Gaggia Baby Advice

Pop'n'Fresh

Hi All,

I come here as a coffee novice with the intention of purchasing my first espresso machine. I've read many threads and come to settle on the Gaggia baby. I have found two different models within the baby range and am not 100% sure of the differences and would like some advice before taking the plunge.

Gaggia Baby Model 1 - €269
Gaggia Baby Model 2 - €298

As far as I can see the only real difference is the second machine can brew ESE pods as well as ground beans. I have no intention right now to use pods so I'm leaning towards the cheaper model. Am I missing some other 'must have' feature on one or the other machine? Does anyone have any personal experience with either machine I should take into account?

Thanks for reading the thread and any advice is very much appreciated.

Regards,
Phil

jdburkedjburke

Hi Phil

I have no personal experience with them so i can't say good or bad for them.

I don't know whereabouts you are base but would you not go into one of the stores and have a look at the Gaggia Baby.

I know watermark (www.watermark.ie) in City West Dublin are now doing the home range of coffee machines and are very helpful and will give you the run down on the different machines.
I have a Gaggia Classic are am very happy with it.
I have dealt with them and i would highly recommend them.

PPC

I have the second one, its the refresh of the Gaggia Classic basically, but it has some plastic pieces and a non variable pressure valve.
The first one has more plastic so it doesn't heat as well as the second, but it'll probably make little difference.

They're a great machine and i'm quite happy with mine.
If you do get it, you should consider changing out the steam wand for a Silvia one, its a 10 minute job once you have the parts and makes frothing milk 100 times easier.
You can find a guide for doing so on here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gaggia/

Pop'n'Fresh

Thanks all for the helpful advice.

@kenmc I'll most likely source the machine from Espressocoffeeshop.com [snipped], thanks for the heads up.

@jdburkedjburke I'm based in South Dublin but heading away for NYE weekend. I might head out to CityWest when I'm back, though a quick look at their website doesn't have the baby listed. I certainly haven't given much time to checking it out though and will follow up next week.

@PPC Thanks for the advice on the steam wand, I'd read that before and will consider replacing once the machine arrives. I'm not the dandiest with a screwdriver so I'll give the original wand a whirl first
Good to hear another positive review on Gaggia's equipment. I'm still slightly nervous splashing out on a grinder and espresso machine but am sure it'll all be worth it

Cheers,
Phil

PPC

You should be spending more money on the grinder than your espresso machine.
I managed to get my Baby Class for 110 off of eBay (Barely used) and bought my grinder from here http://www.coffeeangel.com/en/products-page/grinders/mahlkonig-vario/

They work pretty well together.

jdburkedjburke

Hi Phil

Yes you are right they have not got the home range listed but you can trust me that they are now doing the home range. By the way have a good weekend away and ENJOY.

If you go on to the web page and on the bottom right they have a link to www.gaggia.ie and you will see the range of home machines