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@Daveypants
So my £40 Woolworths (yep) espresso machine is terminally ill and will, I expect, give up the ghost any day now (the portafilter started losing pressure and spraying steam out the side, now the spray has become a steady flow that dilutes my shot and fills it with coffee grinds). I can't complain, she's served me surprisingly well all things considered but I feel that now it's time to upgrade.
There is a veritable smorgasbord of machines to choose from and plenty of conflicting and confusing information on the big bad internets, and given the vast numbers of coffee nerds on this forum, I thought it would be worth asking for some first hand opinions.
My main concern is lifespan. I'm planning on spending about £200 (but will stretch a bit further if someone can put forward a convincing argument) so I don't want a machine that will fail after 9 months. Reliable information on that front is hard to come by with google. This means that serviceability is also important, or at least a company who will deal with problems should they arise. A good steamer is important, one that can produce microbubbles and not just piss lukewarm water into the milk. It's also important that the machine produces a good crema - I've been getting into espressos / macchiatos recently. Pod machines can eat a bag of dicks - I don't want to be paying extra for something I'm not going to use. If the machine is good, I'll probably buy a decent grinder and do that whole thing, but I'm going to manage with Illy preground until then.
These are the things I know. Everything else (boiler sizes, how long it takes to pull the shot, etc) are the things that are confusing me. I've only ever really used my crappy woolies machine or professional machines with their own water supply, so these things have never been an issue, but I want to get the most I can out of my money. There seem to be pros and cons with all of them, but I'd rather have a machine that reliably and consistently produces good coffee than one that is super easy to use but doesn't quite hit the mark.
So does anyone have any recommendations / advice?