I had a delonghi esam bean to cup for over ten yrs. half a dozen coffees every day, serviced a couple of times as had something go awry due mainly to not descaling regularly enough but the service from their service team is excellent and fixed price. I replaced it after 10 yrs and bought a slightly better model which was a bit smaller, quieter and nicer looking. I paid £200 for it on their eBay site as there was a 20% off voucher that weekend. It’s been great again and gets loads of use. The coffee is pretty good, does us at least and the milk frother is effective. It just works and did t break the bank, cleans itself and doesn’t need a lot of attention.

I’m sure some people have good experiences with Sage stuff – but just ask yourself why there are so many recon units available. They’re all returns.

I think coffee is a bit of journey – I wanted something in lockdown and for my 50th and the Oracle caused me to age another 10 years. My coffee shop friend told me not to get one but I just ignored him that said his bar is much higher than mine.

My current set up with separate grinder is now good – but a bit of a faff which I don’t mind. The convenience of the oracle with bean hopper which is subject to letting beans going stale is a pain – and not the smart idea it thinks it is. Single dosing is the way to go. Oracle is designed for around 22-24g – I tried adjusting the dose down but the machine is simply expecting that amount. And even at 22g sometimes it does 19/20 which is a big difference when trying to get good extraction. One day you will get a tight shot next shot is super flowy and no good.

Best tip with Oracle. Use a 1:1.8 ratio as it produces bitter coffee at 1:2 or more.

That Beko unit is great and looks classy for £200 ish quid.  Got one at work.  Double shot and dark roast and it’s okay.

Not particularly well extracted but what do your expect?

Anybody have an ariete? Seen these on special offer too

I have a Sage Barista Pro.

I think that’s the model I have that stopped heating a while back and I’ve yet to get fixed* I’ve gone back to either the drip brew – if I want quantity or I’m being lazy or the stove top. I grind beans in a blade grinder and as well, so I’m clearly going to hell The biggest single difference IME is the beans, the rest is just comment.

* where do you get them fixed?

We have a DeLonghi Dinamica Plus in the office and it makes perfectly nice coffees but I have a Sage Duo-Temp Pro with a Sage Smart Grinder Pro at home and the coffee is far superior.

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.

where do you get them fixed?

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!)

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.