Another coffee machine thread
Discussion
Typical!
Managed to resist purchasing a De'longhi ESAM4200S on Amazon recently, great deal @ £229.99, now £259.99
Today my Gaggia Baby seems to have given up on me, light comes on & pump works but won't heat up
Done some quick research, ESAM22.320 comes up very well, best price is £320 at Currys.
Typically none of the recommended DL's are available at John Lewis & I have a £40.00 gift voucher.
Over to you oh knowledgable ones, I can't live without decent coffee so what do I do?
Managed to resist purchasing a De'longhi ESAM4200S on Amazon recently, great deal @ £229.99, now £259.99
Today my Gaggia Baby seems to have given up on me, light comes on & pump works but won't heat up
Done some quick research, ESAM22.320 comes up very well, best price is £320 at Currys.
Typically none of the recommended DL's are available at John Lewis & I have a £40.00 gift voucher.
Over to you oh knowledgable ones, I can't live without decent coffee so what do I do?
Check out the search!
Here's one example
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=121...
Only 8 pages.
Here's one example
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=121...
Only 8 pages.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rancilio-Silvia-and-Dose...
Don't worry about buying used if in generally good condition; most are under-used and simply need a damn good clean. If anything does wear out parts are all widely available and cheap.
My Silvia was 120 and needed a £15 pump.
My Rocky (grinder) was 80 and needed new burrs (£35).
Don't worry about buying used if in generally good condition; most are under-used and simply need a damn good clean. If anything does wear out parts are all widely available and cheap.
My Silvia was 120 and needed a £15 pump.
My Rocky (grinder) was 80 and needed new burrs (£35).
LHM, I've used these guys to resuscitate my Baby Gaggia http://www.gaggia-service.co.uk/contact_us.htm
It died a few years ago & I couldn't face the thought of finding a replacement, or justify buying a new one. Story is that when Gaggia UK went bust post credit crunch, philips stepped in & machines made since then have cheap unreliable innards, so don't buy a new one. These guys use refurbished gaggia parts & are therefore higher quality. Nice business model for them I thought - I'll pay to ship you a free stock of parts, which you'll sell back to me at just enough under replacement unit cost to hook me in. Then the call came - "yep it's sha**ed mate, you need 4 chrome wing nut spigots and a flux capacitor", so they got me. But 6 years later - no problems & less than half the cost of a new machine, which I've now had for nearly 18 years.
Otherwise, every time I use a Nespresso, hungover, or otherwise at friends, I'm sold: it's quick, easy & 100% predictable, but somehow just not the same...
Hope that helps.
It died a few years ago & I couldn't face the thought of finding a replacement, or justify buying a new one. Story is that when Gaggia UK went bust post credit crunch, philips stepped in & machines made since then have cheap unreliable innards, so don't buy a new one. These guys use refurbished gaggia parts & are therefore higher quality. Nice business model for them I thought - I'll pay to ship you a free stock of parts, which you'll sell back to me at just enough under replacement unit cost to hook me in. Then the call came - "yep it's sha**ed mate, you need 4 chrome wing nut spigots and a flux capacitor", so they got me. But 6 years later - no problems & less than half the cost of a new machine, which I've now had for nearly 18 years.
Otherwise, every time I use a Nespresso, hungover, or otherwise at friends, I'm sold: it's quick, easy & 100% predictable, but somehow just not the same...
Hope that helps.
I have the ESAM4200S and it's been brilliant so far (although only had it since Christmas). Really glad I paid out for a bean to cup machine after the normal espresso (Delonghi and Gaggia) machines that didn't last long at all and the Dolce Gusto that was rubbbish. John Lewis had a model called something like ESAM4000s, which was apparently a JL exclusive, the only difference was that it was all black rather than the silvery colour of the 4200S. It was about £20 more (£270) than the 4200S I managed to get off eBay, but they no longer seem to have it on the JL site. Might be worth keeping an eye out for it or contacting them if you have the vouchers.
We have an ESAM22.320, we bought it about 18 months ago.
