# Sage Barista Pro - height and grinder performance?



## spennis (Mar 5, 2021)

Hi,

I have a couple of questions regarding the Sage Barista Pro to those of you who own that machine.

1. What is the height of the machine with and without the coffe bean container on top? According to the Sage website the Pro is quite a bit taller than the Express, but in photos and videos, the Pro actually looks a bit smaller.

2. How good is the built-in grinder? I'm wondering whether it might be a better idea to buy the Bambino Plus with a grinder for the same money as the Barista Pro. What do you think?

Thank you.


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

I was wondering the exact same thing when I decided on my set up. The Pro was about £650 / £700 at the time and I managed to get a Bambino for £229 and paired it with the Smart Grinder Pro which was £200.

I liked the idea of the Pro, but remember seeing some advice on here which convinced me that having separates was the way to go. If one breaks or you decide you want to upgrade one side you can replace one unit as opposed to two. This, coupled with the fact I was getting seperate units for £200 / £250 less than the Pro made it a no brainer.

I'm now at the stage where I'm considering my first upgrade as I fancy a single dosing grinder so will shortly be listing the grinder up fir sale. The SGP has 60 settings as opposed to the 32 or so on the Pro. It gets a bit of a rough deal on here imo - I've actually been pretty happy with it, but I don't know any better and how much better the coffee could be and the appeal of being able to switch up my coffees on a per coffee basis has got the better of me.


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## HeatherUK (Mar 17, 2021)

dutchy101 said:


> I was wondering the exact same thing when I decided on my set up. The Pro was about £650 / £700 at the time and I managed to get a Bambino for £229 and paired it with the Smart Grinder Pro which was £200.
> 
> I liked the idea of the Pro, but remember seeing some advice on here which convinced me that having separates was the way to go. If one breaks or you decide you want to upgrade one side you can replace one unit as opposed to two. This, coupled with the fact I was getting seperate units for £200 / £250 less than the Pro made it a no brainer.
> 
> I'm now at the stage where I'm considering my first upgrade as I fancy a single dosing grinder so will shortly be listing the grinder up fir sale. The SGP has 60 settings as opposed to the 32 or so on the Pro. It gets a bit of a rough deal on here imo - I've actually been pretty happy with it, but I don't know any better and how much better the coffee could be and the appeal of being able to switch up my coffees on a per coffee basis has got the better of me.


 Do you find the Smart Grinder Pro unsuitable for grinding per cup? I'm looking to buy my first grinder and thought maybe the SGP would cover cover all options.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The step count on the SGP against the built in ones is irrelevant. The built in ones are limited to the espresso range so the SGP has loads of settings that aren't suitable for espresso. The pro may have smaller steps than the straight be. Comparing the be with the sgp - I found it hard to be sure but suspect it did give finer steps. This isn't a problem providing people realise that time and dose can be used to tune. Problem here is the web and exact ratios and times. For best taste things are not as simple as that and when some one moves to a stepless grinder they will probably be surprised how small the adjustments need to be to get more precise. Hard to make on some too and benefits are more likely to relate to the quality of the grinder and may not be as large as some might expect.

The SGP can go coarse enough for brew. Also if some one wants to upgrade the grinder is separate. They usually sell easily as such a lot of people use them.

The Bambino appears to be an express without the grinder. I can't be sure and unlikely to buy one now.

Thermocoil against Thermojet. It wouldn't surprise me if the jet offers some advantages. When they moved from a thermoblock to the coil that did. Temperature control and scale build up and getting rid if it. It's not possible to get an idea of brew water temperature by measuring it when the machine is just flushing.

Taste of what comes out on the BE can change if the machine is preheated but not by flushing as the water flow rate is too high. This may well be true of all of this range of machines. Making say 3 drinks back to back and tasting each one will shed some light on that providing the machine is not left standing too long between each one. The jet may loose heat a bit more quickly than the coil.


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

HeatherUK said:


> Do you find the Smart Grinder Pro unsuitable for grinding per cup? I'm looking to buy my first grinder and thought maybe the SGP would cover cover all options.


 I use it to make espresso for milk based drinks - one at a time and only typically 2 if more than 1. Have had the odd occasion where I've used it to do 3,4 and 5 in a row. Works perfectly well for all instances.

Honestly it's a great starter grinder for the money it costs.


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## HeatherUK (Mar 17, 2021)

@ajohn thank you for your detailed comments there. I'm saving up for my coffee machine so not quite ready for investing in a dedicated espresso grinder. I thought I could maybe upgrade my home coffee experience with an all round grinder whilst waiting.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

dutchy101 said:


> Honestly it's a great starter grinder for the money it costs.


 That is my view as well. People have £x available and it's not a bad place to put it. The same burrs are used on all of their grinders even the Oracle. The grinders have their limitations but people pockets do too.


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

I think James Hoffman is going to do a review soon - he bought one when doing his recent 'best budget set up for espresso' video and seemed pretty complimentary about it when he mentioned it. He seemed to allude to a review being forthcoming at some point


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## HeatherUK (Mar 17, 2021)

@dutchy101 thank you for the reply, you sound as though you're a step ahead of me so wanted to hear you're opinion.


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