Appliances: brand new or brand name?

[jack]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Sitting in the cheap seats here. Coffee comes in a jar.

 

I spend most of my time in the cheap seats. Coffee is one of the few areas I'm willing to pay a bit more.

[Guest Alphonsox]

2 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Coffee is one of the few areas I'm willing to pay a bit more.

 

Completely agree - I've got a 1-group Fracino (ex-commercial restaurant) unit in the utility to make mine. Not sure it's passive house compatible though, it kicks out a lot of heat.

[PeterW]

Saw a lovely Elektra this week - bit of coffee machine porn anyone ..??

 

 

Elektra Coffee Machines

[jack]

They're lovely.  My wife wanted me to buy one of the full size commercial Elektras, but I really don't need a large hot pressure vessel of that size in my house!

[PeterW]

Not much shy of £10k for the big one either !!

 

Coffee Italia have some really good prices on machines too....

[jack]

6 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Not much shy of £10k for the big one either !!

 

I didn't even bother checking the price, but that's more than I expected.

 

The problem I have with a lot of high-end espresso machines (even the domestic ones) is that they aren't designed to be turned on briefly, then turned off once you've made your coffee.  Most want at least 30 mins, if not 60 mins, heat-up time.  I just can't be bothered with wasting that much time and energy just to make a coffee.  

 

My next purchase is a decent grinder.  I presently use a hand grinder, which is okay for the Aeropress, but not for espresso.  

[daiking]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Saw a lovely Elektra this week - bit of coffee machine porn anyone ..??

 

 

Elektra Coffee Machines

 

Where does the monkey poo go?

 

in for a penny, in for a pound...

 

pods ftw.

Edited May 10, 2017 by daiking

[daiking]

I'm serious. A nespresso would be what guests expect in a nice hotel. If they want more, they'll be like Jack and bring their own.

[Onoff]

6 hours ago, daiking said:

 

Where does the monkey poo go?

 

in for a penny, in for a pound...

 

pods ftw.

 

I thought it was cats?

[Ferdinand]

7 hours ago, daiking said:

I'm serious. A nespresso would be what guests expect in a nice hotel. If they want more, they'll be like Jack and bring their own.

 

This is true. I think Nespresso are starting to reach budget hotels now ... Ibises and Premier Inns and so on. 

 

However Nespresso capsules cost from about 20p to 60p per cup.

 

So if you have two people having just 3 cups a day each you are into several hundred £££ per year, and then you have to have a "eight supplied request more from reception" type policy, or charge them (prob. not on), or find another wheeze such as supplying two or four per day while refreshing the room if they have been used. Or identify a local cost-effective source.

 

That was why I stuck to filter or cafietiere coffee - you supply them with one variety in one sealed packet, and they can buy their own if needed. Or just supply four or ten of the "sit on cups" filters to get them started.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

20 hours ago, jack said:

 

I actually started writing something the weekend before last about coffee, but we were away on the Isle of Wight, and reception was spotty so I gave up.

 

I use an Aeropress most days at home.  Amazing bit of kit, but a bit of a learning curve for people unfamiliar with them.  I think a decent cafetiere is very worthwhile though.  

 

My wife laughed at me when we unpacked the car on the Isle of Wight last weekend and I pulled this out of the boot:

 

As usual, lots of laughing at me about the efforts I make to ensure we have decent coffee when we travel, but no shame about accepting the resultant lattes!

 

(Just to be clear, I only brought the La Pavoni to steam milk.  I did the coffee in the Aeropress.)

 

Heh. That does seem excessive. Aeropress and Handpresso (does OK crema and you pump it like a bicycle pump) should be sufficient. Personally, I can live without steamed milk.

 

For my fairly minimalist coffee kit, I have one of these, a Gaggia Classico and grinder:

 

 

Came from ebay from a chap in Beverley who specified "local collect only", so his customers were limited to tourists, a few Yorkshiremen, and sheep. He quite happily posted it if I paid but I recently killed the pump by mistake. 

 

and one of these Aeropresses. There is something about coffee videos that never quite reaches "cool".

