Expresso machine recommendations please

[MuffinMclay]

Not one of those senseo pod things though.

Any to steer clear of, or are they all much of a muchness?

I've got this combi machine. It does expresso and normal filtered coffee, heats milk and froths. I use it loads, for making all sorts of different types of coffee.

Any more? Looking for one that just does expresso (don't like filter coffee - prefer cafetiere stuff). Can be poncey - it is a gift for dh who is very poncey about food and drink matters.

Sorry but it has to be Gaggia. Mine is brilliant-my new best friend actually.

I didn't want a cheap and nasty flavoured frothy thing I wanted one that delivers espresso just like you get in cafes and it really delivers.

I did loads of research I think we got the Classic, not cheap brushed metal instead of chrome as it was cheaper. Was originally going to get the Gaggia Cubika but read a few reviews saying it wasn't that robust. The Classic is really heavy and has loads of good reviews and has been brilliant, had it a year.

Think we got ours from Amazon, look around though you may get one cheaper Whittards had an offer on, make sure you buy good coffee to go in it.

Yes, that is the just the kind of thing I'm after.

yep, absolutely has to be gaggia. we have the baby version. love it.

Sorry about my awful punctuation, in a rush.

Don't buy a Gaggia Titanium - it is EXCEEDINGLY expensive and makes crap coffee.(Sorry - that should read "would you like to buy a fantastic Gaggia Titanium coffee maker")!!!!

Gaggia. Definitely. We have had really good service with ours (beantocup one). Try these people - I got mine from them and they were great. I am now trying to remember what make the previous one which died was...

Krups. That was it. Not good.

If you can afford it (£££££!) the bean to cup ones are much less likely to become dust-gatherers cos they are much less faff to use...

Well that was fairly unanimous. It has to be a good one, otherwise he won't use it and it will gather dust.

Thanks everyone.

You definately have to spend a bit of money on it. DH has a commercial grade Elektra and it's the business.