Day: July 15, 2020

The De’Longhi Dedica machines have been one of the best selling domestic espresso coffee maker machine 2020 in the UK for quite a while. In fact the current model, the EC865 is the best selling espresso machine on Amazon at the time of writing, and had several thousand amazon reviews.

But this isn’t what I’d call a home barista machine, and it’s not a machine you’ll usually find me reviewing or talking about on coffeeblog. In fact this is of the level of machines I was referring to earlier when I said that I noticed a neighbour had bought an awful espresso machine. It wasn’t this exact one, but a similar type of very low cost domestic espresso machine. 

As a very quick rule of thumb, if an espresso machine retails at less than around £300, I’d be sceptical, simply because the components required to make semi decent espresso would usually make it difficult to produce a machine so cheaply.

When you consider how much the build cost would have to be to retail the machines at this price once various parties have taken their slice, you’re talking about machines that have had very little money spend on the build, and to make proper espresso requires various components which don’t cost pennies.

Another thing that would make me skeptical, by the way, is “15 Bars of Pump Pressure” featuring in the marketing blurb. This is not the sign of a quality machine, it’s the sign of a super cheap machine which probably should be avoided if you’re looking for a home barista setup.

Just see this list of best selling Espresso machines on Amazon, and “15 Bars of Pump Pressure” is something that most of the cheap espresso machines towards the top of the list, boast. But it’s not something to boast about.  We don’t want 15 bars of pressure for espresso, we want 9 bars.

The reason the super cheap domestic machines achieve 15 bars of pressure is that to achieve the lower 9 Bars without causing problems for the machine would lead to higher build costs. To achieve 9 bars without issues, a decent expansion valve is required, and a decent expansion valve doesn’t cost pennies, it costs probably £30-£35 or more,  which in some cases is likely to be way more than the total build cost of the machine. So build cost is lowered either by skipping the expansion valve, or using a cheap one, both which would make 9 bars a no go. 

But instead of being honest (marketing and honesty don’t exactly go hand in hand), brands spin this to make it appear that 15 bars is desirable, which it isn’t.

But I digress. 

Going back to the Delonghi Dedica, I’ve decided to include this cheap espresso machine in this post because I’m aware that there are many home baristas who’ve started out with a Delonghi Dedica such as the EC685 or the previous model the EC680, many of whom appear to have done OK with it if they’ve followed some of the tips I’m about to share.

It’s a very slim machine at just 15cm wide, so that’s a good thing if you don’t have much kitchen worktop space. It has a 1 litre water tank, which is about usual for a domestic espresso machine at this level, and it comes in black, white, red or silver.

It has a 51mm portafilter, and although this isn’t the standard 58mm, there are quite a few aftermarket baskets and portafilters on the market at this size, meaning you can swap out the baskets (as I’ll get to shortly) and the portafilter if required. 

It has a panarello steam wand (which I’ll talk about shortly) and the newer EC685 model has more space under the portafilter, allowing you to use larger cups. 

The Gaggia classic is a machine that home baristas have been using since 1991 when it was first launched. A huge number of home baristas all over the world, started out with the classic. 

The original classic was solid and simple. No control panel, no frills, just three rocker switches, but a proper boiler rather than a thermoblock (most entry level machines have thermoblock boilers) & a full pro sized 58mm portafilter.

It had a panarello steam wand as is the norm with home espresso coffee maker machine 2020, but people quickly discovered that it was really simple to mod the classic with the Rancilio Silvia steam wand. 

The classic proved to be a very reliable machine, which I can vouch for as my Gaggia Classic was made in 2003, and it’s still going strong. 

Gaggia was aquired by another Italian firm called Saeco in 1999. Saeco didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken, and the classic remained the same, until Philips bought Saeco in 2009. Production of the classic was moved from from Italy to Romania, and they modernised the production of the Classic, which in the opinion of many Gaggia classic fans, lead to the Classic no longer being the classic, for quite some time. 

Over the years they changed just about everything but the looks. They changed the boiler, they removed the mechanical 3 way solanoid valve, and the Classic then became just another domestic espresso machine very similar to the other cheaper machines on the market, but in the body of the classic. 

