Jonathan -
The "new" Selmi Legend is the old Selmi Ghana. It's been reintroduced as a low-cost alternative to the Plus. The Legend R200 may not the same as the R200 for the Plus, so I would be careful about ordering a used R200 and make sure it fits the Legend before you buy it.
1) The only way to make sure the R200 is in workable condition is to put it on a working machine. The only thing you may see that's visible that you want to check on is to make sure that there are no obvious kinks in the belt. Of course, the kinks may not be noticeable until the belt is in motion.
2) The EX refers to the fact that the auger is removable. The Color is the same price price as the Legend but has a working bowl capacity of 12kg versus 25kg. Also, the Color does not accept the standard R200 enrober attachment. Most continuous tempering machines will accept inclusions up to a particular size (about 3mm) and up to a certain percentage, by weight, with respect to the quantity of chocolate (usually no more than about 10%). I would check with Selmi to make sure what the max size of inclusions is, but that's what the FBM supports. The major disadvantage of the Legend over the Color is that the Legend does not have the removable auger. This will make changing over from one chocolate to another a more laborious and time-consuming process. Keep in mind that changing over chocolate is not something you want to do on a daily basis and especially not more than once per day.
3) The tempering times quoted are not from a cold start. They are from the moment you press the tempering button with a full bowl of chocolate at the set melting point. You need to be aware of this in your timing calculations.
I represent FBM to ChocolateLife members around the world and we have installed a decent number of machines in Australia in the past two years. The FBM Compatta is a 12kg working bowl machine similar to the Color at about the same price. A major difference is that the Compatta accepts an enrober attachment and the Compatta's enrober is more than 2000 less expensive than the R200.
FBM recently introduced ProXima, a new version of their flagship 25kg machine, Unica. One of the reasons I work with FBM over Selmi is that I feel that the important parts of the machines - the internal engineering of the tempering pipe, the tempering auger, and the rest of the tempering system - is superior to Selmi. Yeah, the Selmi has better-looking sheet metal, but in the end, I think most people need a machine that works more than they want a machine that looks good. Plus ChocolateLife members get 10% off list prices, making them even more price-competitive.
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@DiscoverChoc
