What coffee machine should I buy for home?

Making great coffee at home is a lot of fun. And if you are serious about really special coffee then there are so many great options of coffee machines for the home user.

There is one condition

You clean your machine, regularly. The simple fact is that even with a common water filter scale will build up in your machine. I see way too many coffee machines slowly deteriorating from scale and as a result causes significant issues with machines. So if you are planning on spending your hard-earned dollars on a quality home-machine, you should commit to regularly cleaning your machine with espresso machine cleaner and detergent. This is sold at Coffee Parts website here, and of equal importance, you must descale your machine with a descale solution once per year also sold at Coffee Parts website. So after all that if you are wanting to spend good dollars on a machine it means you are super passionate about your coffee and I can recommend the following.

1. Sunbeam cafe series EM6910

These are a good quality machine that will easily last you well for 2-3 years of constant use. If you look after it and clean it regularly it will last longer. You can read more about it here

Where to buy

• The Good Guys are currently selling it with a grinder here
• Myer are currently selling it with a grinder here

2. Breville Dual Boiler BES920

This is a fantastic customisable coffee machine with an excellent external grinder. You can read more about it here. Often you can buy it together with a pretty sweet grinde, so search for the package.

Where to buy

• Myer are currently selling it here
• Bing Lee are currently selling it with a grinder here
• Appliances Online are currently selling it here

3. Breville The Oracle Espresso Coffee Machine

In my humble opinion this is the best home machine with all the settings, volumetric, steam pressure and milk temp reading. The only thing is that the grinder is built into the machine and it grinds and tamps the coffee, then you insert it manually into the group head to brew. Some people prefer to tamp manually. However, for me this is an awesome advantage as it is a no mess no fuss machine, similar to what people love about nespresso without the crap coffee of nespresso. I hate cleaning up after making coffee at home, this machine is super clean for an espresso machine, and it brews as good a cup as anything at home. It also comes with a simple water filter system. You can read more about it here

Where to buy

• The Good Guys are currently selling it here
• Harvey Norman are currently selling it here

4. Sunbeam Torino Espresso Machine PU8000

We have not tested this machine but it looks like a boss machine. At $2k it's definitely targeted to attack the Giotto buyer. This machine looks super durable and gets pretty good writeups. Although Choice only give it an overall score of 69%. You can read more about it here

Where to buy

• Myer are currently selling it with a grinder here
• Harvey Norman are currently selling it with a grinder here

5. Rocket Espresso Giotto PID V3

Simply the benchmark for home users, at around $3k its is built with commercial grade components. You can read more about it here

Where to buy

• Elixir Coffee sell it here

But you still need a good grinder

If you want the best coffee at home, the machine is only one part, you need a great grinder. I can't recommend any grinder with passion, as i think they are nowhere near as good as commercial grinders, but in terms of space and cost the mazer mini is still top dog.

• You can read more about the Mazer Mini grinder here
• You can buy the Mazer Mini Grinder from Coffee Parts here

And this is the grinder you can get when you buy the Breville Dual Boiler (above). I've used this one quite a bit, and it gets good results.

• Breville The Smart Grinder Pro BCG820BSS

Please always remember to use a water filter, fresh roasted coffee for best result, and smile while drinking, it always tastes better. Keep it special. Dom

PS. What Coffee Machines does Choice recommend?

Choice magazine tested more than 40 home espresso machines, priced from $70 to $2499. Their top 4 recommendations were as follows.

• Breville The Barista Express BES870
• Breville The Dual Boiler BES920
• Sunbeam Café Series EM6910
• Breville The Infuser BES840