# First impressions are good



## FullBloomCoffee (Mar 19, 2015)

I bought a barista express from a fellow forum member a couple of days ago just to tide me over in my new home until I can afford to get something more special plumbed in and I am very impressed.

I was a little sceptical after reading mixed reviews but I have a fair amount of experience within speciality coffee and a variety of machines so just stuck with what I know and did everything manually...

2 shots to dial in and this was the first drink out of it!

tasted great too!

am now on my fourth coffee of the day!


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## earthflattener (Jul 27, 2015)

The issues are not usually about the ability of the machines, except from rank beginners which Sage does attract due to cost and simplicity. I'm not convinced that reliability is much of an issue compared to other machines. The most serious criticism that I can see is about availably of parts when the inevitable happens and something does go wrong. I think that is a fair criticism of Sage's support policy. I have a dual boiler myself and couldn't be happier... for now


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## Bobbrown (Sep 16, 2020)

Looks better than the drinks I used to make on it. But maybe that says more about the barista than the machine...


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

LOL The usual problem is the user. As simple as that and some "rules" about on the web don't help. This range of machines are not conventional espresso machines either. That can cause some confusion. People will only hear about tales of woe and they sell a lot of machines A recent post shows another problem that can crop up with new users on a more advanced machine that they do pre calibrate. Rather than accepting limitations tinker instead. It could be a duff machine too but. The BE does have it's foibles. The main one is preheating. The 2nd one doesn't bother many, getting the volumetrics to work. They can with what I found to be acceptable errors.

Thermojet machines - pass I've not used one. I changed from a BE to a DB for very specific reasons. Not the taste of the coffee.

One complaint is my coffee isn't hot from previously making coffee via a boiling kettle. Coffee should not be made like that.

The when it breaks and repairs are needed can be a mixed bag. Some things can be repaired pretty easily. O ring seals but that is more of a problem on the DB. It seems solenoids can be obtained but cleaning them can also work out. That involves taking them apart. When some one isn't capable of doing repairs themselves Sage may work out cheaper or be much the same. Machines can get beyond an economical state of repair. Some might get like that just down to lack of maintenance in the usual cleaning areas.

 I plug my Sage machines into a surge come spike arrestor. That may be a wise precaution and if some one has that in their modern consumer unit I still would. That one is a rather different animal.


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## allikat (Jan 27, 2020)

If you're diluting your shot for an Americano or similar drink, then do so with water from a kettle, it's much better than trying to do so with the machine itself. Also, try pre-warming your cup to keep temperatures higher. If you're in a rush to make your first coffee, you can pull a blank shot into your chosen cup, which both warms the cup and the portafilter. Tipping out that warming water is your decision to do or not.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I used the machine for all of my americano hot water included. I seldom drink anything else. There are some machines where I wouldn't be entirely happy about using the hot water.

One of my early problems was cooler drinks moving from a kettle. I switched to thinish borosilcate mugs that take less heat away but like most people I'm inclined to leave coffee to cool as the taste is more apparent. The temperature aspect is down to the machines hot water though. Not the coffee aspect. The plastic in the portafilter is intended to prevent the portafilter from taking heat out of that. It does too.

I didn't like Sages suggested way of heating things as used too much water and not that thorough. I did it by putting an empty pressurised basket in the portafilter and running a 20sec or so shot. Little water used and things get really hot. Then remove that with a removal tool and fit the correct one and add grinds. Easy and quick to do and gives the machine a bit of a clean water back flush every time it's used. Little work really if several drinks are made on the trot.  Doubt if others will see it that way but net result was all drinks on the trot tasted the same. I used to do mine last and one day tried the first one out of curiosity. 2nd was much better but still a bit different to the 3rd.


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