearance between portafilter spouts and drip tray top.

HOW IT WORKS

First up, you have to fill the boiler. Not a big deal - fill the reservoir, open the steam wand, plug it in, and engage the hot water switch. Soon water was coming out of the wand, and she's good to go for her trial running.

Next, I ran about half a reservoir of water through the machine's grouphead and steam wand to flush out any settled dust or particles that may accumulate. Then I left the machine to do a proper 30 minute heat up.

I should point out that the Venus is not an auto filling or replenishing machine like the more expensive Pasquini Livia, or machines like the automatic Solis SL-90. You have to manually replenish the boiler after steaming, and you have to manually fill the machine the first time you use it. This isn't necessarily a knock against the Venus, but it would be and added bonus if it had water level sensors to do this stuff automatically.

Inside the Venus sits a 52W Ukla pump, the same pump that's in my Pasquini Livia. Good sign (I should note that most of the Isomac machines have the same 52W pump). When she was all hot and ready (heh heh), I filled up the double filter with the same grind I have spent years super-tuning for my Livia, and decided to see what she could do with it.
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On these initial shots, the Venus did really well.

I don't know what it is lately, but it seems with these lower priced (below a grand) machines, I'm nailing pretty decent shots the first time around. With the Venus, it seemed even better than that. The first shot was fantastic.


One thing I liked about this machine, and would expect on the machine at this price point is the inclusion of a pressure relief valve. These solenoids let rapidly bang out shot after shot with the machine, because they instantly remove built up pressure in the portafilters after a shot is completed. With the Venus' heating system, recovery time was next to nothing, and banging out shot after shot was easy and fun.

On this first day of my evaluation, I was impressed with the machine. I wasn't quite sure if Venus could unseat the Rancilio Silvia from my own personal "levels" perch I've placed that machine on, but hey, I haven't steamed yet with the Venus, have I?

First Week with the Isomac Venus


As my first few days rolled on with Miss Venus, she saw some heavy duty early on. My girlfriend and I like to have the occasional (and casual) dinner party, and the second day Venus was going through trials, we had one. In that one afternoon and evening, I pulled 16 doubles, and built 9 milk-based drinks, and the shakedown came as a good success - other than the wait time for steaming, Venus showed she could handle dinner parties well.

Steaming on this machine, save for the warm up time wait, was a distinct pleasure. The Venus appears to have a larger boiler than the Silvia, and you can see it at the steam wand. The 1200 watt heating element also shows its muscles, giving you a warm up time from brew to steam in about 45 seconds (more detailed timing will be published in the Detailed Review).

Microfroth is definitely not a problem area with this machine. The steam is ample, and runs long. I was able to froth up about 10 ounces of milk (usually enough for a cappa and a latte) in under 50 seconds. I haven't done my 7oz test yet (two cappa volume), but I would guess it to be somewhere around 35 seconds - very good numbers for this class of machine.


The steam tip is well suited for the job of micro foaming - the slight angle on the two steam holes facilitate the perfect mix of air and liquid, and a practiced hand will be microfrothing on the machine in no time.

Back to brewing, in this machine, you get what you pay for, it appears early on in my evaluation. And what do you pay for? All that brass around the area you place your ground coffee - in the commercial portafilter, in the grouphead, and in the boiler. I ran some early tests on the grouphead temperatures, and after being on for a half hour, I measured a very admirable 89C on the edge of the grouphead - while not perfect (92-95C would be), it's damned close.

I did have a bit of trouble figuring out the lighting system on the Venus - there's four lights on the machine, and at times it is difficult to say what means what. The top left light indicates when the brew thermometer has engaged the boiler; the middle left light is automatically on when you engage its switch - hot water delivery. The bottom left light is the one that confused me - it works in tandem with the brew light, but I took me a while to figure out that the bottom light stays on when you activate its switch (the switch is to put the machine into steam mode). When the machine is ready to steam, the top lamp goes off, but the bottom one stays on.

The bottom right lamp is the power lamp, and on my machine, it pulses erratically. I'm not sure if this is by design or a wiring issue.

Towards the end of the first week of testing, I did notice some minor fluctuations in the brewing temperatures of the machine, and especially a slightly longer draw in the cycling times. One or two of my shots seemed a tad sour, a sure sign of a too-cold brew.

But it's early days yet, and we'll see how this plays out in the full Detailed Review.

Wrap Up

Isomac Logo By the end of my initial five day evaluation of the machine, I was very impressed with the Venus. Here's some highlights:

* Can brew a 4+ star ristretto, with very little effort by a seasoned hand
* Steam power is ample
* Steam heat up time is fairly short
* Heaps of brass
* Heavy weight - definite bonus - more weight = better heat retention, in my book.
* Hot water on demand - awesome, and fast flowing.
* Large cup surface on top that gets plenty hot enough.
* Brewing pressure gauge! I LOVE it!

Some things I was less impressed with:
* Minor sourness in some shots on the last day of this initial test - brewing water seemed a tad cold, and the cycling of the boiler seemed to wait longer before it would commence.
* Even though it's easier to add water to the reservoir on this machine than on other Isomac machines, it's still a pain, and you can't see the water levels
* No autofill. Well, the Silvia doesn't have it either, but for an extra hun, I'd almost expect it.
* Lights can be confusing on the machine
* Did I mention you can't see the water level? This is an issue. I ran the thing dry twice and the first time, I didn't know what the problem was.
* For all the cool switches and lights, they stencil on what the lights do with confusing icons. It cheapens the machine a tiny bit.
* Reservoir water gets a might hot. This is a minor point, because single boiler machines aren't affected by this nearly as much as heat exchanger machines are.