Coffee Appreciation

I definitely recommend it.

In terms of maintainability & reliability they're hard to beat IMO. Naturally something without electrics like a Flair or Robot will be better in that regard, but with a built-in heating element there's fewer concerns about thermal stability.

They will struggle with doing more than 2 cups consistently due to temp fluctuations. Though when my in-laws are visiting, I'll regularly do a round of an espresso, 2 flat whites and an americano. I'll leave the flat whites to the end as the milk does a good job of covering any espresso issues due to higher-temps, so it's not a major concern unless you're expecting to pump out consecutive consistent espressos. As an aside, I did pop on a little stick-on thermometer on the group. Ended up taking it off as frankly I never paid attention to it and just got used to getting a feel for when it's at the right temp.

My main concern was difficulty in dialling in due to the manual input for pressure & the fixed water volume to work with for each shot, but it's really not a concern at all IMO. It would be nice to have the option to use whatever volume of water you want, but truth be told I've never really used that functionality when it's been available to me.

But yeah, money no object, I'd still be going for a Europiccola as my go-to espresso machine. Maybe an Olympia Cremina, but no way in hell is it worth 5x more.