Ascaso Espresso Machines: Spanish, Serviceable, and Quietly Good Value
Ascaso is a Barcelona manufacturer that most buying guides skip, which is a shame, because its machines sit in exactly the band where the serviceability argument…
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Rancilio Silvia: The Machine People Keep for Twenty Years
The Silvia has been in production since 1997 with only modest changes, and that single fact tells you more about it than any review. Parts made…
Breville vs De’Longhi: Two Philosophies, and Which One You Can Fix
These two brands dominate home espresso between three hundred and a thousand dollars, and they take opposite approaches. Choosing well means deciding which kind of owner…
Nespresso vs Keurig: Two Different Machines Solving Different Problems
These get compared because both use sealed capsules, and that is where the similarity ends. One makes espresso under pressure; the other makes a mug of…
Rocket Espresso: The Appartamento, the R58 and What Breaks
Rocket is one of the few Italian espresso marques you can buy through mainstream retail rather than a specialist dealer. That matters for a practical reason:…
E61 Espresso Machines: A Fifty-Year-Old Group Head Is the Point
The E61 group head was designed by Faema in 1961 and it is still being fitted to new machines today. That is not nostalgia. It is…
Dual Boiler Espresso Machines: What the Second Boiler Actually Buys
A dual boiler machine has one boiler for brewing and a second, hotter one for steam. The selling point is that you can pull a shot…
High-End Espresso Machines, Judged on Whether You Can Fix Them
Most buying guides for expensive espresso machines rate them on how the coffee tastes. We run a repair site, so we rate them on a different…
Cuisinart Grind & Brew: Repair or Replace When the Grinder Goes
This is the closest call on the site. A Cuisinart grind-and-brew replaces for between a hundred and twenty and two hundred and forty dollars. The burr…
Nespresso Vertuo: Repair or Replace? The Honest Answer Is Usually Replace
This is the one machine family where our answer goes the other way, and the reason is the price, not the quality. A Vertuo Pop+ replaces…