Re:A $33K robot barista serves 120 cups of coffee an hour
by eeeeeeeeeeeee on Thursday March 14, 2019 @12:32PM
(#19390823)
You don't need to spend thousands of dollars to get a solid espresso machine for your home. I have a $400 Breville machine and it does everything I need. Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my results and a coffee shop, except the latte art, mine isn't very good :)
When you start getting into the $1000+ range, it seems like you're mostly paying for the following:
1) more precise temperature control (PID control)
This is becoming less of an issue because the heat exchange systems on consumer devices are becoming a lot better. My machine is ready to go in under a minute, although they recommend you wait about 20 minutes for it to warm up. Some of the higher-end machines with a dual boiler even recommend a 45-minute warm-up time, though.
2) ability to steam milk and pull shots at the same time (double boiler)
This seems to be a big differentiator because then the dual boiler comes into play (dedicated boiler for espresso, dedicated boiler for steam wand). On my device, I simply pull my shot, then steam my milk after. This all happens in under 1.5 minutes. I simply don't need to do them at the same time, but I can understand why you would want this feature in a commercial machine where you need to be moving fast and serving a lot of customers at a business.
3) milk steamer is often quicker on $1000 machines (a few seconds instead of ~15-30 like on mine)
Again, we are talking about maybe 15 seconds of time saving here.
4) water-line hookup so you don't need to refill a water tank
My machine has a water tank, but I only need to refill it every two or three days. I usually have two or three double espressos each day, one or two of those are lattes. So the water hook-up is of no use to me.
5) fancy styling / italian design & looks
I think my machine has decent styling, but it doesn't look nearly as high quality as something like the Rocket machines: https://rocket-espresso.com/.
I researched this heavily before buying, and watched a lot of videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear. I was very close to buying a Rocket machine and it would have set me back well over $1000. Anyway, that youtube channel sometimes does blind taste tests between hundred dollar machines and ones in the thousands of dollars. They often cannot tell the difference.
When you start getting into the $1000+ range, it seems like you're mostly paying for the following:
1) more precise temperature control (PID control)
This is becoming less of an issue because the heat exchange systems on consumer devices are becoming a lot better. My machine is ready to go in under a minute, although they recommend you wait about 20 minutes for it to warm up. Some of the higher-end machines with a dual boiler even recommend a 45-minute warm-up time, though.
2) ability to steam milk and pull shots at the same time (double boiler)
This seems to be a big differentiator because then the dual boiler comes into play (dedicated boiler for espresso, dedicated boiler for steam wand). On my device, I simply pull my shot, then steam my milk after. This all happens in under 1.5 minutes. I simply don't need to do them at the same time, but I can understand why you would want this feature in a commercial machine where you need to be moving fast and serving a lot of customers at a business.
3) milk steamer is often quicker on $1000 machines (a few seconds instead of ~15-30 like on mine)
Again, we are talking about maybe 15 seconds of time saving here.
4) water-line hookup so you don't need to refill a water tank
My machine has a water tank, but I only need to refill it every two or three days. I usually have two or three double espressos each day, one or two of those are lattes. So the water hook-up is of no use to me.
5) fancy styling / italian design & looks
I think my machine has decent styling, but it doesn't look nearly as high quality as something like the Rocket machines: https://rocket-espresso.com/.
I researched this heavily before buying, and watched a lot of videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear. I was very close to buying a Rocket machine and it would have set me back well over $1000. Anyway, that youtube channel sometimes does blind taste tests between hundred dollar machines and ones in the thousands of dollars. They often cannot tell the difference.
This is a great one: $300 vs $3000 machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuIOlsdDg_o