We bought a die-cast Breville three years ago and have been making several delicious lattes and espressos every day since. To do over, I'd buy it again. I'm very impressed by the quality.

The forums at coffeegeek.com are the place to go for advice on espresso machines. You should start with the very informative How To Buy An Espresso Machine

No matter what espresso machine you buy, you won't get good espresso without a good grinder as well--so be sure to budget for that.
Cj

Be prepared to listen to a bunch of anal coffee freaks at coffeegeek.
Unless you have weeks (literally) to learn how to make coffee "right" and you have loads of time each time you want to make a coffee, take what they say with a grain of salt.
For me my superautomatic is awesome but for some just the thought of drinking coffee without going through a labourous process is not acceptable.

We have a francis francis machine which uses illy pods (so no grinding). Love it. Been using it for years,

We got it through the Illy cafe club, which gets you a way discounted machine with a subscription for the coffee. My DH uses it every day for multiple dopios. I occasionally steam milk for latte's or whatever. Super easy to use. (And stylish, too)

BTW I drink regular coffee and grind everyday with a capresso burr grinder. We like that too.

lip2000 wrote: Be prepared to listen to a bunch of anal coffee freaks at coffeegeek

I find that on Coffeegeek, as with most internet forums I read, the majority of participants are helpful and try to give advice that is tailored to the specific objectives of the person asking the question. Occasionally you do run across someone with an axe to grind, but they are easy enough to ignore.

I've had a Gaggia Classic for about 4 years now and it's served me well. It was right at the upper end of your price range. The Rancilio Rocky is a similar machine that people generally like. As the previous poster mentioned, I did eventually fork over a similar amount of money for a good grinder.

Hoping to upgrade and plumb a machine in when we pull the trigger on the kitchen remodel.

I bouth the Rancilio Silvia and the Rocky grinder from Seattle Coffee works. Go to there web site. They have a series of videos showing the various machines and the features. They are great to deal with, very honest in their recommendations and don;t try to oversell

The machine I bought from them is reconditioned and saved big bucks. Does a great job. Agree with the earlier comment, get a good grinder as well

My total package with refurbed espresso machine was about $700.

Rancilio Silvia is probably the most popular non automatic entry level machine. If you use it a couple of years and want to upgrade, you can sell on ebay or craigslist and get most of your money back.

I also have the Rancilio Sylvia and Rocky. Bought it about 8 years ago after doing a lot of research. They are used twice daily and have stood up well. Sylvia is big, bulky, and dare I say it, even a little crude. I have actually cut my fingers on the sharp edge of the steel reservoir tray. Have seen a bit of rust from time to time (but have taken it off and put some oil on and all's well). But Sylvia is a joy to use and makes great espresso. And I like the process of making twice daily cappuchino. Would buy again. It's like the BlueStar of espresso makers.

For the money you intend to spend you can get a Delonghi Magnifica Rialto or 3500. For my money these machines are the best bang for the buck on the market. Yeah, they are super-autos, but they are engineered well, are easy to maintain, have dependable, good quality burr grinders already built in, have an easily removable and cleanable brew group, and are dependable as can be.

I'd still have one at the house if we hadn't gotten the Miele built-in unit, but it is still going strong making coffee for the nurses at the hospital.

Everybody's different, but I went through the various stages of manual machines from a Krups to Bosch to a Gaggia and the hassle of messing with them isn't worth it. Get a Delonghi, program it to make your coffee just the way you like it, and then set it up to turn itself on in the morning and you can get your lattes on at the push of a button.

I'm just sayin' ...

Can't help being a geek, most of those brand come from here :) Gaggia works are 15 miles from my home.

- Pods : Illy is one of the best brands here (also the most expensive), i don't dare to think how expensive are Illy pods there ...

- So a good grinder is a yes-yes-yes, not only to save money, but also to have last-minute ground coffee, that's another world. Also you may change grinding size depending on coffee blend, actual weather (odd, but does matter a lot).

