Morning All

What’s a good coffee machine (non capsule) for daily home use please?

Mrs Hillsplease would like a capsule machine I’d rather have the glorious faff of ‘proper’ coffee making, grounds, steam wands etc etc

Any recommendations please?

All the very jolliest

Paul

budget?

Or you could spunk loads of money on a complicated, and frankly stupid, espesso machine like all the other suckers.
Don’t forget the £100 tamp, it won’t taste the same without one. 😛

I picked on of these up in new condition for £10 at a car boot…

Still leaves £90 for a tamper 🙂

Gaggia Classic, Iberital MC2 Grinder I believe is still the defacto starter kit.

I would, and did, replace the steam arm with a rancilio one, non pressurise basket as well.

and one of these

😀

Splendid – many thanks all – I am in slightly ‘ooh shiny present’ for Mrs Hillsplease on behalf of a family member.

Inclined by the Baby Gaggia as Mrs HP loves a nice gadget. Fools and their money…..

All the jolliest

Paul

Bought a used Jura Eno 7 for £70. Spent the extra £30 on coffee as it’s a bean to cup machine 8) .

Had a Gaggia, messy and broke down. Have a mokka which makes good coffee too.

We got a DeLonghi PrimaDonna in the JohnLewis black friday sale.

Bean to cup, perfect milk, hot chocolate – couldn’t ask for more.

We get beans from Small Batch coffee and I can’t taste the difference between a drink from our machine and one from theirs.

Problem with the stove top things are they take time and you have to clean them up afterwards. The bean to cup machines are basically instant with minimal fuss. It’s got to be convenient or you just wont bother. The DeLonghi seems to work fine for me. Plenty of adjustments so you can get as good an espresso from it as you can get form any high street vendor and you have the ability to make whatever style of coffee you want.

I’ve just bought a DeLonghi bean to cup as mrs MikeG didn’t get on with our Gaggia classic and just wanted to press a button and get coffee.
So far I’m quite impressed with it, the coffee isn’t as good as the best shots from the Gaggia but it’s consistently above average and I can get the kids to make me coffee!
[stealth ad] I will have to sell the Gaggia, grinder and all the other paraphernalia as there isn’t room in the kitchen for both machines now

Problem with the stove top things are they take time and you have to clean them up afterwards.

2 minutes?

Rocket R58

The thing with the bean to cup is that you get a consistent result, so with some fettling you can tune the results to provide as good a brew as a manual espresso machine. I’ve got mine to deliver a shot as good as I could get out of a manual espresso machine – and it’s 100% consistent unlike me.

While probably not a patch on a full blown ‘proper’ coffee machine, I find the Bosch Tassimo makes a good cup – but just stick to the coffee only pods and give the milk pods a wide berth.

So maybe not the best in the world but far better than instant – can be picked up cheap as well.

Aeropress is our regular favourite these days. Just got a metal filter which improves it even further. Not enough faff for a proper coffee snob though.

Gaggia Classic, Iberital MC2 Grinder I believe is still the defacto starter kit.

I would, and did, replace the steam arm with a rancilio one, non pressurise basket as well.
This (apart from the grinder bit as I only have a De Longhi one, but it is next on my list of upgrades. I can easily make a coffee shop quality coffee and like the OP, I love the faff associated with it.

Ohh, and regarding the tamp, just make sure you get one of a diameter to match the portafilter.

BTW, the newer Classics aren’t as well made as the original apparently (using more plastic parts) so, although they always come well recommended, you may find a brand new one doesn’t perform as well as an original.

Aeropress is our regular favourite these days. Just got a metal filter which improves it even further. Not enough faff for a proper coffee snob though.

An aeropress makes nice coffee (I use one when camping) but it doesn’t compare to an espresso from a proper machine.

I changed from a Delonghi bean-to-cup to a Nespresso and prefer the taste from the Nespresso not just the reduced faff. Part of the decision for me though as only having one cup a day meant keeping beans fresh etc. was a hassle. I know with Nespresso it’s not exactly freshly roasted but it tastes it to me and it’s then just a case of finding the type you like rather than faffing with machine settings and hoping you can keep getting the same beans once you find ones you like.

spammer reported.

Gaggia Classic (pre-philips), MrBean2cup will build you one using the original spec parts for less than the new version.
MDF grinder and stand.
Although I do love my original Baby too – 1977 in orange with the mdf to match.
Adjust the OPV to 10bar static down from 15 and it’ll be spot on time and time again.

I use a Delonghi PrimaDonna having previously had the Gaggia Titanium bean to cup machine. The Gaggia was a pain to live with the grinder blocking up if you used too darker roast beans and would need resets due to the software. We only went bean to cup as my wife couldn’t be bothered tamping the coffee even if we had ground coffee so she would hardly use it.
The Delonghi has been great and my wife uses it regular too with her preset coffee. One button and her favourite coffee is ready. The machine is well built and requires little maintenance. It has now surpassed 4 times the number of cups that the Gaggia had made.
The in-laws use the Nespresso machines and I’ve always found them lacking, a bit like drinking de-caf something in the taste seems to be missing almost artificial tasting. When they are visiting us they always make a fuss about how good the coffee is. We don’t use any special roasts, just Costco’s Starbucks blend or Lavazza Qualita beans depending which is cheapest. Buying 1kg bags we use Airscape containers to keep them fresh.

Delonghi magnifica if it still exists, very little faff and blummin lovely results

I have a Gaggia classic, Gaggia Baby Class, Kitchenaid Artisan (all given to friends) and most recently a Sage Duo Temp pro for myself – hands down the sage makes a far better espresso than any of the previously listed as it has pre infusion of the coffee grounds and PID temperature control on the boiler along with a thermobloc steam wand which gives unlimited steam for milk – brilliant wee machine that’s no faff to use at all and gives a consistently decent espresso/cappuccino, they are down to £295 on Amazon at the moment.

I’m always amazed how people will pile onto a 10 month old thread that’s been revived by spammers.

It’s all well meaning but I suspect the OP’s sorted by now 🙂

I used to think my old Gaggia classic was great but a wee bit confused sometimes but my Racilio Silvia is a step above
Also have a de longy bean to cup and it hides in the dark too many red lights to bother about and just average in my eyes, although an Icona de longy is a pretty good machine just plasticky

I used to think my old Gaggia classic was great but a wee bit confused sometimes but my Racilio Silvia is a step above
Also have a de longy bean to cup and it hides in the dark too many red lights to bother about and just average in my eyes, although an Icona de longy is a pretty good machine just plasticky

and then they press on as if no one’s pointed out they’re talking on a dead channel. Amazing.

How do you tell its a spammer ? I just like to post twice but hate spam since school dinners

How do you tell its a spammer ?

who else with little posting history revives 10 month old threads recommending specific consumer products?

Maybe I’m wrong, though!