 

 

and one of these Handpressos, which is good and bike-portable, (cheesily sexist video follows, where the only woman making coffee is on a beach holiday):

 

 

and one of these Thermos Ultimate Flasks, which really does very nearly work for tea at teatime when out for the day:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermos-Ultimate-MKII-Flask-900/dp/B013YMS8RM

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Crofter]

SWMBO recently picked up a secondhand Nespresso for under £20- so it's not exactly going to blow the bank.

But providing a sufficient supply of capsules to last a week is going to add up quickly.

I'm not an enormous fan of them myself... yet more composite waste going to landfill... and now 'can you make me a cuppa' doesn't mean kettle/jar/spoon, it means check water hopper, empty smelly old capsules, empty smellier drip tray, wait for machine to warm up, press button, realise you forgot to put a capsule in, start again. The joys.

[Jeremy Harris]

I never drink coffee, can't stand the stuff, but my other half has had one of those Nespresso machines for a few years.  The machine doesn't take up much room, but we have an entire kitchen wall cabinet dedicated to nothing but capsules for the thing, various different ones, but I've no idea what they all are.  They also produce a lot of waste, as well as costing far more than a cup of tea. 

 

The boiling water tap in the new house is solely so I can have a cup of tea when I want, without waiting for some bit of kit to do its water heating and gurgling business for ten minutes or so.

Edited May 11, 2017 by JSHarris

[PeterW]

18 minutes ago, Crofter said:

SWMBO recently picked up a secondhand Nespresso for under £20- so it's not exactly going to blow the bank.

But providing a sufficient supply of capsules to last a week is going to add up quickly.

I'm not an enormous fan of them myself... yet more composite waste going to landfill... and now 'can you make me a cuppa' doesn't mean kettle/jar/spoon, it means check water hopper, empty smelly old capsules, empty smellier drip tray, wait for machine to warm up, press button, realise you forgot to put a capsule in, start again. The joys.

 

You can get clone capsules now as Nespresso released the market hold a while back. Still close on 20p per capsule but genuine ones are over 30p now so a good saving. 

 

Its worth noting that Nespresso offer a free recycling scheme for their capsules as they are aluminum - you put a post paid bag in the post. 

 

Edited to add if you have a Lidl near you then their capsules came out top in a comparison test at £1.79 for 10.

[Ferdinand]

7 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

The machine doesn't take up much room, but we have an entire kitchen wall cabinet dedicated to nothing but capsules for the thing, various different ones, but I've no idea what they all are. 

 

That sounds like a pet dog or cat :-) .

 

The inkjet printer marketing strategy.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Crofter]

We don't have the luxury of a Lidl- there are a total of three supermarkets within an hour of here, and they are all CoOps, selling the same stuff. Although SMWBO has just told me that they do stock Nespresso capsule clones- which might just swing things.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, Crofter said:

We don't have the luxury of a Lidl- there are a total of three supermarkets within an hour of here, and they are all CoOps, selling the same stuff. Although SMWBO has just told me that they do stock Nespresso capsule clones- which might just swing things.

 

Would you get your Coop 5% membership cashback? That might help.

 

https://www.coop.co.uk/membership

 

I am not sure how this works in practice in different areas.

 

The one coffee thing I have that requires paper capsules (the Handpresso) I tend to order hermetically sealed in bulk online.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Mikey_1980]

Just coming back to the branded appliances question, we have brought lots of stuff from the John Lewis Clearance Outlet.  They have one in Swindon (Not far from the build centre) and I expect they must have others across the UK.  They sell customer returns/cosemetically damaged stuff there, stock changes daily but they have all white goods/cookers/hobs/ranges etc. We picked up an AEG Steam washing machine for £300, I think online it was £799, and it the only thing wrong was a small plastic flap that hid the filter was missing which I brought for £20.  It came with the fulll 5 year warranty etc.  We have also brought Dryers, etc furnitire, cookware from there.

[jack]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

 

 

Snap - I recently bought one of those as my main machine.  I've done the pressure reduction and Rancilio Silvia steam wand mods.  Just need a better grinder now.  Presently looking at one of these (combination of grind quality, compact size, and aesthetic acceptability).

 

While I very much enjoy drinking coffee, I actually get as much enjoyment out of the ritual of making it.  And the look on people's faces when you give them something better than most chain coffee shops can manage is worth the price of admission alone.  My latte art sucks though.

 

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

You can get clone capsules now as Nespresso released the market hold a while back.

