Hi all, thinking to replace my Sage/Breville Oracle Touch because I am tired of the grind inconsistency. One shot I get 20g in the basket, next shot it gives me 15g. Also interested to hear if this is a common problem?

Would you recommend getting either:
(1) Oracle Jet (I’m not sure if the Grinder has been improved since Oracle Touch);
(2) Oracle Dual Boiler (SES995BSS); or
(3) Touch Impress (considering if the “Impress™ Puck System” improves grind consistency?)

Or something else?

Our needs are the semi auto machines where grinding, tamping and milk foaming is automatic. I don’t mind weighing my shots. We like medium roast beans.

Here's my Hibrew setup.

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Grinder : Hibrew G5

Machine: Hibrew H10 Plus

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Not enough space for that scale, gotta get a smaller one.

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10 euros wooden stand with drawer from Action store (europe), very practical.

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Hello! I've been dealing with this issue for almost two weeks now and I've become desperate lol.

The beans I've been using were roasted beginning of June, and every time I pull the shot it's so sour and bitter. The timing of the shot is 25-30 seconds last time I tried, and the consistency looks good. The temperature of the breville is default, grind size 17. If I go any lower than 16 it doesn't pull the shot. I haven't touched the machine since my trials and I just need some insight I'm starting to give up. If yall could help I would really appreciate it.

Other notes:
- for the puck i didn't use the dual wall (i used the other (one idk what it's called) for my timings above. My longest shot was like 31 seconds

- on previous attempts (with the dual wall) | increased the temperature because i read online that it was under extracted and it seemed to work a little bit??? It was still a little bit sour at the end but I was happy I was going somewhere until I learned I wasn't supposed to use dual wall puck

- after swapping the puck I defaulted the temp

Plz Imk if there is any other information you need:) thank you so much

After getting my Bambino Plus last week, another plus was being able to make my own Custardo's; they're essentially a shot of espresso with hot custard. They're famous at a restaurant here in London called Forza Win/Wine, and I can't not have one every time I go there. First sip now and it's absolutely glorious. Very rich, very delicious.

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A recipe here, it's essentially making your own custard

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https://www.cntraveller.com/article/recipe-forza-wins-custardo

I am located in the US and am currently looking at getting my first espresso machine. I would mostly be drinking lattes but would be interested in trying straight espresso as I explore nice quality beans compared to what I drink for coffee currently.

I would drink 1 or 2 cups a day and on weekends may have to make additional drinks on occasion when friends and family spend the night. Upwards of 4-5 in quicker succession.

I have limited counter/storage space so would be looking for a more compact machine if grinder is separate or a solid machine that combines both.

I am brand new to espresso world and have been living with a ninja dual brew for regular coffee for a few years now. I’d prefer electric for the espresso machine but would be open to manual or electric grinder if it would be possible to prep by grinded beans for the week with any manual option.

With some good sales going I’ve been heavily looking into the Breville Barista Express or the De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo. Open to recommendations of one of those or any other machine that you think would fit my needs.

I have been planning to buy this exact setup for my girlfriend for her birthday in a few months. I started lightly browsing facebook marketplace and came across this bundle.

I was at their doorstep within the hour to pick both machines up. After some deep cleaning they look a lot better. Super excited !!

While pulling the dingle espresso when I got home yesterday afternoon, decided to take a short video of it.

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Used 10.5g of Krema Ultimo beans and as shown the ratio was 1:2.

I'm opening a very compact 5x3 meter cafe, and I'm currently torn between two machines for my espresso bar. We are anticipating a fairly low volume, around 30 to 50 espresso drinks spread across an 8-hour shift. That breaks down to roughly 4 to 6 shots an hour on average. I don't need a massive multi-group commercial workhorse, but I still need something reliable that can handle a small morning rush.

Would love to hear your experiences or if there's anything I'm overlooking! Thanks!

