Rocket Mozzafiato R Fast Espresso Machine

The three buttons are low on the front panel, behind the drip tray: remove the grid and the tray to reach them. Then, with the machine on:

• hold the centre button for more than 5 seconds to enter the menu;
• use the side buttons to scroll through the settings;
• press the centre button: the value flashes and you change it with the side buttons;
• press the centre button again to confirm;
• to save and exit, hold the centre button for 5 seconds.

From the menu you set the boiler temperature (118 to 123 °C), switch ECO mode on or off, choose between water tank and mains water, and switch between °C and °F. ECO mode is on from the factory: after 30 minutes without use the machine switches its heaters off, and it wakes up when you move the lever. It is all on pages 62 and 63 of the manual.

Fast stands for the quick warm-up. The E61 group has its own cartridge heater, with its own temperature probe, that heats it directly when you switch on: the group is the part that takes longest, so the machine is ready sooner. Rocket rates it ready in as little as 12 minutes on average, depending on water and room temperature; for a fully hot group allow 12-15 minutes. The Evoluzione R needed 15-18.

The rest of the layout is the same: heat exchanger, 1.8 litre boiler, rotary pump, water tank or mains water. The controls change: an OLED display with boiler and group temperature and water levels, and a colour LED that shows status and alarms. The boiler reads around 120 °C on the display: that is normal, a heat exchanger boiler runs above 100 °C because it also makes steam.

Between the Giotto and the Mozzafiato only the look changes: the side panels are different. Otherwise they are the same machine, with the same 1.8 litre heat exchanger boiler, the same OLED display and the dual pressure gauge. Only the size changes slightly: the Giotto is 340 mm wide, the Mozzafiato 314 mm.

The letter tells you the pump:

• R: rotary pump, runs from the water tank or plumbed into the mains water;
• V: vibration pump, water tank only.

So there are four combinations: Giotto R, Giotto V, Mozzafiato R and Mozzafiato V. This one is the Mozzafiato R Fast.

The R leaves the factory set to the tank: you switch to mains water from the menu. The connection must be made by a qualified technician, with inlet pressure no higher than 4 bar (above that you need a pressure reducer); on mains water the drain must go to your household drain with the hose supplied.

Rocket recommends changing it at least once a month, every two weeks with heavy use. You do not need to take anything apart: the pressure does the work.

Bring the machine up to temperature and switch it off. Straight away, with the boiler still hot and under pressure, open the hot water knob: the pressure pushes the water out through the wand. Repeat the operation twice. Keep a container under the wand that can take boiling water.

Drinking water, filtered and soft: between 4 and 7 °f (2-4 °dH). If yours is harder, use a softener. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) guidelines point the same way: clean, odour-free water with a low but not zero mineral content.

Do not use distilled water: the machine needs water with some conductivity for its electronic functions, such as reading the boiler and tank levels.

It depends on how much you use it, but as a rule:

• after every espresso run a little water through the group (flush): it clears coffee residue from the shower screen;
• every day backflush with the blind filter and water only;
• every 1-2 weeks, more often if you use it a lot, backflush with espresso machine detergent.

Do not overdo the detergent: even in small amounts, over time it strips the grease from the gaskets and O-rings and dries them out.

Rocket also asks you to change the boiler water at least once a month, every two weeks with heavy use: the question on the boiler explains how.

With this routine and good quality water, the machine does not need descaling.

No. If you use the right water and keep up the routine (a flush after every coffee, a daily backflush with water and one with detergent every 1-2 weeks), descaling is not needed.

Rocket itself advises against it: descaling chemicals can corrode the inside of the machine and are hard to rinse out completely. If it is ever needed, an authorised Rocket service centre does it.

The one that matches the mains in your home. The 220 V version runs on 220-240 V at 50-60 Hz, the voltage in most of the world, Europe included. The 110 V version runs on 115 V at 60 Hz and is for low-voltage mains such as North America.

Choose the version that matches your mains from those on sale on this page; if the one you need is not there, write to us. Before plugging it in, check that the rating plate matches your mains.