RI9380/47 Classic Pro Espresso Machine,1.3liters, Cherry Red

This Gaggia Evo Pro replaced my Gaggia Classic of 15 years. The machine shows a Made in Italy production date of June 2024. This machine has 9 bars of pressure and a larger boiler than my older machine, among a large number of improvements. My grinder makes quite fine grounds which are perfect for extracting espresso on the Gaggia. Two upgrades I recommend are: changing the portafilter to a bottomless one and the steam spout to a single hole. I believe this is the best espresso machine at the price point, with the ability to add on mods to your heart’s content. Highly recommended.

The Gaggia Classic Pro is the Golden Standard for "Entry Level" espresso machines. It is well made and is quite sturdy. If you just want a coffee machine that makes decent espresso in the morning without much hassle, stay away from this machine. It's kind of a Blue Pill/Red Pill situation. Get a normal espresso maker and you will be satisfied of the result and with your life. Get a Gaggia Classic Pro, and you will find yourself buying a Coffee Scale, a New +$300 coffee grinder, a stirrer, 2 new tampers (because you will buy a 58mm tamper only to discover that you need a 58.5mmm) etc. You will find yourself deep into forums trying to figure out why you don't get any crema? why is you coffee too sour? why is it too bitter? You will start a series of modifications to the machine (opv spring, PID temp controller etc). At the end of this tunnel you will be reworded with a wonderful tasting espresso, and you will realize that most coffee shops just don't know how to make espresso. In short, if you want all your friends to hate you for becoming a coffee "Expert" and not being able to shut up critiquing the drip coffee at the gas station, buy a Gaggia Classic Pro.

Amazing little machine!

Heats up quickly and makes great Espresso. There is a learning curve to using this single, aluminum, boiler machine. You'll want to understand Temp-surfing, how to steam milk properly, and how to purge the boiler after each steam. Note that US sales models imported by Whole Latte Love will come pre-installed with 9bar OPV springs, so you don't have to purchase anything else. Go watch their YT videos so you get a grasp on what you are doing. If you intend to do a Gagguino mod, do your research on this well in advance of your purchase.

I like the way this Gaggia looks. Way better looking than all other espresso machines in this price point. But beware. You have to hack this machine. My partner has a Breville and it works perfectly every single time. This Gaggia though is a pain. I had to watch hacks to preheat (at least 30 min, most days an hour), to pre infuse, to get the machine to heat the espresso so it’s a hot enough, etc etc. I didn’t believe the people or info on the internet when they said you have to hack this machine. I thought, I’m not going to do that - it’s unnecessary. But I learned the hard way. It is absolutely necessary. Ive had horrible cappuccinos, cold cappuccinos… so now i have to spend an extra few minutes and effort every morning to get a decent cappuccino. And the hacks aren’t always effective. This machine is alive (in a sense). If you want to make the effort, ok I guess you could consider this Gaggia. But honestly I would go with a good Breville instead. Wait for a sale. You can get a Breville on sale for the price of this Gaggia. And it does leak paint chips. All the reviews on the internet are true. I’ll use it because I didn’t return it in time. But every morning I regret my purchase.

This was what I expected. I am particular about my coffee and this, being manual, allows me the control that I need in order to make the coffee the way I like it. I know there were complaints about the coffee not being hot enough. If you let it warm up long enough it is quite hot. The light goes on and you can get hot coffee until it goes out. If the light goes out stop brewing and wait for it to heat up again. If keep brewing after the light goes off it is just warm water. It's pretty simple really. It seems that the longer you wait the hotter it gets...to a point. I'm pleased; it's what I expected and seems sturdy enough. I haven't gotten the foam quite right yet but I assume that it is still user error and I will get it down with practice and have a proper pitcher to use. If you like to push a button and have everything done for you without thinking, then this is probably not the machine for you. If you like to cook and have your coffee the way YOU want it then you will be happy with this machine.

Good machine for espresso coffee. The milk steamer is quite useless, though.

This is an outstanding coffee machine but has a couple of dumb oversights. First, this is "5 stars" as far as the coffee making ability goes. Best, most flavorful espressos/americanos I've had on any machine (including Solaris, Krupp) I've ever had. So why only "3" stars? A couple of dumb oversights that are so obvious yet unfixed and part of the design by a manufacturer that, supposedly, is a well-known, long-standing Italian coffee/espresso machine manufacturer., that they need to get dinged a couple of stars. None of these oversights impacts the quality of the cup of coffee you'll drink, but just "be aware." First and foremost, as others have commented on (and equally found annoying) is the dumb design of the water reservoir. You will need to have a flashlight placed next to the machine. The reservoir is pointlessly and counterproductively, a very dark grey-brown color, which, tucked under the overhand of the bulk of the machine, means that you absolutely cannot see the water level in the reservoir. The only way to see the water level is by using a flashlight to shine into the reservoir and watch for the movement of the waterline. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! it absolutely needs to be clear!! Why isn't it?? Next, and related to the first is that the inside (or back side) of the reservoir is lower than the front (or outfacing side). That means you have to be very careful not to overfill, the front, or you'll have water running out the back. Complicating this further is that there isn't any water "line," just large letters saying "max water', which gives a bit of a wide variance as to where, exactly, is the "maximum water line." Third is the unmentioned/undetailed function of what I'm going to call the "pressure spit valve" on the left of the unit under the drip tray. There is no description or even reference to it in the instructions but after seeing water shoot out of the same place every time I shut off the coffee run, I had to assume that it was somehow related, and probably was a pressure release mechanism of some sort. Would be nice to include this in the instructions? Any cleaning or maintenance requirements? What? What? Tell me! It's a little messy, but not certainly not bad. Fourth, the "steamer" function is weak, cool, and short-lived. If you are going to make a cappuccino or otherwise need to steam milk, you'll be disappointed as the pressure doesn't last very long - maybe 2 coffee cups worth of milk in a steaming tin - and it isn't very hot. (After making 2 cups of steamed milk for hot cocoa for the kids, which initially came out reasonably hot and strong, there wasn't any steam left for my cup! ) The steam just trickled out, useless, then just stopped. Now we get to a very peculiar phenomenon because even waiting for a long period of time (10-12 minutes+) between "uses," the steamer function never regained its original strength or heat and the steam just drizzled out of the nozzle and fizzled out completely in less than a minute. This was the case all three times I used it. Assuming somewhat logically, that there is a "steam tank" that has to build up pressure and heat, it could be understandable that once this "tank" is empty, it requires a little time to build up again. Fair enough. But how long then? Longer than 15 minutes? An hour? 3 hours? But in any event by then it should come out at the same heat and pressure as the first time. But it doesn't. And annoyingly, this function also is barely mentioned in the manual, so I have no idea. Fifth, there is an extra piece - it looks like it could be another kind of steamer nozzle - but not only isn't it described anywhere in the manual, but it isn't even referenced as an included piece in the exploded diagram. So, all these annoying oversights from an allegedly "famous" specialized manufacturer of espresso machines makes one wonder if these guys drinking something else besides espresso when they designed this machine and wrote up the instructions, or is Gaggia just living on a past reputation? The machine seems well-built and solid enough, and as I've only had it for a month, I cannot attest to its durability. However, I have used Krupps and several Solaris (Swiss) machines for many years- an average life of around 8-10 years, so I have some basis of comparison in terms of design and output flavor. At the end of the day, if you are willing to put up/adapt/don't mind these annoying design flaws and shortcomings, in terms of its the basic function of making a darn good cup of espresso/Americano, this unit does its job and at the price point, is worth it.