Espresso upgrade decisions

Marosh

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Apr 26, 2020
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Hi espresso experts,
I spent couple of weeks deciding how to upgrade my set of Delonghi espresso and grinder combo, as now is finally time to move forward.
After reading this awesome forum, reviews, videos, comparisons I would like to ask you for help guys, as it is really tough decision.

I am deciding between 3 categories according to my budget ..for price category I will use: € / €€ / €€€

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Lelit Grace PL81T (LLC/PID, 57mm portafilter, 0,25 l brass boiler) €
Lelit Victoria PL91T (LLC/PID, 58mm portafilter, 0,3 l brass boiler) € €
Bezzera BZ09 S PM (no-PID, 58mm portafilter, 0,5 l copper boiler) € €

+ good grinder, slightly pricier



Or E61 category
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Vibiemme Domobar Inox (no-PID, 58mm portafilter, 0,75 l copper bojler) € €
Lelit Mara PL62 (no-PID, 58mm portafilter, 1,5 l DOUBLE copper boiler) € € €
Bezzera Unica PID manuale (PID, 58mm portafilter, 0,5 l copper boiler) € € €

+ good grinder, less expensive



Or Manual La Pavoni which would be exciting experience
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La Pavoni Europiccola (no-PID, 52mm portafilter, 0,8 l brass boiler) €

+ good grinder, slightly pricier

yeah and I have this question.. would it be so important for you that machine has PID, so you would prefer lower espresso category before E61?

Thank you guys for answers and help
:coffee1:
 
Last edited:

Marosh

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Apr 26, 2020
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Thank you for your answer,
after reading reviews and considering pros and cons of La Pavoni I decided to definitely go for something else and my choice I reduced to Lelit and it's Grace/Victoria and Mara.
My max budget for complete set is around 1000-1200 EUR, but If I don't have need to spend it all, I can spend it also for good quality of coffee beans
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I usually prepare espresso and flat white, 50:50 approx 4-6 daily.

I chose Eureka Mignon MCI Chrom for grinder, which I preferred over Lelit Fred, which I also considered. As many people recommend better grinder over better espresso machine. Eureka has nice price/quality ratio and I think I won't be sorry about it according to reviews.


About espresso machine, I would sum it accordingly:
Why I would like to buy Grace PL81T?
- good price (Lelit+Eureka 890 EUR), it has LLC/PID, very fast heating time

It has 57mm portafilter, all reasons which I read against this choice say that accessories are difficult to find. I found 57mm naked portafilter, leveling tool, precission baskets, also tamper with nice wooden handle. Should I consider something else why I should go for 58mm instead, which will give me value of 200 EUR paying on top (if I bought Victoria instead?)


Why I would like to buy Mara PL61?
- (Lelit+Eureka 1350 EUR), top which I could afford now but with grinder and accessories I am exceeding budget.. dual boiler HX, E61, amazing design..

Question is what value will bring this to final coffee result and if it is worth 500 EUR on top of Lelit Grace price. It is still version PL62...PL61T with PID or new MaraX will be 700+ EUR on top of Lelit Grace price.
 

MntnMan62

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Nov 15, 2019
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I don't know the Eureka ginder you decided to buy however it seems to get decent reviews from several coffee sites. As for the Lelit, I think you are going with a good quality company that makes good quality machines. When I was considering buying an espresso machine, I had settled on the Lelit Mara. I wanted the ability to make milk drinks and the Mara would allow me to do that. But you refer to the Mara as a dual boiler. I presume you know that it has only one boiler and the "dual" means it's dual purpose in that it supplies water for the espresso and steam for milk drinks. It really sounds like a great machine. The thing with Lelit is that they always seem to have something that's even better. I've decided that if I go ahead with espresso then I'll try and afford the Lelit Bianca, which is a fair amount more but you get a high quality dual boiler (meaning two separate boilers) machine. That said, my entry into espresso will be a Cafelat Robot, totally manual machine. It's cheap but makes consistently good espresso. And I'll learn more about the process so when I decide to pursue a more expensive semi-automatic machine, I'll be more informed. As to the Grace vs Mara, I'd try and stretch my budget for the Mara. I believe it's a far better machine than the Grace, not that the Grace is bad. You won't go wrong with either. Good luck.
 
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