Rancilio - Silvia PID Espresso Machine

In terms of the ability to pull a 'perfect' shot of espresso and steam milk with good texture, I'd say the base Rancilio Silvia with any good grinder is the mark.  I've owned a range of lower end machines and for example I wouldn't recommend the Gaggia Classic to anyone, despite it pulling a good shot in the right hands. I have disassembled the boilers on several and the corroded aluminium inside after 5 years is the stuff of nightmares. But I've also used a Slayer as a barista and it doesn't objectively pull a better shot than my current Silvia with home-installed PID.  There are some big quality of life upgrades available a tier or two above the base Silvia, like built in PID, dual boiler etc. But the Silvia has solid components, everything is replaceable, and it can produce a latte 100% as good as what I could produce on the Slayer. 

I was a barista for a time, using a $20,000 USD espresso machine daily. These days at home I have a second hand Rancilio Silvia with a PID and a second hand Anfim KS grinder, total cost for my setup was less than $500 USD. The espresso and lattes I make at home are better than the ones I made at the restaurant, because my beans at home are so much tastier. The only drawbacks to my home setup are time-related: single boiler means I have to wait to steam, have to purge before a second shot etc. Consistency would also be an issue if I hadn't been using my home setup for 5+ years, but I have so it's fine. 

Rancilio Silvia Pro X. Literally the most bullet proof and straight forward machines. If you don’t need a dual boiler get the regular Silvia and get a PID and a really nice grinder

You can cut that warm-up time in half by flushing it with how water once the boiler hits the temp. I do this with my Silvia.

Former Nespresso user. I had the Creatista. I now have a Rancilio Silvia and a DF64V. The difference is massive. Even if you’re half-assing it with a Breville machine, the difference is there. You’ll be surprised to learn that dark roast shouldn’t taste mostly burnt and bitter, and how you’ve been accustomed to inferior “espresso”. And the cost savings/value difference is HUGE. I could break down the math, but with how much coffee is in each pod and the price you pay for said amount, you would have to try rather hard to find bags of whole beans that cost that much. The cost would be like $40-$50 for a 12oz bag of beans if it were priced how Nespresso charges you per pod of grounds. Now is it as easy as a Nespresso? No, preparing a shot of espresso can take 3-5 minutes, whereas Nespresso can be pouring as quick as 30 seconds. This, and the fact that it requires no brain power, is where the value of Nespresso is. You’re not getting quality or bang-for-your-buck, you’re getting time and convenience. Personally I gained no value from the time aspect, and I was really just being suckered in by their pod scheme. God knows I was spending a ton on pods. In the long run I am most certainly saving money. Of course, it’ll take another couple years to match my initial purchase cost.

I love my Silvia PID. No frills machine that can outlive me.

Rancilio Silvia. Simple, but with some mods, can become a very prosumer machine. And it’s literally a tank. All the piping is thick copper. High quality wiring.

hmm i have heard about king grinders never used them myself(i think manual grinding is way to much hassle) i think they can grind quite fine but you have to do some research or talk to people that own one. I think if they can go fine enough it should be good on a budget. i thought they were somwhere around 100 euro. But deff look also for grinders and machines on the second hand market. I was also on a budget bit more then you my limit was 500 . I manged to find a really nice machine rancillio silvia v6 with pid and a df64 grinder which together new is more then 1200 i think for exactly 500. This was in the netherlands however not sure how the market is in norway but it could get you much more for youre money. Just inspect in person if they treated it well and you should be good. But keep in mind if you go non pressurized you need fresh beans so you need to go to real roasters that put a roast date on the beans. as you dont wanna buy year old beans but ideally between 2 weeks old when bought en then they stay nice until you finished but month old or bit extra is still okay. However some supermarket beans which are unmarked can be 2 years old which is not nice. However buying beans from roasters is inherintly more expensive. So you need to consider this aswell and look at some of the prices of bean roasters in youre country and if you would be able to afford willing to spend that for beans. This is needed because the gasses in the bean cause the pressure inside the puck that a pressurized basket is artificially creating for stale old beans. As if you only ever want to buy supermarket beans i would not suggest going to machines like this at all but just buy senseo fully automatic or pressurized or something.

