Hello everyone! So it's time for me to make the next big step and buy a dual boiler espresso machine with budget limited to 1500$. There are many different options so i am going to write the ones that seems the best to me. I would love to have some feedback on the machines on this list but also some more suggestions if i am not including some big players here. Honestly, i find it difficult to decide yet so your feedback is really important to me. Thanks in advance!

NOTE: I don't intent to make any moding, fixing (exceptions are the very basics like naked portafilter etc).

1. Belleza Bellona

2. Profitec Pro 300

3. Lelit Elizabeth

4. Rancilio Silvia Pro

5. Sage/Breville Dual Boiler

I can vouch for the Silvia Pro as it's a well built/heavily constructed machine that's as simple/reliable/predictable as any machine can be. Only other consideration I had at the time was the PP 300. I personally wouldn't bother with Lelit/Breville as the bells/whistles they offer won't make up for the barely tolerable build quality and I have no interest in flow profiling, preinfusion, etc. With a capable grinder, quality coffee/water and some time/effort involved in the process fantastic espresso can be had without all of the training wheel options commonly mentioned.

Funny to read about the 'big players' not being mentioned as spending more doesn't give a better end result, just different. Really gets to a point of added features/convenience, different materials utilized, that sort of thing and definitely becomes diminishing returns.

Perhaps Crem One 1B may be considered?

Crem is a heat exchanger, i am looking for dual boilers only.

All these machines are around 1500 where i live. I enjoy lights to medium lights the most but now and then i will go to the darker side for freddo espresso or milk drink.

Dual boiler under $1500? I don't think such an animal exists. I think $1800 is the budget you need to even think about dual boilers, or any decent machine IMO. I just got through with intensive research, annyoing the daylights out of this forum so am pretty much up to current speed.

The Profitec Pro 300 is one candidate, and at this moment Whole Latte Love has an open box and a refurbished units, the refurb getting closer to your price cap. https://www.wholelattelove.com/products ... duct-specs

The second candidate that is quite popular is the Lelit Elizabeth at $1800. It seems to get good reviews and seems similar to the Profitec 300 in overall gestalt. https://clivecoffee.com/products/lelit- ... so-machine

The last of these that was previously on my short list, actually initially first was the Rancilio Silvia Pro X, also at $1800 and comes in colors when available. It's got a lot of features and at $1800 for a dual boiler I thought was competitively priced, especially with Rancilio's reputation for durablity. Inititallly I thought that this would be the one and was stalled by most stores being sold out. And then I saw a photo of its profile an noticed at how far the top part stuck out and turned me off.

FWIW while I had an $1800 budget, I threw that out the window and bought a dual boiler machine with an E61 grouphead for considerably more money, but not before researching all the dual and single boiler machine and came very close to buying a single boiler and glad I went all in with a dual boiler. But again $1800 gives you some options.

Good luck

Vindibona1 wrote:Dual boiler under $1500? I don't think such an animal exists.

The OP is in Europe and the prices are in Euros.

Jeff wrote:Of those, the Lelit Elizabeth offers significant control over preinfusion which the others don't (without mods). That can be valuable for light-roast espresso.

The Lelit Liz isn't even fractionally close to the BDBs PI setup. Just say'ing. You don't need to do Slayer mod or others. Stock it allows full control of PI power including pressure % down to 55% and manual control for as long as you want whether short or full shot. The Liz PI is just a typical short PI with a slightly different spin with how it's hybrid PI setup works with the steam, it's just maybe slightly edge up over what 98% of others do especially around its price range like Rancilios PI. Reminds me of how back in the day my old Crossland use used the initial ramp of Vibe pump for "PI" and you could set dwell time.

I didn't even use slayer mode today, playing with new beans and did a 75% "preinfusion" for but entire shot. Or if you wanted could just do that for X time, say 3, 5, 15 seconds whatever and go full flow after. People seem to always forget about that PI capability the BDB has stock. One reason why light roast are so incredible on it, I sometimes don't even use Slayer mode.

JohanR wrote:The OP is in Europe and the prices are in Euros.

Of course I missed that. Thanks for the correction. The "1500$" in the original post is what threw me off. I should know by now that many forum members are from the UK or EU, probably more than Americans.