Decent DE1

“The budget espresos guy is chiming in! If you can't afford fancy options then you have to pay by doing long and proper research and may have to tinker with your machine possibly ruining it. Cheap machines are made in similar factories, so don't be fooled by brand names like breville and delonghi, they may have better customer support but you pay way more than the machine is worth it ($50 machine ends up being $150) Ask to see the box, on the side of the box they list all the features which tell you more or less what you get. \-Look for features, don't buy machines with small build factor as they break way sooner. \-Get a machine with a large water tank, 1.5L+ \-Read the power rating, don't get anything weaker than 1000W. My current machine has 1450w and I am happy with the steaming power. \-Get one with 20 bar pressure (no, it isn't the coffee pressure, but the pump pressure. Anything less than 20 bars will make it hard to get 9+ bars when brewing coffee) \-Go for one with 58mm basket size, usually they are made to be more like "prosumer" machines and are built better \-Get one with a steam wand that isn't thin and where you can clearly see the shaft and the steam wand tip. The ones with smooth cylnder are automatic frothers, and will make your life harder. \-Look for ones with pressure gauge, it may not be indicative of the pressure on the puck, but you can use it to compare shot to shot \-Look for one with physical buttons, avoid touchscreens and flat buttons, they break too quickly \-Look for pressure relief system \-bonus if it has backflush capability \-Avoid grinder and espresso machine combos, they are easier to break and give you less flexibility to adjust. \-Overheating and over pressure protection are also a must \-Look at the pics, it must have portafiler spout that looks like professional machines, it usually means they made it for people who want more than a starting machine) \-opt in for heat exchanger over single boiler, they provide much better steaming capacity \-------------------------- my machine is called geepas 41519 but you can't buy it as it is a local import with a fake brand name (you can't find this exact model on geepas uk website) but you can google the name to see how it is built, looks will get you 60% of the way into finding a decent espresso machine. Now for some of the problems I faced with my machine. For a white I struggled with getting a decent crema from my shot, and unless my coffee was too fresh, my crema wouldn't last and the color was too light. I then tinkered with it and spoofed the thermistor with a variable resistor (currently set to 300ohm) to make the machine hotter, which resulted in tastier cups, double the crema that is longer lasting and deeper in color. For the grinder I am using a stepless 600n grinder, why I choose it is because it uses a flat burr, which is more reliable at budget machines, but I had to manually calibrate it and adjusting the g”