So far it has been very reliable and, to me, produces better coffee than i can buy in a coffee shop. Different beans have such a varied taste range, and playing with the grind really makes a big difference.
We clean it out monthly etc etc, butits very easy to use- it even turns itself on at 6:30 every morning!
Much recommended.
Only downside is that we seem to drink more coffee now- 650 cups in the past 12 months!
Even dirnking more coffee it has certainly worked out cheaper than running a pod machine- and it is more space efficient, and cleaner than a proper seperates setup.
So far it has been very reliable and, to me, produces better coffee than i can buy in a coffee shop. Different beans have such a varied taste range, and playing with the grind really makes a big difference.
We clean it out monthly etc etc, butits very easy to use- it even turns itself on at 6:30 every morning!
Much recommended.
Only downside is that we seem to drink more coffee now- 650 cups in the past 12 months!
Even dirnking more coffee it has certainly worked out cheaper than running a pod machine- and it is more space efficient, and cleaner than a proper seperates setup.
Dr G said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rancilio-Silvia-and-Dose...
Don't worry about buying used if in generally good condition; most are under-used and simply need a damn good clean. If anything does wear out parts are all widely available and cheap.
My Silvia was 120 and needed a £15 pump.
My Rocky (grinder) was 80 and needed new burrs (£35).
That Rancilio is a great machine but getting good crema can be challenging.Don't worry about buying used if in generally good condition; most are under-used and simply need a damn good clean. If anything does wear out parts are all widely available and cheap.
My Silvia was 120 and needed a £15 pump.
My Rocky (grinder) was 80 and needed new burrs (£35).
We bought ours new with 6 free cups and I believe is was around £600. £135 is a hell of a deal.
Denis O said:
That Rancilio is a great machine but getting good crema can be challenging.
Really? Shouldn't be difficult at all. If you're using fresh beans, with the right dose and grind, you'll always get heaps of proper crema. Correct dose and grind = so you extract 25-30ml of coffee (for a single shot, 50-60ml for a double) in 25 seconds or so. A half decent grinder is vital as well.
The cheaper machines often have pressurised portafilters that create crema even when those parameters aren't correct or the beans are stale. It's usually pale and thin though, and nothing like what you get on a decent shot pulled from something like a Silvia.
uncinqsix said:
Denis O said:
That Rancilio is a great machine but getting good crema can be challenging.
Really? Shouldn't be difficult at all. If you're using fresh beans, with the right dose and grind, you'll always get heaps of proper crema. Correct dose and grind = so you extract 25-30ml of coffee (for a single shot, 50-60ml for a double) in 25 seconds or so. A half decent grinder is vital as well.
The cheaper machines often have pressurised portafilters that create crema even when those parameters aren't correct or the beans are stale. It's usually pale and thin though, and nothing like what you get on a decent shot pulled from something like a Silvia.
Interesting what you say about cheaper machines. Our old Dualit always produced excellent crema but the coffee was nowhere near as nice as the Silvia.
Denis O said:
I know this maybe heresy but we don't use beans but pre ground coffee.
I'm afraid that using pre-ground supermarket coffee in a Silvia is rather like running an M3 on Macedonian tractor fuel 
Fresh beans (such as from the smokey barn chap), and a reasonable burr grinder will make a massive difference.
Well the De'Longhi arrived yesterday, easy to set up & get the hang of & even with Lavazza Rossa beans from Tesco it makes pretty good coffee! Need to tweek the settings so the double shot option is slightly longer & may play with the grinder settings too (on 5 at the mo I think).
Steamer is a world away from the rubbish one on the Gaggia, love the timer function, heard it priming at 07.50 to be ready for me when I got up at 08.00
Need to finish the Lavazza ground coffee then when I've used the 1kg bag of beans it'll be time to try Smokey Barn me thinks
Steamer is a world away from the rubbish one on the Gaggia, love the timer function, heard it priming at 07.50 to be ready for me when I got up at 08.00
Need to finish the Lavazza ground coffee then when I've used the 1kg bag of beans it'll be time to try Smokey Barn me thinks
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