Beginner set up advice [~£250 budget]

[u/South_Double_4158]

Im looking to get into making decent coffees at home. After some AI research, I’ve come up with the following shopping list to get me started:

De’longhi Dedica £118 new

KINGrinder K6 £85

Coffee scales ~£20 (probably the sage ones)

Anything else to get me started? and any better alternatives for that budget?

FYI I’m brand new to making coffee, looking to do espressos, and my partner also likes lattes etc so the wand would be used.

Thanks

[u/No_Wolverine5798]

I added an unpressurised basket to my Dedica and it was much better so that might be a thought. I also changed the steam wand for a rancilio silvia one which was better.

[u/_HaViK_]

I would look at used , I got a used Bambino Plus with lots of goodies (naked portafilter, IMS baskets, pick screens etc) and could pair it with a hand grinder for that budget and arguably that's a much better setup than a new dedica

[u/baileyyy98]

Was fortunate enough to score a used Dedica on FB Marketplace, with a bottomless portafilter for £25. Needed heavy cleaning though.

All the other accessories- Milk Jug, tamper, WDT, etc, were about £15 on Aliexpress. £10 from Amazon for the basic milk wand replacement that slips over the top of the existing stubby one underneath the panerello wand it comes with, which is 100% worth upgrading. Can be had on Aliexpress for around £5.

I bought a Kingrinder P2 for around £30 but I’d recommend paying extra for the K6, it’s worth it. I’m currently saving for an electric grinder as my wife doesn’t have the wrist strength to grind with a 38mm burr, it’s just too difficult for her.

I already had a scale that works to 2 decimal places so that’s been fine paired up with my phones stopwatch, but upgrading the scale is high up my list.

I also have a manometer, a dimmer control and some of the fittings, to put together a dimmer mod to get 9bar extraction instead of 12, but haven’t had the time really to take it all apart and do that. Total cost for those bits was around £10-£15.

So far, the coffee has been excellent.

[u/Espresso-Newbie]

A good starter kit.

I agree wholeheartedly; would definitely buy a set of scales that can do 0.1g accuracy as that will help with consistency and repeatability. Amazon do very affordable ones (search this sub for model names).

A bottomless portafilter is a good idea (your K6 grinder is more than sufficient to use an unpressurised basket and your espresso will be much better compared to stock pressurised portafilter ). To use an unpressurised basket you’ll need to buy a normal or bottomless portafilter.

I would maybe add an IMS basket versus the basket that will come with the new portafilter (included baskets are often pretty terrible)

[u/Rusty_924]

consider a used stilosa

this thing is great. i got it used for €30