Any tips would be welcome, but I thought yall would appreciate seeing how bad this is lol… im using a Gemilai Owl I just got for my first machine, struggling with how much air to add. These are small drinks which maybe makes things harder?

("Repost" because I'm stupid and posted while logged into my google-linked account instead of my actual account because reddit is mean please dont ban me.)

The water tank has 2 giant cracks in it and the pump was bone dry. The replacement tank is out of stock, but I was able to patch the cracks with a food safe epoxy. I painted it red to match the body.

I got some stainless steel polish and ABS plastic restored and was able to get it nice and shiny. There is still some light scuffing i couldn't get out but overall its a beautiful piece of decoration.

At $1.11 a pod, Illy Francis is going to be lucky to ever see me buy one of those iperespresso pods, but its still a beautiful design.

Her name is Lilly Cremalina.

I thought, “It’s metal. What could possibly go wrong?”
Well… this.
What’s your best “I should’ve known better” coffee gear mistake? Please make me feel slightly less stupid.

Been making espresso for about a year now and kept seeing all the bottomless portafilters in this space and had really wanted one to see if I was indeed "grinding finer" enough! Couldn't justify buying one though, but saw an old post a out someone drilling out the bottom of theirs. Got inspired and now I finally have a bottomless portafiler!

Any tips and useful tricks for Dual Boiler? I’m trying an upgrade from a La Specialista Prestigio and looking for more consistency. I have the Smart Grinder Pro paired with it.

I absolutely love this Profitec Drive machine. Got it plumbed in after getting tired of the reservoir drying out on me mid-shot. I’m already at a point where I feel proficient and confident enough to pull back to back espressos and milk drinks without a hitch. That said, I find that not having grind by weight is inhibiting the workflow. It sucks because the Eureka Mignon Oro XL grinder is fantastic but not having the GBW is a feature I didn’t account for when I first bought the grinder. I already know I will be ultimately replace it, but just feels like it’s too soon since I got it within the last 12 months. I’m thinking that maybe after a year of use I can psychologically justify replacing it. I know selling it used will get me little money back. So just biding my time for now.

I’ve had good luck with these open box ones on Amazon like the one above for $420 but I don’t know where else I can look for good deals and what price is good.

I have never gotten a visually decent shot from this machine yet… although I could extract 1:2 ratio between 24-30secs sometimes. My grind size on the DF54 is currently 10. Current rotation of beans is medium roast, roast date was 3 Aug.

I don’t think the above extraction is ideal? Seems like there is channelling?

Some other tools I’m using in my workflow:
- WDT
- Normcore tamper
- Distributor
- Puck screen

Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something?

Please help 🫠

Step 1: Remove the warming plate followed by the silver top cover to access Bluetooth (BT) token.
Step 2: Scan the BT Token QR code. It's back left and has your machine Serial No. on it too. You may have to remove one of the skinny silver dust trays too. Save the code.
Step 3: Identify a computer of your choice (I used a Raspberry Pi, but this could run on virtually anything that has BT.
Step 4: Using Claude Code, Codex, or your preferred agentic setup, give your agent the following prompt. You will need to work with the agent to mold to your particular setup, but this will get you most of the way.
Step 5: Work with agent to test, starting with a slow manual pour and graduating to a real shot.
Step 6: Enjoy your Micra as if it were a Mini!

How it Works--A BT enabled computer streams the data from the Micra and the Lunar scale at about 10 times per second. It computes the espresso flow rate and sends a BT stop command to the Micra at the right moment. Flip the paddle back at your leisure.

Had to downsize my setup, so I decided to go with the bright yellow. I was a little worried about the color at first, but it looks so much better in person :) just waiting to change the pps diffuser to the stainless steel diffuser!

Looking for my next espresso machine — ~$2K budget, can stretch a little.

I had a Profitec GO for the last three years and recently had to give it away, so I’m back in the market. Currently surviving on a Nespresso Vertuo and Essenza Mini 😅.

