HX E61

I personally think the more expensive HX e61 machines are weird compromises, like who wants to pay nearly 3k to temperature surf? Don’t be fooled by the PID, a good group head thermometer will show you temperature swings from 212 to 180, and the correct cooling flush won’t be a consistent amount of time.

It’s not gonna be exponentially better than what you have now though. If you’re trying to get into HX, PID, and a good grinder then something like a Lelit Mara X and a Specialita would serve you pretty well. That puts you up to $2,000 unfortunately. Other people are gonna recommend Breville products but those are all gonna be plastic and appliance grade whereas an E61 HX will be machine grade and built to last.

If you love the aesthetics of a chromed out E61 HX then that’s one thing, but temperature stability and consistency will never be in the cards. If this is an upgrade for in the cup results, going to a dual boiler is plenty worth the additional upgrade costs. A HX will be able to make a great shot. But consistency is the issue and the lack of temp consistency leads to big trouble dialing in and staying dialed.

Stay away from E61 HX machines since you don’t care about steam that much and their temperature control generally isn’t good. Or if you only need to steam occasionally, save some money with a single boiler option such as Breville Infuser or Lelit Victoria , both of which still have programmable preinfusion and PID.