11 things to look for when buying a home espresso machine
It’s been a while since I wanted to write a comprehensive guide on home espresso machines, yet I struggled to find a way to make it as useful as possible, steering between the sheer amount of options available on the market. Finally one of you gave me the right input by asking what he should be looking for when searching for an espresso machine, independently from which exact model and/or manufacturer we would recommend. In the following paragraphs we’ll try to do just that in a comprehensive and approachable way. This blog post is mainly intended to speak to a broader audience and thus lacks more advanced content such as very technical explanations and flow or pressure profiling capabilities although some of the machines listed at the end, might already have them installed or are able to be upgraded to it.
1. Budget
When speaking about budget, one truth shall be told. An espresso machine on its own cannot do anything, it’s just a tool to extract a beverage from ground coffee. And the last two words indicate what’s even more important than your machine: the coffee you’re using and the grinder. The coffee maker only comes third, and that’s what your budget should take into consideration too. If you put all your money into a fancy espresso machine and pair it with a budget, plasticky grinder, you’re not gonna be impressed with the results. Even if you invest into a nice grinder & espresso machine, but then haven’t left any money for great specialty coffees and are stuck with supermarket coffee, your investment won’t pay off.
Another important consideration that will heavily affect your budget is what you’re buying your setup for: is it to prepare a beverage that you drink as a habit or is it part of a broader interest of yours that is creating a hobby that you’d like to dwell in? In the first case your budget should be set on strictly economical reasoning, taking into the account how much you would spend if you would consume your coffee outside during a year and then drill down from there defining a budget that includes setup and coffee beans that is equal or lower than that. If coffee is becoming something more than that and you feel fulfilled by the process of preparing and sipping your coffee at home, then there is an emotional component to it and you can dedicate additional funds to it - depending on your financial situation - that will bring your budget above an purely economically reasonable threshold and can reflect the broader value you’re getting from it.
2. Appliance vs. machine
Let’s start to drill down into the vast offering of home espresso machines. Broadly talking, there are two categories that can be divided into appliances and machines. Appliances are designed with ease of use in mind, are simple to interact with and for cost reasons built with cheaper components and materials such as plastics. Machines on the other hand, are usually better built with long lasting materials such as sturdy metals, and generally bring a more professional grade tool into your hands. We will touch more differences between the two categories in other chapters throughout this blog.
You can easily find appliances in your local electronics store, Galaxus or Amazon from consumer brands like DeLonghi, Gaggia and Sage (Breville). And although you might find some more basic machines on those same market platforms, you will probably find a broader range at your local coffee equipment store that will also take care of the regular maintenance those machines will require. Another option would be to look for well maintained models of better known manufacturers on second hand platforms like Tutti.ch, Ricardo.ch or eBay.
3. Space
Before even start to evaluate specific machines, consider the space you’re able and willing to reserve for your coffee setup. This might be on your kitchen countertop, a dedicated bar or the sideboard in your living room. Not only do you need to measure the footprint but also the available height if you have upper kitchen cabinets as some machines will have the water tank that can only be filled and or removed from above.
Again, don’t think only about the machine, you’ll need space for the whole setup which usually includes a grinder, the espresso maker itself, a tamping station and a knock box. Granted, you could very well use a good handgrinder from 1Zpresso and store it in a drawer or knock your spent pucks directly into the garbage or composting bin. Start from the bare minimum essentials and build your setup based on your own real needs and not on that latest cool looking setup you saw on Instagram or Pinterest.
4. Boiler technology
The boiler(s) are a key component of any espresso machine and will set the stage for your overall coffee experience. How you will use your espresso machine will heavily influence what type of technology to look for. Are you a pure espresso lover? Do you mainly drink espresso with the casual cappuccino for your Sunday brunch? You don’t care too much about your coffee as long as it always comes with silky smooth milk? Do you drink one coffee in the morning before heading out or do you do a lot of home office and need multiple shots throughout the day?
