In light of @"Cuprajake"#144 recent polls I thought it could be useful for people looking to buy an espresso machine to see which ones are most reliable and problem-free. What machine do you **currently** have, how long have you had it and have you had **any** problems? No matter how minor or simple the fix. I think it can be frustrating to anyone not spanner-inclined to have to fix even small niggles early on so I wonder which machines perform best! I thought it would also be interesting to see which problems occur over longer periods. I’m perhaps lucky but not had any issues with any machine ever, even my early entry level ones. Current machine is the Linea Mini, 6 months old, no issues.

Lelit Elizabeth, 10 months, zero problems. Hardest part was getting the settings right for how I wanted the coffee. Once done I get consistently good coffees from it and only find the need to adjust the grind when I change beans. I had an issue with a cheap aftermarket bottomless portafilter which didn’t seal properly. I got it because at the time all sources seemed to be out of stock of the Lelit one. I’ve since got the Lelit bottomless one and it fits perfectly.

La Marzocco Linea Micra Had it for about a month - no issues Its expensive and some would say lacking gizmos . But it makes great forgiving coffee is superbly built and easy to Maintain/clean (well so far).

for those that dont know me, im a walking bad luck magnet lol ive always been the person who has to buy used, never had alot of money, when my gran passed, she left us some money which allowed us to move house, and have a bit spare for me to treat myself, to new: i at the time had a londinium l1 not wanting to spend nearly 4k i ordered the crem one profiler, great spec machine, but https://youtu.be/uWVvGyLxNHk so the machine went right back to bb, the machine turned up dirty as if it had been bench tested, they were great with the return but it also shouldnt have left, so after that i bought my dream machine a lr24, but https://youtube.com/shorts/fH2gTHXMQss?feature=share [URL=https://i.imgur.com/TMMpl0h.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/TMMpl0h.jpg[/IMG][/URL] the water actually went right along the tray, now reiss offered to send out a new group top for me to swap out, bt at £3700 i saw my arse and sent it back, and was subsequently banned from the londinium owners forum, i put the l1 back on the bench and that then blew up, over pressure kitchen looked like a rave, steam everywhere, so i fixed it up, new pressure switch, blowoff valve and anti vac with a new drip tray, then decided to sell for a bianca the bianca was faultless now to my current machine the acs which i bought used for £2150 iirc so far its needed a temp sensor on the steam boiler, a drip sorting on the steam arm and it has marring on the inside of the lever. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/tftxsR0.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/tftxsR0.jpg[/IMG][/URL] so far we have had no answer from acs about the marked groups handles and im nearly out of my 2 yr warranty im the type of person who orders something and it comes broken, from oled tv, speakers, tables, pans, espresso machines lol

Lelit Elizabeth Generally a well-designed machine. Ingenious in many ways. Excellent control over many variables. Very good value for money. A couple of finish elements are of insufficient quality or design such as the steam knob. We had to deal with a few defects: 1. A defective OPV valve, due to poor valve design, 2. A leaky steam valve, also poorly designed. and 3. A badly seated steam valve base. However I have a great retailer who repaired or replaced all under warranty. Would I buy it again? Probably. but I would have a hard look at all options again. And spend another $1,000 Canadian to get a machine with flow control, such as the Lelit Bianca 😁

Sage Dual Boiler….don't laugh! Got it in December 2021, use it virtually every day and it has not missed a beat. No leaks, drips unexpected noises in fact, still looks and works like new. Any shortcomings from shots are definitely down to operator error and inexperience. Tempting fate I know, if ever that was a statement for the gremlins to sit up take note and rub their hands with glee, that was it. I would love to be able to go somwhere that there is a Sage Dual Boiler next to one of the Chrome Behemoths and taste coffees from both. Not because I think the Sage can hit the dizzy heights those much more expensive machines can reach, but just to see just how big those differences are.

