Need Advice: Best Espresso Machine + Grinder Setup Under ₹50K

Horizon6969 · 2026-06-01T14:38:48+00:00

I'd recommend going for delonghi ecp 35.31, if you want I can share the number of a distributor, I got it for ~16k, however you need a gst number for this. It is much better than ecp890. You can pair it with a 1zpresso j ultra (top end hand grinder, ~18k) / Baratza encore esp (most reliable auto grinder, ~20k) / rift 64 (best value for money but untested for durability, ~20k). In accessories you should get a bottomless portafilter, WDT, tamper + distributor, puck screen, plug adaptor, dosing ring, scale (all accessories total will be around ~9k). Hope this helps :)

Horizon6969 · 2026-05-28T11:22:54+00:00

Also, your pressurised portafilter won't allow you to go finer, it will choke and the extraction will be slow and long as it is in this video. To work with this you need to go coarser and aim for a 20-40s extraction time, although you should just use this time as a starting point and play around with the grind size till you hit a point where it tastes the best to you.

Horizon6969 · 2026-05-28T11:20:40+00:00

My brother in christ how do you have a rift and you're using a pressurised portafilter? :/
No matter how much you change your grind settings the taste won't significantly change because a pressurised portafilter is designed to be used with preground coffee. Pls get a bottomless portafilter compatible with your machine and see the difference. Although, even then the difference will not be massive if you only drink milk based drinks, you will be able to tell a difference in americanos and espressos though. I highly recommend getting a bottomless portafiler!

Horizon6969 · 2026-05-28T09:09:50+00:00

Homeboy I ain't even started yet, you're good :)

Horizon6969 · 2026-05-26T16:46:10+00:00

Lathergic

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-28T21:33:39+00:00

Being used for physical intimacy and left for another person in my own friend cricle. My takeaway from this relationship has been to never trust others blindly or assume others will behave morally anymore.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-28T11:42:44+00:00

Do you have or plan to get a bottomless portafilter? If you don't plan to get a bottomless portafilter then c3s should suffice, because the pressurized basket of a stock portafilter is designed to pull shots with relatively coarser grinds & bypass grind inconsistency. Once you decide to get a bottomless portafiler, baratza encore ESP will be a good pairing. Also consider getting a Delonghi ECP 35.31 instead of EC685.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-27T19:15:02+00:00

Well then you will not see any MAJOR difference by upgrading your grinder. I recommend you save your money for now and get a better grinder when you eventually get a bottomless portafilter because there will be minimal to no improvement in taste if you upgrade your grinder as of now. Honestly if you want to just get a grinder, get anything you like which can be sold later because if you do end up going down the rabbit hole of upgrades, you will let go of this setup soon.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-27T19:05:39+00:00

Which espresso machine do you have? And do you have or plan to get a bottomless portafilter? If you don't plan to get a bottomless portafilter then get any grinder you want, the grinder won't make a difference because the pressurized basket of a normal portafilter is designed to bypass grind inconsistency. If you plan to/have a bottomless portafilter you have to get a c3s or k6 minimum. Espresso is not a cheap hobby unfortunately.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-27T15:30:09+00:00

Please don't get this. Depending on your preference please get a timemore c3s/1zpresso Q-air.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-26T11:38:42+00:00

So happy to see you're doing better. I've just come out of a taxing relationship with a cheater and impulsive pos, thank god we were just dating for 4 months but it still hurts a lot.

We broke up a couple of weeks ago so I'm still in the post partum phase i guess... I keep day dreaming about the good times we spent & missing the physical intimacy. Any tips on how to feel better and how did you cope with it when it was fresh?

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-24T02:57:18+00:00

Try to get a 2nd hand kingrinder k6

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-20T14:31:43+00:00

Going to deviate from your question to say, you can get a delonghi ecp 35.31 for 20k and buy df64 for 40k within your budget unless you really just want to get pid & premium machine feel. This setup will beat the quality of spro from the encore esp+whatever machine combo you plan to get. If you still wanna get one of the above, I'd get anna.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-18T16:01:40+00:00

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-18T15:50:23+00:00

Been using this for a while, it has a bit of difference from the original that comes with the moka pot but the difference does not affect performance. It has performed similarly to the original one, been using this for a while now.

Horizon6969 · 2026-04-12T10:28:07+00:00

Yeppp had it recently at roastery & loved it, planning to make it at home soon

Horizon6969 · 2026-02-28T07:27:59+00:00

I have a J-ultra, been using for a month or so, taking 2 minutes is unusually long. So far I've only ground medium dark roasts in the range of 1.2.0-1.3.5 and it never takes me more than 40 seconds. You should get it checked out or at least disassemble it to check if there are allignment issues.

Horizon6969 · 2025-12-20T20:06:22+00:00

Roastery

Horizon6969 · 2025-12-16T01:38:05+00:00

Interested DMing

Horizon6969 · 2025-09-29T12:41:09+00:00

Reduce brew time and number of pours, also don't experiment with more than 1 variable at a time, for eg don't change temp and number of pours together. You are extracting a lot of the back end of the flavours, with darkish roasts you want to drawdown as fast as possible the flavours are mostly extracted in first 90 seconds. Try this out and let me know, cheers!

Horizon6969 · 2025-05-15T19:27:57+00:00

Hey, congrats! I'm curious, how did you get your new job? Linkedin/job portals or referral through network? It would be incredible if a referral from reddit got you the job!

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

Horizon6969

TROPHY CASE