New Machine - please help

Don

Having had enough of the Sunbeam EM6900, we have sort of decided to go for something else around the $600/800 mark.
All suggestiions welcome, and thanks in advance.

Don

Don

Geez, I just read all the reports by Choice magazine, now I'm really confused. Most of them failed the taste test, and thats one thing we have found with our EM6900, it produces great tasting coffee. What to do, what to do.

DoubleRistretto

first mistake - why would you go with the Choice magazine review, when Crema magazine did one last year? dR

tommy

i think crema just (last/this months edition) did a write up on like 20 home machines.......

askthecoffeeguy

If you can find a better machine for your money that the Rancillio Ms Silvia, then buy it!  The Gaggia Classic also aint bad for the money. ACG

admin

Don, dR is correct, we did a review of sub-$1000 machines in our Winter 2005 issue (avail. as a back issue) which i believe to be far more authoritative than the Choice one. Basically, I would look at one of the Sunbeams or the Saeco Via Venezia in the $400-$450 price bracket; would also consider the Gaggia Classic, although be aware that it has an aluminium boiler (unlike the VV). The choice of the next step up [around $650 - $750] would have to be the Rancilio Silvia or the double boiler Sunbeam, although we didn't get to test this [and it seems from other threads that some units have had steam wand problems]. After that, if you could spend the bucks, it's pretty much on to the ECM Giotto, the Unico Splendor, the Isomac (Mondiale) and the Expobars of this world. But of course, these are in the $2300-$2,600 price bracket. This is not meant to be an 'official' recommendation - different users want different things from their machine - however, it's sort of what i would go for, if i was looking for a manual domestic machine at the moment. Hope that helps. -A

Don

Thanks guys for your input. The reason I read Choice was because i saw the link here, and I didn't know about Crema's reviews. Everytime I try to buy the Crema mag here -Brisbane, they have sold out, or can't find it, even though they are supposed to have several in stock. I'm going to subscribe - problem solved. I'll get the back issue, and then by the time we get our machine back, I'll know what to do. Yes.....we got a call from Sunbeam today, unsolicited,...please don't change machines, let us fix yours, it will be really good we guarantee it. Okay, I'm a fair guy, so we sre going to give them the opportunity to make it right, but last chance. The only thing that worries me is, at the moment Myer will exchange it, as I mentioned earlier, what happens if we get it back and a couple of weeks later, it plays up again. I don't think Myer will be quite so co-operative in another months time. Can I get your opinions on this, should I cut my losses and dump it, or be Mr Niceguy and give Sunbeam another chance. It does make good coffee, and we couldn't see any other machine that appeals in their store, which brings me to another point, only one other machine had a commercial size group handle like the EM6900, how important is this? I would have thought it very important as it controls the amount of coffee for extraction. Thanks Don    

Honest_Gaza

Don...it took Sunbeam 2 attempts to fix my Steam Wand.  After the first attempt (intermittent problem with Steam Wand after total power down), it took less than a week to fail again.  The 2nd attempt at repair occured more than 8 months ago....and it has worked beautifully ever since. Sunbeam's customer support has been excellent throughout so I was suprised to hear about the difficulty that you had with them. To put it into perspective, my Solis grinder has jammed twice in a six month period, so Sunbeam is not alone when it comes to reliability.  The difference is how a company reacts to these issues.  My only comment on this is that I wish my grinder was a Sunbeam.

Don

-A, sorry I haven't answered your post before this. Thanks for your comments, as you've probably read, we are going to let Sunbeam have a go at repairing ours. When it was working correctly it was great. I understand your situation re recommending a specific brand, it would be verydifficult to have to be fairly neutral. We first saw Crema mag at Merlo, as you probably know, they have it on the table for customers to read whilst enjoying their "sample freebie". I'll be faxing my subscription through tomorrow. Great mag, great forum. Thanks. Regards Don