Investigating a new espresso machine. Most of the ones I am considering come in @16" tall

Preferring a pourover, more for ease of use. Having trouble figuring the best place to locate my equipment. I think some options are not do-able as my countertop to cabinet clearance is only 16". Even if a machine fits, I assume it would be a total pain to try to pull it out far enough to get to the reservoir. So I could go with a location under the cabinet 'only if' I could plumb in water supply.

All locations can feed down to a basement storage room in case I wanted to locate filters, etc out of sight, in the basement. Some areas would be difficult to do as finished granite / tile is already in place.

Best option (IMO), unfortunately, is in my laundry room where I could get the clearance needed and access to water if wanted. I would prefer to display my espresso machine (see Area4) - but if not doable, could live with it in the laundry room.

Area 1 = Replacing microwave or blender...16" clearance. Already finished, so no easy way to plumb water. No good options here.


Area 2 = Right of the sink, same issues as Area1. 16" clearance and already finished. No good options here.


Area 3 = Standalone desk area. More clearance (21") but I still don't think this would be enough to easily access a reservoir in a pourover unit. It would be an odd area to locate a machine, no good.


Area 4 = Take the spot occupied by the ToasterOven. While still only 16", should be easy enough to get to water as the ice maker line is behind the fridge (leads to basement). Could tap same line or do a new line to basement, would be well hidden. Preferred location, but machine may look silly wedged under the cabinet. Might want to do a rotary pump for quieter operation.


Area 5a = Take the spot occupied by grinder. Move overhead cabinet over to the left, giving wide open access above. Could easily do a pourover and/or plumb it in, as this spot has easy access to water lines. Drawback = a beautiful espresso machine is in hiding. Sound of a Vibra pump would not be an issue here. This is the most logical location.


Area 5b = Would need to move the grinder to a small standalone table. Not enough room on the worksurface for both the grinder and espresso machine.


Thoughts? Other Ideas?
thanks

Our granite fabricator drilled out a hole in about 5 minutes. It's not a big deal (for them).

The cabinet clearance may be a bigger issue. You need room, not just to fit the machine, but for some air to circulate above it. Otherwise you will be baking your cabinet and overheating your machine.

there is about a 2" lip on the bottom of the cabinets (if that makes sense). So if the unit is 15" high - I would have 1" of clearance at the front and back lip, but about 3" of clearance for air circulation for the majority of the top. Assume that would be good enough - but I will double check with supplier if I go that route.

monkeyboy wrote: Even if a machine fits, I assume it would be a total pain to try to pull it out far enough to get to the reservoir.

My Giotto (E61 w/ reservoir in back) sits in a corner under some cabinets. I put felt casters under the feet and it easily slides to the front of the counter when I need to fill it (which I do at least once a day.)

If you can fit a coffee bar/bench in your kitchen, it will make a world of difference. Before I upgraded my machine/grinder a couple of months ago, I agonized over cabinet clearance, counter depth, and grinder and machine measurements etc.

Then I came around to the idea of a coffee bench. This was very liberating indeed. Suddenly, overhead clearance wasn't an issue and I felt like a free man.

From your pictures, your kitchen looks pretty big. If you can find a place for a dedicated coffee bar, you'll solve a major headache.

My modest set-up includes an Oak-top kitchen cart from Ikea. It's not big, but it does the job. Here's a link:
Post a pic of your home espresso setup...

canuckcoffeeguy wrote:If you can fit a coffee bar/bench in your kitchen, it will make a world of difference.

+1. If you have the space for this, it makes life so much easier!

I just had a similar struggle. Finished counters and backsplash, comparable clearances, etc.

I ended up getting a shorter espresso machine that fills from the front, and putting my grinder just off to the side where it wasn't under the cabinets. In your scenario it would be either area 1 or 2, depending on work flow. Our sink is corner mounted and I've since moved the grinder into the area behind the sink which made my wife a lot happier.



If I had room for a cabinet, I'd have definitely put one into our kitchen. I really wanted the machine close to a sink and water though just for cleaning and whatnot.

Marshall wrote:Our granite fabricator drilled out a hole in about 5 minutes. It's not a big deal (for them).

That's good to know. I was kind of wondering about drilling granite for a water/drain as well.

It would help if you could give us an idea of your overall budget and how serious you are about espresso. These factors have significant impact on the options available to you. For example, while a GS/3 is only 14" high and the reservoir is accessed from the front, you may not want to spend that much on a machine. And if you have the money, and if you're really serious about espresso, you'll want to get one of the Titan grinders, most of which won't fit under a 16" cabinet.

