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I currently have a Gaggia Classic (older one with brass internals) but it's getting on a bit, leaks from the wand and the steamer dial keeps falling off. Obviously I could send it away / DIY the fixes, but I also quite like the idea of a Sage Pro Temp Duo for the separate heaters as I have a birthday coming up (and I already have a Sage grinder).
So I was thinking I could get a bit of money for my birthday then sell the Gaggia and have a shiny new toy – would this be madness or would I get better coffees/more consistent frothed milk out of the Sage?
In a moment of weakness I recently 'agreed' to us getting a Sage Barista Express, to replace previous much cheaper machine that had died.
Must say it produces great coffee, frothing milk is dead easy, all very consistent. So big thumbs up from me!
brother-in-law has one of those. its a decent bit of kit.
when the time comes we'll be replacing our delonghi magnifica one.
After 5 years (at least!) of having a wee glass below my leaking wand, I finally did the modification on my 11 year old classic, which allows you to remove the steam valve and give it a wee clean up every now and again, no more drips!!.
Anyone else got any experience/opinion? I thought STW would be all over this post 🙂
If you're halfway handy with spanners, get a E61 based machine with a HX boiler (Rocket, Isomac, LaPavoni etc) and it'll last a lifetime, as all the spares are available, cheap and easy to fit yourself.
I have the Barista Pro. It replaced the ubiquitous Delonghi Magnifica. I didn’t go for the dual boiler although a mate has one and really rates it.
Had mine since December last year. Been really impressed with it. Using the same beans as before, there is definitely more flavour from using the Sage. Takes a bit of getting used too but now I seem to be able to make consistent espresso and americano.
Even with a single boiler, no issue making decent lattes either. I make the coffee first, switch to steam and it all seems to work. Best thing I added was a jug with an inbuilt temp gauge. I watched FAR too many YT vids tho on ‘the correct way to steam milk’ 😉
They are a bit more messy but I have a good routine to keep everything clean. I’ve cleaned the burrs twice, descaled it once and ‘flushed’ it twice. All with no drama.
TLDR; get one they’re ace.
LaPavoni etc
Is it bad that I really really want a europiccola?
Is it bad that I really really want a europiccola?
Nope, they're amazing, but do take a few thousand shots to get used to IME. Also weird when you use another one (there's 3 in my family) cos the pressure profile is different. If you want a better deal than a pavoni, keep a look out for a Gaggia Factory (G105 is europiccola, G106 is the pro). Much easier to service than a normal coffee machine as there's nothing in them 🙂
Have had a Gaggia Classic, then a europiccola, then a G106, then a tank fed E61. Latter is the most consistent but the lever machines make better coffee IME.
Is it bad that I really really want a europiccola?
We had one. The best thing I did coffee wise, was to chop it in for a secondhand Gaggia Classic. Flaky, PITA, piece of crap. Did look nice, though...
We've had our Gaggia for the best part of 15 years now. Needs the odd bit of fettling (inc the drippy steam wand), but generally just works. If I could be arsed, I'd probably fit a PID temperature controller on it and possibly try and lag the boiler to make it more thermally stable, which would be the single biggest improvement to the repeatability of the coffee produced. The heat up/cool down bit between steaming milk and pouring another shot isn't a big deal for us - we've just learned to work around it (helps I tend to only drink espressos).
Don't know a lot about the Sage stuff, but can't help but feel it won't be as bombproof as old-skool Gaggia build. E61 HX machines as mentioned above look lovely and feel like proper "machines", but you tend to need full depth worktop (which I don't have available currently) and I suspect the heat-up time and energy consumption whilst doing so are prohibitive in a domestic enviroment.
Have you come across Fracino? The Piccino comes across a bit like a dual boiler Gaggia?
https://www.fracino.com/piccino.html
I think part of the reason I like the Euro is people moaning about the wand which seems a bit like bitching about the boot space in your ferrari. (I should be clear, if you want to froth milk that's fine, if you want milk in your espresso that's fine, but you didn't buy a lever machine because you wanted a cappuccino, you bought it because you wanted a lever machine)
Does the g106 have the same "issue"?
...and to be honest, it's fair academic. My current krups thing works fine and for my sins I'm presently only really shopping for a pod machine (which auto correct in a surprisingly astute moment wants to correct to piss machine) for the summer house once it's built.
Sage duo Pro for me and its been trouble free for the last 3 years. Well happy but it's the only one I have owned so can't comment on other makes.
I don't know where mine falls in the coffee machine league but I do rate my gaggia brera
That and my aeropress go 😉
Does the g106 have the same “issue”?
The Gaggia Factory is a pretty faithful copy. Not particularly powerful at steaming but it's all relative. Mine has a single hole tip I bought for a fiver from eBay, it's better with that. But it doesn't steam as well as an E61, for example.
Maybe yours was generally just a rubbish one Jon? Mine have both been great, but as I say I did need a shit load of practice to get consistently good with it. And both of mine were different to the other one I used 🙂
Just to let you know, the Sage Duo Temp Pro does not have dual heaters. To get dual heaters you need to step up to the Sage Dual Boiler - £1199.00