Single Boiler
This is the simplest build: one boiler for both your brewing and steaming, that usually sits on top of your brew group and heats it up passively. The advantages are reasonably fast heat-up times of less than 10 minutes, a cheaper price tag compared to other options and a relatively low energy consumption, especially with newer models. The downside? With a single boiler you will not be able to pull a shot and steam your milk at the same time, something that at home you won’t probably do anyway. Instead, you’ll need to pull your espresso shot, switch from brew temperature to a higher steaming temperature that might take as long as 1 minute, steam your milk and switch back to brewing temperature for your next espresso shot, which easily takes up to a few minutes. You can speed up the cooling time by flushing the boiler thus introducing new cold water from the tank. But you might already get a feeling that while this is more then ok for espresso forward drinkers with the casual flat white, a cappuccino (or worse, latte) drinker will get frustrated right out of the box. Should you love your lattes, not only will the workflow be a nightmare, also the steaming power of a single boiler isn’t as great as with the options we’ll discuss below. This is because the size of the boiler, and thus the volume of steam that can be created is fairly to shockingly small.
Due to how single boilers operate, most of these machines also have issues with temperature stability during the shot and with back to back shots. To avoid the need for “temperature surfing”, a PID is an absolute must if you like consistently good espresso. Either you feel comfortable to open up a machine and install one yourself, or you opt directly for a capable single boiler espresso machine with PID such as the Profitec GO.
Heat Exchanger
This technology is usually seen in combination with an E61 style group in many models from home espresso machine manufacturers such as Rocket Espresso, ECM, Profitec and Lelit. It consists in a bigger boiler running at steam temperature above 100°C, with a tube that runs straight through it and is connected to the group head, in which the brewing water circulates and heats up. The big advantage of this build is that you can brew and steam at the same time (or without any delays if you want to do one after the other), and has in our opinion the perfect steam power to learn to froth milk for latte art, not too much and not too little.
We feel thought that the disadvantages prevail over its advantages: first, the heat-up times of over 30 minutes are less than ideal for todays lifestyle. Secondly the high energy consumption of the technology is an absolute no go in times of high energy prices and the shift towards renewables. Just sit back and imagine heating up 2 or more liters of water over boiling temperature, and maintaining it there the whole time your machine is on, even if you just want espresso, without even the need to steam. Finally, because of how it is built, temperature seeks its own equilibrium, and not even a PID is able to shift it from there. The water circulating back and forward between the boiler and the grouphead will constantly overheat the metal parts of your machine, meaning that even flushing before and after your shot to introduce cold water from the tank, will not be enough.
Dual Boiler
The term says it itself: these machines use two separate boilers, one for brewing water and one for steam. Sometimes they use heat exchanger technology to preheat the water of the brewing group by running it first through the steam boiler. Being separate, you are able to pull a shot while steaming your milk and will have no problem with steaming performance nor back to back espresso shots. Although bringing a powerful setup to your home barista experience, multi boiler machines are primarily designed with high volume coffee shops in mind. So the question arises, are these a smart choice for home? Or just an overkill?
The main drawbacks of this technology are long heat-up times and the absurdly high energy consumption for the 21st century. You just don’t need to heat up a bucket sized boiler of water to steam milk for 1 or 2 cappuccinos. There are way smarter technologies to do that in a fraction of the time and with radically less energy consumption, as we will see later on.
Thermoblock, Thermocoil, Thermojet
Most appliances and some innovative espresso machine manufacturers such as Unica, Zuriga, Ascaso and Decent Espresso rely entirely or partially on one of these comparable technologies. The concept behind these is that instead of heating up an entire boiler, only the water actually needed to pull your shot of espresso or steam is heated up instantly. The key advantages are the super fast heat-up times ranging from a couple of seconds to 2 minutes and the very low energy consumption.