This came to a head with the 2015 version which was about as far away from the original classic as you could get, you couldn’t even easily mod the wand with this model.

But then, in 2019, things changed. They moved production back to Italy, and re-designed the classic almost exactly back to it’s original specs, but with one big improvement. The same small boiler is back, the 3 way solenoid valve is back, the good old fashioned rocker switches are back – and they added a professional steam wand, meaning that owners of the classic no longer have to mod the classic with the Rancilio Silvia steam wand.

So in my humble opinion, from experience (and I’ve had a lot of experience with the Gaggia Classic) the classic is a very valid choice as a first home Barista machine.

I’ve been really happy with it over the years, and I still have it now. In fact if you watch my YouTube videos, you’ll probably see it on the shelf behind me. It’s not always there, by the way, I do still use it as my home espresso machine when I’m not reviewing other espresso machines.

It doesn’t have a PID, which means the temperature isn’t going to be as stable as with a PID machine – you can mod them with a PID, but how much difference it’s going to make is arguable, the money would probably be better invested in upgrading your grinder. 

If you’re going for a used classic, make sure you get one pre-2009. My first machine was a 2003 Gaggia Classic I bought used on eBay for £100, paired with a Sage smart grinder pro which I managed to get new for around £140 if I remember correctly. More recently, though, the pre-2009 classics really seem to be holding their value, they regularly sell for over £200!

If you’re going to get a new Gaggia Classic Pro,  I’d highly recommend that you get it from Gaggia Direct, the UK distributor. Because you get a 2 year (or 3 years for an extra £20) UK warranty, directly with them, with their own service team – and I can tell you from experience that they know what they’re doing, and their service team are great (they service my classic).

I’m not not going to go in depth into the Gaggia Classic, if you think this may be the machine for you right now and you want to learn more, see my in depth Gaggia Classic Review.

The Rancilio Silvia is a popular single boiler home Barista espresso coffee maker machine 2020. For quite some time there wasn’t a great deal of competition when it comes to single boiler machines, other than the Gaggia Classic.

Silvia has usually been regarded by those with experience of both, as having a bit more potential for espresso quality, if paired with a capable enough grinder. The classic has been regarded, generally speaking, as the more reliable of the two over the long term, and with less potential to element burnout due to the fact that the boiler is externally heated.The main con for the Silvia vs the Classic, though, was cost. For a long time, the Silvia was roughly double the cost of the classic.

This is no longer quite the case, the new Gaggia Classic is available from the UK distributor Gaggia Direct, for £399, and the new version of the Rancilio Silvia (Silvia E V6 2020) is available from Bella Barista for £499, so there’s no longer as much in it. In many ways these machines are similar, same size water tank, same size portafilter, both have brass groups, both have a  3 way solenoid valve, neither have a PID (but both can be modded with a PID) and they’re both operated by simple switches.

They look similar too I think. Silvia is a bit more square, and the steam knob on the Silvia is on the front, and on the Classic it’s on the right hand side of the machine. 

The biggest difference is the boilers. The Classic has a small 80ml externally heated Alu boiler with a 1370W element. The Silvia has a much bigger 300ml Brass/Chrome alloy boiler, internally heated with a 952W element. 

My personal opinion of the Silvia is that it’s a great choice for the beginner home barista, especially if paired with a grinder of the calibre of the Eureka Mignon upwards. You do need to keep on top of descaling with the Silvia though, with the element being inside the boiler, and you need to make sure you keep the steam boiler filled up. 

We’re going from one extreme to the other here from the likes of the Classic & the Silvia to the Bambino Plus. If these were cars, this would be similar to comparing the Land Rover Defender to an ultra hi tech Tesla. Classic & Silvia are closer to other prosumer espresso machines, in that they’re made in a fairly standard way, with similar, easy to replace parts, which anyone with a bit of DIY competency (not me then…) would be able to maintain and repair. Machines like this (including much more expensive Heat Exchanger machines and Dual boiler machines) can be maintained and repaired for several years or even decades.

The Sage Bambino Plus, and the other Sage machines, are about as modern and as high tech as espresso machines get. They’re not made using standard parts, in fact Sage/Breville (they’re designed in Australia by Breville, known as Sage only in Europe) tend to invent quite a lot of the components they use in their espresso coffee maker machine 2020. 

