What is the difference between a steam & pump espresso machine?

Question by BTRUE: What is the difference between a steam & pump espresso machine?
What is the difference in how they work and they outcome? Thanks.


Best answer:

Answer by Thedude27
Steam machines heat water and use that to create the pressure to push the water through the grounds in the portafilter. Its basically a tank that is heated with an output to the group head and an output to the wand, thats it.Low end el cheapo machines are steam machines.


Pump machines use a pump to generate the pressure.


The pump design is a much better design for several reasons one is that pressure is more constant. If you think of a steam machine as the steam goes out of the tank the pressure drops. A Pump pumps at a set pressure. Also if you are just using steam, that water just off the temp it turns to steam is too hot to perfrom a proper extraction so you will get bitter expresso.



It gets much more complex in the pump machine department since there are many designs that use pumps. There are Single boiler machines, double boiler machines and HX (Heat exchanger machines). All of them (assuming they are high quality) are capable of making good espresso, but some designs are better for making mulitple drinks back to back and having stable temperatures. I wont get into an elaborate description but single boiler machines are ok if you are going to just make espresso drinks, or you are going to make one drink at a time(ie you are the only one drinking them, they dont work so well if you have 4 friends that all want milk drinks because you have to wait for the boiler to cool down after you go into steam mode). The other 2 types HX and DB can steam and pull shots at the same time and you dont have to wait between steaming and pulling the next shot.

One of the most important things that you would need to consider is a GOOD Burr grinder, its the most important (aside from fresh beans) aspect of making a good espresso more important than the machine itself. Its recommended if you are going into an entry level machine (ie a Gaggia Classic, etc something in the 2-300 range(yes that is entry level in the espresso world)) that you spend at least that much on the grinder.

I dont know what your budget is, but to make decent espresso you are probably looking at a minimum $ 500 investment with $ 1000 being more reasonable for a single boiler machine. For a mid range machine (HX or DB) and grinder you are going to end up in the $ 1500-2000 range). Unfortunately that's what it takes to make something equivalent to a good coffee shop.

If you dont want to spent that kind of money and you appreciate good coffee a cheap and great way to make much better coffee is to invest in a hot air popper (say a Poppery I or II). you can get them for $ 20-$ 30 sometimes cheaper at garage sales. And you can purchase Green Coffee Beans (much cheaper than even the cheap coffee you buy at the store) and you can roast your own beans. You can make some really fantastic coffee (it might take you a few tries to get it right but its pretty easy) that way.

I am a home roaster and also have a HX machine (Isomac) with E61 group and fairly high end burr grinder. I started trying to buy something for $ 300 to make "good espresso" but as I researched it I found there was just no way so I just bit the bullet and am extremely happy with my decision. The shots I pull are as good or better than any coffee shop around here and I can make them anytime I want.

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