ddubick Senior Member Joined: 1 May 2012 Posts: 70 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Expertise: Just starting
Espresso: Nuova Simonelli Appia 1Gr,... Grinder: Macap M5, Nuova Simonelli...
Posted Wed Dec 5, 2012, 8:30pm Subject: Re: Assistance in picking out an Espresso machine for a reasonable price.
I know at least in Calgary here that craigslist has almost died. The biggest used site is now kijiji. Here's vancouver's site: http://vancouver.kijiji.ca/ ... of course I don't see anything good being offered right now.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,665 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Thu Dec 6, 2012, 2:53pm Subject: Re: Assistance in picking out an Espresso machine for a reasonable price.
For a working machine, that would be a nice price. Just a small point though, E61 and HX are not exclusively together. There are some SBDU machines with a E61 group head and not all HX machines have E61 heads either, such as the Oscar.
Hang in there and keep looking, you will find something worth having.
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
Well, the PID kit for the Silvia alone is $250 new and new I've seen them selling anywhere between $650-$800 new without a PID, depending on the shop and the markup.
I had my Silvia for about 8 months and found myself wanting greatly to move away from SBDU, only because the majority of drinks I make are milk drinks. Pulling straight shots isn't an issue. As soon as I moved over to a DB machine, it took me about half the amount of time to make a drink. I suspect that moving to an HX machine would take me a smidgen longer. (Due to cooling flush.)
The advice to move straight into an HX machine is actually very good advice. One the biggest reasons for buying SBDU is mainly budgetary, due to the high cost of a new entry level HX machine. From my point of view, I didn't know if I'd like pulling my own shots and didn't want to make too much of a financial commitment. (Hah!) If you are willing to take the plunge, go for it. :-)
At least in Vancouver, I've seen a lot more used espresso equipment on the used market than I could ever dream about here in Calgary. Including some very cheap Silvia's.
I have a stupid question, is going plumbed an option for you? I've noticed in some cases, you can find light commercial machines selling for a bargain, but YMMV. There was a huge glut of Nuova Simonelli MAC machines on the market here not that long ago, all of them selling for under $1000.. but they all require plumb-in operation. Buying a used commercial machine can be a really huge crapshoot because you don't know if it saw service in a commercial environment. If it has, run away!
andrewm Said:
Does anyone have experience with the Crossland CC1? It's not pretty, but looks functional. Problem is it's not available used.
I can't say that I have... The CC1 has a boiler for brewing and a thermoblock for steaming, so you get around all of the limitations of SBDU machines. Now I'm just going to say IMHO on this next statement, I could be a little ignorant here. I'm a little leery about thermoblocks from a reliability perspective. However, in saying that, they've been on the market for two years (To the best of my knowledge) and I haven't seen anyone complaining about a thermoblock failure involving one of these machines yet, so maybe I'm just blowing smoke out of my rear orifice on that one.
If you can get a good warranty on one, the CC1 offers considerably better value than the Silvia from a 'Bang for the buck' perspective. The only thing competing with it is the Quickmill Silvano.
If I absolutely had to spend only $800 and I wanted a new machine with warranty support, the CC1 would certainly be on my shortlist, thermoblock and all. It offers many more features than other SBDU machines out there and blows away the Quickmill Silvano when it comes to featureset. The only machines which represent better value than the CC1 are the Lelit machines.
BTW, here's a Coffeegeek thread dating back to 2010 you should read if you want more information about the CC1:
I just thought I should mention.. I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the CC1. A lot of people seem to be very happy with theirs. Unfortunately, there is only one review on this site: "Crossland CC1 PID Espresso Machine"
I can understand why the decision was made to go with a Thermoblock, mainly to keep costs down and to get out of the SBDU mentality.. There isn't any other engineering options out there. short of going to an HX or DB design.
Err.. I guess I should have been a bit more specific.
Some espresso machines have to be directly connected to a water line instead of relying on a reservoir. Some are switchable between a tank and plumbed. (Water line)
All commercial espresso machines require a directly connected (plumbed) water line. It's only consumer and prosumer models that usually have a built-in tank. As a result of this, commercial machines usually tend to be cheaper because not everyone can plumb-in their machine to the water supply.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,665 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Fri Dec 7, 2012, 6:36am Subject: Re: Assistance in picking out an Espresso machine for a reasonable price.
qualin Said:
As soon as I moved over to a DB machine, it took me about half the amount of time to make a drink. I suspect that moving to an HX machine would take me a smidgen longer. (Due to cooling flush.)
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