Coffee bar upgrade!

For a couple of years now I've had the Breville Barista Express and have been scouring online for any deals to get a "prosumer" machine. I didn't have the budget for a nice dual boiler and liked the look of e61 groupheads. I make a around 1-2 milk based drinks in the morning and wanted something just a little more powerful.

I ended up going with the ECM mechanika from Whole Latte love and here are my thoughts so far:

Pros

• Rotary Pump
  • It goes to 9-bar so fast and not a lot of H-X machines at least from what I saw didn't have a rotary pump and it does feel quieter/faster
• Steam pressure
  • It's definitely a much better upgrade than my breville on steam pressure and that I can now steam + making espresso at the same time. I definitely feel like I save so much time now
• Quality
  • And of course quality. I'm not an expert by any means and my palate for coffee is maxed out at knowing the difference when a place is a second vs third wave coffee but I can tell when I make lattes now it does taste better (or I guess that's what I tell myself)

Cons

• Heatup time
  • it takes 25 minutes to heat up which is kind of egregious. I purposefully wake up 20 minutes earlier than what I was used to to just turn on the machine. It's not too bad though. I feed the cat earlier and I have more of a routine now instead of laying in bed
• Cleaning
  • I love that I can see my reflection in this. Its so nice but just to keep it that way is so hard

Go back home.