I've been trying to get a budget-quality espresso machine and found that you can stack the welcome 10% off with the member price. If you already have a membership I'm sure you can just make a new account.
Looking at past deals it looks like $341 is a pretty decent price for this model.
The Bambino plus is $583 at TGG commercial at the moment. Are you sure the plus price is similar?
You're right but it used to be $360 on GGC pre-covid. Kicking myself for not picking one up then.
Ahh my mistake then. They were definately selling the plus model for $360 for quite awhile. Looks theyve put the prices up.
I'm glad I went for the Plus, just for the auto frothing. It saves time and effort in the morning since I am able to froth the milk while I grind and prepare the puck. It's consistently good too and always the perfect temperature.
Don't get normal, always get plus. Normal base model only have 1 pin hole in frother so it froths very slowly
There's a 3 hole tip/ adaptor out there.
I know people go ape for Breville, but you can get basically the same thing from sunbeam for $199 here:
EMM2900SS https://amzn.asia/d/3IESmLN
I’ve always used Sunbeam and they’ve been well made.
I suspect Kmart's $119 Espresso Machine is just a rebranded Sunbeam Compact Barista Espresso. Just compare the two manuals (PDF) side by side and you will know what I mean.
Kmart: https://www.kmart.com.au/wcsstore/Kmart/pdfs/43233748_Manual…
Sunbeam: https://sunbeam-app-prod.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/EMM…
Bargain if it is, really nothing wrong with it.
Just by looking at the manual, I'd say 90% certain it's the same machine but Kmart rebranded it. Having said that someone would need to buy both and open it up to see what's inside lol
Sunbeam had its time in the sunshine, now it's back to being cheap junk.
At least in the Breville range there is low - prosumer, even the cafe series EM7xxx is low quality in comparison to the dual boiler and they're not much difference in price
This and the Kmart one look like a rebrand of the delonghi dedica
I live in an area with really hard water, what would anyone here recommend regarding a water softener to limit the amount of scale build up. I was going to go for a bwt jug, however am open to options.
I installed an external KDF filter for my fridge water line. We always use water from the fridge to fill the coffee machine. I attached a tee-off on the closest tap connection to which a pvc water pipe runs to the filter and then to the fridge.
The water tastes like bottled water.
You need to replace the machine water filter more often and do frequent descaling.
read that descaling for these types of machines was bad
I had Barista Express for over 3 years before upgrading and that worked very well as per manufacturer manual. Why Bambino is different?
@huntabargain: im not sure, if it worked well for you then ill keep looking into it.
The water ill be using is already going thru an 0.2 micron carbon filter but i dont think does much for the calcium content in the water.
Is the breville in tank filter a water softener or just filter?
@la ciudad respirando: Sorry don't know fine details, I used to follow what Breville recommended in their book and did the required maintenance when the light comes out regrading clean cycle, descale cycle, and replacing the filter regularly. It is very cheap insurance and very fast to keep the machine running. If you want to get external filter then that is an extra bonus. But I never heard that descaling is bad for the machine!!
@huntabargain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2TNEhrBU5Q&t=310s i was watching a lance hedrick video on this machine. i think the general idea is to avoid scale build up as much as possible and only descaling when you absolutely have to.
@la ciudad respirando: From Breville site Another essential cleaning process for The Bambino® Plus is descaling. Prevention of scale buildup ensures you're producing great quality coffee with every brew. When the '1-Cup,' '2-Cup' and 'Steam' buttons all flash in alternation, the machine needs to be descaled.
But do what suite you!
https://www.jetblackespresso.com.au/shop/p/aqua-pro-bench-to…
I use this for my boiler espresso machine. Plus descaling every few months. Its been working well
i already use a similar filter, however it doesnt do much for the calcium in the water. after using a new kettle, white spots appeared on the base after just a few uses. im looking to reduce the hardness in the water to something much softer.
I remembered James Hoffman suggested a quite interesting idea of buying water from your local cafe. They usually have a very rigid filter system (which might be hard to implement at home without research, or if you are renting like me) to filter their water and if you find some cafe make good coffee, apparently it can be a good idea to buy water from them? I never done this but this thread reminds me of that
Great little machine.
For those with Goodguyscommercial accounts, better off getting the Plus model for similar price.