I have a Rocket Giotto Evoluzione. I've had it since purchasing it, six months old in February 2015. So it's almost nine years old. It's in daily use and has only had two little aberrations in the whole of that time. The pressurestat stuck open once. I gave it a bang with a screwdriver and it has never done it again. The steam valve stem broke last year and I replaced it. Very easy to do and IIRC about £10. It's surprisingly noisy for a rotary pump machine, but I can live with that. It's been fed Ashbeck for it's whole life with me and has never been de-scaled. It does get a Puly Caff backflush every so often and the cam and followers re-greased with Moly. Other than that, I take the top off to check for leaks maybe once every couple of years. All in all, it owes me nothing.

Decent DE1XL. 2.5 years. Flawless (touch wood). Opted in for their new guaranteed lifetime renewable warranty which says something about the manufacturer’s confidence in their machines. ECM Puristika x2. 3 months. Not in daily use. Perfect performers but they dont exactly have a taxing workload. Nurri Leva SA, 5 months. Two annoying minor glitches which are in the process of being adresssed. (Review written and will post here next week. Just waiting for the manufacturer’s right of reply to come in.)

After a few sub-£200 machines, we now have the ACS Evo. It’s going to be a couple of years. Like Jake, there is some marring inside the lever; the ACS did promise to replace the parts free when it has identified and fixed the issue. We haven’t heard anything yet. It’s a minor issue and doesn’t impact the performance in any way. There was a tiny leak on the steam arm elbow. Fixed the issue. Overall, it is flawless giving super quality espresso every time. Touch wood!

> @"Pompeyexile"#p45025 Got it in December 2021, use it virtually every day and it has not missed a beat. No leaks, drips unexpected noises in fact, still looks and works like new. Any shortcomings from shots are definitely down to operator error and inexperience. Ooh, that's a risky statement! ![Giphy - Peep Show Fate GIF](https://media2.giphy.com/media/NsR7Z3x7asOQ0/giphy.gif?cid=bb77869f963yq31k7fcmdc5z6f70ntajriyxkwudojny7qlp&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

Slayer single group - no problems yet (other than a vent valve spraying because i forgot to cover it), but not as impressed with the worksmanship as I expected. Getting great coffee from it and above all consistency. And the bambino plus at the office. Little guy has never missed a step; great purchase in hindsight for £250\~ but consistency is tough.

What’s your machine and have you had any problems?

ams

Cafelat Robot, no issues after ~2 years of daily use, also a 10 year old Delonghi ec152 that I’ve not used much that currently looks like this as of yesterday:

It was living in a shed and became a home for spiders. I’d pretty much forgotten about this until I recently joined the Coffeetime forum and thought I’d pull a shot with it and the Niche.

Only issue I’ve noticed so far was what appeared to be deteriorating rubber on the inside of the portafilter holder that I’m slowly picking away (not certain how that’s going to affect the fit of the portafilter):

Once the tubing has been sterilised and the machine reassembled I’ll report back.

ams

ams I reassembled the machine after a good clean, and also bought a bottomless portafilter handle and IMS basket to test with - it can make quite a nice coffee, however, it seems that the rubber rail (on the portafilter holder) that had disintegrated, which I then subsequently removed with a dental pick and elbow grease served quite an important purpose - at high pressures the portafilter slides back and unlocks itself, which can lead to much leakage.

I did find that I preferred lighter roasts made with the DeLonghi than the Robot, I suspect this is due to everything being hotter on the DeLonghi.

Chriss29

Sage Dual Boiler, which is 2 years old in June. I had a very minor steam wand leak that was fixed under warranty. I wonder what I’d have got instead and honestly can’t think of anything for the money.

I’m intrigued by the Ascaso machines but they seem pretty expensive for how popular they are.

I also have a Cafelat Robot which makes for me just as good coffee as the dual boiler.

Cuprajake

Chriss29 they look a good machine, but as you say very expensive

Have you seen the Dallas corte mina

Chriss29

Cuprajake Yes that looks good, different but very expensive and HUGE!

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