Review by C. Hill for Rating: I have owned Miss Silvia for about 6 years and still use her at weekends to treat oulvreses to the wonderful coffee she makes. Some of the reasons I chose Miss Silvia were due to the construction, performance, amount of steam, looks, and feedback from others. She has proven to be a very reliable machine and continues to give us much pleasure.Upgrades It looks like the only changes between V2 and V3 are cosmetic brew group handle, drip tray design and the steam knob. I guess why change something if it is working very well. The inside of the machine is built very well, marine brass boiler with a 1Kw heater bring her up to temperature quickly, and a 3 way solenoid to stop spit back.There are a couple of areas to watch, which other reviewers have alluded to Grind I started off with a Braun bur wheel grinder and I got intermittent results with the quality of the tamp. A couple of years ago I upgraded to Rocky her brother and the quality of the tamp improved greatly. (Once you work out the right setting for the coffee you are using)Tamping tool The one that came with Miss Silvia was too small, I have never understood why they shipped the unit with the wrong size tamping tool. This also impacted how even the pressure was on the tamp. I upgraded that as well to one that fit the filter and now I get reliable and excellent results Leaks As mentioned above, one of the other reasons why I purchased this unit is that it has a built in 3 way solenoid to stop spit back through the brew group when using the steam wand or visa versa. Even though when I used her last I completely close the steam valve, as she is warming up for the next use, I get spits and dribbles from the steam wand and I have to turn the steam valve once again to close it off. This might be just due to expansion and contraction, but it is annoying so I have to remember to turn the steam valve off again before I turn her on again.Drip tray It is good that they have improved the design of this, since on V2 the tray had some very sharp edges and looked like it came out of a fabrication shop without the finishing touches.One improvement I wish they would make with it is to be able to hook it up to the water supply instead of having to keep refilling a tank, but that is a minor consideration and probably keeps the price down.Steam I wish they would have gone with a bigger boiler and a slightly larger element. After making one lot of steamed milk, she runs out of steam, so I have to fake making another brew and then turn the steam back on again for the boiler to build up to temp again for another lot of milk, but it does make wonderful foam even without a tool on the end, just comes down to technique again.I have found that there is a method to warming her up quicker Turn her on When the light goes out run brew through her without coffee until the light comes on again to warm the brew group up When the light goes out again, she is ready.The other upgrade I made was to purchase a butcher block and varnish it to raise both Silvia and Rocky up about 2-3 inches to allow for a larger container for steamed milk or a tall cup when making AmericanoIn summary Silvia is a great machine and probably the cheapest entry into the semi-professional units, she is built like a tank, when you get all the variables right she makes exceptional coffee. Where the fun of this unit comes is that it takes some skill and experience to get the best results and once you buy this wonderful unit bring her home and start to enjoy her you will see this is a marriage made in coffee heaven.