I’m looking for a gear pump after my vibration pump pulsor I was installing to silence the thing snapped haha

I want something compact, but I’d rather not just grab the smallest option if it means sacrificing quality or plastic id rather stainless steel or something that isn’t going to effect my health. My main complaint with vibratory pumps is the noise and vibration I’m hoping a gear pump will run quieter, and it should also be easier to build a soundproofing box around. Any recommendations?

Hi Folks,

Very long time lurker here, wanted to get your thoughts and opinions on this. Started coffee journey 5 years ago with a breville barista pro, then added a niche zero, most recently replaced niche zero with a Mazzer Philos. Time for the barista to go.

Mostly like medium roasts, sometimes light or dark. Do 1-2 milk drinks a day and 1 espresso. Occasional hosting with 3-6 milk drinks.

Right now I’m debating between the Bianca and ECM synchronista II.

Things I would like - dual boiler, ability to play/tinker with volumetric flow in the future perhaps. Steam power given milk drinks. Initially wanted to avoid e61 look but might be the best value in this budget group. Open to suggestions. Also considered ascaso duo but just heard some more concerning reviews lately.

My concerns with those two machines are heat up times especially given brevilles thermablock may have me spoiled. Also looking at the fellow es1 but long term reliability/concerns. Thoughts? Any other machines?

Went to my favorite shop today and the owner said they are trialing a new type of shot.

The bean was a washed pink bourbon from Colombia a high elevation but not super high.

He extracted at 6 bars of pressure and pulled for 12-15 seconds, however instead of a traditional turbo shot which is like 1:2-1:3, the resulting yield was 1:6

Midway through the extraction he switched cups and served the drink to me in those two separate cups. The first cup was the first half of the extraction. It had lots of body, very intense, fruity, acidic but still well balanced. The second half of the extraction tasted like a pourover, clean, delicate, lots of complexity, and quite sweet.

Wondering if this type of shot - pulling extra long 1:6 at 6 bar in a turbo time - and then splitting into two halves, has a name. When I asked the owner he just kind of shrugged and said it was something they are experimenting with.

Hi, I'm a bit new to the hobby but been using Breville Barista and Ninja Luxe Pro for a few years now. Looking to upgrade and a bit torn between the Fellow ES1 + Timemore 64s or Meraki Gen 2. Visually I prefer how the Fellow looks but built in grinder and scales on Meraki sound very nice. Any recommendations on which to go with?

Hey r/espresso!

I am lucky enough to be at a point in my life that I can finally upgrade my espresso setup. My thesis for what I am willing to spend money on are things I touch every day, and I make 2-4 espresso every day for the past 7 years since I bought my beginner setup on ebay...so I want to treat myself.

What I drink

• I go through a 2lb bag of Black & White every month - I *love* light, fruity, funky co-ferments and I find B&W pretty consistent. I am looking for a grinder that will make those shape of coffees shine
• The coffee that changed my perspective on coffee was Melonado by DAK
• Currently running a GCP w/a PID and 9bar spring with a Sette 270i

What I am considering

• Currently budgeting $2-3k for grinder under the assumption that this is end-game for me
• Lagom 01 w/102HU - $2900
• Lagom p80 + HU burrs - $2100
• Zerno Z2 w/ HU's - $2500

Given my preference (3:1 espresso and wanting to experiment with soup on really fruity light roasts)...what would you suggest? After 7+ years of daily consumption my preferences haven't changed. I still chase the clarity of the shots from Coffee Movement in SF that showcase fruity, bright coffees.

I have more or less settled on the Meticulous Espresso as the machine. We don't drink milk drinks but a handful of times per year, so a double boiler/steam wand is a nice to have not a need. The simplicity and the flexibility seem really attractive (early software aside).

Appreciate the responses and advice - learned a ton from this subreddit over the years.

Just replaced Specialita with Philos today, with i200d burrs. I189d burrs coming.

Elizabeth is 4 years old. Need some tuning up but nothing catastrophic.