- Store coffee beans well packed/sealed in the fridge

- When you switch on the machine, dont' trust the "temp ok" light : brew 3 or 4 fake coffees (empty filter or already used pod). This way the filter actually heats up. Not a case bars recycle early morning coffees to make cappuccini.

- [almost OT] never let coffee dry on empty cups. Suddenly pour some water if you will load the DW later. If you handwash dried-on coffee you'll understand why (scrub-scrub !!)

- [2nd almost OT] Euro DW have foldable double shelves for cups, glasses and mugs.
Put small espresso cups *under*, then mugs, glasses and small dessert bowls on the foldable shelves.
Often manufacturers in ads/catalogues show the contrary. Then people complain about cups not properly washed.
Several marketing depts guess that water trains on slalom ski tracks before entering the dishwasher ;)

I also have the Breville die-cast. It is great. Had it for about 4 years now.

This past Christmas, they were on Woot, couple of friends picked them up for about 1/2 of what they are selling for in the stores.

Just wanted to give you wholelattelove.com and aabreecoffee.com as two other places to look. I understand one bought out the other, but I'm mentioning both in case they carry some different things. The both gave us advise onthe pros and cons of the machines. We didn't have many options for finding them in stores then -- even now would be hard to find as good a selection or the experience with the machines they gave us. Aabree used to rotate various machines through the employee break room so that everyone got familiar with the different models.

I've bought machines from both of them (I think 2 from each), including a couple of new ones and a couple of refurbished ones. I think we still have all four of them -- a small one (Briel) originally bought for DH's office and also used on a couple of vacations, a Solis that was recommended because it was less tempermental about the precision of the grind and then two Juras that we bought refurbished -- one at a time, after I got sick of cleaning powdery fine coffee grinds of the white counters. The model we have was discontinued shortly after we got the first one and we later wondered how long it would last and whether we could live without it (the movable brew head means I can steam the milk in the cup and then brew directly into the same cup -- fewer dishes to wash). That's why we bought the second while we still had the option -- and the price had gone down, and the stainless we hadn't been willing to pay for originally (later the only option) looked nice in the newly redone kitchen. DH got to take the black one to the office. We are spoiled at work, home and play now -- and the machines have paid for themselves many times over. ;-)

Have fun.

Interesting comment from Sayde re Rancilio being the Blue Star of espresso machines. I have both in my kitchen and don't know which one I would miss the most if I had to give one up.

Make 2-4 coffess a day, sometimes espresso, sometimes Americana, sometimes iced. Silvia works great. Easy to clean and take care of.

I have a motto "buy the best and cry only once"

Rancilio, Gaggia, Saeco and Faema produce mostly commercial grade coffee machines, so they have an advanced know-how compared to other residential small appliances producers.

Excellent advice above on Rancilio, Gaggia, etc.

Does anyone have experience with less popular brands (but similarly priced) like Le Lit, Ascaso, Nemox? Mostly about reliability and availability of parts in the USA. The machine's ability to make a decent cup of coffee is secondary... :-)

I'm always convinced that somewhere in Italy, some little company has made a better machine than what I just purchased, so I want to investigate all the angles.

We used the Wholelattelove.com website to select and purchase our machine.We have a Gaggia Syncrony Logic, and I absolutely love it! I tell DH it's the best gift he ever gave me. I use it 4 - 5 times a day. Ours does have an integrated grinder, which I really like. You can adjust your grind, the amount of coffee you use, and the amount of water you use for each cup. I press one button, and presto the beans grind and it brews delicious expresso in under 2 minutes. It has a steamer tip too, so you can be "hands-on" to make your latte, cappuccino or cafecito anyway you like. It also has a "bypass hopper" which is a needed feature for us. I drink high caffine style, while DH needs decaf. So we pregrind decaf for him, and he can put a scoop in the bypass when he wants to make a cup, without disturbing my beans.We've had it for 3 or 4 years now, and it's the most used appliance in my house. Very Reliable. I haven't checked prices recently, but I'm sure it's in your range. Think in advance where you plan on keeping your machine, and check the measurement specs. Ours is on the counter, near the sink, fits under the upper cabinets. Many are too tall for that.