HIBREW H10B - 51mm Espresso Machine - Temperature & Cup Volume Adjustable at will - With Intelligent Display Screen & Pressure Gauge - Stainless Steel Body

This HiBREW H10B Espresso maker is an excellent choice for beginners or as an affordable alternative to more expensive brands. I am not the type that likes to overspend on machinery and equipment if I am not sure I want to fully invest in a hobby. One would think this would mean a budget friendly machine like this would be lacking in quality. Not so, and could not be further from the truth. The build quality is superb for the price point and has a small footprint for countertops.This espresso machine allows inexperienced individuals like myself learn the espresso / cappuccino workflow with ease. I started with the pressurized 2 shot basket first with preground coffee. This still made what I thought were very decent cappuccinos which is what I primarily bought this machine for. It was easy to learn the milk frothing technique and dilute the coffee down a bit without needing creamer.The adjustable heat settings are great and allow for tweaking of different styles of coffee. A cold brew function is also possible at 25 degrees Celsius. There are no leaks, and the steam wand works great for milk frothing. The simple design of the machine keeps itself very clean as long as you purge it after every use and take care to clean it and not abuse it.I advanced later after buying a grinder for "true" espresso shots with Kona Hawaii coffee whole beans and it is simply amazing. The learning curve was not bad as it functions very similar to the preground basket, you just have to change to the bottomless basket for espresso grind and carefully tamp, and monitor the process. All the portafilters for this machine are for 51mm size and it seems only hold about 14 grams of espresso ground coffee. Any more than 14 grams will overfill it and it won't want to seal. The pressure gage is fantastic for diagnosing what grind setting and other variables for making your espresso better and learning the process.This is a fantastic value espresso maker for the money! I wanted to get into homemade espresso making to reduce the amount of overly sugary and expensive coffee drinks bought at coffee shops. If you follow the math of buying coffee at shops, this machine pays for itself after a few short months and even sooner if you buy multiple coffee drinks a day! At this price point, it allows one to enter the espresso making process at a reasonable price point with amazing quality and features. Plus, for the money, you wind up making better tasting coffee at home.Finally, the Hibrew company reaches out to you directly after purchase and seems to have great customer support! That is very rare nowadays, and is very comforting to know a company doesn't leave you high and dry after purchase! Keep it up!

First off, I am NOT a coffee beginner. I roasted my coffee for a decade, I helped to develop a very advanced espresso machine and have tried novel espresso preparation methods and techniques over the years.That said, I kind of got burnt out on it and a year ago, sold off my very expensive machine and grinder and have just been doing drip or pourover. However, I got the bug again recently just watching some reviews of cheaper machines like the Hibrew H10A and decided to grab this one seeing it has the same internals at an even lower price.I am shocked at how capable this tiny little thing is. And it is tiny. Feels like a toy. It's light, the portafilter is small and light. The steam wand is baby. It feels miniature. But it also feels solid enough. It hardly takes up any space and I think it looks pretty good! It's got the capability to do adjustable preinfusion as well as adjustable brew and steam temps (They probably aren't super accurate, but as long as it is consistent, it is a win) - It even has 'stop at volume'. The water tank is of reasonable size and comes off for refill in a snap. Essentially unheard of stuff at this price point.The machine came with a couple pressurized baskets and one single wall - which I determined can hold 15g of coffee. The supplied scoop/tamp is awful, but they all are. I have a 51mm tamper which is much better as well as a dosing funnel which makes getting the coffee in the tiny portafilter without making a big mess a whole lot easier.My workflow looks like this - I'm grinding for espresso with my very capable 1zpresso k plus hand grinder. Takes about 20 seconds to grind 15g which isn't much less than it takes this machine to heat up. I generally pull a blank shot to get things warmed up while I'm grinding. Pulling the shot itself is simply pushing a button. Love that there's a timer built in - I'm aiming for about 35 seconds total with the 10s preinfusion I've got set. My pressure gauge is off on my unit - I need to see if I can fix it as it doesn't reset to zero, but I don't really find myself looking at it anyway. Once I hit about 35g of coffee in the cup, I stop the shot. There's no 3-way solenoid valve here, so coffee continues to drip for a bit - That's part of it being very inexpensive. I then hit the steam button to have the machine warm up to my 150C setting (the hottest). This takes about 10-15 seconds, which allows me to knock the coffee puck out and give it a wipe. Once steam is ready, I purge the water from the wand into the drip tray, and then restart in my milk pitcher. Steaming 200ml takes about 1 minute. It's a bit long, but hey, tiny machine. It's got just enough power to make decent microfoam and I can pour art with it without trouble. I then purge the wand again after switching back to coffee and wipe it down. I can go from cold machine to latte in about 5 or 6 minutes, though results do benefit from the machine being on for 10 or 15 minutes before starting.All in all, with good coffee and a good grinder, the results you can achieve from this machine are pretty astounding. It costs 40x less than my last machine and I'm probably 90% of the results. Negatives are really down to the size and mass. None of the materials hold heat well, so temps will vary. The 51mm filter is a bit of a limitation, but the H10A has a 58mm portafilter if you'd like something more traditional in size for a bit more money. The steam wand is also teeny tiny, but once you get used to it, it is workable. So long as you can deal with the diminutive sizes of things here, I can highly recommend it. It's perfect to scratch the itch of wanting a latte once in awhile for me without going all in on really expensive gear, and with the current price of one at your local cafe, it pays for itself in like a week!

I purchased the H10B several days ago after reviewing YouTube videos. I'm a coffee rookie. This is my first 'expresso' machine and I love it. I have successfully used it each morning since it arrived. The instructions read easily and it is simple to use and makes an outstanding expresso and the frother adds to my morning cappuccino. First thing I noticed is that the machine comes extremely well packaged and the construction appears to be very good. I'm impressed with all of the features (PID), temperature selection for coffee and cold brew, and the ease to select the steam selection for frothing. This machine reaches temperature quite quickly both for coffee and steam. Another nice detail, the suction cups on the bottom are a nice addition and really do work quite well.Overall, I am very impressed with the quality and really look forward to having that first burst of caffeine in the morning. The H10B is well worth the money.This is a 6 week update. I REALLY REALLY enjoy this espresso coffee maker. I look forward to going through my morning ritual to make my cappuccino. The H10B makes it easy to get the right temp and the perfect taste every time. As I stated right after my first use of the machine the temp rises to 95 (my selected temp setting) quickly (<25 secs) and the steamer hits 130 in under 30 seconds after brewing as well. I received a bottomless portafilter from the manufacturer 2 weeks ago and enjoy using it for a bit of variety. Don’t laugh but those little rubber feet on the bottom of the machine really do help hold the machine in position. I’d buy this again in a heartbeat if I was just starting out. Based on what I’ve experienced with this machine I’ll definitely try one of their high end machines when the time is right (and my wife wants a gift idea from me).