Looking at Profitec Pro 700 and Decent espresso machines. Any others?

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
drtzali
Posts: 24
Joined: 7 years ago

#1: Post by drtzali »

A bit of background: I've been a long-time espresso aficionado, started around 15 years ago and went through a phase of buying old machines & grinders, fixing them up, and eventually upgrading to the next. I lost my machine and grinder during hurricane sandy, and took a break for a couple of years. Then I bought a la spaziale Vivaldi II, fixed it up, and used that until around a year ago, when I got too busy and didn't have the time and energy. Now I'd like to get back into things and get a new machine, but I don't feel like I want to tinker quite as much as I used to.

Two machines I've been looking at are the profitec 700, and the decent. Trying to decide if I want to go with the traditional look, beautiful aesthetic, chrome etc, or for the convenience of decent. I'm leaning towards the decent.

So I guess my two initial questions are: have there been any new standout machines over the last couple of years that I may not have heard of, that I should also consider? And if I do buy one of these two or any other machine, is it worth trying to find one used? Or should I just buy new?

I'm a low volume user, probably maximum three or four shots a day, sometimes less. Use for both straight espresso and milk-based drinks. I have a water line run and would love to plumb in a machine, but I don't have a filter/pressure regulator/softener system installed, so if it would be easier to just fill the machine reservoir with clean/mineral balanced water it wouldn't be a big deal.