The plus side of this, as with driving a Tesla, is you end up with some really clever and helpful features. The negative side of this is that, as with Tesla cars, Sage machines don’t particularly lend themselves to being tinkered with by the owner to be cheaply maintained and repaired over the years. If there’s a problem with a Sage machine, they have to go back to the manufacturer, and if it’s out of warranty, it may be a problem costly enough to make repairing the machine false economy over replacing it. 

But with that said, Sage really do make some clever machines, and the Bambino Plus is no exception to this. The Bambino Plus from Sage, is a really compact little machine. I think it looks great, and for such a tiny machine they’ve managed to give it a really decent sized 1.9L water tank, which has a filter, and which is very easy to remove and fill. 

It’s heated up in a crazy 3 seconds, and this is real, not the usual exaggerated marketing. OK, you’ll want to pull some hot water through the group head and portafilter to get everything else warmed up, but the machine does really only take 3 seconds to heat up. Steam is ready in about the same number of seconds after pulling the shot, too. 

This little inexpensive machine, had a PID, as to do all of the Sage machines, and this means brew temperature stability. This is something you won’t get with the popular Gaggia Classic or Rancilio Silvia unless you mod them with a PID, which you can do for around £100.

As long as you once again frisbee the pressured (or dual walled, but they basically do the same thing) baskets and use the single wall baskets, this machine is capable of some pretty decent espresso. If you’re buying directly from Sage Appliances, or buying the newest stock from a supplier such as a seller on Amazon UK, you should get the standard baskets as well as dual walled. They used to ship with only dual walled, so if you’re not buying directly from Sage, double check with your supplier that you’re going to get the standard baskets. 

The Bambino features the newer Thermojet system which is why it heats up so quickly, and this is the same system as with the new Barista Pro & Barista Touch.

The Sage Barista Express is a semi automatic espresso coffee maker machine 2020 from Sage (or Breville, as they’re called everywhere except Europe, as the Breville brand name was sold in Europe in the 80s), which features an integrated grinder. The Barista Express has been around for a good few years, and there’s a newer model now called the Barista Pro – they’re similar enough for me to include them both in one go.  The differences between the two:

One is price, the Barista Express has a hundred quid lower RRP than the Pro, but as the express has been around a lot longer, you can usually get it for less than this. 

They’re £545.95 at the moment directly from Sage Appliances, although if you shop around they’re sometimes available for quite a bit less. The best I can see at the moment is £449 (or from £13.50 per month), I’ve occasionally seen them a bit cheaper on Amazon UK but they’re quite a bit more than this at the time of writing, to see the current Amazon UK price. If you’re a costco member, it’s worth checking them out there, they’ve been on offer at cost co for among the lowest price they’ve ever been available.

As well as the price difference, the new Barista Pro features the new therms jet system, for faster steam and quicker steam ready time. The pro also has more grind settings, 30 vs 18 settings with the barista express, and the finish on the pro is slightly different. 

There’s also the touch screen version creatively named Barista Touch, which features auto steaming, and personalised one touch coffees. You can completely customise each espresso including milk temp and milk foam, as with the Oracle and Oracle Touch, but this machine really belongs in the bean to cup section. 

Except for the touch version, the Barista machines aren’t bean to cup espresso machine, despite the fact that they’re usually classified as such due to the integrated grinder, these are definitely machines meant for home baristas. The only similarities the Barista Express and Barista Pro shares with bean to cup machines are the integrated grinder, and the lack of grind settings, which leads to the Barista express having a similar limitation when it comes to properly dialling in and getting the extraction bang on.

Barista Express has 18 grind settings, which is more than most bean to cup machines, but still isn’t enough to properly get dialled in with a wide range of different coffees. Barista Pro has 30 grind settings, so that’s better, but you’re still going to be limited vs having a stand alone grinder. 

So with the barista express, and with the pro too although not quite to the same degree, you’ll just have to dial in as close as you can and then make do – which is likely to be closer to perfect than with a bean to cup machine with 5-10 grind settings, but not as close as you’d get with a stand alone espresso grinder.