All in all, it seems to me that Dave's suggestion is the best one and would accommodate just about any equipment budget and level of commitment to espresso. In the photo of Area 2, it looks like you have quite a bit of room to the right of the main counter. Would a coffee bar like Dave's fit there? I'm guessing your dining room is to the right, so the question is whether a coffee bar would take up too much of that space, maybe crowding a chair or two. Although it may be a trick of perspective, it looks like your island runs past the end of the main counter, so at least from the photo it looks like there's room for a coffee bar at the end of the main counter. I would turn it 90-degrees to minimize incursion into the dining room (i.e., you would stand in the dining room, facing the kitchen, to use the machine.

If there's room, that's where I'd put the espresso equipment. There are many advantages:

1. Unlimited height above the equipment, allowing selection of any espresso gear you want.

2. Easy location to plumb-in. You can run a line through the floor up into the bar, or if you don't want to permanently mar the floor you can drill into the side of the counter at the bottom and then into the bar (you'll want to avoid a horizontal run if you plumb in a drain.

3. The bar adds handy and always-needed cabinet space for storing all your espresso-related accessories.

4. If the dining room is really to the right, then a bar at the end of the counter will show off your beautiful espresso equipment to your dinner guests, who can watch you prepare espresso with the expert technique you have learned here .

If that solution isn't feasible, another option would be to replace one of your double cabinets with a shorter matching cabinet (possibly problematic to get an exact match for the finish, but worth investigating.) You would lose some cabinet space, of course, but would likely have enough clearance for just about any machine and grinder combination. Again, your willingness to take on the expense and hassle of this solution depend on your budget and commitment to espresso.

If neither of those suggestions works for you, here's a description of how I located and plumbed in my machine. It may give you some ideas or at least show you what you may be up against.

Your kitchen layout is similar to ours, but we have 18" of clearance to the bottom of the cabinet lips. My espresso gear is located in what you call Area1, to the right of the corner where you've drawn in your 16" marker:



The water line and drain go up through the lower cabinet in the corner, which houses a large lazy susan:



Note that this required drilling holes for the water lines not only through the floor of the cabinet but also through the shelf in the middle shown in the photo.

The water line actually goes up into the corner "appliance barn", which houses an outboard gear pump and associated electronics (another subject entirely.):



The knockbox is in the appliance barn as well, keeping it out of sight when not in use.

The output from the pump goes back down into the cabinet and, with the drain line and a bunch of power cords, up through a hole I drilled in the Corian countertop under the GS/3:



As you can see from the previous photos, there are power cords running back and forth between the appliance barn and counter top under the GS/3. Plugging the GS/3 and K10 cords into an outlet in the appliance barn instead of the outlet behind the equipment allowed me to push the GS/3 and grinder back further and minimized cord clutter on the counter top. Quiz: Going back to the photo of the area under the counter, why is there a power cord going down into the hole through which the drain line runs?

Here's a closeup of the machine and grinder (excuse the lighting -- I didn't use a flash):



As you can see, the GS/3 fits easily in the 18" space, with just enough room to double stack large latte cups on the top cup tray. With 2" less I'd have to single-stack the cups. More important, more heat would hit the bottom of the cabinet, where there's also an under-cabinet light (recently converted to an LED unit to reduce substantial heat from florescent lights.)

Note that the blocks I put under the GS/3 (Corian samples, as it turns out), raise the machine about half an inch. This allows a more favorable incline for the drain line so water and gunk don't accumulate in it. The blocks also make it easier to slide the machine around for maintenance (the OEM suction cup feet make that very difficult.) Finally, the extra room is just enough to slide my Acacia scale under the machine.

The grinder is the bigger problem. Even with 18" of clearance, my Compak K10 wouldn't fit under the cabinet with any of the hopper options. Luckily for me, I prefer to single dose and don't use a hopper. Even so, there's not enough clearance to access the open burr chamber to pour in grounds, so I ended up sliding the K10 forward when in use and sliding it back under the cabinet when not in use. The grinder's sticky suction-cup feet don't allow easy sliding, so I put the grinder on a mat cut to size from foam board (recently replaced with a mat made from thick acetate.) The mat allows me to slide the grinder forward to access the burr chamber and insert a spice jar to weight the grounds and keep them from popcorning:



When finished with the grinder, I just slide it back under the cabinet.

There's no way my K10 would fit under a cabinet with only 16" of clearance. It would have to remain forward, which would permanently lose the precious counter space in front of the grinder. In our case, that space is critical when using the left burners of the cooktop. In your case, I would bet the area to the left of the sink is important for stacking dishes, etc.

Evilsports wrote:I ended up getting a shorter espresso machine

What a sacrifice you have made!