It depend what your choice would be.... convenient and close space like office ?

Bro, sell off some badminton racquets and go for a NS Oscar 2
just kidding, health is important too.

wah... the oscar 2 is too much for me... just starting to go into espresso.
i normally do drip brewing.

Read this, should help u narrow down
http://dibartoli.com.au/product_images/How...ine-for-you.pdf

What's your grinder?

hario skerton and delonghi kg49

Delonghi is bad for espresso
Hario is ok if you use pressurize portafilter.

If you want the option for auto feature go Delonghi

Between the rest from reviews go with Gaggia Classic and upgrade the steam wand. Give you an option to play with coffee
http://m.thesweethome.com/reviews/best-esp...-for-beginners/

This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 26 2016, 01:18 AM

wow... so many things to learn when switching to espresso machine.
gotta go with delonghi for ease of service

More auto more service, use the auto milk feature make sure it's clean well to prevent clot.

Read reviews on Amazon to be sure what you getting into
https://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-EC860-Espre...iews/B005ECTVUE

Of course EU cheaper for eur$550 budget can get great entry level quick mill
http://www.coffeeitalia.ie/espresso-machines/semi-automatic

This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 26 2016, 10:21 AM

Trust me after having auto....you might want to jump to semi auto not long after that ....cos the caffeine and milk frothing addiction in semi auto is unresistable.

But given the budget machine you had propose, i say stick to auto for best feature....

This post has been edited by d33pbluez: Aug 26 2016, 08:13 AM

Delonghi isn't super auto it only helps with the milk part. Many ppl complains the milk isn't steaming hot.
After my Jura experience I shy away from auto milk feature.

Since he don't have good grinder I take the below better. Grind and brew don't have to care about tamping
http://www.harveynorman.com.my/kitchen-app...cam22.110b.html

This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 26 2016, 09:59 AM

me also thinking of that ...... but how that maintanace (cleaning)?

Lolz, that delonghi machine ? I had that in my office, i think is fine machine for office used. It had pre set auto cleaning or something because if you leave the machine for something. It will automatically dispense water out and perform self cleaning then for full maintenance my office will call in the tech guys where he will dismantle some internal parts and do cleaning.

Try it a few times, well taste average to me depend on the beans usage.

Answer on top

just what i have in mind. i'm looking for semi-auto instead of auto.
delonghi website states that ec860 milk frother is manual.

Auto really mean grinding to extracting coffee is auto
Semi auto really means it auto control pressure when you turn on, the rest all manual

I prefer a manual frother, easy clean up.

This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 27 2016, 04:46 AM

The saeco and Delonghi ecm3300 you can take stuff apart for cleaning no need to call in maintenance guy. Office, it's company paying just call.

Hi guys, do you know where we can get reasonably priced dezcal and cafiza tablets?

You can find cafiza powder on lelong, I've bought a tub a few months ago.
Have never seen dezcal or Grindz for that matter, just tumpang Grindz with a friend coming back from the US last week.

Forgive me for being naive, but how much better are these dedicated descaling products better than simple citric acid which we can get from the local baking goods store for a couple of ringgit??

Excellent question, I don't know. What I understand is that descaling and cleaning are separate things.

I personally don't use descaling products, only Cafiza so far which is a detergent and washes away coffee residue.