Swissaire

Yes, the products are compatible.

There is a tangerine Nespresso Pixie packed in my Topas. The padded case does take half of the Topas carry-on internal volume, but with a 30 day supply of capsules, it is happily my travel coffee maker. I was told in Switzerland that the various side plate colours would be available and interchangeable: The mettalic tangerine is fine.

For the record, the technical term (German) for the grooved aluminum treatment is Rillen. Thin guage aluminum sheets are run through a large press with metal "wheels" for each line of grooves, the result which then strengthens, or stiffens each thin metal sheet.

Also, zero problems with airport security anywhere (including North America) and the Nespresso Pixie. They all know what a Nespresso is by now.

dko3tgk

I don't have any before pictures. The main thing was that the solid metal conrer bumper was completely off. The dents were not major, but the bigger ones were evened out.

I think if you are considereing a large checked Topas, you need to be ok with it looking bad after a fairly short time. Every time the bag comes off the carousel its got new dents. Still, mostly cosmetic, but its there. I will say however it protects contents better than nylon luggage. And it is repairable.
The Salsa line from what I hear is more prone to cracking and that can't be repaired, while the Topas can always be repaired, short of puncture I assume.
If you are mainly worried about looks, then stay away from the Topas. I still think that the Limbo is the best compromise. But I am not speaking from personal experience with the line.

Kgmm77

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Completely OT Swissaire, but I've been looking for a carry case for my Pixie everywhere. I did try to visit the Nespresso store in Geneva earlier this month but couldn't make it and I notice it's disappeared from stock lists on the website.

As a Pixie (work desk), Citiz (away home) & Essenza (home home) owner, I can't survive without my Nespresso.

Swissaire

Grüezi Kgmm77:

Try the Citiz padded travel case, if the Pixie case is not available.

It is larger, but secures better (accepts a small TSA lock) and holds more capsule sleeves, in addition to loose capsules stored in the H2O container. Despite all that I can pack a light jacket, 1 day of clothes, sonnenbrille, and a small Rimowa amenity kit case in the Topas.

Important business documentation goes into an attache, which admittedly is secondary, and somewhat important. Having just returned home, I cannot express more how happy I am to find out I am flying out on business again 7.January. 2012 !

MaecDavidMiller

Saw the Mission Impossible film last night (my first IMAX 'experience'). I think that the black carbon fiber briefcase in the Burj Khalifa was also a Rimowa. We're in good company!

rl5555

Saw the movie yesterday too, the black carbon fiber case is a Zero Halliburton Attache.

MaecDavidMiller

So the IMF played both sides off each other...

jetsethotel

Hi dko3tgk and Raph (or any other Rimowa owners):

Just wondering how your Rimowa luggage is holding up now that it's been a year of travel?

Did you purchase another (larger) Rimowa piece too? If so, which one and how is that holding up?

If you can provide me an update, that'll be great since I'm in the market for new luggage. Considering either the larger Topas or Limbo suitcases.

Thanks.

biznizclass

Also, can you post any pics of your (well travelled) Topas?

slomback

US Airways killed it and they are replacing it. One corner was hit so hard it shifted the entire top of one side of the shell. The top lock can't connect anymore. Surprisingly the suitcase came out with the other two locks still closed up and the contents of the suitcase in place.

antirealist

So you're willing to stick with the model, even though it was damaged beyond repair in less than a year?

My experience with the Silver Integral was that it frequently sustained damage necessitating repair. I didn't want to be stuck with an unusable suitcase when I was travelling, so I switched to a polycarbonate Limbo, which seems considerably more robust.

I love the aluminium cases, but I just don't feel I can rely on them.

dko3tgk

So I'm almost coming up on 4 years with my 29" Topas. To be honest I haven't used it much in the last 2 years since moving to Bangkok. I mainly use it for short vacations. Most of my business trips are 3-5 weeks and 29" is too little when you factor in suits, shoes, brochures, and shopping. Two years ago I bought a closeout 32" Rimowa Salsa (the old version salsa) two wheel from Koffer24, it was their own version, with a logo in the little circle. I figured lighter weight Salsa would be better. And it was cheap.
After using the 32" Salsa for the past two years, I can say that I believe the Topas is the only way to go for larger checked luggage from Rimowa. And all for one reason.

Metal can be fixed, polycarbonate cannot.

Yup, Topas can get dented, scratched, frames bent, etc. But it can nearly always be fixed, except for a puncture, but I have yet to see that.
My Salsa has 2-3 cracks in the shell. The Rimowa shop here handles repairs and their solution was a Rimowa sticker. Seriously? Because my older Salsa has no add-a-bag, i put alot of heavier carry ons over the pull handle. This led to a completely broken pull handle that wouldn't come out. That needed to be completely replaced. And putting anything heavy on top of a Salsa, especially if you try to hang a heavy duffle off the front, it leads to a very scary crushing of the shell from the weight.
I still need the 32" size and I'm probably going to buy a 32" 4 wheel Topas. The way I see it, I should be able to repair the Topas indefinitely. While a Salsa or Limbo depending on the crack is trashable.
And while I'm assuming some of the rabid B&R people will jump in and talk about the warranty. Here in Bangkok even paying for repairs is negligible. And a hard case, especially aluminum protects contents like glass and other fragile items perfectly. And the Baseline line doesn't come in 32" and if it did it would be heavier than a Rimowa.
That's my long term take on my 29" Topas, my experience with a 32" Salsa, and why I'm sticking to Topas for checked luggage in the future.

Swissaire

Good report.

A Rimowa sticker used as a repair solution. Amazing.

alphaod

I agree with this. Even though my Topas is all dented up and scratched up, in the end it's still holding up together, and I know the local Rimowa repair center can fix a lot of damage.

Old post, but I had a bag that came out worse than that after I stepped on it whilst drunk. I filed an insurance claim and got my money back. The local Rimowa shop said they wanted to try to fix it.

After a short while I get a call to pick it up and now it's looks and fits perfectly together. There is still some dents, but overall it looks excellent. All without costing me a penny.

Swissaire

Good for you.

Somehow, I missed the part about returning the insurance claim payout.