Espresso Series 1

Love mine, but I did get the extended warranty (new product, not sure how it will hold up). Some small(ish) known issues though... Volumetric mode is set badly out of the box and needs adjustment if you want to use it (I don't, so it's just off anyway), there's a fair amount of water waste at startu

I think the Fellow ES1 or Meraki are good starter options in that price point with relatively low heat up times. Breville bambino is a good starter option to learn too. If you go that route you can buy a much nicer grinder like a Timemore 078s, or Niche Zero

I deleted my other thread, on my own volition. This is on my own after reflecting about the issues I was having with the firmware, and felt I was a little harsh on the title of the thread saying there was a degradation in performance, which really wasn't the case, just a glitch in the firmware, and

Really consider that if you are a Fellow fan? And you lived through the Aiden firmware updates? Then you will probably find some of the updates to be exciting as they rollout. That said? If you just want “that cup of espresso” experience? And don’t mind a low end machine needing to warm up for a bit

Lots of different ways you can go. For a traditional flat pressure shot, no milk drinks, I would go with a Rancilio Silvia and find one with a PID already installed to avoid temp surfing. If you want a little more room for experimentation, Quick Mill Pop Up or Lucca Tempo (same thing) offers flow co

Despite not being a historic fan of Fellow I have to say the ES1 is a good middleground. Jet-assisted boiler means much faster initial heatup time, and you get all the bells and whistles you’d want in a higher end machine. I had a Bambino forever before this and felt like I’d hit the end of what the

Full disclosure I own the Fellow Series 1 and am probably a bit biased. Out of the three you listed, it’s the only one with any form of pressure profiling if that is something you think you’d like to experiment with. Usually this is a feature only found in significantly more expensive machines. As a

Appartamento (HX machine) has the best build quality. Super easy to service yourself if you have basic plumbing and electronics skills. Mara X (HX machine) has better control over brew temperature than Appartamento. In a smaller case than Appartamento which means it takes up less room on your counte

So, if there’s nothing wrong with the Bambino yet, then I would just recommend spending the money on getting a good grinder, either the Eureka or something else depending on your budget. If milk drinks with medium to dark roasts are your primary thing rather than light roast specialty coffee, then s

Are you both brewing in volumetric mode? If you haven’t specifically changed the setting, the machine defaults to stopping the shot when it believes an adequate volume has been passed through the brew group but Fellow has acknowledged this needs to be tweaked with subsequent firmware updates. I was