Flair espresso machine- now travelling road show ;)

[SpecialReserve]

These look like an improved ROK espresso machine. for the price you could probably save up for something more. Personally I would probably go for the Rok or Nomad even then I would save up for a home machine. These travel espresso machines I feel would be good for car camping but its limitations would would become more evident as you go forward. I'll reach out to ROK and Flair to see if I can test and review them. I just received some brewers from NotNeutral I have to review soon.

My wife says "Joe if you review that thing and Brian buys one I'm blaming you" hahahah

[Joe]

There are several videos on Youtube comparing the Rok and Flair.

A search for the Flair provides them.

I have had some contact with Flair people. I guess one of the main reviewers on Youtube now works for flair  so I would still wait for our review if it happens. I am going to place discussions regarding this machine here for now because of the info from the contacts suggests that we might have some agents of Flair in GCBC

[Joe]

These look like an improved ROK espresso machine. for the price you could probably save up for something more. Personally I would probably go for the Rok or Nomad even then I would save up for a home machine. These travel espresso machines I feel would be good for car camping but its limitations would would become more evident as you go forward. I'll reach out to ROK and Flair to see if I can test and review them. I just received some brewers from NotNeutral I have to review soon.

My wife says "Joe if you review that thing and Brian buys one I'm blaming you" hahahah

I understand The flair people are afraid that I am going to discount their espresso machine based on this conversation....So your wife might be happy with me LOL

[peter]

[brianmch]

These look like an improved ROK espresso machine. for the price you could probably save up for something more. Personally I would probably go for the Rok or Nomad even then I would save up for a home machine. These travel espresso machines I feel would be good for car camping but its limitations would would become more evident as you go forward. I'll reach out to ROK and Flair to see if I can test and review them. I just received some brewers from NotNeutral I have to review soon.

My wife says "Joe if you review that thing and Brian buys one I'm blaming you" hahahah

I understand The flair people are afraid that I am going to discount their espresso machine based on this conversation....So your wife might be happy with me LOL

I'd like to know if the positive Flair reviews came before or after the reviewers were getting paid.

Companies are always scared of bad press but objectivity is important. 

Joe, do you have a ROK to compare it to?

[SpecialReserve]

These look like an improved ROK espresso machine. for the price you could probably save up for something more. Personally I would probably go for the Rok or Nomad even then I would save up for a home machine. These travel espresso machines I feel would be good for car camping but its limitations would would become more evident as you go forward. I'll reach out to ROK and Flair to see if I can test and review them. I just received some brewers from NotNeutral I have to review soon.

My wife says "Joe if you review that thing and Brian buys one I'm blaming you" hahahah

I understand The flair people are afraid that I am going to discount their espresso machine based on this conversation....So your wife might be happy with me LOL

She was talking about the not neutral ...I have already bought the flair lol....she doesn't share my addiction to the tooladge. Just the coffee...." Do we really need another brewer?" My answer "umm  can't have to many" LOL

[Ascholten]

Do you really need another purse?
Do you really need another pair of shoes?
Do you really need another dress?

That can be flipped around.

My EX wife tried that crap on me once with the price of coffee.  I kindly explained to her that HER cigarettes, only brought pleasure to her, and poisoned everyone else with secondhand smoke, but my coffee, brought pleasure to everyone and was in fact considered a healthier beverage in some medical journals.

So yes there IS a way to send a subtle nuance about the goodness of your hobby.

Aaron

[SpecialReserve]

Do you really need another purse?
Do you really need another pair of shoes?
Do you really need another dress?

That can be flipped around.

My EX wife tried that crap on me once with the price of coffee.  I kindly explained to her that HER cigarettes, only brought pleasure to her, and poisoned everyone else with secondhand smoke, but my coffee, brought pleasure to everyone and was in fact considered a healthier beverage in some medical journals.

So yes there IS a way to send a subtle nuance about the goodness of your hobby.

Aaron

Amen!

[Joe]

These look like an improved ROK espresso machine. for the price you could probably save up for something more. Personally I would probably go for the Rok or Nomad even then I would save up for a home machine. These travel espresso machines I feel would be good for car camping but its limitations would would become more evident as you go forward. I'll reach out to ROK and Flair to see if I can test and review them. I just received some brewers from NotNeutral I have to review soon.

My wife says "Joe if you review that thing and Brian buys one I'm blaming you" hahahah

I understand The flair people are afraid that I am going to discount their espresso machine based on this conversation....So your wife might be happy with me LOL

I'd like to know if the positive Flair reviews came before or after the reviewers were getting paid.

