The Best Espresso Machines Under £100

This was heavily requested, and to be honest - it was a pretty interesting experiment.
If Patrons don't want the other machines then I will be donating them to charity locally (and safely).

Here are links the machines (note: these are affiliate links)

Music:
"Pomelo" by Jobii

Links:

My Books:

Neewer Products I Use:

[qwertyasdf]

Challenge of the year...you should collaborate with a manufacturer and design your own entry level unit

[younsmal]

A week ago I was unaware of James.
A week ago I was thinking I being cool with one of those (In comparison to those who drink instant coffee)
A week ago I was still thinking:
" I know something about coffee".
A week ago my life was much easier as I was ignorant about all of this science behind coffee.
A week ago I was also richer because I didn't feel the need to buy a coffee Crushgrind and was happy to do that with blades.
A week ago YouTube suggested me to watch a video about a guy who is buying coffee stuff from IKEA...🤦🏽‍♂️

A week later:
Watching 10 of his videos a day till 3am.
Thanks James for making my life more difficult but more knowledgeable about something I was in fact ignorant about.

[rban]

some of you may be wondering what he meant by "PID controlled." Well basically the temperature of the water has a sensor which talks to a computer, the way PID control works is if the temperature gets too low, you need to add more heat to get it back to the right temp, and if it gets too high you have to remove heat, but then you get iunto a back and forth where the temperature is always dipping and rising trying to catch up. the way pid works is it uses the area under the curve to calculate the error from the desired temperature, and it also takes the derivative to calculate how fast the error is changing, that way it can correct the error and find the "sweet spot" without having lots of temperature fluctuation.

[azulfiqar]

“A shape that makes me slightly uncomfortable.” - James Hoffman 2020

[varza_cu_ciolan]

I have the Delonghi, a birthday gift from my amazing girlfriend, yes it is basic but it's a fantastic entrypoint into coffee in my opinion, because, as students, we don't have hundreds of euros to spend on a machine so it's the best we can do right now....and honestly, I love it

[fake_alex_blue]

The De'Longhi's EC152 (very similar to the machine in the video) was my first home espresso machine back when I was still a broke student. And with that, and a decent hand grinder, I made pretty good coffee in the most labour intensive way imaginable, for about two years. I pushed it to the very limits of what it's capable of, and during my time with it, it taught me an awful lot. I opened it up, serviced, tweaked, tinkered, and made perhaps a half dozen diy upgrades to it before I finally retired it.
And actually, right now, with my full-size machine tragically out of service - needing expensive parts I just can't find during lockdown - I'm considering dusting off the De'Longhi again.

[beverage]

Things I learned in this video: the reason my coffee might be tasting bad is that I simply am not preparing it right.
I had no clue that things that seem like small details could affect the flavor of the coffee so much. I'm glad I know now!

[Wandelation]

Definitely looking forward to the "minimum entry level for pleasant coffee making experience" video.

[meganm.]

coffee aside, supporting Marc Rebillet asserts your status as a man of culture

[myname-mzlo]

i work in tech and i am convinced they make these cheaper options bad on purpose just to sell more of their expensive ones. manufacturing and tech has advanced too much for me to believe that for over 100 bucks they cannot put multiple temp sensors and a pressure gauge and a mechanism to stop the steam spewing out .. the premium ones could be sold at 100 bucks for a profit these days .

[bengriffithsseaangling]

Imagine making this guy a coffee in the office...

[EN-wdyu]

two things about James I couldn't guess:
1- his profession (he looks like a doctor and sounds like an automotive designer)
2- his age (looks like something between 35 and 70)

[bhowellrun]

Title: "The Best Espresso Machines Under 100"
James: "no"

[Nighthawkinlight]

Great video. You hit all the key notes I was looking for

[ecmcd]

I owned a DeLongi espresso machine ages ago, the sound of that DeLongi pump takes me back! A lot like the one you tested, it made pretty good espresso when you did everything exactly right; but it was terribly fussy to do so - maybe one cup in 4 was "good". It was particularly sensitive to the grind, which was not good in a time before burr grinders were affordable.

[gamepat]

I bought the Krups Calvi for 130€ as an experimental secondary espresso machine to my Bezzera Magica, and I surprisingly have to admit, I tend to keep going for the Krups, because I don't have to wait for it to heat up. Especially since my Magica broke, I only started missing it after a year. My Krups makes good enough espresso that it feels rewarding to make one, and that's enough for me most of the time.

[Tobez]

So glad your channel exists. I started out wanting to get an espresso machine to make myself some lattes at home. That led me down a rabbit hole and learning I can't make espresso for under 500 bucks. That then led me to your channel where I've learned a ton. So, Thank you.

[Moeshuk]

"The bare minimum to have a good espresso at home" .. I'm waiting for that James

[dannysprawka]

I want this guy to review my life. I just know when he explains how miserable I am I won’t be ready.

[jergarmar]

I had a somewhat older DeLonghi, but similar in build and style to the one listed here. The best thing I can say about it was that it was an interesting way to learn about espresso. And I did have a lot to learn about the basics, and about general machine maintenance. And I even jury-rigged an unpressurized portafilter, and got some decent shots out of it.

But ultimately, when my skills were a bit better, I still couldn't get reliably good results, and it was difficult to clean and maintain. I switched to Aeropress for a long while. Then recently I got the Flair on a bit of a whim, and I've really enjoyed using it. It scratches the itch of "occasional espresso" without large investments of money, counter space, or maintenance.

That's all to say that I tried, for a long time, to be content with a machine in this price range, but ultimately I recommend against it. I've also started recommending against home espresso in general, unless you're already pretty familiar with coffee and cheaper brewing methods. To make concentrated coffee, I think most people would be much better served by an Aeropress or a moka pot.