How to choose a home espresso machine?
The principle of the espresso machine is to use a mixture of high-pressure steam and water to quickly pass through the coffee layer to extract coffee instantaneously. The resulting coffee has a high temperature, a low content of impurities such as caffeine, and a rich taste. You may be wondering how to choose a home-style espresso machine. Now let's sort out how to buy a home espresso machine.
If you want to be able to make different pull patterns in the daily coffee making process, or you can experience the change of flavor through different extraction, then the combination of semi-automatic coffee machine + coffee grinder is recommended. Because this combination involves two devices, this option requires a certain amount of space for use, and if you choose a boiler-heated coffee machine, the preheating time will be longer (from 3 minutes).
If you want to have a cup of coffee before work every day and it is convenient and fast, you can choose a fully automatic coffee machine.
Several considerations for coffee machine purchase
How can we buy a coffee machine under the same budget? After all, searching for an espresso machine on the Internet, the result is really dazzling. So we shove them together to get a clue.
a. How to choose a semi-automatic coffee machine?
When purchasing a semi-automatic coffee machine, we require that it can bring us stable extraction and sufficient steam, so that we can fundamentally make our coffee drink better and pull flowers more stable. So we start with two important parts of the coffee machine: the water pump and the boiler.
Water pumps: There are two main types of pumps on the market, rotary pumps and vibration pumps.
Rotary pump, is also called a vane pump. The rotation of the vane drives the pressure rise, which can stabilize the extraction pressure between 8-10bar. At the same time, the noise of the rotary pump is less, but its cost is high. So it is common in commercial semi-automatic coffee machines or some high-end home coffee machines.
Vibration pump, a kind of simple resonance pump, is characterized by simple structure, small volume, long service life, low cost and so on. Due to its simple harmonic motion, the output pressure fluctuates between 0-15bar or even 20bar. So it is often used in entry-level coffee machines.
Boiler: The size of the boiler determines the stability.
The larger the boiler, the more hot water and the more sufficient steam. As a simple example, if you use an electric water heater at home, you will know that the larger the capacity of the electric water heater can support the use of hot water for a long time. If the capacity of the water heater is not enough, there will be an embarrassing situation when it is washed and washed. In general, the semi-automatic coffee machine has different structures of multiple boilers, mother-child boilers and single boilers. And the price is also multi-boiler> child-mother boiler> single boiler. So how to quickly determine what structure your own boiler is? There is a quick and easy method. The multi-boiler coffee machine is generally more expensive than the child-mother boiler, and because the child-mother boiler coffee machine uses a heat exchange system, sometimes the brewing head temperature will be too high or the phenomenon of water vapor during extraction, The judgment of a single boiler is relatively simple: if it takes a while for your coffee machine to extract milk froth, it is likely to be a single boiler system. In addition, the bigger the boiler, the bigger the machine. However, since the possibility of continuously making cups in a domestic coffee machine is not high, we do not need to excessively pursue the size of the boiler.
* PS: There are also coffee machines with heating blocks on the market. It extracts cold water by heating blocks. Its stability is determined by the size and power of the heating module.
b. How to choose a fully automatic coffee machine?
Due to its stable production and easy operation, the fully automatic coffee machine does not require you to have much coffee knowledge and skills, nor how much proficient operation skills can you get a cup of coffee. In recent years, as the value of many home-use fully automatic coffee machines has become higher and higher, the prices have become closer to the people, and they have gradually entered the public's field of vision. If you want to drink a cup of espresso at any time in the office or company, it is best to buy a fully automatic coffee machine. Its maintenance cost is not high and safety is high, it is not easy to cause life injury due to improper operation. At the same time, you should pay attention to its functionality when buying a fully automatic. Low-cost fully automatic may often not have a steam stick and can't send milk froth. Fully automatic is equipped with automatic milking system.