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  • New machine or get mine fixed?

    Hi, my sunbeam 6910 after years of service has given up. It might be the thermal fuse from what I’ve read (green light comes on but never reaches ready despite having heated up) or might be more. I’ve no idea how expensive or difficult it is to fix. I have a sunbeam Torino grinder which seems fine, bought new for $100 on trademe, I’ve never tried another. Together these two machines produced pretty good coffee I thought.

    so I can take for repair or maybe it’s time for a new one? Problem is the options in NZ even are a bit overwhelming. Perhaps I need to upgrade the grinder too?
    for the machine my criteria is as follows:
    1. I will never buy a breville or sunbeam new as I’m violently opposed to closed box machines that are intended for landfill (my sunbeam was 2nd hand). But they do come up second hand so that’s one option.
    2. I love the fast start up on the sunbeam and the low maintenance and good milk steaming (soy flat whites and macchiatos) and the quick switch from the shot to the milk
    3. Makes 2-3 coffees per day
    4. Don’t want to spend a fortune on maintaining it.

    there’s a shop in Auckland that sells Lelit. I’m not sure there are any other options in the under 2k range. Can anyone recommend make/model that might suit? I get confused about what PID, heat exchanger, single/double boiler etc are and which I should be looking at.

    thanks!

  • #2
    Welcome to the forum,

    Was a fellow Aucklander for a little while before heading back home. I have had very good service from the Espresso Machine Company there when I got my machine serviced a couple years back. I have also had good service from CoffeeTech in NZ too, but their range of machines is a bit limited.

    Anyhow on your questions
    1. Agree - go for a pro-sumer machine and got much longer life
    2. Start up times can be overcome if you have a plug timer (or wifi plug) and set to a regular heat up time
    3. If you are only making 2-3 of 3 a day a dual boiler isn't needed probably as recovery times aren't going to be a big deal
    4. All machines will have some element of maintenance and cost. A little bit of money/regular servicing will save a fortunate in the long run.

    What grinder do you have? You might need to think about upgrading that too. $2k machine and grinder is a tight budget. There is a combo deal going for the lelit anna sub $2k or if you cna stretch the budget a lelit mara. don't have experience with either but there are threads here about them and other members have them.

    good luck with the hunt!

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    • #3
      I’m still trying to figure out maintainance too to avoid spending a fortune on issues later on.

      From what I’ve figured so for:
      1. Use good water as calcium I hear is what kills the machine (and chlorine).
      2. Descale with citric acid (you can avoid or minimise this with 1)
      3. Backflush with Cafiza (or alternatives) every 1-2 weeks.
      4. Clean out the shower screen and the brass plates above regularly too
      5. Change out the gasket when it wears out

      All of the above is fairly affordable so I would suggest doing it.

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      • #4
        Lelit PL91T. Fast heat up, fast switching between brew and steam, auto boiler top up, limitless steam...

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        • #5
          Question about the Victoria (PL91T) - it has this auto boiler top up....I don't think the Anna (PL41) has this, how much of a problem is this? Am i likely to destroy the boiler if i forget to do some manual thing to fill it up? I don't quite understand how this works as this issue never arose with the sunbeam i have.
          https://www.espresso.co.nz/home-coff...grinder-combo/

          Also, does anyone know how the steam on the Anna compares to the Victoria? I assume they are pretty similar given same technology, but be good to know. Similarly the time to switch between brew and steam will be the same?

          If the auto boiler top up is the only difference (and the 58mm portafilter) not sure why its an extra $550 for the Victoria, better to spend that on getting a better grinder?

          thanks!

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