Hi All,
I am hoping there is a Xiaomi power bank of coffee machines. Essentially looking for a manual coffee machine that has a steam wand for frothing milk. I currently have a cheaper Aldi one, which has started failing in under a year. Are there any community/personal recommendations, I am happy to wait for a bargain but would like to know what to look for.
Thought Aldi usually puts 1 or 2 years (2 years for their pod machines) warranty on their products. You might have just got a dud.
Unfortunately it was a gift from parents, who have now moved interstate and lost the receipt.
Edit: For context it was purchased around 9 months ago with daily use.
Breville Bambino on sale is probably your best bet?
Or 2nd hand.
Well, for that much its going to be a stretch. If you can go a little bit further then you can have a grinder and machine in one, I know here people hate on the sunbeam range but I have this one and it works well:
https://www.appliancesonline.com.au/product/sunbeam-barista-…
I've had this one, putting out 4 coffees a day now for awhile. It does lack the pressure indicator, and is less reliable than the breville range, but it does let you customise pre infusion profile, extraction temperature, shot durations, the grinder works well, and its a 58mm basket meaning its easier to find equipment for it (tampers, baskets, distributor tools etc).
Otherwise you are looking at second hand (and its a minefield out there in my opinion), or a machine with no grinder so buying pre ground coffee which I did for a while as well with this machine:
https://www.appliancesonline.com.au/product/sunbeam-cafe-esp…
But I agree with above poster that you would be better with the Breville bambino.
From my experience, I started with that Sunbeam EM3820 and I quickly realised that I wanted a grinder and also non pressurised baskets, so the machine held me back for a while until I upgraded to the EM5300s.
My next machine will either be a Breville or a Silvia Rancilio with separate grinder.
Thanks for the reply. I am currently buying pre ground coffee and understand that this will probably have to be a trade off I accept to get something within my budget.
What was the big reason you decided you wanted a grinder (cost/convenience/quality)?
Quality and the feeling of being "limited" by pressurised baskets. If you get fresh ground coffee you won't notice the difference when using pressurised baskets, so you might think… "whats all the hype about, tastes about the same" - I know I did with my original sunbeam. There's kind of a ceiling there in terms of what you can get out, no matter the quality and freshness of the beans. I also got a cafe to give me espresso ground coffee and it just wouldn't even get a drip out, pressurised baskets need quite coarsely ground coffee to work.
So only quality really… cost certainly not, and convenience either, the grinder can be a bit messy… you should ideally purge some when you change beans/grind settings (I don't think).
Moka Pot or plunger plus a grinder with fresh beans are probably the only things that remotely qualify.
Even a used machine you'd be lucky to find in decent condition under your budget.
Thats actually a good point, a lot of the coffee fanatics out there (James Hoffman, Sprometheous etc) are more into either V60 pourover, Aeropress, or Drippers which would easily fall in the price range. Perhaps not if you include the grinder…
Agree…particularly given the budget.
I think any of the consumer machines has a high likelihood of becoming economically unrepairable by 5 years (YMMV), at which point they are landfill.
If you're a handy person and good at fixing things, the best option for a semi-auto machine is to find a 'not working' Rancilio, Gaggia, or other machine on eBay, and repair it. I saw a Sylvia go for $300 recently - it looked to be in excellent shape but with a faulty power switch, a cheap item to buy at Jaycar and easy to fit. I've seen several easily repairable Sylvias go by in the last 6 months, and a few Gaggias too.
If you have a lot of space and an extra couple of hundred, you can probably find a used commercial machine in serviceable condition around the $500 mark, though I understand servicing one of those might not be everybody's cup of …err…latte? They will suck more electrons though, and many can't be plugged into domestic power, but you'll have steam until the cows come home with their A2 milk for you to foam.
Other than that, then yeah, Bambino seems to be quite popular and well regarded.
Thanks for the replies. I personally don't think I will be able to fully appreciate the quality difference and therefore would like something a bit more quick and convenient.
$40 Moka Pot plus $200 Grinder and a $35 bag of Fresh beans = significantly better coffee than even a $2000 coffee machine plus pre-ground supermarket coffee could make.
Fresh grind and fresh beans are the keys to quality. The brewing method is a very distant third making up maybe the last 20% of the quality of output.
Oh wow, I had no idea. Do you have any Grinders/Beans you recommend?
@devondale16: @devondale16: Beans to taste.
I go to a Local Roaster.
Used to buy from the vendors who used to advertise here frequently like Baybeans and SweetYarra.
Grinder, the Breville smartgrinder is the cheapest decent grinder. I bought mine for $160ish on sale a few years ago.
If you get the Baratza Encore grinder and a v60 and/or aeropress, you'll be within budget and get great coffee if you're using quality beans. Less maintenance and countertop space than a coffee machine
Looking for a Good Manual Coffee Machine
4-speed or 5-speed ?
Delonghi dedica
At $300 I would look for a second-hand Rancilio Silvia or Gaggia Classic.
Both have great boilers and plenty of thermal mass for reliable extractions.
Definately the way to go. Both are reasonably compact and produce excellent results.
Speaking of which @devondale16 , PM if you are interested in the Rancilio Silvia. I recently upgraded to a Rocket Evo and my Silvia has been sitting patiently waiting for a new home. I have gotten around to listing her on ebay/gumtree/facebook.
@madbunny, I can't message you. Happy to have a chat if you wanna PM me.
I'd be interested in this if it's still available?
Cafetier (aka French Press) $20
https://www.amazon.com.au/Bodum-Kenya-French-Coffee-17-Ounce…
Coffee grinder $39
https://www.target.com.au/p/sunbeam-multigrinder-ii-trade-em…
1kg good coffee beans - Aldi Lazzio Dark Beans - $12
https://www.beanscenemag.com.au/aldi-lazzio-beans-win-2021-c…
I have one of these….going good for years :) …good for small family or singles….https://www.thegoodguys.com.au/breville-compact-cafe-espresso-machine-bes250bss
There's a much bigger conversation that's worth having for you about what kind of coffee you want, and how much the quality of the produced coffee matters. There are some good options for getting away with cheaper settings, but if you want a latte that is vaguely reminiscent of a cafe's version then you'll need to spend a bit more than you think likely.
If you're willing to compromise - ie drinking black coffee, happy with poor quality (ie pod machine quality), etc - then there are plenty of options to discuss.
If I'm to take your brief at face value, and you need a manual coffee machine that can make a decent latte then I'd look for a used gaggia classic or rancilio silvia (gaggias in particular appear on FB marketplace reasonably frequently around that price point) and go from there. Please note that any manual coffee machine will only output a drink commensurate with the quality of the beans put in, which means that buying vaguely fresh beans is important, but more significantly the quality of the grind is important. Grinders are more expensive than you think for making tasty coffee.
If you were to ask me what I thought was a good middle ground (presuming you want a nice latte) I'd say either get a used gaggia and a breville smart grinder pro, or get a breville barista express. I'd be surprised if you couldn't make a nice tasting drink with either of those setups. Feel free to reply or message if you want to discuss further.
Agreed.
But a $300 budget buys only a (used) coffee machine leaving nothing for a grinder.
Buy a used one.
Breville barista express, find one where they've blocked the steam wand and don't know that cleaning it with citric acid will fix it. $150-200.
Or a rancilio silvia, but that's a bit of a stretch, unless you find a broken one like I did and fix it.
Make sure you get or buy a grinder. Freshly ground coffee is the biggest upgrade over preground.
If it must be new the sunbeam barista max is as close as you'll get, but it's not as good as the barista express, and far inferior to the dual boiler and silvia.
Is this one of those $99 machines?