Fellow Espresso Series 1

dfk41

I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the above?

dfk41

Having watched a few reviews which were mostly the expected fawning and woffle, I watched the girl at Red Rooster review it. I am glad I did! Certainly looks impressive but not for me!

dang2484

Mine arrived a couple weeks ago! Pleasantly surprised 😀 never had any Fellow products before but knew they’ve made some good stuff with the Aiden etc so took a chance of the pre-order.

dfk41

dang2484 Congratulations! They look very interesting. My wife confirmed that I was not getting one which is just as well really! The Aiden I have set up where I am really happy. Despite all the bells and whistles I can adjust grind, water temp and volume and that suffices my needs. ENjoy!

Does Decent have anything to worry about?

crimson89

If this product doesn’t appeal to you then I can’t see why a Decent would.

dfk41

crimson89 If this product doesn’t appeal to you then I can’t see why a Decent would.

A Decent does not appeal and never has! The Fellow had slipped under my radar and having just bought an Aiden I knew it would be a quirky machine laden with features. After watching several reviews I realised that it was also not a machine for me. I need simple things in life, not complicated!

dang2484

dfk41 cheers! 😉 it was such a good pre-order price and had all the features I didnt tell my wife cause I knew she won’t get out! 😂

Although I haven’t played with everything yet, it seems the best of both, just a simple plug and play espresso machine or you can play around and create all the profiles you like. Think there’s some more updates coming soon so you can play with more features.

Is it a Decent killer, I’ve had one but knowing of them and what they can do, I think Fellow will be giving a run for their money!!

jrling

Do you know what the final UK release price will be? It does look v interesting.

dfk41

jrling https://coffeemerch.co.uk/products/fellow-espresso-series-1-espresso-machine

Fellow emailed me and told me that this is the official UK partner and they want you to prepay and expect it to be shipped ‘late summer’.

dang2484

jrling I think is 200 quid off at the moment with the pre-order so around 1200-1400 without the deal.

jrling

dfk41 Thanks for the heads-up on that. So any colour as long as it’s black if you want to pay £1,299.95 and +£100 for other colours. That’s pound for US dollar pricing then as they are USD 1,299.95 in USA. Or put it another way - you can tell that I’m an accountant [retired] - at say current USD exchange rate of 1.32 that would be £984.81 for the machine. If you imported it yourself, there is currently a 2.7% Import Duty payable and VAT on the total of the cost of the item + Import Duty + Shipping. Difficult to know those costs, but between friends, let’s say Duty of £27 and VAT of £212. So total cost shipped to UK of £1,225 (for a black one). So to pay £1,299.95 with free shipping for pre-orders from the UK Distributor seems reasonable.

dang2484

jrling I pre-ordered with Coffee Merch last year and received mine 2 weeks ago, so probably wouldn’t be late summer.

They’re doing bundle deals on the 1 series still but to be honest 1300 for what the machine can do is a steal!

jrling

I agree. It is v competitive and from an established manufacturer with a track record and innovative designs.

dang2484

jrling that’s what sold it for me, I know what Fellow can do and knew there’d be good customer service support. Even at full price it’s a great machine for what you get!

delta76

dang2484 As a Decent owner I’m obviously biased but I don’t think this will be decent killer. when the novelty wears off, people will pay more attention to things like longevity, long term support, repairability etc. there have been a few videos of tearing it down and the consensus is most people don’t like what they see, in contrast DE1 is appraised for the internals - well engineered with repairability and upgradability in mind.
All in all some thing does not need to be this or that killer. This can be a very good choice within its price range. There might be people who were considering Decent, buy this instead. but many will still buy the Decent. The market is huge and their range do not overlap, so both can co-exist

dang2484

I don’t think you can compare them considering the Decent is 2 to 3 times the price and has a vastly different USP, but it goes to show that what most people (me included) are looking for is some playability with some varibles and that doesn’t have to cost the thousands.

The Fellow comes with a 2yr warranty and Fellow’s reputation which is a good starting point for those that don’t want to or have the time/ability for a Gaggiuino kit or spend thousands on pouring hot water through some coffee grounds.

Like you said, it’s good there options on the market and will only make things better down the line 😉

dang2484

This came up today, yes it’s Lance Hedrick but it’s a fair review of the One.

Jony

I nearly bought this, but might wait, once a twice week coffee, wouldn’t mind a decent second had though to try.

dang2484

Jony it was definitely a good deal on pre-order and worth a gamble (although Fellow aren’t an unknown by a long shot).

Whether the 1300 price tag now is worth it, time will tell but there’s not much on the market for that price that can do what this can do, even second hand Decents are still well over 2k!

I suppose it depends what you want, a fully loaded profiling machine or a machine that can do profiling! 😉