Regarding steaming power, the performances vary greatly from model to model, while some are surprisingly good others are on the weaker side, so definitively check out videos on YouTube of the exact model you’re considering buying. Like for single and dual boilers, these machines can have one or two heating systems. Depending on this you can or cannot steam and pull a shot simultaneously, although switching from brewing to steaming and back is quicker than with a single boiler.
5. Thermal Stability and PID
Reading through the lines of the previous chapter, you get some hints on the importance of the machines thermal stability, not only during an espresso shot, but also in between shots. Very broadly speaking, a more stable temperature while running a shot, gives you a better balanced extraction, and having the same temperature from shot to shot, gives you repeatability of the result. There are different ways manufacturers try to control the thermal stability of the machine: by pure mass with bigger boilers, through instant heating water flowing through thermoblocks or similar technologies or through PID that constantly regulates the water temperature to keep it as close to the set temperature as possible.
The addition of a PID into a coffee machine is very helpful in your daily coffee routine, but also increases the price tag. Although a PID controls the temperature, there are 2 ways manufacturers are using them: you either can set the temperature yourself allowing you to adapt it to the beans you’re using, or the manufacturer sets it at a given temperature and the machine just tries to maintain it there, without giving you the possibility of changing it. Is a PID the solution of all thermal stability issues? No. It is only as effective as the rest of the elements influencing temperature. For example, if the heat element inside a thermoblock isn’t powerful enough to heat up the water flowing through it to the right temperature, than the machine will not be able to reach or maintain the desired stability. On the other hand, a PID on a Heat Exchanger might give you stability, but its design will make it very hard to shift the temperature away from its natural equilibrium.
How will I know then? In equipment reviews on YouTube - for example by Lance Hedrick or the Kaffeemacher - temperature stability acquired more and more traction lately, and chances are high that somebody measured it for your specific model, or at least talks about it from experience.
6. Group size
The group size is measured by the diameter of the filter that fits in the portafilter. Common measures are 49mm, 51mm, 54mm and 58mm. While appliances and manual lever machines generally use 49mm or 51mm, most prosumer machines use the 58mm industry standard. So far so good, but what does it mean for my espresso? While there are more and more accessories like baskets, bottomless portafilters, tampers, collars, shower screens and distribution tools available for more and more diameter sizes, the standard 58mm size is by far the one with the biggest selection of available accessories. So if you’re already thinking of upgrading some of these, definitively search online if the accessories you’re looking for are available not only for the diameter but also for the specific machine model as some might have proprietary locking mechanisms. Secondly, looking forward to those 20-22 gram double shots of medium to light roasted coffee? the bigger the diameter, the bigger volume of baskets are available. While it will be hard to impossible to find 20 grams plus baskets for 49 or 51mm, it will be no problem finding 24 gram baskets for 58mm baskets (see our pro tip below to understand why this might matter to you). Finally, there is a direct correlation between basket diameter and pump performance. The bigger the diameter, the bigger the surface of the coffee puck, the more pressure the pump needs to develop to extract your coffee. This correlates to the next chapter, but in summary, smaller diameters work with weaker pumps and bigger diameters require stronger pumps. In the case of manually powered devices or manual lever machines, the bigger the diameter the more force you’ll need to reach the desired pressure output (or a longer lever).
Pro Tip: Match your group size to the coffee beans you enjoy drinking most! Sounds weird? Well, hear me out. There is a direct relationship between the solubility of a roasted bean and the amount of coffee needed, going way beyond the basic understanding of ratios and grind size. The cellular structure of a darker roasted coffee, will be frailer and more soluble, thus the need for less coffee to extract a balanced cup. Specialty grade arabica beans, grow at higher elevations and mostly roasted medium to light, making it denser and less soluble, thus needing more coffee to extract a balanced cup. A traditional Italian espresso recipe usually asks for 14 grams of ground coffee for a double shot, while specialty grade arabica easily goes from 18 to 22 grams. Now take a double basket for a 49mm or 51mm portafilter, this will usually fit 14-16 grams, so you’re already slightly short of those 18-20 grams needed to properly extract medium to lighter roasted beans. For these, a 54mm or 58mm portafilter is needed to fit a bigger capacity basket.
