It’s going to be difficult to do the Sage Dual Boiler justice, when it comes to explaining just what an amazing espresso machine this is, vs the price tag, in anywhere close to a “normal” sized product description, but I’ll do my best to keep this as cconcise as I can!
I have the Dual Boiler as my home espresso machine, by the way, so I know it very well.
Features and Benefits
• 2.5 L Water Tank
• Dual Boiler (obviously)
• Adjustable PID controller
• Temperature-controlled steam boiler
• Heated group head
• Advanced brew temperature control
• Advanced brew pressure control
• Programmable timed or volumetric shot buttons
• Manual shot button
• Auto on and off scheduling
• Digital shot timer
• Pressure gauge
• Pro steam wand on a ball joint
• Steam lever, rather than a rotary steam knob
• Dedicated hot water spout
• Huge 1.2 Litre drip tray capacity
• LED lit water level indicator
• Digital tank empty warning
• Hidden moving wheel accessible under the drip tray So when you do need to move it, to access the water tank for example, you don't scratch your worktop or gain a hernia
• Fairly Compact at just over 37cm tall, wide and deep Will fit in most kitchens or coffee corners without too much of an issue
• Internal cable tidy So any cable not required is stored inside the rear of the machine, rather than looking messy
• Dimensions 42 cm wide & 37 cm deep, 39 cm tall
The Dual Boiler has so many features that the above is actually just a snapshot, if I put them all here you'd end up reading a war and peace sized product description!
In a nutshell, the Barista Pro is a HECK of a lot of machine for the money.
Where temperature stability and overall performance is concerned, there's no other machine that comes close at the same kind of price tag, in fact most machines at a similar price are heat exchanger machines, not dual boilers.
Being a dual boiler machine, you can pull shots and steam milk at the same time, and the same is true with heat exchanger machines, but a heat exchanger is simply a pipe running through the main boiler to heat up the water, so you don't usually get precise brew temperature with heat exchanger machines.
In fact, with the Dual Boiler, there's a heat exchanger as well as dual boilers, and this is simply to help with temp stability, as it means hot water feeds the brew boiler instead of cold, to prevent thermal shock to the brew boiler which would happen if it was being fed with cold water.
This is the machine I use as my home espresso machine, and for me it's the ultimate machine for people who don't want to spend silly money, and for people who're focused mainly on performance.
There are other machines that I think are beautiful, that I'd like to have just to look at ;-), including machines like the La Marzocco Linea Mini, the newer Linea Micra, and the Eagle one Prima.
These are all stunning machines and will all produce amazing cup quality, but just the fact that I'm mentioning the Dual Boiler in the same sentence as these other machines which cost roughly three to four times the price just shows you what an amazing machine the Dual Boiler is for the price tag!
The only thing to keep in mind about the Dual Boiler, is that it's really made to either be used with decent under-counter filtration or reverse osmosis systems, or to be used with bottled (low calcium, low Magnezium) water.
This is because these machines use a pro water circuit, as a result, regular descaling (which you'll have to do anywhere from monthly to every few months depending on your water hardness, if you're using tap water unless you're very lucky to live in a soft water area) can be problematic.
It's not a huge deal, it's just that you need to drain the boilers, and this can lead to issues which can be a bit of a faff to resolve. So if you're not comfortable breaking out the tool kit, you may well need to find an espresso machine engineer.
Even if you are going to use filtered or bottled soft water (low in Calcium and Magnesium), I’d still recommend that you find an engineer, anyway, if you’re someone who wants to use a machine like this but who doesn’t want to be taking the lid off.
If you can find an engineer to give it a yearly service for you (including a descale), from the first year onwards, your Sage Dual Boiler should last you a LONG time.