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Worth getting a second hand De'Longhi for the milk steamer?

2K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Dc42 
#1 ·
Hey,

I have a hand grinder and an Aeropress and, though you can get a pretty good latte with microwave and shaking, I'm thinking there must be a way to get closer...

Is there any sense in buying a cheapish second hand De'L***hi just for the purpose of the steamer to get closer to microfoam, or would you just spend a bit more and upgrade to a Gaggia classic.... I'm a bit confused with where to start reading/ learning about using a proper espresso machine, parts, terms, maintenance etc etc...

Which would you say?

Cheers!
 
#4 ·
Yeah, thought about that before... I maybe didn't make it obvious what I was thinking, but I was getting at should I spend £40 on a used De'Longhi for the steamer or spend £120 on a classic and have espresso and a steamer as well as my Aeropress.... that is if I figure out where to start with an espresso machine ?

Cheers
 
#7 ·
Hmm... I hadn't seen that before, looks kinda interesting... I've been having a think though and it maybe makes more sense to put the money towards my first machine than get an addition to the setup I have...

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll keep an eye out for one..! :)
 
#8 ·
I don't know what kind of Delongi you were looking at but I first purchased an Icona. I took it out of the box, all excited to make my own lattes instead of buying them, made one shot, frothed (or rather more TRIED to froth) one small jug of milk, threw my hands up in despair, boxed it all up and send it back to Amazon. It was awful. You could only run the frother for 60 seconds at max and 60 seconds didn't even warm the milk. Then you had to stand there waiting for the thing to be ready to do another lot of steaming, do that, find the milk still wasn't hot and the instruction manual said not to steam one lot of milk more than twice. I had a sad, cold latte at the end of all that work. It was a total waste of time.

I appreciate you might be looking at a better machine than the Icona but I ended up with a used GC and it might not be the best machine money can buy but within one steam cycle the milk can be as hot as you'd ever want it to be and reasonably frothed for a latte even with the panerelo wand. If you get more into the machine you can also upgrade and repair your classic as long as you want to keep it. The Delongi stuff will all be in landfill inside a year or two according to most things I've read about them. The Icona was fairly well regarded on Amazon and ao. com but I can only assume that those people were making pod espressos or long blacks and were happy with that level of output? I didn't want to use pods and do milk drinks for myself often so it was no where near well rated by me. You're likely better off with whatever you're doing now than buying that for the frother and not even being able to use it to do the job you bought it for. The Classic would maybe be overkill for your purpose but at least you would know full stop it would do an adequate job of frothing your milk. I have a silvia wand for mine I hope to fit this weekend and I can't wait to start learning to really froth milk.
 
#9 ·
I don't know what kind of Delongi you were looking at but I first purchased an Icona. I took it out of the box, all excited to make my own lattes instead of buying them, made one shot, frothed (or rather more TRIED to froth) one small jug of milk, threw my hands up in despair, boxed it all up and send it back to Amazon. It was awful. You could only run the frother for 60 seconds at max and 60 seconds didn't even warm the milk. Then you had to stand there waiting for the thing to be ready to do another lot of steaming, do that, find the milk still wasn't hot and the instruction manual said not to steam one lot of milk more than twice. I had a sad, cold latte at the end of all that work. It was a total waste of time.

I appreciate you might be looking at a better machine than the Icona but I ended up with a used GC and it might not be the best machine money can buy but within one steam cycle the milk can be as hot as you'd ever want it to be and reasonably frothed for a latte even with the panerelo wand. If you get more into the machine you can also upgrade and repair your classic as long as you want to keep it. The Delongi stuff will all be in landfill inside a year or two according to most things I've read about them. The Icona was fairly well regarded on Amazon and ao. com but I can only assume that those people were making pod espressos or long blacks and were happy with that level of output? I didn't want to use pods and do milk drinks for myself often so it was no where near well rated by me. You're likely better off with whatever you're doing now than buying that for the frother and not even being able to use it to do the job you bought it for. The Classic would maybe be overkill for your purpose but at least you would know full stop it would do an adequate job of frothing your milk. I have a silvia wand for mine I hope to fit this weekend and I can't wait to start learning to really froth milk.
Yeah, I'm thinking the same as you now really.

I'm watching GCs on eBay for arround £70 w/ 2 days to go near me... Motta tamper, rancillio silvia wand, pitcher and thermometer so we'll see how that goes.. make a prayer ???

Good look with the new wand and thanks for the help!
 
#10 ·
No problem! Other thing of course is if you decide the classic is wasted, not being used or just don't want it anymore, you will have no problem selling it on again provided it's in good working order.

It's a slippery slope though! I'm now in love with my Eureka Mignon having loudly assured everyone that a cheap grinder would be fine as 'I only drink a latte or two a day', planning a weekend rebuilding my classic and doing the opv mod and fitting my Silvia wand! I also assured myself and the other half I would not fall into upgraditis as 'you don't need perfect coffee for lattes'. My North Star coffee beans are here today and I'm chasing the perfect shot like none of that other stuff was said ?.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your auction to go well. ☺
 
#13 ·
No problem! Other thing of course is if you decide the classic is wasted, not being used or just don't want it anymore, you will have no problem selling it on again provided it's in good working order.

It's a slippery slope though! I'm now in love with my Eureka Mignon having loudly assured everyone that a cheap grinder would be fine as 'I only drink a latte or two a day', planning a weekend rebuilding my classic and doing the opv mod and fitting my Silvia wand! I also assured myself and the other half I would not fall into upgraditis as 'you don't need perfect coffee for lattes'. My North Star coffee beans are here today and I'm chasing the perfect shot like none of that other stuff was said ?.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your auction to go well. ☺
Hahaha, sounds fun!! ?

Sorry, I know it's not what I started the thread about but I just use a porlex hand grinder at the minute, any problem with that for use with a portafilter (getting the grounds in it I'm meaning) and what is the opv mod quickly if you don't mind...? Do you do it to just configure the pressure then take it off the portafilter again...?

Thanks for the help man! :)
 
#17 ·
I may well have been if this was directed at me, but it was a brand new machine and my first foray into espresso machines so I read the directions cover to cover and followed them. Possibly it would have been possible to keep going even past the point the instructions said not to but with no experience I just obeyed the owners handbook. The coffee it made wasn't very good anyway so it all worked out for the best!
 
#19 ·
I used a dualit milk frother. Hotel chocolate use a similar machine for their hot chocolates. The dualit costs about £40 and has three settings. Steamed and stretched milk, microfoam and frothed cold milk. It's a bonus that it also makes great hot chocolate.
 
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