I had a DeLonghi Magnifica or similar for 6-7 years and had no real complaints. It was great at just putting out pretty much the same shot of espresso every time, with minimal involvement beyond adding beans and water. It wasn't so good at milk frothing though; and although there are DeLonghi models with more milk options, I don't love their approach so much (several of them have built in milk pots which feels like an inherently bad idea.
Now got a Sage Barista, and although it's bean to cup (beans go in top, coffee comes out bottom) it's much more hands on - you have to set the grind coarseness for the beans, the quantity of grind for the shot, tamp it down, then you can set the temperature of water/ steam being used for the shot etc. In theory it's more adjustable than the DeLonghi, and I find that when adding a new bag of coffee I'll need to adjust the grind coarseness etc. I think it's supposed to be more serviceable (eg gasket, etc) than the DeLonghi. And one clear benefit is the frother wand is a league above DeLonghi's solution, makes really good frothed milk and much easier to clean.
if you google there's loads of independent engineers (think Sage also have their own engineers who'll come out to fix it, no doubt for £££ though) which makes me think it's probably straightforward to source the parts & DIY it (if you're handy!)where do you get them fixed?
Sage use Coffee Classics.
I asked them the cost of my last repair it was about £300. Including initial call out + parts + Labour + VAT
My was done out of warranty. The warranty is pretty good. It needs to be.
Beko BTC just popped up on HUKD for £134!
I wonder how much this beauty is..
‘Upwards of 20k’ according to an eBay advert for a second hand one!
As far as I can tell (having owned one and had a look inside various models in John Lewis) the grinder and coffee-squishing bits are identical throughout the range so it doesn’t really matter which one you buy if you don’t want a fancy screen.
Got a delonghi magnifica around 4 years ago. Came from a cuisinart espresso machine with a steam wand. It's was a faff to use.
The delonghi is easier to use, has a removable milk jug that goes in the fridge after use and has been faultless for 4 years. Easy to clean and the milk jug can go in the dishwasher.
Delonghi have an eBay shop and regularly have offer codes.
