Flair Espresso - PRO 3 Espresso Maker

If you want the best results for your money, go for hand grinders, manual espresso makers. If you want something easier to start with, go with Breville with built it grinder 

It depends on what your goal is. If you want the best espresso, get Flair PRO 3 Espresso Maker and you're left with 250$ you could the best hand grinder or a good electric grinder.

I'd recommend keeping the delonghi to steam milk and getting a flair pro2 or 3. You're gonna want that pressure guage and the build is much better than the neo flex. You can find a used pro2 for around $200 usd or less.

I used my Gaggia Classic for several years and just recently switched to a Flair Pro 3. Cheaper lever machines did not exist when I bought my Gaggia. Pros and Cons to both but i'm happy I made the switch. I always wanted a La Pavoni but never found a deal for one.

They also sell a battery for those as well. I wouldn’t look at anything below the 58 types (like the pro 3) as the 58 series uses a standard portafilter that will be crucial for pulling multiple shots. I love my pro 2, but I would be miserable trying to do more than like two pulls a day.

But for the same price it’s better to get separate machine and grinder. This means the grinder will be better quality but also if one (machine or grinder) conks out you haven’t lost the whole machine as you would if you had an all in one

Yes on the flair. That would also work. Just not an all in one machine

You need Cafelat Robot or Flair Pro 3 You'll be completely free from malfunctions Especially the Robot, and perhaps your grandson might even inherit the Robot.

The Delonghi ECP3420 is currently on sale on Amazon for $119. If I was buying a semi auto this is what I would have gotten, but I just bought a Flair Pro 3 instead

I have a bunch of machines, including spring lever and manual lever so I can give my 2 cents here. It's kind of funny with a spring lever. It just makes good coffee. You have some control, in my case via the ma-ter (boiler pressure, only really relevant for temperature and water pressure during filling the group head/pre infusion), then grind size, dose and pre infusion time and that's it. Find a good dose for your coffee, good grind size and pre infuse shorter for dark roast and longer for lights. Try out a couple of ratios until you find a good one and that's it. Great coffee. It is really hard to pull a bad shot. Even my botched first and so so second attempt tasted nice, and that was with light roast. It is incredibly simple so I have a hard time imagining a lot of failure points. Even if there ever were to happen anything, I could just go to the next hardware store and buy a replacement, except maybe for the Ma-Ter. And I am not even that technically inclined. I felt with my Flair it was kind of an involved pull, trying to hit your desired pressures at certain times, if you fuck up, it can actually taste bad. That amount of fuck up is really hard to do with a spring lever. The only other machine that lets you do it like a spring lever is kind of the opposite, something like a decent or in my case, a modded Silvia. And even then, it's not AS idiot proof or forgiving out of the box. That being said, you have to accept them for what they are and let go of some of the control you maybe wanted before. I find it liberating, some might find it frustrating. Also, I tried a bunch of lever machines and the Vectis is the only one I really enjoyed so far. The Cremina, the only other spring lever I tried, makes incredible espresso, but I really don't like the form factor. It's too short so it can potentially dip forwards when you pull. I don't like how hot everything gets, since you kind of have to stabilise it with your hand or arm and that is outright unpleasantly hot, even when you use your sleeve or a towel as an improvised oven mitt. In my opinion, there is really no excuse for that in a machine at that price. They can keep it almost as is and make it a lot more user friendly by using a single wooden part for better heat insulation to hold on to and a drip tray that is minimally longer. The Flair I had, the Pro3 is so labor intensive, it gets kind of old when you are not really into every step of it and you have to really pay attention when pulling. It is however capable to make mind blowing coffee. The La Pavoni suffers from the same problems the Cremina does but it gets even hotter, so hot that it can burn your coffee. And the drip tray is absolute shite, which is annoying in a lever machine. It is however priced a lot more fairly. On the Vectis, so far nothing annoys me. The drip tray is HUGE, The form factor makes it virtually impossible to tip it and it out of the box makes better coffee than the Silvia Gaggimate, Pop Up and ECM Classika I have. The Flair might be capable of better shots in theory but being that consistent and dialled in with it will probably not happen for most users.

I've been into pour over for years and just got a Flair Pro 3 over the holidays. I'm very happy with it so far. I also got the Bellman stovetop steamer for making lattes. V60 is still my daily driver, but over the weekends I'll whip out the Flair.

If espresso machine then just go for the Flair, going 3 years with mine and it's been the best coffee investment so far.

I have the flair pro 3. If you do wanna go through that route, get a good grinder na kaya ang espresso, kahit manual grinder lang.