What do you recommend ?
Don’t want the pod type taste terrible can you recommend a beginners model/brand ..total newbie

budget?

Gaggia Classic is a great starting point, make sure you get some good quality coffee, ground by a proper coffee emporium if you have one locally or buy the best grinder you can afford and buy beans, it makes a difference.
Took me around a 2 weeks to pull a decent espresso and getting better all the time. It’s a black art!

DeLonghi 330somethingorother

£75 on eBay. We had one at work, abused it relentlesly (probably 50 double espressos a day for 12 months straight) and it’s been superb.
I now have it at home, and it’s still going strong.

Any more money and you’re paying for name/looks.

Ox seen them on there

Anything with a 15bar pump. The expensive ones are not better than the cheaper ones so save your money for decent coffee. The coffee provides the flavour not the machine. I’ve done a back to back with my dad’s expensive Gaggia and my cheap Krups and the resulting espressos were identical.

Had a look at quite a few & ended up with one of these. Had it about 6-months & can’t fault it

Gaggia Carezza

Rocket

I had a Gaggia Classic for 8 years and it was worth every penny once I got a decent grinder and reset the OPV (over pressurisation valve) to 9 bar.
be warned though it lead to me getting one of these
http://www.wogancoffee.co.uk/domestic-espresso

My DeLonghi only lasted three months before going pop (literally), and that was only making one or two espresso’s a day, so I’m afraid I couldn’t recommend one of those, still looking for a replacement now, and will probably go Gaggia.

Gaggia Classic all the way. Bought it nearly 8-9 years ago for £200.

Two simple modifications if you like to mess with it.

1. Steam wand (done this to mine)

2. Adjust the pressure (I have not done this yet)

Recently I bought my second grinder, Eureka Mignon On-Demand Grinder (about £280), from Bella Barista. Very nice grinder.

🙂

So how much does that unit from wogan cost then?

er well a year down the road and the wife still does not know but just under 1k

She went friggin potty when I walked in with it but she is now sold and when compared to the Gaggia she prefers the coffee from the Cudra, but to be fair the coffee from the Gagggia beats starbucks anyday

Next on the list is a new grinder 😉

Interesting. This Quick Mill Silvana top of my list.

Cost creeps up quickly as you look at these things. It was a £400 Rancilio until a few days ago

Can you fit a narrow/wide ring on that??

the rancilio is an amazing machine – Ill be honest other than the dial on that quick it’ll do the same thing

Everyone thats had anything from the silvia is amazingly impressed (match with a rancilio grinder and coffee from coffee real – yes it is expensive!)

I had a De Longhi but the hard water killed it despite using filtered water and descaling it every month. I now have an Atomic stove top machine, and while it does not produce a crema on espressos it does make the most amazing cappuccinos!

simons_nicolai-uk – Member

Interesting. This Quick Mill Silvana top of my list.

Cost creeps up quickly as you look at these things. It was a £400 Rancilio until a few days ago

Good call … I think if I were to upgrade it will be something like that with two boilers. I was thinking of Elektra but that’s just too expensive for now as a toy.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nU-fXDH1ew[/video]

This video is better.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GskOhmpXo[/video]

I picked up a used Gaggia Cubika from Gumtree for £40. 🙂

Gaggia Cubika is good simple machine.

For £40 that’s a steal.

What ever you get do not forget that you have to factor in a grinder

Then with practice

Sit back with a better coffee than you can get from the high street 🙂

Gaggia Cubika is good simple machine.

For £40 that’s a steal.

Very pleased with it. I accidentally let it run dry and mashed the plastic ball bearing in the pump to hell. Bought a steel replacement for pennies off ebay and it’s working perfectly again.

Porlex grinder, makes all the difference though.

So I’m continuing to flip flop between
– Quick Mill Silvano and Eureka Mignon grinder (basically £1000)
and a similarly priced Jura bean to cup machine (or even saving a load and just getting the espresso only Jura ENA micro 1 for about £500)

I’m sure the first option will have the capability to result in much better coffee but do I really want to deal with the faff, mess and waiting?

Has anyone lived with both sorts?

I prefer to have separate units partly because if one breaks down it does not affect the other. Not sure if it makes sense but that’s how I see things. i.e. less “moving” parts so less things to go wrong.

But if you are bothered with all those mess, not sure what mess, then I guess Jura ENA all in one might be for you. Plenty of moving parts though.

🙂

Yes, my thinking now is that the ‘real’ stuff will hold it’s value better as well so better off buying that and selling to move to automated if I don’t get on with it than the other way round. Will last a lot longer as well.

Sorted. Time to get the credit card out.