How We Research

Most coffee gear sites imply a testing bench they do not have. We would rather tell you what we actually do, so you can judge how much weight to give a ranking.

What goes into a ranking

Specification comparison. Boiler type and count, portafilter diameter, burr geometry and size, temperature control method, pump type, build materials, wattage, water capacity. Specifications do not decide a ranking on their own, but they rule out machines that cannot do what a listing claims.

Owner reports at scale. We read verified-purchase reviews in volume, and we weight the ones written months or years after purchase far above the ones written in week one. Durability, service life, descaling behaviour and failure modes only show up in long-term reports, and that is where most of our reliability judgements come from.

Published expert testing. Where a machine has been properly bench-tested — temperature stability measured, grind distribution photographed, shots pulled by someone who does it for a living — we read that work and cite it rather than paraphrasing it as our own.

Availability verification. Every product is checked as live and in stock before publication, and rechecked on a schedule afterwards. Nothing is worse than a recommendation you cannot buy.

What this method cannot tell you

We have not pulled a shot on every machine we rank. That means we cannot speak to how a specific steam wand feels in the hand, or settle a close contest on shot quality alone. Where two products are genuinely too close to separate on the evidence we have, we say so rather than inventing a winner.

We also do not rank gear that is unavailable through the retailers we link to. Some excellent prosumer machines are simply not sold in places we can point you at, and their absence from a list is not a judgement on them.

Money

No brand pays for placement, and no brand sees an article before it publishes. The site earns affiliate commission on purchases made through our links, at no extra cost to you — the full terms are on our disclosure page. Commission rates vary between products, and we do not rank on rate. If we did, the cheapest item on every page would somehow never win, and you would notice.