Silvia PID Espresso Machine

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

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

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.