Bean to cup machine or pump espresso machine

Trojan00

Hi

I am looking for advice on buying a coffee machine that makes americano, latte & cappuccinos. My budget is about €300. I was looking at the Delonghi bean to cup machines and espresso pump machines. Is it better to go for a burr grinder and pump machine over the bean to cup machines?

Can anyone recommend something for me?

Thanks in advance

dillonmr

@Trojan00 My advice is to avoid bean to cup machines, they are problematic and difficult to maintain. The other element to consider is that you may want to upgrade in the future and for this you would be better off upgrading your grinder before machine (you will see better results).

Going with separate machines you should not under budget your grinder (at you're budget I would suggest attest 40% is for the grinder). Could I suggest you look to the second hand market? The reason I say this is that with abit of looking you'll might pick up a Gaggia Classic or a Rancilio Silvia machine and a decent burr grinder, Vario or a Rancilio Rocky. This sort of set up will greatly assist you in getting good milk based drinks compared some of the high street brands.

I'm in process of upgrading my Rancilio Silvia and Rocky Grinder for a commercial quality set up and like me there are others so good second hand equipment may be in short supply but its worth keeping an eye out for.

R

dillonmr

@Trojan00 My advice is to avoid bean to cup machines, they are problematic and difficult to maintain. The other element to consider is that you may want to upgrade in the future and for this you would be better off upgrading your grinder before machine (you will see better results).

Going with separate machines you should not under budget your grinder (at you're budget I would suggest attest 40% is for the grinder). Could I suggest you look to the second hand market? The reason I say this is that with abit of looking you'll might pick up a Gaggia Classic or a Rancilio Silvia machine and a decent burr grinder, Vario or a Rancilio Rocky. This sort of set up will greatly assist you in getting good milk based drinks compared some of the high street brands.

I'm in process of upgrading my Rancilio Silvia and Rocky Grinder for a commercial quality set up and like me there are others so good second hand equipment may be in short supply but its worth keeping an eye out for.

R

ScumLord

Lidl have an espresso machine on sale for €70. It's just the boiler, portafilter and a steam nozzle. It doesn't grind beans, that has to be done separately. I got it and a separate grinder for it.

I don't really have much to compare it to, other than coffee machines in petrol stations, but it seems pretty good to me. It's very fast, turn on the machine let it get up to pressure (a minute or two at most, it loses pressure slowly so it quite often has pressure left over from the last cup of coffee even if it's been turned off for a while) and flick the switch.

I'm surprised by how straightforward it was to move over to his type of machine. I had found a broken down full barista coffee machine that would do everything and the complication of that machine was pretty incredible. I took it apart for repair and it seems like people used it until it clogged (probably never cleaned) and then abandoned it. After taking it apart I don't really see how you could ever really clean it properly without dismantling it entirely.

The Lidl machine has very little that can go wrong with it mechanically, maybe the motor or heater can blow, but other than that there's no moving parts.