7. Pump
There are different types of pumps used in espresso machines, namely: vibratory pumps, rotatory pumps and proprietary designs like the pump specifically developed for the Unica PRO or the Meticulous. Vibratory pumps are mostly built in appliances and many budget espresso machines, they are cheap, small, light and usually louder (although some vibratory pumps in newer machines are surprisingly quiet, like the one in the Profitec Go). Because of how they’re built and the materials used, their lifespan is shorter compared to other types of pumps, on the other hand, they are usually stock items and can be easily replaced. The rotary pump is bigger, heavier, more expensive, built with solid materials and is quieter than most vibratory pumps. This is the pump type used in most prosumer and professional grade machines as it is a working horse with a long lifespan that can develop enough constant pressure for any type of modern espresso.
The pump of the Unica PRO, has been developed from the ground up, using technology usually found in med tech devices and thus offers unparalleled flow precision at an almost imperceptible noise level.
8. Design, built & workflow
Design is of course subjective and you’ll find many different styles of machines available, although the industrial chrome is still widespread in home espresso machines. As looks are subjective, we will not drill down into them, just remember to consider it as an espresso machine isn’t something that you will stow away when not in use and therefore will be looking at it every day. Make sure it fits the overall interior design of your space and matches the rest of your coffee setup.
Before continuing we do wan’t to quickly draw your attention to materials and colors you might choose. Although your machine should always be kept clean, some materials need more dedication as others, for example chrome and some black matte finishes will be attracting those fingerprints, while whites will clearly display every so little splash of coffee. Spending more time with a fiber cloth in your hand than with your cup of coffee might dilute your otherwise positive experience with your machine.
We find that built quality usually go hand in hand with the price of the appliance or machine. The higher the price, the better the built quality and components used. Generally. So make sure to consider this when looking at different models within your set budget. Sometimes looks can be deceiving, although some machines seem well designed and premium materials such as metal are used, there might be issues with the strength of the construction, tolerances, finish of the edges. To keep prices down, this is where many manufacturers are cutting corners, and sharp metal sheet edges can be a nuisance.
Workflow is another often overlooked factor that will define how happy you will be in the log run with your machine. Although every new machine will require some level of adjusting to it - a phase that can take some weeks - some quirks will become more and more annoying as time goes on. So make sure the machine fits for what YOU will be using it. If you’re an espresso forward coffee drinker, then the ease of steam isn’t probably something you would be worrying about too much, on the contrary, if you like to drink a lot of milk based drinks, than the steaming workflow becomes very important. Are you eyeballing your shots or do you precisely monitor your shot volume with a scale? For latter you might want to look for increased distance between drip tray and portafilter. The same goes if you drink a lot of lattes in big cups, unless you’re cool with extracting in a shot glass and pouring the shot into your bigger cup afterwards.
Although it might be hard to evaluate for a beginner, the layout of the buttons, levers, dials, pressure gauges is also key for a pleasant experience. How easy are they to access, manipulate, view? Are they laid out in an intuitive way? What about the water tank? Is it easily refillable? From above, the front or the side? If your espresso machine sits under a kitchen cabinet, do you still have space to take out your water tank from the top?
Remember, the workflow while preparing your coffee is for many as rewarding as the result itself, it’s a ritual and as such it needs to be enjoyable. This includes the built quality as well as the haptics of the materials you’re interacting with.