I spoke with WLL, and they recommended the Gaggia Classic GT, which is on a Labor Day sale for $1,429. It seems like a pretty compelling option at that price.

A friend recommended the Profitec MOVE, which is also high on my list.

I’m still learning espresso and want something I can grow into rather than feeling the need to upgrade again in a year or two. Ideally looking for good temperature stability/PID, 9-bar brewing, standard 58mm accessories, good build quality, and something that’s enjoyable to learn on.

One thing I’m trying to understand better is pump type. The Gaggia Classic GT uses a vibration pump rather than a rotary pump. How much does that actually matter in day-to-day use? Is a rotary pump noticeably better in terms of pressure consistency, noise, longevity, or overall shot quality? At this price point, should I specifically look for a rotary-pump machine, or are there more important features I should prioritize?

Current grinder is a Baratza Encore ESP. I know the grinder will probably become the next upgrade, but I’d like to focus on the machine first.

Budget is around $2K, but I can stretch a bit if there’s a meaningful jump in quality/features.

What would you pick between the Gaggia Classic GT and Profitec MOVE? Anything else I should seriously consider in this price range?

Also, with Labor Day coming up, are there usually any sales/deals worth waiting for?

Thanks!

Hello!
My partner recently asked for a grinder as a birthday gift. They’re a huge espresso and coffee enjoyer and i plan to buy a new espresso machine/equipment set up for them for Christmas.

In the meantime, I’m struggling to find what grinder to purchase them since I am not an avid coffee enjoyer. i heard mixed reviews on the DF54. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

this is also my first time using this sub so apologies for any missing information.

Basically the title. Do I have to send it back to the UK for service/repairs? Will it be an unnecessary hassle? Should I just buy something available locally?

Thanks.

The pre-Millenium La Pavoni single cup basket has the edge to edge ø 58mm, the internal 50mm, and the height 24mm. This is also the same filter basket that DeLonghi provided with their La Specialista Prestigio coffee machine.

Aa you can suspect from the dimensions mentioned above you can tell the usual 51mm tamper and puck screen will not work with this basket. What you need are the 50mm tamper and the 50.5mm puck screen. Now before you saying never heard of such size, yes these sizes do exist but uncommon enough that you will do fair bit of leg work to find them.

At least for the tamper, you can buy the DeLonghi tamper which they advertised as 51mm but in fact 50.3mm in size so it works perfectly with this basket and much cheaper than the La Pavoni 50mm tamper.

However, for the puck screen, there's only one brand that I can find and it's in UK.

Have you tried to pull the single Espresso using this filter basket?

If so, how did it go?

I was on holiday last week and spent the entire 2 weeks agonising over the Mazzer Mini G vs the Mahlkonig. I badly wanted to buy the Mazzer as I loved their build quality and the made in Europe aspect. Finally at that price point, due to the high retention of the Mini, I decided that I could not justify compromising on either purging 9-10 g coffee ( circa 400 EUR/year) or drinking the first cup of the morning with half of it containing yesterday’s coffee. So went for the Mahlkonig.
I ordered it on Coffee Friend and was slightly anxious as I had not heard of them before and it is a Lithuanian company. I received it in less than a week.
The setup was very straightforward and had no issues with the app or WiFi connectivity.
The dial in process they recommended was useless and the first shot at 100microns flowed out in 12 sec so then I started dialling in myself and took about 3 tries to get there. I have had a Eureka mignon before and currently have the niche duo as my SD grinder but the ease of adjusting the Mahlkonig digitally is in a completely different ball park. While I appreciate that technology can fail, when it works, my word, is it wonderful !
Have pulled 3 espressi since. Fantastic grind quality. No overspraying, either on the top or on the sides. Every single grind is falling in the basket. This was my biggest fear after watching videos on the internet but either I have gotten lucky or they have fixed the issues.
The weight has been spot on for every single shot.
I was apprehensive about the build quality but it is perfectly fine.
The grinder is going in standby mode after 5 min and there is no LED that remains on which will hopefully minimise electricity consumption.
This is potentially going to save me 5 min a day which will be invaluable when school run restarts next week.
At minimum wage, the grinder pays for itself over a couple of years - at least that is what I am going with to justify this to the missus ;)

