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Comment by FroshKiller | Hacker News Reader

Interesting! When I worked for a coffee roaster, there were two kinds of people looking for the Silvia: home espresso enthusiasts with too much money and cheapskates looking to add espresso-based drinks to their businesses.

I'm glad the poster enjoyed the project, because there's no way on Earth it was worth the money.

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Either a Silva at home or Nespresso at the office has been my daily routine the last 8-9 years.

I wouldn’t call the Silva expensive. Probably hard too find something cheaper that feels better, quality wise, than even a Nespresso-machine.

I didn't call it expensive, though. I said the people trying to buy one from us had too much money.

I know a lot of coffee enthusiasts with Silvias, and they pull awesome shots. It's probably the best entry "prosumer" machine in existence!

"Too much money".

My Silvia paid for itself vs. $5 coffee shop lattes in under a year.

What makes you say that? You can get one for 2-300 euros and it will outlast you since you can replace every single part. I’m pretty sure it’s the cheapest option available if you take a long term view.

At the time, you would not have found a Silvia for that price, even used. And we did not sell used Silvias in any case.

The silvia is always touted as a reasonably priced machine which can be converted to PID with little work...

It might not have been worth the money, but it's nice that it didn't end up in the garbage.

So what's the recommendation to get instead, if the Silvia is too expensive?

A teapot. If you can't do good coffee at home, best to keep it as a treat for when you're out.

My ordering would be: Stove top > Silvia > La Cimbali Junior > La Marzocco Linea Mini.

Parent categorized people looking at a Silvia as "having to much money", so I would hope they have a similarly good cheaper recommendation.

Yes, not buying a home espresso machine.

Breville BES920 XL. Espresso machine done in a modern way. Dual boilers, three PID controlled heaters (boiler, steam boiler, grouphead). Makes excellent espresso with almost no fuss, very forgiving. You still need a good grinder with stepless control, but other than that it's super easy to dial in. This is my third machine and by far the best. I considered an E-61 machine, but that design dates back to the 1960s and controls temperature and extraction with pressure-stats, cams and rods and thermal mass. The Breville is a modern design in that it achieves these goals with micro-controllers, sensors and actuators. I don't know if it will last the 10 years my Ponte Vecchio spring lever did, but that took a lot of upkeep. The Breville has needed nothing for the two years I've had it so far.

>if the Silvia is too expensive?

Good luck!

I got a Breville Dual Boiler a few years ago and it was ok if temperamental for 2 years and 4 months. Then it died suddenly.

I had to pay Breville ~$400 for an out of warranty repair and drop it off personally at the local repair centre. The repair took two weeks and it died with the same symptoms a few days after I picked it up.

Breville refused to refund me for the repair attempt and it took escalating to get them to ship me a brand new replacement with 3 to 4 weeks estimated shipping.

I bought a Rocket instead and when the Breville showed up a month later sold it on Craigslist to cover a small portion of the wasted time and money.

The Rocket is much simpler but much more consistent. My wife a chef loves it but hated the Breville.

The Rocket did cost more but with regular home maintenance and an occasional service should last 15 to 20 years.

Sorry to hear that. I understood some of the earlier ones had issues. I'm hoping you were sincere with that "Good Luck!" because I really like this machine and hope it lasts.

Yes I was sincere. I enjoyed the machine, the support experience after it failed was appalling.

If it's any comfort that is still better than the support I got for the Ponte Vecchio. I did all my own work, including soldering a crack in the boiler because that was the only possibility. One vendor would not sell me parts because they claimed to be the only "authorized" vendor and I had purchased it elsewhere. The other sold me a series of parts over years and years, but discontinued that a couple years ago which is what prompted me to get the Breville. I gave the Lusso to my son and found another parts source, so it lingers on. I'd say it was down waiting on parts at least two weeks of every year I had it.

I didn't call the Silvia expensive. I said the people interested in buying them from us had too much money.

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