Profitec Pro 300 vs 700

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
teamacacia
Posts: 37
Joined: 8 years ago

#1: Post by teamacacia »

Hello all,
I have finally decided to take the plunge and move from my Nespresso to a proper machine and grinder. After much research I have narrowed it down to the Profitec 300 vs 700 paired with the T64 grinder, and can't quite make the final decision. I am looking for a little outside opinion from the members here. My household doesn't consume too many coffee drinks daily. We usually have a cap each in the morning +/- espresso in the evening. Weekends may double that total. We like to entertain but have never really had takers on espresso in the evenings for our parties. Will that change with new "proper" machine? Who knows. I want to put the new setup in the kitchen area of our new home, but my wife is a bit hesitant to give up her decorating space. If she forbids the kitchen, I would set up the system in the guest room closet which has a little area that looks like it was made for a coffee bar. It is just down a short hallway from the kitchen so not too terrible if push came to shove on the final location. I built a couple cardboard box replicas of the general shape of the machines/grinder and will post below to show the relative sizes in the possible spaces.

Basically, my pros/cons are as follows:

300:
Pros-heats up to temp quickly, smaller size which would work in either area, cost is much less which would be a bonus IF I ever wanted to upgrade (I think a slayer would look amazing in my kitchen even if it is a bigger machine than either of the profitec's), I don't really want to get into the whole upgrade-itis thing. I really just want a good, reliable machine to make good caps and espresso's, and then enjoy my mornings and weekends with the family. Fits the guest room area better than the 700.

Cons-I waffle back and forth on the aesthetics. Does the smaller size/weight make it feel like it needs more of something?

700:
Pros-aesthetically more pleasing to my eye in a retro-modern sense that I think would look good in our new place which has a more modern-rustic vibe. Heftier machine that has more power than I would probably ever utilize. I can plumb the water in the kitchen, and the size of the machine in relation to the size of the kitchen is a better match than the Pro 300.

Cons-dang, these machines are bigger than I expected. If my wife forbids the kitchen counter then I will have to set up the machine/grinder in the guest room closet a few feet down the hall. The 700 is a tall machine and only gives a few inches of space between it and the cabinets overhead. The cup warmer would basically be useless, and I'd have to rig a funnel and hose to pour water into the reservoir (not that tough).

-Doc Todd

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thecatch83
Posts: 290
Joined: 8 years ago

#2: Post by thecatch83 »

I can't recommend the Pro 700 to anyone until they get their erratic PID overshoot problem figured out. The 300 is a very underrated machine and will serve your needs well. I would however recommend a different grinder like the Eureka Zenith with short hopper from Clive or the Ceado E37 (WLL just got them back in stock). These two offer more bang for your buck compared to the T64, but the T64 is no slouch with its 64 mm burr set and 450 watt motor and it does have a smaller footprint.

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Fausto
Posts: 452
Joined: 9 years ago

#3: Post by Fausto »

Hey Todd, happy to help.

If space is not an issue then the major advantage of the Pro 300 over the 700 is the heat up time. The 700 is going to take 25mins to come to temp. The boiler temp will get there way faster, but you're going to want the group head and portafilter nice and hot too, and that's going to take some time (lots of chrome plated brass!)

Other than that, the 700 is a superior machine. The rotary pump is really nice. The vibe pump honestly doesn't bother me at all, but every time I've had the opportunity to use a machine with a rotary pump it's a bit of an aha moment - silence is worth something. PID in the steam boiler - pressurestat on the 300 works just fine, but you do need to purge it halfway through heat up because the condensation tricks the pressurestat into thinking it's at pressure. A PID wouldn't have this problem.

There's also the looks, e61's are pretty. The Pro 300 is not ugly, in fact I quite like it, but an e61 just looks better IMO. There's the heft, which is both a pro and a con. It's bigger and heavier, so you need room for it, but the 700 isn't moving/flexing when you lock in a portafilter. The 300 is quite good, but not perfect in that regard. I've gotten in the habit of grabbing the front top right corner of the machine and pulling it left while I lock in a portafilter to the right - not because I need to, because 9 times out of 10 it's not going to move, but on that 10th time I might pull the portafilter a little too hard and the feet of the machine might jerk a half inch. So it's become a habit that guarantees no movement. When I do this there does feel like the machine is flexing just a bit. It doesn't bother me, and I imagine the 700 does not do this, so there is that.