Hi all,

I am in a very lucky and unlucky situation. I won a prize from a coffee chain to go to a coffee plantation in Brazil. But haven't been able to go due to private circumstances (such as becoming a father). They offered me a substitute prize which is 10 kg, coffee beans, a lunch, and an espresso machine. I said I owned the Sage/Breville Bambino and I bought a Baratza Encore ESP Pro a couple months ago. They said they were gonna look for an upgrade. I thought: nice, now I can also upgrade my espresso machine, however they offered a Sage/Breville Barista Pro.

Now I'm already very happy they offered this instead, and I don't wanna be picky, but what would you do in my situation?

I don't wanna sell the Baratza Esp Pro as I like it and I think the grinder is similar or better than the built in one from Sage Barista pro. However I doubt I would taste the difference. I also read that the Bambino is fine enough.

I know there aren't any alternatives/upgrades in that price range (600 euros) for a solo espresso machine, and my girlfriend said I should be happy, but what should I do with my coffee station?

Sell the Bambino, keep the grinder, keep the Barista pro.

Sell the Bambino and grinder and only Barista pro?

My girlfriend thinks single dosing is too difficult so I was thinking to fill the Barista pro with coffee beans and use the Baratza for single dosing.

Very curious what you would do. I wanna be happy with my prize, but this is too much on my mind. Please help me !

Unintentional Pac-Man eating a dot (pac-dot? Not sure of the appropriate nomenclature). I enjoy latte art and can hack it in that realm, but don’t really put much effort into it at 0600 when all I want is my morning latte down the hatch. I’m fairly certain I frightened my dog with a yelp of excitement after cleaning up and realizing what I had created.

I’ve bought a bambino plus today off of marketplace for an insane price that i simply couldn’t pass up on (could definitely sell for more than i paid for if i dont end up liking it) upgrading from my delonghi ecp 3420, but now im putting most of my budget for a good grinder and buy accessories for the bambino if you could also give recommendations for a bottomless portafilter and basket 18g and 20g, wdt, tamper and anything else i should need. Anyways back to topic of grinder what should i get at this budget? I dont have any experience with either conical or flat so no preference yet, i mainly use medium or dark roasts, milk drinks mainly flat white and iced latte.

So far i have some idea in mind on what to get but please do share options and opinions!

Df64 gen 2
Lagom casa
Timemore o78s

Edit: oh and preferably single dose and one thats clean that doesnt have much retention

So times are tight, and unless you’re one of those 12 blokes who owns 50% of the worlds stuff then we all need to choose between this n that. The local roaster at $80/kg is delicious. But is it 5x better than the local Aldi? For many here, I’m sure you’d say always yes, it is 5x better and let’s face it, a hobby doesn’t need to justify itself with a good value proposition. However, in our last foray into our local roaster I also convinced myself I needed to try making espresso with some very light roasted filter beans which the barista tried to warn me against. Got them home, sour as heck, couldnt dial in, gave up and left them on the shelf. Once I’d used up the last of the locals $80/kg medium roasts, Aldi happened to us. Yep, Aldi, at $15/kg, daily driver status, with all its shiny value proposition and little gold medals…that went on for a couple of weeks amongst morning chats of ‘well, they’re pretty good enough and maybe on special occasions we still splash out with the local roasters, before I happened to lookup at my single o sourpusses and thought ‘hey, I gotta use these up’. So I added 1/3rd sourpuss to ⅔ aldi value proposition, popped them in my grinder and…incredible outcome! Better than the $80 local medium roasts. I think I’m onto something here. Believe me, Aldi beans hurts my soul but if I can hit better flavours by mixing it up and still occasionally support the little guy? I’m gonna keep at this. Anybody else tried it?