Hibrew - H21

Not sure about the grinder but I recently bought a Hibrew H21 machine and I think it’s endgame for me . For around 400£ it’s not even a competition. I currently use a sage smart grinder pro with it that I had from my previous setup and it still works great. But for the extra 400£ left you could get yourself a very nice grinder and accessories.

The hibrew any day

Hibrew is also good. get the combo for 80k and accesories of another 20, you will be sorted for 5 years.

I’ve never heard of this but then again I don’t research machines I can’t afford so my $140 HiBREW is ready after 15s of turning it on 🤷‍♂️

I believe that you can get pass the startup heating by just letting through some hot water for a few seconds, at least that's what I do when I first turn it on, so that everything is heated as evenly as possible.

Yeah I fully agree and wish people factored this into buying products across the board not just espresso machines. Unfortunately society has become obsessed with consumer culture and it leaks into every thing/hobby including espresso. But I do agree that buying something like a GCP and modding it, while more time intensive and more expensive, is much better than buying a HiBrew etc as a Gaggia is super repairable and can last decades because of that.

The chinese HiBrew and Casabrews are decent, DeLonghi Dedica or Stilosa are also good options, Bambino probably falls in that bracket as well. Depends what features you want from a machine