I ordered an Odyssey Argos spring lever at the top end of your budget. I’d recommend a Flair58+2, good kettle and a Nanofoamer (if you like milk drinks). Then spend the rest on the best grinder you can afford. You will get unbeatable shots and learn a lot.
A manual lever is like driving a stick vs an automatic car. The lever gives you all the control and the best shots I’ve ever had are with profiles only possible on a lever (or very expensive computerized machines). If you are a little adventurous go with a lever machine. Starting with a Flair/Cafelot/LaPavoni/Odyssey will let you learn a lot and make unbeatable extractions. If you don’t need to steam milk then a Flair58 is an excellent choice (I love mine!) and no temperature management like an LP. If a steam wand is important then LaPavoni or Odyssey Argos. If you just want you push a button and get a decent shot easy, then Bambino is for you.
And don’t forget there is no good shot without a good grinder.
I have a robot and an argos and I really like them both, but back to back shots isn’t great for either of them. The Argos is ok if you want two drinks at a time, but anything more and it’s pretty bad
I can only get 3 shots and 2 steams before i run out of water, then you have to steam the pressure off before you can refill it. I’m the only coffee drinker in my house so it’s perfect for me, and it really is a joy to use.
I'm thinking once I get my Argos I won't ever need anything else. Lever machines just seem like less hassle to dial in, and a dipper style spring lever with built-in temperature control seems the least hassle of them all.
Yeah, Personally, I think the most forgiving dial-in -- and most versatility -- comes with hybrid spring levers. The pump pre-infusion, the ability to decide when to release the spring (based on time-to-first drip, basket fill-rate, etc), and the ability to modulate pressure by manipulating the lever -- all these let you adapt to a shot and gives you a good intuitive sense of where to adjust grind/dose, all in real-time. Yes, it's a manual process. I personally think it's easier (and more fun) than *programming* a machine at the crack of dawn. But, YMMV.
That said, some Thoughts and Feelings ^(tm) about machines:
**Bezzera Strega**
- My personal runner-up, great value for money
- But, requires some tinkering IMHO:
- Fairly temp stable but needs a PID (fairly straightforward)
- No OPV for pre-infusion; Ulka vibe pump is duty cycle limited to 11bar, which is too high for my tastes. I would prefer to replace the pump and install an (adjustable) OPV
- no exhaust solenoid. Some crazy nut installed one, though, with a button no less!
**Nurri Leva**
- Well, I ordered one :P
- Caution: uses La San Marco (55mm) grouphead. A dearth of accessories.
**Londinium R24**
- The original hybrid spring lever.
- Incredible in cup
- clumsy engineering and janky manufacturing. relies heavily on a british contract CM that is...not robust.
**Profitec Pro 800**
- A really well-executed dipper
- A bit pricey? Lack of pump pre-infusion is unfortunate given cost
- You can plumb in, but pre-infusion still limited to boiler pressure
**Londinium Vectis**
- Compact dipper style spring lever
- great in concept, fast heat-up time
- limited shot volume, needs lower doses, thin on body, great in-cup, small boiler which is moderate levels of ass-pain to re-fill.
- launched during pandemic, has the QA woes to show for it. recent iterations have improved many of the issues plaguing it (defective grouphead casting, self-destructing pstats), but again relies on a contract CM that is not keeping up.
**Odyssey Argos**
- Spring or direct lever dipper style
- Best bang for the buck of all time?
- Basically unobtainium due to huge popularity/lead time.
- temp stable via PID control of boiler pressure, comes at the expense of steam stability (but you don't care about milk steaming)
- pain in the ass to re-fill the boiler
- Very clever air bleed system enables multi-pull Fellinis to increase shot volume, without destroying the puck.
It comes down to specialized tools doing their tasks better than more all-purpose ones. A knife and fork are nicer to use than a spork, or even than two sporks.
Your use cases are very divergent - you want fast heatup time, steaming capability and a simple interface for you and your girlfriend, there's really no better-suited and more cost-efficient machine than the Bamb Plus. But you're also curious about flow profiling, and no one does that:
* well in a machine that heats up fast, is easy (and pleasant) to use, steams milk and doesn't stretch your budget
* better than what you can achieve with a manual lever, which is also suuuuuper pleasant to use (not something that shows up on a spec sheet, but an undeniable fact - the tactile experience is just really nice)
I could certainly recommend my Argos, but I think it falls short on the girlfriend acceptability factor. And it's an artisanal product with limited support (especially in Europe).
You're also open about not knowing what you want right now - well, it's also easier to resell the nerd machine if you end up not caring all that much about the that side of things - just send the Robot on its way and keep the simple machine. You're not ending up with an overspecced chonker on your counter.
If you spec a car to hold five people and their luggage, but also have high performance on the highway and on the track for not too much money... that's a set of compromises no one can meet satisfactorily - even if it looks good on paper, it's probably gonna suck a little at everything. A seaplane is a bad plane and a bad boat. I can go on and on about the analogies.
edit : and you don't have to buy both right now!
Top Espresso Machines on Reddit
1
Breville
Bambino Plus
77% positive of 1,087 users
Fast heat-up, easy for beginners; inconsistent shots, annoying cleaning.
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