For your use case of six drinks a week I think the dual boiler is unnecessary, Silvia pid for the win. Put more $ towards a grinder.

Heat exchanger machines are cheaper than double boilers but, unlike single boiler machines, they allow you to pull shots and steam milk back to back without waiting. The one thing to know is that you really want a PID on that heat exchanger or else the heat will be all over the place. I was recently in the same place you are and I bought a turin Gallatin. So far, I’m extremely happy. It’s beautiful, it’s very functional, and I got a little joy out of it every morning. No regrets. It takes about 20 minutes to warm up. Oh, and I upgraded from a rancillio Silvia with a PID. I love that workhorse, but it requires a masters degree to pull consistent shots, and there is a wait time inherent between switching from pulling a shot to steaming milk. A link to the Gallatin: https://espressooutlet.com/products/turin-gallatin-hx-espresso-machine-with-pid

The Gaggia E24 and the Rancilio Silvia are comparable (in US the Silvia is twice the price - but you can buy and EU and ship to US and save a lot of money even with tarrifs). The Rancilio Silvia PID adds a PID) as the name suggests). If you are open to hacking add a PID via Gaggimate or Gaggiuino (to either E24 or Silvia standard) - better functionality and cheaper than stock PID that comes with Rancilio Silvia PID (and PID on Silvia is pinful to use because of the terrible display where you need to look up code numbers). Its also cheaper.  I don't know much about the Turn Legato V2 but according to reviews - at that price-point E24 is far far better and durable (E24 will last you years with care, it has a brass boiler which is far superior to a thermoblock - but at the cost of warming up speed \[my Silvia takes 30-40 mins to be "ready"\]) . Same with Diletta Mio - buy the Silvia PID at that pricepoint. I cannot emphasize enough the community that Gaggia Classic and Silvia have - lots of forums, mods, spare parts. My advice is a) save your money for a good mid-tier grinder b) (if you are open to it gaggimate/gaggiuino) and c) buy the E24 (disclosure: I have a Silvia M which I am in the process of modding with Gaggimate - also don't do any mods for 1st 6 months and spend time learning your machine e.g. temp surfing, etc).

I have a Sylvia V3 w/PID. The thing is a tank, and just last year the pump went out. $40 part and an easy DIY repair.

Adding that the pump on mine failed after a decade of daily use and I was able to find the part and instructions online to swap it out on my own in under an hour.

My Silvia is a daily champion. I got it with a PID and I love it.

I upgraded from my Bambino Plus after a year because it sprung a horrible leak and shorter itself.  Same thing happened on a replacement machine.   Replaced with a Rancilio Silva with PID.  The espresso actually does taste better.

I love my Rancilio Silvia with PID but the inability to steam milk and make espresso at the same time has worn on me after a while as I mainly drink milk drinks. If that wasn't an issue I'd be perfectly happy with it.

People get rancilios because they last forever.  The Bambino has a high likelihood of breaking after a couple of years (mine did not make it to 2 years and now I've had a rancilio for 3 that's still working like new). With the rancilio, I don't think the base Silvia has a pid controller (an electronic controller that measures and controls the temperature) for setting temperature.  What you actually want is somethin Iike the profitec go. On the otherhand, with a Bambino you can still make a decent espresso if you had a decent grinder.  Without a decent grinder it's pretty much impossible to make good espresso. So you are looking at something like a $200 j-ultra hand grinder or $250 df54 as baseline. So one thought is to just get the grinder (which should be durable) and take your chances with the Bambino (function wise it's great).

I owned a Silvia with PID previously and it’s a wonderful machine. Having said that, for all intensive purposes open box is not new. Where are you buying it from? I don’t like buying used machines. You can spend 200-300 more and buy one with the PID brand new