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I currently have a Gaggia Classic which I generally love, however I get frustrated at not having dual heaters (ie, waiting for the frother to heat up / cool down) and was considering 'upgrading' to this. Would it be a reasonable upgrade (it sounds like it meets my needs) and as I have the Sage burr grinder it would match and satisfy my anal nature.
Or should I look elsewhere?
How about a standalone frother? Or would this leave you unsatisfied anally?
I'd rather not have another gadget on the worktop.
(ie, read 'my wife would rather I don't by additional gadgets')
I have the same machine along with the sage smart grinder, having had 4 different gaggia models over the past 15 years I would recommend the sage duo temp pro every time, it makes far better coffee with the pid temp control and the milk frother is far superior to the gaggia
I’ve had this for a couple of years, it’s ace. You need to keep them clean though. It’s a bigger model than the one you’ve linked to.
£430 from JL.
Yeah I don't need that though as I already have
Ok, all I will say is.. they work better when clean. Down this way with the limescale issues we have, that this machine needs regular flushing with white wine vinegar to clear the tiny lime deposits on the pump filters.
The grinder on it is really good, I know you have one already but it’s simple and very tuneable. The hot frother wand sometimes blocks if not flushed through after use.. and if you don’t clean/flush it that’s the first place that gets blocked.
I’ve only had user cleaning issues with it, it’s been faultless.
Worthy of credits of the realm IMO.
Do you change the filter in yours regularly? I read that they need changing regularly and can be pricy (although cheap copies are available). We don't suffer from limescale where I live though so it *shouldn't* be a problem.
I don't think the Duo Temp Pro is a dual boiler machine, so it won't be any different to the Gaggia from that perspective. You have to go up to the £900 Dual Boiler in the Sage line up to get that.
Has anyone with one of those Sage machines had the steam wand stop working? Our machine (2.5yrs old) will steam for 30seconds and then stop at which point if you switch back to group head feed you get steam out of the group head then it'll steam again. Was told by Sage support that this is due to scale and while I always do a clean I have never done a full on descale.
Yeah, mentioned above.. ^^ they need cleaning regularly.
My “wand” blocked and it was the first time I’d had the issue. Went online (sage have a forum) and plenty of people recommended flushing from the water holder with a mix of 20% white wine to water ratio... I didn’t do that obvz and 50/50’d it and it took a little while to flush the system.. I turned the hot water only on first to purge the water through, when that came through I switched to the wand and back again then through he coffee filter/dispenser and repeated until the tank was nearly dry..
At that point all the water/wine mix had come through the system and the tank was nearly dry, then I flushed it all through with clean water.
I took the water filter out before flushing, then put a new one in afterwards.
Watch for the dark grey water when a new filter is popped in, it’s the tiny charcoal granules coming through.. just purge for a few mins until it runs clear.
I always change filters, once every month regardless now. But before the issues about descaling I didn’t bother, then I had issues and now clean regularly and all’s fine.
Id say pretty much every machine could do with a regular descale routine.
Oh, the filters I get online from a coffee shop.. cheaper than the sage ones and 6 at a time.
HTHs
For Jon... we have another sage in Harrogate, I do the same cleaning process “just in case” but I know the waters different there.
Thank you. White wine??
White wine??
A fancy version of white sarsons vinegar I'd imagine. It's an acid so strips limescale (alkaline).
White Wine Vinegar 👍
White Wine might work, but could prove expensive and ultimately depletion of your cellar 😎
The frother on mine stopped working when the o rings started leaking.
There are heaps of videos on YouTube on how to fix them. They’re called Breville in the rest of the world.
I use citric acid instead of vinegar. It’s not as smelly.
Easy. Aeropress in the drawer. Frother to choice.
Bargain
Aeropress doesn't do espresso, no matter what the evangelists say.
I keep thinking the same way as you op, but the gaggia keeps rumbling on... 😊
I went from a Gaggia to an Isomac years ago. For the 900 quid a dual boiler sage costs, I'd take a proper E-61 based machine for not much more money. The Isomac is dead simple inside, in the 7 years I've had it, the water pump and pressurestat have packed in because I always forget to descale it, but neither fix cost more than 30 quid and half an hour to sort. Basically a commercial machine on smaller scale. I don't rate your chances of the sage lasting that long.
I don’t rate your chances of the sage lasting that long.
9 years & counting for my Breville/Sage with nothing but $5 worth of O rings replaced.