“I was always very happy with my GCP except for the hassle of steaming milk when I wanted the occasional Latte or Cappuccino...I think the boiler is just too small for that.”
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“I was always very happy with my GCP except for the hassle of steaming milk when I wanted the occasional Latte or Cappuccino...I think the boiler is just too small for that.”
“I loved the Classic. It was my first machine but returned it during boiler gate for the Breville. Now that they’ve switched to a brass broiler, I’m seriously considering going back.”
“Why did Gaggia choose not to make the boiler in the similar way like everyone else? E.g. Rancilio. a cylinder shape boiler chamber (see the snapshot) rather than a square shaft?”
“I have the Mignon Zero and a gaggiuino and really like it. I don't do anything fancy with the mod, but it is nice to be able to have an amazing AND repeatable brew almost every time.”
“The boiler coating will start to flake after a few months! Make sure you get a chrome-plated group head and uncoated replacement. Or return it! Gaggia has screwed us all.”
“Don’t get me wrong I love my GCP with gaggimate it gives me unbelievable control over how I pull my espresso but I don’t make a lot of milk drinks. And when I do steam milk I still struggle.”
“it's that people say "Yeah this machine is great for an entry level machine" and leave out that it needs a bunch of those mods to be a decently functional machine.”
“Machine overall very solid mechanically. Heavy - thick steel - Portafilter- paint finish - top tray etc. 2. The tamper is an absolute joke. The brand should be embarrassed to even pack this.”
“i had this exact setup when i started out. paid $1000usd. i think $600-$650 is a fair price, it’s a capable combo as long as you don’t need the gaggia to make back-to-back milk drinks”
“I generally find that a lot of shots pull too quickly (15-20 seconds), even when I make the grind finer or compress the puck more when tamping. I get the typical thin, sour shot you'd hate to have.”
“When the grind is right and you get all that crema you'll also get nutty and toffee caramel flavor. Meanwhile I saved about $1600 this year using a gaggia instead of a Starbuck$”
“I just suffer through the single boiler on my gaggia when I have guests. I will say that if your machine is used back to back by multiple people you will really want a dedicated tsteam boiler.”
“Gaggia out of the box is great for Italian style espresso, but I found it lacks the control needed to properly enjoy a larger variety of espressos (eg lighter roasts).”
“I'm 2 month novice with GCP and I like it so far. All your concerns are valid when you have enough experience to tell that something is wrong, but for me every shot is almost perfect.”
“while waiting for my homemade PID to work and the spring to arrive I still haven't managed to make a single espresso that I'm satisfied with. Imagine if they just had included the 9bar spring from the start.”
“I recently bought a used Gaggia Classic (2012) in bad shape just to restored it, powder coated it and installed Gaggiuino! So I guess my hobby now will be collecting Gaggias! 🤣”
“As someone that owned a Gaggia and went to an E61 machine, the biggest advantage for me has been the ability to make back to back drinks and steam milk while brewing.”
“I highly recommend the Bambino as the quintessential beginner machine. If you decide to upgrade then you won't have lost a lot of time/money like you will with the GCP and modding required to make it functional.”
“Just know that the gaggua that you are considering is an extremely well made machine. It has some quirks that you have to learn to work around as part of your espresso process.”
“With the Gaggia, I struggle to produce anything drinkable. I would think that I would be able to at least pull palatable shots as a baseline.”
“I had a gaggia classic pro with pid and flow control mod. After 2 years or so I wanted something higher end and chose for the steel duo, mostly because of the looks.”
“today I would buy profited go(used also okay), hand grinder (could be used k6 or jx-pro), 1 IMs basket and call it a day ). But if you like tinkering - go with gcp - ez to service and cheap parts”
“I’m STILL getting debris from brew head running only water thru it (at least 45 times) as well as almost every steam wand test yielding a teeny black speck or three [like size of ground pepper] showing up in a large white mug”
“I’m very happy with my GCP (one month owner so far). I purchased it knowing I’d need to OPV mod and that a PID was strongly recommended, but I temp surf and again, I knew that going in.”