Nice 1991 Professional, with a LOT of new parts. In case you're one of the people confused about the "millennium" designation, this is a "pre-millennium" (Pavoni levers made before 2001) and that means it's ALL brass and steel (except the handles, of course!) Even the filler cap still had brass threads at this point! (They eventually went to all plastic caps. Sigh.)
The Professional differs from the Europiccola with a boiler about twice as large, for more shots before having to refill, and slightly better heat stability, a pressure gauge, and pressurestats to automatically control heat (Europiccolas didn't add those until the early 90s, and Euros never had a gauge. If you've seen one with a gauge, it's been "customized." Something we can do here on demand.)
We ended up getting a little buried in this one, installing a new heating element, new pressurestat, new pressure gauge, new drip tray, and new chromed drip tray grid, and even a new base! In addition to all the usual seals and gaskets in a full group rebuild. (New piston gaskets, piston shaft gasket, boiler to group seal, filler cap seal, heating element seal, and portafilter gasket!)
Since we had the element out, we ball honed the boiler, so this one is really clean now, inside and out!
Of course the group rebuild included the usual lube and piston throw adjustment.
And the new pressurestat has been adjusted to about .9 BAR. (Pavonis tend to run HOT, so we like to keep the temp idling the lower end. Our personal machines actually run them even lower, but this point is a good compromise for people who like their coffee hot, and need to steam milk.)
The switch was replaced by the previous owner, and is slightly different than the stock Pavoni, with a cool neon pilot light that glows in the "on" position.
As for "defects," there's a tiny spot in the drip tray, a few check marks on top of the boiler, and some light surface scratches on top of the base, but otherwise has really nice chrome, and still quite impressive aesthethically.
Comes with single and double baskets, and a brand new Motta 49mm tamper (Made in Italy.)
A lot of time and parts in this one, but it ended up "worth it." Should be good to go for years!
This is our last vintage Professional in the pipeline. It may be a while before another one shows up, so... Fair warning!