I used a Crossland CC1 for a while several years ago. That machine made good coffee but had serious reliability problems. Within a year the steam boiler broke, that was fixed under warranty. A short time later the steam wand started to leak, I had to pay to fix that. Still other leaks developed and I couldn't find any information on how to fix these leaks, and neither was I willing to deal with the expense and hassale of sending it back to the seller for repairs.

In retrospect I probably should have gone with a machine that's more established, with a wider user base and simpler design. I almost always drink espresso with milk, so the steam quality is actually more important than the shot. Looks like the Gaggia would fit the bill? Does it have good reliability? If something does break, is it easy to repair? Easy to buy parts? Large community of users to support each other?

Alternative is Rancilio. Not sure I want to spend $800 on another espresso machine tho, kinda got burned on the CC1, and not sure if this whole espresso business is worth the hassle. I've been making coffee using a $4 Mellitta, and that's pretty good too.

Just a suggestion: before you get a new machine, find out your water quality and if steps are needed to make the water more machine-friendly.

I'm not saying that water affected your old machine, but, in general, blown steam thermoblocks and leaky seals are caused by water issues - limescale for the thermoblock and disinfection chemicals used by some municipalities for the seals, especially the steam valve's seals.

As for machine, I think that every sub-$1000 machine currently available - that can also steam milk - will have compromises, and each machine will have different compromises. Which compromises are acceptable to you is going to be different from me. For example, I have a Silvia v1 w/PID added, but would probably get a CC1 v2 today in that class of machine - but I wouldn't recommend the CC1 to you as the v2 came out last year and long-term reliability is unknown.

Good luck!

The only CC1 I see on Seattle Coffee Gear is an v2 opened box. Looks like its been discontinued.

The machine came back last year. I don't know why, but I have only seen the machine on the websites of a couple respected high-end shops:

https://www.pantechnicondesign.com/coll ... and-coffee

https://ghgbs.com/collections/home-solu ... ssland-cc1

and it's in the "discount collection" at ghgbs.com. I got the CC1 from SCG many years ago, SCG appeared to be their primary distributor. Seems that's no longer the case.

All depends on your idea of fun. I quite enjoy the manual process - the temperature surfing, controlling flow via my dimmer modification, etc. Really learning the quirks of my machine, and then working with those quirks to produce enjoyable shots of espresso. For other folks, fun is programming shot parameters via computer.

If you're into the manual process, the Gaggia Classic will certainly be a fun machine for you!