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So we have a five week old baby, poor mummy is shattered so go to make coffee BANG and squirt (not how the baby was conceived) and the trusty De Longhi died.
John Lewis were ace in person in the Sheffield shop after a useless lad in the customer service centre annoyed the hell out of me! Money refunded but now no coffee machine and nothing at the £120 we paid 18 months ago. What espresso machine for £200 to replace it with?
Sage duo temp pro , £100 over budget but will make a better espresso/cappuccino/flat white than the delonghi ever could. You got a decent grinder?
Got two grinders, one Peugeot from the 1930s which is ace and a shite krups one
I hear good things about these. Which are currently out of stock, but they have a 15psi model which _is_ in stock for about £105
ETA. Actually, if you don’t mind red, they have the 20psi model in stock.
Tell me more
Any one else help here ? Are the sub £200 gaggias ok?
@bikerevivesheffield - Are you going to be using pressurised baskets (ones with the little single pin hole at the bottom) or the regular ones which need a finer grind?
If you are looking to keep your current grinder then the entry level Lelit ones would be better if you can stump up another £150 as it would be a major difference in performance to <£200 models. You can buy 57mm pressurised Lelit baskets and BB have good customer service. https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/lelit-anna-pl41em.html
The Sage range are also good value for money but are a bit hard to get hold of spare parts. James Hoffman did a review of both super cheap and more expensive ones that might give you more information.
For the old I had a pressurised basket and a naked pirtafilter if we had nice beans
If you are getting fancy beans on a regular basis I would recommend you spend a bit more on the machine then as you will notice a difference. Milk steaming is going to improve a lot as well.
The Sage DB/Bambino or Leit Anna will last years if you maintain them, biggest killer is hard water on espresso machines. If you are in a hard water area where your kettle scales, then look at a filter jug/bottled water and a descale as needed/min six months makes sense.
It’s a bit like bikes, once you hit a certain price point you get diminishing returns but until then you get really big jumps.