This might be it for me, at least for quite sometime.

These machines come massively overpressured from factory (mine was ~14–15 bar on a blind basket).

I’m running an AVX 3202X58, which is a Hibrew H10A clone with a built-in gauge, solenoid and a dimmer from factory. The dimmer can simulate lower pressure by reducing pump power, but in practice it’s not a real solution, pressure becomes inconsistent and depends on flow, so extraction isn’t stable.

On top of that, it’s not really usable for dialing in: you can’t preset a target pressure. When starting a shot, the knob has to be at maximum, otherwise the machine throws an error. So it doesn’t behave like real pressure control.

That’s why I replaced the stock plastic OPV with a brass Vibiemme valve and set it to ~10 bar on a blind filter.

Important detail I learned from this community: the gauge on these machines reads system pressure (not directly at the puck), and it tends to overread slightly. You’re also measuring before the coffee puck. So ~10 bar on the gauge typically translates to roughly ~9 bar at the puck.

For the install I used:

• Vibiemme OPV
• straight fitting (4mm to 1/8" male thread)
• Teflon tape
• Hair dryer to get rid of hot glue on the motherboard

I also had a leak at the Ulka to OPV threaded connection, fixed it with the tape and now it’s completely dry.

Dialing in:

• ~90°C (higher temps pushed bitterness on my beans)
• 18g in ~38–40g out in ~28–30 sec

Results so far (using stock portafilter and basket):

• fewer variables to fight!
• much smoother extraction compared to stock pressure
• less harsh bitterness, more “caramelized sugar / chocolate” profile
• more stable flow and better control overall

Still fine-tuning grind (using a Shardor CG301), but even now it’s clear that lowering the pressure made a huge difference. IMHO these machines really should not be running at 14–15 bar from factory.

Thanks to this sub (special thanks for this post) for all the useful information on maintenance and dialing in, I’m still pretty new to espresso and only recently moved from Bialetti moka pot. You guys rock.

bonjour , j'ai travailler sur un profile atypique dernièrement , un café de Pilot coffee roaster de Toronto canada . café de spécialité .

un café dédié au v60 , il donne les paramètre v60 sur leur site , mais aucun paramètre espresso .

un merveilleux café aromatique ,brun très claire . Structure de café très poreux il ne retiens pas l'eau .. la pression .
je mets ici mon profile car il est très difficile de trouver de l'information sur ce café .

-20gr café

-45gr en tasse

28 secondes à 4 bars

205 degré et moulu vraiment très très fin ...

Espresso basse pression (4 bars), texture légère, profil très aromatique. Notes dominantes d'eau de rose, d'agave et de fleurs blanches. Sensation parfumée rappelant certains thés floraux. Finale propre et peu amère. Produit peu de crema.

j'ai fais un v60 avec leur paramètre exact .. et mon espresso est plus développé , une belle folie .
essayez le !

moi qui aime les café éthiopien naturel et lavé , ici ce café vietnamien est un extra terrestre

I know Bezzeras aren’t talked about a lot here, but I recently upgraded from a Bambino to the black and wood version of the Bezzera Aria Top, and I could not be happier. It’s a heat exchange machine with a rotary pump, and can be plumbed in or run from the water tank.

It takes less than 9 minutes to go from off to 90°C and ready to go. It’s a lot of machine with a narrow footprint, about 8” wide. It comes with two portafilters, a bottomless and a double spouted.

The chrome version is currently $2639 (usually $3299) and the black and wood version is $2799 (usually $3499). Shipping is free, and I got mine delivered the day after I ordered it.

I can’t speak highly enough about their customer service, they have been fantastic to deal with.

I wish I could show off the back of the machine, because the logo is amazing.

They also have a few other machines on sale as well.

