Good dual-thermoblock machine. Steam milk and make coffee at the same time.
Includes a grinder.
Get some decent beans and make better coffee than a pod machine, cheaper!
Easier to use than the Rancilio Silvia
Has been at the $500 mark previously but this deal includes the $50 ebay 'Hump Month Sale' voucher.
Free instore pickup from the Good Guys.
Get $50 eBay Voucher When You Spend $200 @ Selected Retailers @ eBay
grrrr. If today were yesterday, we could have got it for $547- $97 = $450 + $50 voucher. so literally $400 for a decent machine and a grinder.
Easier to use than the Rancilio Silvia
That might be the case, but will the coffee be as good?
It should be. The problem with the Silvia is you have to temperature surf between pulling a shot and frothing the milk because it only has one boiler. They have PID kits for the silvia, but thats another $300 or so
Thats the problem we have with the Silvia. The first coffee is always terrible - cool, watery and acidic. Subsequent coffees are excellent but the when you want to steam milk the fun starts. The boiler takes ages to get to temperature. It steams quickly but if you want to make additional coffees you have to purge all the steam to drop the temperature. Even then you'll probably burn the next coffee anyway.
A PID controller will probably improve the temperature control but it is still a single boiler machine.
Get a PID, it makes life so much easier, no more guessing. Put the remaining money towards your next upgrade, be it a heat exchange or dual boiler. It is inevitable. This thermoblock machine is a massive stepdown from your Silvia. Don't do it!
That's a bit narrow minded. Some people also put value on features/looks/ease of use and cleaning. It's not only about the poor by itself.
I go between making coffee with fresh ground beans manually in one of two different machines, in a hurry use my much loved and used Aldi pod coffee machine, and sometimes a different flavour from various cafes lol.
great manual coffee machines - had mine for a couple of yrs and havent looked back.
U guys are spending too much money on these coffee machines. I picked up that breville for $220 at target mate makes better coffee than a cafe does
Man, you must have some bad cafes around where you are!
I bought a Breville 800ESXL Commercial Die-Cast Espresso Machine a couple of years ago and it makes pretty good coffees i must say. I use it everyday but it doesnt beat a good coffee from the roasters.
Even that is more than you need to spend on a decent machine. Last year Aldi had one for $99 with 2 years warranty. Looks good, solid build with lot's of stainless steel, and works flawlessly and even reasonably quiet.
Have a Sunbeam EM6900, but shots poored by my earlier $170 Breville beginners machine were close to this and the Aldi machine even better.
I have worked in cafes and restaurants using big commercial machines and feel some people are splitting hairs.
The biggest part of good coffee is nice fresh beans ground daily to suit your machine, then do your thing correctly and enjoy.
Commercial machine on par with cheap thermoblock? Come on…
Of course big commercial machines work better if set up properly and using good fresh beans ground per use and made correctly by trained staff.
What I meant is people tend to nitpick between home use machines, a lot coming from instant to being a coffee snob with machines etc.
Using my analogy, coffee made at a Mc Cafe Mc Donalds by trained staff with their big commercial machines, all my home use machines made better coffee using my choice of good fresh beans ground on the day ( I know it's a matter of taste as some like bland flattish flavours ).
Is that 2 steam wands?
One is steam, the other hot water
Still can't justify $500+ coffee machine
if there are coffee snobs here, please post your thoughts on a decent machine for around the same price range. Should I go residential model, or upgrade to low commercial? thoughts appreciated!
This machine is pretty good (for the money), but the grinder is the problem. You could buy this and the Breville Smart Grinder deal at $199 or the Breville BCG600SIL $160 in Myer (they have this posts deal for $549 too so maybe haggle with them), then sell the Sunbeam grinder.
Or a much better combo would be when you can get the Breville BES920/Smart Grinder combo for around $1150-1200 (sometimes happens).
yep ive got the breville griner, was just wanting to know about the machine, so thanks :D
It's not too bad. We're getting a pretty consistent and good cup now with the Smart Grinder. The 7000 would be a tad better, but they tend not to discount that like this one.
The Dual Boiler BES920 would be great, but its >twice the price of these thermoblock machines.
Still I'd love to have one someday.
dont spend more than $300 it's only coffee
I got this package about a year ago for $470. Finally getting reasonable cup by replacing the very average grinder with a Breville Smart Grinder.
If the EM7000 was @this price I'd pounce on it. I remember when it went for $399 clearance.
This deal.. meh.. pass.