9. Drip Tray
The drip tray is the one sometimes overlooked part of the espresso machine that can cause lot of frustrations down the line, not only when buying but already in the design process. To make sure this won’t be the case for your machine, check out its size, ease to remove and reinsert, ease of cleaning. Many drip tray designs in home espresso appliances are of modest capacity, requiring you to dump water way to often than is fair. The easier it is to remove and carry to the sink without spilling, the less mess it creates. Consider that the drip tray isn’t only there to catch the last drops from the portafilter after removing your cup, it also fills up with the water used to flush the group to heat it up before brewing, the water discharging from the solenoid valve after each shot, the cleansing group flush after each shot, as well as to catch the water droplets when purging the steam wand. In other words, it will fill up quite a bit during usage, although for most of these operations we do advise to use a cup to catch the water, let it cool down afterwards and use it to water your plants for example.
10. Energy Consumption
With soaring energy prices and climate change, the energy consumption of your espresso machine has a huge impact on both your power bill as well as your environmental footprint. Unknown to many, brewing coffee is the one single step of the coffee supply chain that has the highest CO2 emissions, accounting for a whopping 30-40%. We therefore highly recommend to compare the energy labels of different machines before buying, as the differences are shocking. Just consider that the Unica PRO only uses 74 kWh/year, while a traditional one group dual boiler machine uses around 1’450 kWh/year. That’s a whopping 20 times less!
For a domestic espresso maker - considering the technology and the machines available on the market today - a consumption of less than 200 kWh/year is ideal, anything between 200 and 500 acceptable, and anything above 1000kWh/year absolute madness.
At MUYU we are big advocates on impacting our footprint to decelerate climate change, and it’s industry leading low energy consumption was one of the main selling points when choosing our own espresso machine in the roastery (a Unica PRO). We believe that everyone of us can have a big impact with just a few small changes and we would be very curious to see a study on energy savings in Europe if individuals and coffeeshops would switch their coffee machines from high energy consumption ones to low energy consumption ones. We bet that the results would be mind-blowing! Unfortunately most big traditional manufacturers are still using technology from the last century and are taking too long to adapt to changing circumstances.
11. Maintenance and right to repair
Please don’t be one of those people who buy a machine and never take care of it. Regular maintenance and the right to repair principle will make an enormous difference in the long run. Considering this before buying a machine will save you a lot of money down the road, as well maintained machines will last for many years and keep their reselling value.
The following are the basic maintenance steps that you should perform on a regular basis:
Always use the right kind of (filtered) water with acceptable levels of lime in it to prevent limescale build up;
regularly clean the group and shower head by backflushing it with cleaning tablets;
descale the machine whenever necessary, especially if you live in an area with high levels of lime in your water;
make sure to always purge your steam wand to avoid bacteria and milk residue to build up and
regularly replace your group gaskets, preferably switch them out with silicone ones.
Before buying, consider the following tips in order to insure the longevity of your espresso maker:
appliances are often more difficult to disassemble, maintain and repair than espresso machines;
popular models have more spare parts readily available than more niche machines;
popular models also have a lot of tutorials on YouTube showing you how to perform maintenance, upgrades and repairs;
the more electronic components built-in, the trickier it gets to ensure the machines working in the long run.
Which espresso machines should I not be overlooking when choosing mine?
It is very hard to tell you which machine you should get as too many factors play into it. The following list has no pretention to be complete but here are some machines that should make it onto your shortlist as of end of 2023:
Low Budget (CHF 200 - CHF 800):
Delonghi Dedica Arte (needs a portafilter and basket upgrade)
New Gaggia Espresso Style/Deluxe/Evolution (needs a portafilter and basket upgrade)
Sage Bambino / Sage Barista Express Impress (needs a portafilter and basket upgrade)
Flair Espresso 58 / 58+ or Pro 2
Medium Budget (CHF 900 - CHF 2’000):
High Budget (CHF 5’000 - CHF 9’000):
Unica PRO
You might notice that there is a big gap in the middle, that’s because we don’t feel good about recommending HX machines or traditional Dual Boiler machines. The longer heat up times and high energy consumption don’t make them a great fit for today’s reality.
Should you need any more guidance for your very own setup, customized to your needs, please feel free to come by the roastery or reach out to us. We’re happy to be of assistance!