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  • gacoxd
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    Originally posted by 505C5B524A5F505B3E0 link=1209451342/3#3 date=1209455277
    anything is better than a breville, i have had several breville products in the past few years and all have died an early death. depending on the product i am willing to go to a higher price but i want something that isnt going to break down in a few months, as i said in the original email i would like a kitchenAid and i already have the KA blender and mixer so i do like and trust this brand, but the price tag is a tad out of my budget at this stage.  
    Dude, I feel your pain. We too had other Kitchenaid appliances and when our budget DeLonghi crapped out we leapt at the chance to trade up to the Artisan.

    Pretty much hated it from the get go. Tried almost every variation of every variable and basically couldnt better what we were getting out of a $150 DeLonghi machine that we take camping with us.

    Its been 15 months now and two weeks ago it stopped working and we hated that thing so much that, even though it is under warranty, we didnt bother to get it fixed (besides it sounds like that would be a major hassle anyway) and went the whole enchilada and bought a high-end domestic machine.

    Just my two cents worth, its been said before, the value proposition simply isnt there with this machine.

    Leave a comment:


  • nbeltane
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    thanks to all that have replied. will look into what you have suggested..

    Leave a comment:


  • gregpullman
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    Im not sure which KitchenAid youre looking at but the only one I can find quickly is the Artisan, around $1300. The specs look OK, but this is a manual machine not a superautomatic. If youre prepared to stick with a manual machine (which I couldnt recommend more strongly), in your situation with your budget and requirements Id be more looking at a Rancilio Silvia. Its built like a tank and they hardly ever have problems; the Sunbeam 6910 is also a good machine in the same price range, it isnt built as well and wont last as long, but it has more of an appliance feel to it than the Silvia which is slightly more industrial and that may be important to you. However Id normally only recommend the 6910 if at least two of the following conditions apply:
    * very fast warm-up time is important (e.g. you need a morning coffee 5 minutes after waking up)
    * you drink mainly milk drinks
    * you need to make at least four milk drinks per session (e.g. catering for more than just you and one other person).

    New Silvias are around $750 which is a lot less than the KitchenAid, but you can often pick up second-hand Silvias for around the $500 mark here on CS, and before you ignore a second-hand Silvia, providing theyve been cosmetically looked after theyre basically as good as a new one because theyre built so well. They are very well supported parts-wise and so many people have them theres a wealth of info out there on them. My own Silvia was second-hand, Ive had it for 2.5 years and have only ever had to replace normal wearing parts like gaskets; others have had similar experiences. If youve got your heart set on a KitchenAid, you could always get a Silvia for now and sell it once youve saved up enough for the KA (because Silvias are so well made and so popular they hold their resale value very well). However I expect by that stage youll realise what a great machine the Silvia is and choose to keep it.

    Also, my understanding is that the Breville grinders leave a fair bit to be desired; by all means keep using it if youre happy with it but I think youll find once you get into a real coffee machine that the grinder will have trouble grinding consistently enough and fine enough to do the job properly.

    Greg

    Leave a comment:


  • reubster
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    nbeltane

    Many of us here only use our machines 3-4 times a day, but we want excellent coffee, so the cost is easy to justify.

    Living in a small country town is no excuse for buying stale coffee beans,
    Within this site, there are probably 10+ boutique roasters and of course Coffee Snobs Brown all found over here In the site sponsors section:

    <--------------------

    All these companys can mail order freshly roasted beans within a couple of days.
    Stale mass produced supermarket beans that have been sitting on the shelf for up to and over a year, made by mass production roasters using poor quality beans usually cost around $8-10per 250grams [ie $32-40Kg]............The roasters here that sponsor this site can provide award winning speciality roasts for around the same price.

    I know its outside your thinking box, but you could also consider an Aeropress.
    IMHO, of all the coffee making methods, the Aeropress, will be the "most forgiving" when matched with a blade grinder and with fresh beans, will give you absolutely superb coffee.

    Otherwise, the IKON/EM0480 as suggested by GP would be your best entry level....but beware of the upgradeitis bug!

    Good luck with it, try some really great fresh coffee beans and keep us posted.

    Leave a comment:


  • nbeltane
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    yes..

    Leave a comment:


  • ausman600
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    You have PM

    Leave a comment:


  • nbeltane
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    as i said in the last message if i can find a better machine im willing to pay higher but with only me using it its a high cost for 1 person. Dh sometimes has one but its mainly me drinking them probably 3-4 times a day, i prefer a more milkier coffee. i have the cheap breville coffee grinder that was a birthday gift recently and im quite happy with that but then i only use coffee beans when i can get to the shops to buy a packet as i live in a small country town so im not always able to get them.

    Leave a comment:


  • nbeltane
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    anything is better than a breville, i have had several breville products in the past few years and all have died an early death. depending on the product i am willing to go to a higher price but i want something that isnt going to break down in a few months, as i said in the original email i would like a kitchenAid and i already have the KA blender and mixer so i do like and trust this brand, but the price tag is a tad out of my budget at this stage.

    Leave a comment:


  • gregpullman
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    Welcome nbeltane,

    From your description of a push-button instant latte it sounds as though youre after a super-automatic machine which does everything for you. I dont know of too many superautomatics under $600 and if there were any I doubt theyd be any better at all than your Breville - probably worse. Superautomatics are notorious for being high in purchase cost, high in maintenance costs and average at best in the coffee they produce; there are several threads already here on CS which discuss this in more detail so you might like to do a search if youre seriously thinking of going down this path. Until you get up around the $2000+ mark the results cant be expected to be very good, at least not consistently.

    My recommendation would be to get a better quality manual machine than a Breville Cafe Roma and learn how to use it, and youll get far better results than any superautomatic within cooee of the same money. You really should allocate at least a couple of hundred dollars for a grinder. I would therefore recommend something like a Breville Ikon (RRP$349) and a Sunbeam EM0480 grinder (RRP$180). The Ikon has a boiler rather than the thermoblock in the Cafe Roma so steaming the milk shouldnt take anywhere near as long. Otherwise if youre after purely convenience and dont care about coffee quality, consistency or ongoing costs you may be able to pick up a cheap superautomatic somewhere and just hope it doesnt break down too soon.

    You may like to let us know what your priorities are in terms of coffee quality, cup to cup consistency, what sort of drinks youre normally making, how many a day and how many per session (i.e. are you making one latte for yourself or regularly feeding six latte drinkers?).

    Good luck with whatever you decide!
    Greg

    Leave a comment:


  • Gavin1
    replied
    Re: Looking for a new machine

    Im not a big fan of auto machines so i cant really comment much. if im not mistaken, the cheapest fully auto ive seen is around the price range of a sunbeam 6910 which i reckon would be better than a fully auto around that price.....

    Leave a comment:


  • nbeltane
    started a topic Looking for a new machine

    Looking for a new machine

    my less than 4 month old Breville Café Roma Stainless isnt working. it still brews coffee but the frother part is leaking so im looking for recommendations for another machine. i dont really want to go over 600.00 (i would love a kitchen-aid but thats out of my price range). i need a machine that uses beans or already ground coffee as i dont have access to get the pods or capsules as i have see that some of the machines use. i would like something that i can just push a button and have an instant latte with out having to muck around with getting the milk frothy, as i found with the Breville that this took up to 5 minutes at a time to do. any advice is appreciated. thanks
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