Companies are always scared of bad press but objectivity is important. 

Joe, do you have a ROK to compare it to?

I have reached out to ROK to see if they would be willing. I'll let you know if I get confirmation of one being shipped to me for review.

here is the youtube review from the guy that now works at Flair:

I called him out on it on youtube but I would be really impressed if he actually received two flair espresso machines for review in order to do his cold vs. hot comparison. His review also sounds extremely like a commercial so i'm not sure I believe that it wasn't a "paid" review yet. Upon further review I didn't realize the piston is plastic? I thought it was all metal. I am also very curious if the portafilter is pressurized? It appears to be in one of the angles. The nomad had a pressurized and non pressurized adapter...So this might be a pressurized portafilter which would be weird.

Final thought is that this would be good to check out from a truly unbiased perspective.

[Ascholten]

and ya'all know me,  I am an ekspurt on suttel.

I kin be as subtle as a tarnader in a trailer park!

Aaron

[SpecialReserve]

Joe the one I bought has plastic plunger but I saw where they offered a SS one. I see the steel one as being a heat thief so chose to stick with the medical grade plastic and it doesn't steal heat best I can tell. I think from reading some of the reviews that they released the steel one because of people complaining about plastic. But thats just my estimation it may have had nothing to do with it. They did contact me because I told them we were going to use it on our coffee cart this spring and they asked how we planned to use it and blah blah and said they were interested in it being used that way and the outcome of it. A couple of the gigs we have are without power at all and lugging an espresso machine there SUCKS so this thing will work for making shots. As far as the pressured porta filter. Im not sure what you mean on that part but I will be happy to oblige with pics of video if it helps.

[Ascholten]

Plastic gets weak over time, steel won't.
Most espresso machines you run some hot water thru to warm it up before pulling a shot if I am correct.
Why would you not run a dash of hot water through this thing to preheat, especially if you are worried about the metal taking heat. 
I just think steel would be a better option, even for aesthetics, ie not cheap plastic POS toy, but real quality steel.

Aaron

[SpecialReserve]

The plastic appears to be heavy duty... it could get weak over time I guess. They do offer the SS one. You take the brew head and get it hot first and then you clip it on the "porta filter" or whatever its actually called. Then you add the heated water for the shot...its not much water so if you used the steel one  you would need to heat it as well or it will cool your water and that water needs to be within 200-205F in experience with it. I have only used the original one that came with it. Id imagine that the reason it was made that way originally was to not be a heat sink. But again thats just me guessing. Once I get it setup I go pretty quickly to prevent stuff from cooling down and souring the shot.

[Joe]

The plastic appears to be heavy duty... it could get weak over time I guess. They do offer the SS one. You take the brew head and get it hot first and then you clip it on the "porta filter" or whatever its actually called. Then you add the heated water for the shot...its not much water so if you used the steel one  you would need to heat it as well or it will cool your water and that water needs to be within 200-205F in experience with it. I have only used the original one that came with it. Id imagine that the reason it was made that way originally was to not be a heat sink. But again thats just me guessing. Once I get it setup I go pretty quickly to prevent stuff from cooling down and souring the shot.

All plastic gets weak over time. especially if its subject to hot/cold pressure etc. I saw some early complaints about the piston chipping. Looks like I will be getting one to borrow for a review but could you do me a favor? could you take a photo of the brew head parts in particular the bottom of the portafilter? I am really curious if this is a non pressurized piece as is being alluded to or if it is really just a pressurized screen/aerator in disguise.

[SpecialReserve]

Joe the brew head is heavy duty machined SS. it has an oring that seals around the basket (part that holds the coffee)
The "plunger" in this one is plastic similiar to what one would see in auto manufacturing injection molded pcs. I think they offer this in SS (Id have to go check not positive)
The there are two "screens" one above the coffee bed and one below the porta filter where the back pressure is created. There is a considerable amount of pressure required to pull the shot. Its not a "kinda like espresso" machine. Its an oily slurpy crema laden espresso shot (considering one uses good freshly roasted coffee which I assume all here do ..or I hope so)

I will make a quick video later this morning if time permits.

see attached (forgive the crap photography)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gGWEG6w2zIX0NlimYGYbwdcqUtLgj5dM
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_idPOc6vw6CB3zsZyxQuC-ETlsHRkAkH