...

Edited to add if you have a Lidl near you then their capsules came out top in a comparison test at £1.79 for 10.

 

Yes, the original patents started expiring a few years ago.  There's been some interesting litigation over the years, but it's clear that the pods themselves are now completely unencumbered.  My brother in law lent us his machine during the build.  I tried various generic pods (not Lidl, unfortunately) but they were all absolutely disgusting.  Plus the pods themselves don't have much coffee in them, so I usually ended up doubling up every time I made a coffee.  It made for an expensive habit!

[Ferdinand]

17 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Snap - I recently bought one of those as my main machine.  I've done the pressure reduction and Rancilio Silvia steam wand mods.  Just need a better grinder now.  Presently looking at one of these (combination of grind quality, compact size, and aesthetic acceptability).

 

While I very much enjoy drinking coffee, I actually get as much enjoyment out of the ritual of making it.  And the look on people's faces when you give them something better than most chain coffee shops can manage is worth the price of admission alone.  My latte art sucks though.

 

Yes, the original patents started expiring a few years ago.  There's been some interesting litigation over the years, but it's clear that the pods themselves are now completely unencumbered.  My brother in law lent us his machine during the build.  I tried various generic pods (not Lidl, unfortunately) but they were all absolutely disgusting.  Plus the pods themselves don't have much coffee in them, so I usually ended up doubling up every time I made a coffee.  It made for an expensive habit!

 

I bought the Gaggia MDF grinder and storage unit, which keeps them both tightly together on your worktop and gives you a knocking-out drawer. I have alternative baskets, but have not modded the steam wand.

 

If you hand around the UK Coffee Forums eg https://coffeeforums.co.uk/forum.php and post, there will be someone with the right thing reconditioned if you need it.

 

I think I paid £65 for the coffee machine and £115 for the grinder and unit. At that price it was just to learn, but they seem OK.

 

I double up on pods in hotels. Hail Ristretto !

 

The UK coffee forum has 15,993 members .

 

Are we off-topic?

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[jack]

11 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I think I paid £65 for the coffee machine...

 

You seem to have an amazing ability to get a bargain - I paid twice that for mine!

[jack]

27 minutes ago, Mikey_1980 said:

Just coming back to the branded appliances question, we have brought lots of stuff from the John Lewis Clearance Outlet.  They have one in Swindon (Not far from the build centre) and I expect they must have others across the UK.  They sell customer returns/cosemetically damaged stuff there, stock changes daily but they have all white goods/cookers/hobs/ranges etc. We picked up an AEG Steam washing machine for £300, I think online it was £799, and it the only thing wrong was a small plastic flap that hid the filter was missing which I brought for £20.  It came with the fulll 5 year warranty etc.  We have also brought Dryers, etc furnitire, cookware from there.

 

Do you know whether there's a site that lists what they have for sale?  I had a quick look but couldn't see anything.  Our washing machine is due for replacement in the near future and I'd like to get an AEG that's at least a reasonably aesthetic match for the dryer.

[Ferdinand]

14 minutes ago, jack said:

 

You seem to have an amazing ability to get a bargain - I paid twice that for mine!

 

On that occasion :-). Mostly it comes down to sit and wait. This one was really misadvertised as a "local collect only" in the deep countryside.

 

Aren't you down south in the Home Counties where coffee-fiends are much closer together and ebay competition much more intense?

 

My worst ebay selling performance was when I sold a chap 5 sacks of ex-church wooden floor blocks for 99p as he was the only one that bid. So much for saving on commission.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Mikey_1980]

@jack no they don't have a website listing that they have for sale I'm afraid, you could give them a call though.

 

https://www.johnlewis.com/our-shops/swindon-outlet

[jack]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

Aren't you down south in the Home Counties where coffee-fiends are much closer together and ebay competition much more intense?

 

Yep.  And that brings in the London peeps too.

 

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

My worst ebay selling performance was when I sold a chap 5 sacks of ex-church wooden floor blocks for 99p as he was the only one that bid. So much for saving on commission.

 

When we unexpectedly decided to move countries several years ago, we sold a 10 month old, quality brand fridge in perfect condition on ebay for 40% of what we paid for it new.  Nice photos, good description, excellent ebay rating as a seller. I nearly cried.