Recommended coffee machine for the staffroom?

[southdownsway]

Hi folks. I'm a school governor at a relatively new school and in our most recent staff survey somebody suggested "coffee machine for the staff room" as their suggested improvement, so we're thinking of organising it as a Christmas gift from the GB.

I'm aware there are lots of different machines out there, some more expensive than others, and ease of maintenance is important - there's no point in spending a fortune on a fancy machine if it runs out of pouches or clogs up with soggy debris every 5 minutes. Nobody will have time to maintain it.

Any recommendations for what works and what doesn't?

How many staff? The problem with fancy machines is they can take too long to make a drink, meaning most people won't get one during a break.

You can get a professional nespresso one with 2 heads and central milk frother unit for around £1200. After 1 year you pay around £200 for ongoing warranty and annual maintenance clean. But for that price you could also get 2-3 domestic nespressos from somewhere like John Lewis with frothers for £150 each. Nobody would wait and they could be spread out along the counter.
Real barista machines are £££ and probably too noisy for a staff room.

35 Staff

instead of a drinks machine, why not install a hot water tap?

Please don't get a coffee machine that uses those fucking pods.

They are an environmental disaster and only used by selfish thoughtless fuckers.

There is no place for them in schools.

Nespresso accept the pods back for recycling at their plant as they are aluminium and the coffee is extracted for compost. But generally pods are difficult to re-cycle and end up in landfill.
I assume the staff already have cafetieres and fresh ground coffee? That's my preferred coffee at home. Mini frother machines (Krupps, Nespresso) are about £50 each.

To be honest I'd probably just go for a couple of filter coffee machines.

Pods are simple but can be expensive - we pay £4.50 for 18, which last about a week for two of us.

Tassimo also take pods back for recycling.

Foil packets of ground coffee also end up in landfill.

An instant boiling water tap/boiler and a supply of good coffee and milk would be more effective than a machine you’d have to wait for.

Coffee pods are shit for the environment. The pods are expensive. Filter coffee machines are fine as is a french press. I would go for some large French presses and a nice basket of tea, coffee and biscuits etc. Filter machines take a while to use. Teachers don't have time.

It would work out really expensive to use pods etc.

We have nespresso machines at work and I wouldn’t recommend them for the workplace- queues to make your coffee, always running out of pods and they are really expensive to buy.

I’d rather have some cafetieres and decent ground coffee.

If one person suggested a coffee machine, I would be hesitant about buying one when the money could be spent on something that would be appreciated by more staff (what about the tea-drinkers?).

Perhaps come up with two or three ideas and put it to the staff to vote for their preference for the staffroom?

Filter coffee machines tend to work best in staff rooms

A hot water tap (for tea drinkers) and a double coffee filter machine (a single would be too small). The latter is only useful if someone makes the coffee just before break.

Small things like this make a huge difference to staff morale IME.

We have a hot water tap in our staffroom. It's used constantly, and is the best thing ever. Boiling water readily available, tea and coffee in a second.
Absolutely brilliant!

Definitely good for staff morale, especially after playground duties.

Filter coffee machine would be best, makes a reasonable amount in one go, not too much mess or waste. At work we swapped to cafetières and the mess is unbelievable, coffee grounds everywhere. We have a boiling so we don’t wait for a kettle to boil, otherwise the cafetières would be not much quicker than our filter machine was. Everyone wants the filter machine back but the architects who fitted out made it impossible to fit the machine in (also forgot to provide a cutlery drawer, a bin and a fridge, but did provide a dishwasher which has never been used).

A really good hot water tap is the only answer.

anything else needs maintenance in the form of ordering supplies, cleaning , getting rid of pods, filling machines etc etc etc NONE of which is going to happen in a school staff room and will only lead to resentment as the last people in find empty coffee jugs, depleted supplies and everyone else's mess to wade through.

The first rule of staff room living is realising that the lovely, funny, intelligent, well educated professionals you work with are , for the most part unhygienic kitchen slatterns and whatever the male equivalent of slatterns is. it's hard enough to get them to put an empty cup in the sink, let alone a dishwasher, and a shared coffee machine would be guaranteed to generate tears and tantrums.

We have 2 filter coffee machines and a boiling water tap (staff of around 70 I think). One of the office staff goes into the staffroom about 5-10 mins before break to put the coffee on (yes I know very lucky). Boiling water tap is great for those of us that drink tea. I agree don't buy anything that requires any level of maintenance or expensive supplies.

Another vote for hot water tap. We have two (staff of 70) and are getting a third at the other end of the school.

Staff can make real coffee in individual caffetieres (I can't spell that- you know what I mean) if they want it.

Our staff room has a filter coffee machine and a hot water tap, honestly so much better than any of those fancy coffee machines - which are almost always a complete disappointment!

My last 2 schools employed a lady who served tea, coffee and toast at break and lunch. Homemade cakes sometimes too. You just turned up with your cup and it was all ready, then she washed up after you. We paid £1 a week towards it.
I genuinely believe it boosted staff morale more than any other thing. Just the 2 min walk in the fresh air across the playground to the staffroom lifted me tbf.

My new place (academy) doesn't have a staffroom .

Instant hot water tap !!! There is one in the staff roomat the school I'm a governor of and it is used by everyone - the tea drinkers, the coffee drinkers, the chocolate drinkers and the cup a soup drinkers. It was out of order for a few days last year and it was really missed.
Don't get a machine that someone will have to clean or created a huge amount of waste.