Reddit reviews Baratza Preciso Coffee Grinder 685

Gaggia Classic - $400 - One of the classic and best cheap espresso machines. Consider trying to find a refurbished or used unit to save money.

You might pair this with:

Baratza Preciso Eletric Grinder - $300 - A reasonable-quality grinder which loosely matches the Classic in budget.

You need a grinder as well, the grinder is more important than your machine. The closest acceptable set-up for your budget IMO would be a Baratza Preciso and a Gaggia Classic (a fantastic machine once you get a Silvia steam wand which is not hard to install at all).

The Silvia is a great machine but it isn't worth almost twice what the Gaggia costs, unless you have lots of money laying around, in which case you should probably still get the Gaggia and just get a nicer grinder.

http://www.amazon.com/Baratza-Preciso-Coffee-Grinder-685/dp/B003JFCRN6/

You'll definitely want to upgrade to a quality burr grinder. I've never made espresso with a blade grinder but I imagine it would be pretty difficult. To use a non-pressurized portafilter you'll really need a decent grinder like one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Baratza-Preciso-Coffee-Grinder-685/dp/B003JFCRN6

Grind is one of the most important things for espresso. Good grinders range from $100 all the way up to $2k and more. A Baratza Encore is about $120 and a great starter grinder and would work great with a pressurized portafilter. That is actually what I use at home.

Honestly, I'd recommend against another. (I'm not certain KA even sells them for espresso anymore.) The general consensus on the Proline is that some of them are fine for espresso and some of them are completely unsuitable. If you have one and you like the results, there's no reason to switch... the good ones stay good. It's just apparently very hit or miss whether a new one you get will be good or not.

I tried, about 6 years ago, to buy one. It was awful and I exchanged it for another of the same. That one worked very briefly and died within 6 months. Beyond the electrical problem my second one had, apparently the more common problem is that the burr holders are not reliably straight. If you get one where they are, it's (supposedly) in the same league as a Mazzer Mini. If you get one where they aren't, it's not good for much.

The Rocky is decent, but like its sibling, overpriced.

If I were looking for the least expensive decent electric espresso grinder I could get (new) today, I'd grab a Preciso. I haven't tried that specific one myself, though I've used a couple of Baratza's other grinders, but the scuttle is that it's competitive with grinders way above its price point.

I'm currently using a Macap M4 I picked up used on CG and very happy with it.

The general consensus here seems to be to aim for a Gaggia machine as the absolute minimum. Preferably a Gaggia Classic (~$388).

I've heard people recommend the lower priced Gaggia New Baby (~$300) to try out espresso and to help decide whether "to get a real espresso machine".

A step up from that, the recommendation seems to be the Crossland CC1, but that's in the $600+ range.

To save some money, you might do better finding a used machine or see if they're on sale at different sites.

If you want to go cheaper than that, people have recommended the MyPressi ($170), but I have not seen that in stock anywhere recently. There's some buzz regarding the MiniPresso (Preorder at $39), but that won't be out until 2015. So there won't be any reviews regarding it for a while.

As for grinder, if you're looking for cheap, you might have to make do with a hand grinder, either Hario Skerton (~$35) or Mini (~$26) or Porlex (~$43). The cheapest acceptable electric grinder seems to be the Baratza Preciso at $300.

This is the information I've gathered anyway. I don't have any personal experience with an espresso machine, but I hope this helps. If you decide to go with something, post your experience and help some people out.

Personally, I'm thinking of saving up for the CC1 and Vario (~$1000) combo...

PRECISO OR BUST