Small town site, landlord is doing the fit out, and I am forecasting 60 to 80 drinks a day to start. I have a number in my head for machine and grinder and I am fairly sure it is wrong, mainly because I keep finding line items I had not thought about. If you have opened one, what did the equipment column really contain by the time you turned the sign around.
The pattern I see in every opening budget is that people cost the espresso machine carefully and then treat everything else as sundries. In my case the machine was under half the equipment spend once I added two grinders, water treatment, an under counter fridge, knock box and tamping station, a decent brewer for batch coffee, and the plumbing and electrical work to make the machine legal. Two grinders is not a luxury, it is the difference between serving decaf and refusing to. Budget the second grinder and the water treatment before you argue about machine brands.
I had exactly one grinder in the sheet and no water treatment line at all.
Get your water tested before you order anything. The treatment you need is completely different depending on hardness, and the machine warranty usually depends on it.
I will push back on used. At 60 to 80 drinks a day you have no redundancy, and a machine down for three days in week six is not a repair cost, it is your reputation in a town where everyone already tried you once. I paid the premium for new with a warranty and an engineer who could be on site next day, and the one time I needed it, that clause paid for the entire difference. Buy used for the fridge and the furniture, not for the thing every sale passes through.
Fair, and the middle ground is a dealer refurb with a same week service agreement. The agreement matters more than whether the box is new.
Buying used is genuinely viable but only within a narrow definition of used. A well known two group machine from a brand with a parts supply in your country, with a service history, bought from a dealer who rebuilds them, is a sensible saving. A private sale of an unknown import with no gaskets available is a trap that will cost you the saving in one call out. I bought refurbished from a dealer, got six months of warranty and a service contract, and it has been the least dramatic thing in the shop.
Budget the grinder like it is half the machine, budget water treatment like it is insurance, and get the electrical requirement in writing before you sign the lease.
@carb_clean_cal · last wk.
I skipped water treatment because the quote annoyed me, and the boiler scaled badly inside a year and a bit. The descale and the service that followed cost multiples of the filtration I refused to buy, and I lost two trading days. Whatever else you cut, do not cut the thing that protects the expensive item.
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