Advice on buying a secondhand machine

[melholtz]

Hi!

we are looking at buying our first machine, not much of a budget so looking secondhand have narrowed it down to either a brevile 800ES for $50-$100 or a sunbeam EM6910 for $100- $200. I am leaning towards the 800ES i know the EM6910 is a better machine but the 800ES seems to have less problems and I'm worried about spending $150 on a machine that might stop working in a few months most of the EM6910 seem to be 3+ years old. in terms of buying a 800ES secondhand is there anything in particular i should look for? any warning sings of faulty or misuse? any questions I can ask the seller?

hoping to embark into the world of coffee making very soon thank you in advance for any advice this site is awesome. Mel

[flynnaus]

Welcome Mel

Hmmm...at those prices, I would not be buying either without having a good look and try. The question you would need to ask (yourself) is why are they selling at this cheap price and you pretty much raised that in your post.
Unless you know the seller well, I would not be depending on them providing an honest appraisal. The 'problems' are not necessarily caused by manufacturing quality but how the machine was treated by the previous owner,

You might get lucky but we don't want to see your first coffee making experiences spoiled by a dodgy machine. would be tending to look at this one from a long time CSer instead: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/coffee-har...ades-melb.html

Do you have a grinder yet? That is a very important consideration. You won't get good results from pre-ground coffee I'm afraid. A good alternative is a hand grinder + Aeropress combo. For example, site sponsor Di Bartoli in Sydney is selling a Porlex grinder + Aeropress for ~$120 ex P&P. Talk Coffee in Melbourne is also selling Aeropress combos for a similar price.

[melholtz]

thanks for the reply. I'm in perth and I've looked in the for sale on this site and couldn't really find anything if i start adding postage i might as well just buy new. I am looking at a grinder as well. anyhow I'm going to look at a 800ES see how we go. thank you.

[rawill]

And !!, update