Hmm, what else....steam pressure on the 300 is more than adequate for me (and often too powerful for my inexperienced hands,) but the 700 definitely has more power. You can plumb in the 700, not the 300 (maybe 1 day?) More room to work - the Pro 300 is only about 10" wide, which is enough, but sometimes you might wish you could spread out a little more - also this means the Pro 700 drip tray will hold more when not plumbed in.

That's all that's coming to mind right now. I bought the 300 over the 700 because I really valued heat up time, I didn't have the budget or the counter space for the 700, I planned on upgrading beyond the 700 in the future anyway, I got a great deal on the 300. If the budget and counter space wasn't a problem, I would have sacrificed heat up time and gotten the 700 (you can always put it on a timer).

Shife
Posts: 552
Joined: 9 years ago

#4: Post by Shife »

I thought the issue with the 700 pid was that it didn't properly convert units from C to F. As long as the correct offsets are used it operates correctly from what I've read in recent threads.

Edit: You've got the room, so I'd go for a rotary pump model such as the 700 or similar. I loathe the sound of the vibe pumps.

teamacacia (original poster)
Posts: 37
Joined: 8 years ago

#5: Post by teamacacia (original poster) »

thecatch83 wrote:I can't recommend the Pro 700 to anyone until they get their erratic PID overshoot problem figured out. The 300 is a very underrated machine and will serve your needs well. I would however recommend a different grinder like the Eureka Zenith with short hopper from Clive or the Ceado E37 (WLL just got them back in stock). These two offer more bang for your buck compared to the T64, but the T64 is no slouch with its 64 mm burr set and 450 watt motor and it does have a smaller footprint.
Ty, thanks for the heads up regarding the grinders! I was wanting to stay kind of "matchy" in the set up hence leaning toward the T64. It also has a small footprint which is really nice. I looked at the Eureka but don't really want black or white. The Ceado is tempting but very tall. I'm already on thin ice with the Mrs regarding hoe much space I may be stealing from her. One thing nice about my purchase is that the 30 day guarantee means I should be able to test everything out before being totally locked in.

As someone said below, I think the PID issue has been worked out...
-Doc Todd

F1
Posts: 699
Joined: 13 years ago

#6: Post by F1 »

Shife wrote:I thought the issue with the 700 pid was that it didn't properly convert units from C to F. As long as the correct offsets are used it operates correctly from what I've read in recent threads.
That's 100% correct. I haven't read of anybody having temp overshoot issues.

teamacacia (original poster)
Posts: 37
Joined: 8 years ago

#7: Post by teamacacia (original poster) »

Thanks Alex, Eric, & Wally

I suppose I will go with the 700 to start with. If it is just too big and problematic to find the right place to locate it, at least I will have the option to downsize to the 300. That will probably be a better plan than getting the 300 and deciding to move up to the 700. It would be even more of a hassle if I then decided that the 700 was too big/the wrong machine and wanted to go back down.

I know the 300's vibe pump is fairly quiet, but the Nespresso pump can wake up both my wife and kiddo so the more quiet the machine the better for me.

I have always been an over-researcher that can't make up his mind about splitting the hairs to a decision. Thanks to everyone for their input.
-Doc Todd

ShelbiRyan
Posts: 287
Joined: 9 years ago

#8: Post by ShelbiRyan »

F1 wrote:That's 100% correct. I haven't read of anybody having temp overshoot issues.
+1. I haven't heard of this either....I own a Pro 700 and would recommend it to anybody. Love this machine.

Lacoffee
Posts: 165
Joined: 8 years ago

#9: Post by Lacoffee »

+1. No overshoot here on the 700. Great machine.
Andrew

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thecatch83
Posts: 290
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#10: Post by thecatch83 »

Without hijacking this thread, I was under the impression based on the multitude of threads that Profitec engineered the 700 for celsius and that in fahrenheit mode (F1 setting), it was overshooting with the factory (E1) setting of 34. What's more, several Pro 700 owners have admitted to changing their E1 setting down to read 24-26 because the E1 setting of 34 was producing flash boiling. So without the utilization of a scace, how on earth would you know exactly what your brew temperature is reading in fahrenheit mode if the machine was never engineered to be used with this setting? Did Profitec announce that the E1 factory setting of 34 was erroneous, and if so, why are they still shipping machines with the outdated settings? In addition, if WLL has admitted that these settings are incorrect as well, why are they still bench testing, posting videos and shipping out machines with the factory E1 setting of 34? For those of you making the blanket statements of "mine works fine", what specifically have you done in regards to your PID settings, and or verification of your brew temperature using a scace to validate the overshoot calibration?

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