# Advice on suitable machine to replace a Sage DB



## sheffield coffee (Aug 29, 2020)

Bit of a newbie on this site but have been making coffee for a few years now so not sure if this is in the right section or not...

I started out 6 years ago with a Gaggia classic paired with a Sage smart grinder pro.

The grinder got upgraded to a Baratza Sette 270W 4 years ago (and upgraded in a warranty claim with coffeehit to a 270Wi about a year later as the original never weighed consistently ...).

Swapped gaggia for a Sage DB in 2018. Have loved it but have been waiting for it to go wrong as I knew from reading online that they were poorly built (my brother also had a couple of oracles which were fixed and swapped several times).

Anyway , DB has been making hissing noises for several months and I finally called John Lewis guarantee had a couple of months to run

To my surprise , they offered a repair or return (not an exchange as interestingly , they no longer sell it...).

Although I feel slightly guilty , I have sent back for a refund rather than a repair since , once out of warranty the likelihood of something else breaking was bothering me.

My dilemma now is what to replace it with?

Think it will have be another machine with dual boilers as although an expensive luxury , I have got used to the flexibility.

Needs a PID for temp stability

So far I have looked at Fracino Piccino or Classico , Lelit Elizabeth. Or just get another brand new Sage DB and run another two years!!

Or something else ?


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## sheffield coffee (Aug 29, 2020)

Going to add the ACS Minima onto my shortlist too ..


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## lake_m (Feb 4, 2017)

Amazing warranty through John Lewis. Three years free use of a Sage DB then all your money back when it goes belly up!

No wonder they're struggling.

If it were my money, I'd seriously look at the Elizabeth - only hearing good things about it. The minima is a cracking DB for the money too.

But if another Sage DB comes with additional three year warranty, then why the hell not? Free money.


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## sheffield coffee (Aug 29, 2020)

I made a mistake ... DB was purchased 2019... so 2 year warranty. 
Still pretty decent.

I assume that is underpinned by Sage , not John Lewis. Sage website also states 2 years repair , return , replace

I did have to call Sage to get an uplift number to pass to John Lewis before returning. They asked if they could repair but I said I wanted to return and they accepted without further pushing.


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## BlackCatCoffee (Apr 11, 2017)

I think you have identified some great machines. The Classico is fantastic but is not equipped with a PID so that may cross that one off for you.

The Piccino PID is excellent but like the Elizabeth has small boilers. Depending on how you use the machine that could be a positive or a negative of course and it does offer brilliant value.

The Minima is in my opinion the best bang for buck machine on the market. The in cup performance and steam power are superb.

Any questions feel free to get in touch.

David


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

It is contact Sage on the warrantee and it's 2 years. Sounds like this one had O ring problems early. It's usually 3 years plus. It will be repaired but covid is probably causing problems with engineers calling at the moment. John Lewis has never carried the warrantee at all. Came as a bit of a surprise to me too. Lewis told me they supply a replacement loan machine while they are being repaired. Sage tell me they have never ever done that. Mine was truly obscure grinder problem purely down to me. It was repaired just out of warrantee.

A number of the problems other than O rings on DB's are down to maintenance in part and aren't hard to fix. The O rings don't cost much to replace. Scaling up often figures somewhere in Sage problems.

For me it's a hard machine to find a replacement for. Part of my hobby is press button coffee brewing and then there is the 3min heat up time. It's only on when I want a drink. TBH considering it's done 2,500 shots at no on costs I'd cheerfully buy another and throw it away. I've had to clean the solenoid twice - perhaps I should back flush more often and it did have a scale problem that messed up the PID a bit so it gets descaled more often than when the machine asks for it. I do use soft tap water so easy descale is important to me.


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