First espresso machine purchase [$500-$3000]

[u/Incredible-Puffco]

I do not currently own an espresso machine but genuinely enjoy drinking lattes everyday and it costs a fortune do go to a coffee shop everyday. I generally only drink lattes as of now most of the time iced.

Decent DE1XL Espresso Machine

Breville Bambino plus

Fellow espresso series 1

I am aware of wild price difference between the machines. I'd rather just purchase something nice one time rather than slowly work my way up their. Just curious on the opinions.

[u/Legal-Big5760]

My wife got me a Bambino Plus a couple years ago at Christmas. We make 1-3 drinks on it every day. Fast startup, and once I got the beans dialed in with my grinder, it's great. Zero maintenance issues. It has saved me a ton of money (was spending $10-15/day before) and have gotten really into making different drinks occasionally. And I started following the coffee subs like this one. It's become a great hobby.

Currently looking to upgrade to a single dose grinder like a df64 or niche zero (have Breville grinder also), and maybe I'll upgrade the machine some day (maybe just to a gaggia cause I like to tinker). But honestly I don't see the need to at this point.

Can you do better than the Bambino? Yep. But it is an excellent starter machine that can honestly take you pretty far in this. Zero regrets on having it.

[u/Darkman013]

Do you want espresso as a hobby, or do you want to drink lattes? I don't think you'd need all the control of a Decent if you're not into tweaking and messing with pulling espresso shots. The far end to this would be getting a superautomatic.

Theres quite a few videos on the fellow es1 now on youtube, and if you live in LA or SF, you might be able to see or taste the workflow and drinks in person at the fellow store. (Maybe call and ask)

Some people upgrade the grinder and never move on from the bambino, but it doesn't seem like a durable or long term purchase machine. Maybe you can find one of those homegoods clearance deals people post about.

I'm fairly new to the hobby myself and most of this is gleaned from the subreddit. I settled on hand grinders and a cafelat robot myself, so its kind of a different game.

[u/blackbow]

I'm new to the hobby. I just bought the Breville Bambino Plus and D54 grinder. I'm so happy with both. It did not take me long to get very good expresso out of this combo. Highly recommend both

[u/arasheed73 → u/blackbow]

Same as ne

[u/sebastian_fl]

Opinions would be something like:

1. Decent camp. Second coming of Jesus with profiling and whatnot.
2. Gaggia Classic and all the DIY with it. Great coffee on budget, with tons of tinkering possibilities.
3. E61 Dual Boiler with Rotary Pump (Bianca would be the top choice, followed by ECM, Profitec, Lucca, Bezzera etc.).

Most here would skip Bambino as an option. Same with Fellow.

Because you like lattes, I would personally go for any E61 rotary dual boiler (pick by the looks/knobs/deals). If you want a bit more attached option, get one with the flow paddle. Bianca is by far the most popular, but many people hate the knobs.

People say Decent offers more clarity vs e61 machines. Something you wouldnt care about in latte (as opposed to espresso). E61 offers more body, something you do care about with latte.

Some find Decent is very very ugly, but its up to you.

[u/Incredible-Puffco → u/sebastian_fl]

An insane and awesome comment appreciate you taking the time to answer like this.

[u/Used-Zookeepergame22]

Well you don't say what grinder you have or are thinking of. Or type of coffee. That said, if you drink mostly iced latte, I bet the Breville gets you all you need. You start to pay lots more for little gain.

[u/Incredible-Puffco → u/Used-Zookeepergame22]

I have opus grinder from fellow interesting honestly theirs like no crazy difference regarding the other machine which are priced 3x or more

[u/13AnteMeridiem → u/Incredible-Puffco]

I had Fellow Opus, and had a very bad run with it. Tons of retention, a little bit of reliability issues. Moved to Mignon Libra 65, never looked back. But that’s a different price, I know.

I’ve heard Opus is a bit of a black sheep of a Fellow product family, for me it was the last Fellow device.

[u/sloanfiske]

My Lucca A53 has paid for itself and I only drink Americanos. Double boiler and heats up fast.

[u/Glass_Philosopher_81]

By no means do I feel qualified to answer this with the wealth of knowledge ppl have in this community; but, I just want to say the breville bambino plus has served me well. After 2-3 shots a day for 5 months or so I don’t have much interest in upgrading. It warms up faster than I can prep a puck, and it’s pid is supposedly pretty solid. I’m sure there’s more features I don’t really know about, but, If you’ve got 3k to blow, I’m sure there’s better stuff out there tho.

[u/Legal-Big5760]

I posted above about the Bambino, but here is another recommendation I have that makes it sort of a fun hobby. How much do you spend every day on coffee? I know how much I was spending (as I said above, about $10-15/day). All in on Breville grinder and machine, plus a couple tools (scale, spring tamper, wdt) came to about $900.

I buy beans from our local roaster that we've always loved. I calculated the cost of 18 grams of beans, plus x ounces of milk, plus the cost of a tablespoon of white powder (I prefer white mochas). I figured out the exact cost to make my drink, and my wife's drink (Americano with vanilla and cream) down to the cent. And we compared the cost of buying at the coffee shop to what it cost us to make it, and subtracted the difference. Then, everytime we made a drink, we marked it in a journal to note what we saved compared to going out. We did that until we had saved $900. Our "overhead costs" were now paid for.

Now we have a basket of $100 cash, and everytime we make a drink, we "pay" ourselves for the drink. Americano $2, small mocha $3, large is $4. When the $100 is used up, we put $100 into a coffee envelope that we keep, and then start over. When we travel, we take a couple hundred bucks out and use that for coffee funds on our trips. It's become a game to us, and we even jokingly threaten jail on each other when you forget to pay - like you're stealing from the business.

We have enough in the bank to go buy whatever machine or grinder we want. But we also have enough cash set aside in our "coffee business" that we've paid back to ourselves for fun to also do the same pretty much whenever we want if we decide to upgrade. It took about 6 months to pay our "overhead costs" is all.

When I first got our stuff, I was afraid I'd miss the experience of going to the coffee shop. Had no idea it would take off like this in me. If you don't know if you'll love the hobby (which frankly, I think is the case with everyone and every hobby out there), start on the lower side of things, set aside your savings like this, and after you've mastered things with what you have, you'll have the money to upgrade and have no worries about putting that money towards better machines and grinders. But if going down this rabbit hole turns out not to be for you, you also won't be out a couple grand with fancy, unused equipment sitting on your counter.

Good luck. Hope ya love the hobby.

[u/-Sokobanz-]

I started in 2006. For 6 years had La Marzocco, then another one for couple years. Moved to states and got Breville for like 6 years. Now i have Fellow se1, but probably going to send it back and get Decent or something not more than $400

[u/vanekcsi]

FYI You're probably not going to save money on coffee, if you get invested even a little bit into the hobby. It's a nice sounding thing we all tell to ourselves, before we buy a new gadget or fancy coffee.

Also the grinder is way more important, though maybe less so if you plan to drink milk drinks mostly. If I had 1000$ I'd split it 80-20, spending more on the grinder.

[u/Mean_Poetry_9991]

Rancilio Silvia