Breville Barista Express BES870XL

If you have a decent grinder, no crema probably just means old beans. This would explain why you are more successful with the pressurized basket. You might also have trouble dialing in if your grind

The machines are perfectly capable if you ignore what Sage communicates by design choices like single and double cup buttons and just use it manually.

With the new machine, you can change the inner burr to obtain more grind sizes options.

I have a 5 year old Sage 920, always used RO water, always used a puck screen, and my showerhead looks like new (incredibly).

My water flow was not consistent at all. Personally, I don’t want to invest in another Breville product because I have a feeling this is going to happen again.

I recommend a magnetic dosing funnel for moving the grinds over for 10 usd [here](https://www.amazon.com/Attsky-Portafilter-Funnel-Espresso-Dosing/dp/B0CJJXPNQT/ref=sxin_30_pa_sp_phone_search_thematic

As an espresso snob this 100%. Tell them what you want to do and see if what they want is even in the price range you want to be in. There are so many little things that may or may not be important to

If you can swing it Profitech Go. The make is head and shoulders above the Gaggia classic. Keep in mind no espresso machine is good without a quality grinder.

Regardless of brand, beware of the ones that "do everything" because any one compliment breaking could ruin it all.

[ECM](https://www.ecm.de/en/) makes excellent espresso machines built to last. We bought our Technika V Profi PID in 2020 and absolutely love it! It will no doubt outlast us.

My breville barista express has been going for 10 years or more (I forget!). It does a great job, allows you to adjust enough things... I think the built in grinder is perfect and saves counter and cu

BIFL; get a manual 1ZPRESSO grinder (J-Ultra or K-Pro) and a full manual level machine like the Flair 58, Rok Presso or Cafelat Robot. These are all machines with no electric parts, everything is repl

That's what I did, and I have no regrets. But the user needs to be onboard with a manual setup. The nice parts are that you don't need to worry about pumps or scale caused by minerals from water. The

Since we are talking Buy It For Life, if budget permits, you might want to look at a machine with E61 grouphead and internals. A time tested design and plentiful parts available. Used in almost all no