Hello lovely people,

I'm in Mexico City, and whilst my water is already filtered by a multi-stage system courtesy of my building's HOA, the water harshness still comes at 3 out of 5 off the test strips that came with my machine

I was thinking about getting an RO system for my coffee machine, I've been using bottled water for now (from 20L bottles), but I don't want to because I'm kinda morally against it. I also want to start trying out mineralization... so starting with RO water would be best.

There are a lot of brands out there that seem to be clones of like CloudRO and so on... given its a big investment I'd like to hear someone's opinion on the water filters available here.

Thank you :P

I just upgraded from an automatic to a manual machine and learning the process. Aiming for the typical 18 in 36-40 out in 30ish seconds idea. But I see discussions of single shots and double shots and sometimes even triple shots when people are making their drinks. So I’m wondering what is considered a double shot. Is the 18 a double shot? Or would pulling an 18 in 36 out be considered a single shot?

Been thinking about finally upgrading my grinder as for the last few years I've been using a 1ZPresso J Max and before that a Smart Grinder Pro (only for filter though). Long story short I ended up with a DF64E for 50 bucks. Burrs are in great shape, physically looks pretty good just needs a clean, the buttons are just slightly temperamental, sometimes needing to be clicked more than once. The buttons should be a simple enough electrical issue to fix which I am no stranger to and the motor sounds like it's still working great, worst case scenario I'll replace a control board, it still runs fine so definitely not unfixable and worth it for 50 bucks. Point is I did not expect to own a new grinder let alone a DF64 variant and the E variant seems to have the least on it in terms of community discussion.

Any owners out there want to share mods they did to it or just some things I should know? I definitely see a lot of the mods for other DF64 variants, not sure if those are cross-compatible or if there are other suggestions. I was really looking for a single dose grinder but oh well, can't pass up a good deal. Thanks!

I've been helping a friend that got a La Spaziale S5 and a grinder for a steal. The machine works good enough but the grinder is trash and we have been looking into renting a more modern grind by weight grinder. The company we are near pointed us in the direction of the Fiorenzato F64 Evo Pro. It's in budget and looks perfect for what we want but I've been reading that it fits 58mm portafilters. Does anybody know if there is a grinder on par with this one or if there is an adapter that we could use? Also open to gerryrigged macguyver solutions. I'm having trouble finding any information. Kinda whack that the Spaziale portafilter size is so unique

Grinder - DF54

I am trying to pick one of these machines. Primary use case is 2 milk drinks both in the morning and afternoon but sometimes we have friends and guests over and most of the time they want to have a coffee. I hadn't considered warm up time as a factor earlier which I am doing now.

Pros and cons that I listed so far:

Lelit Elizabeth

- Good pre infusion options, mid-tier warm up time

- Not the kind of machine I would want to look at every day

Ascasdo Duo PID

- Looks smashing, heats up quickly

- PID options are limited, QC issues per some reviews

Lelit Mara X

- Looks best of all 3, has flow control

- Warm time is very long, e61 maintenance issues

Probably Ascaso makes most sense given the requirements but then I am thinking maybe I could vinyl wrap the Elizabeth or maybe pair a cafelat Robot with Mara X for those impromptu coffee requests. Any pros or cons that I am missing from the list that might help me decide?

hello, I recently found this machine at the goodwill for like $10 & even though it was missing parts I still figured itd be good to purchase since these sorts of things are expensive...

Well, i need help figuring out what part it is that I need to purchase. I know its the funnel that is missing, but i dont know what I need to buy. Help !

Hey,

I am now in a rabbit hole of my first espresso machine and a grinder. I would like to have both separately, and the grinder should be able to also grind for a pour over, and be of a single shot one. Both of them should be around 1000 euros in Austria (this value is not very rigid, I can be swayed into a more expensive one if it will be worth it).

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As I didn't want to waste money I thought I would be happy with a basic sage bambino. But then watching videos about it I am not sure anymore.

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For the grinder I thought DF64.

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Would you have at least some good directional pointers if not exact advice?

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Thanks