When choosing a commercial coffee machine for your office, warehouse, club, or other location, there are several factors to consider before making your final decision.
Ease of Operation
When choosing a commercial coffee machine, the first thing to consider is how easy it is to use. More than 95%, if not all the people, who use it, won’t be professional baristas as well; therefore, the machine needs to be easy to use for anyone.
It is almost always better not to choose a machine that requires grinding your own beans, packing them in the portafilter, checking pressures and water temperatures, etc. This is simply because if you don’t know what you are looking for, you will most likely make a bad cup of coffee.
Frequency of Use
The first question to ask is where the machine will be and how many people will have access to it. Once you know the frequency of use, it's easier to decide on the capacity you need and prevent yourself from buying one that needs to be refilled with water or coffee every couple of cups.
For example, if this is for your office, you clearly want to choose one with a much larger capacity. But if it's for a boardroom where you hold meetings a couple of times a week for a dozen people, you can choose a smaller model.
Coffee Taste & Quality
While it's obvious, it's always best to sample a coffee made by the machine you're interested in. Several factors can influence the taste of coffee, including the effectiveness of the filters, water temperature, and how the water is stored. While the taste will also depend on the beans, water, and milk you use, you want to ensure that the machine itself doesn’t impart any flavors you dislike.
Programs & Automation
As mentioned earlier, most people who use these machines won’t be coffee-making experts, and therefore, the more settings and automation, the better. Having multiple programs on the machine makes it far easier to make the exact kind of coffee you want.
Automation, on the other hand, takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process, as you don’t need to grind beans, measure out water, or even froth and add any milk; the machine does it all for you with the touch of a button.
Drinks It Offers
In this day and age, you can get machines that offer far more than just black coffee or cappuccinos. There are plenty of machines out there that offer everything from espressos to lattes, a cafe mocha, and even chai and regular tea.
For a commercial machine, you'll want one that offers the widest variety of drink options to accommodate everyone's tastes and needs. Additionally, even if someone wants something unique and specific, like matcha, they can still get a good shot of espresso, frothy milk, etc.
Rob Wicks
Maintenance Needs & Costs
One crucial aspect that needs to be included is the machine's maintenance needs and costs. While they can do a lot, they can’t maintain and clean themselves. Therefore, you need to know how easy or difficult it is for you to do.
As for the costs, this will become a bigger factor if you need to take the machine in for servicing or if you need to replace parts, such as filters or buttons. As a salesperson, how easily and quickly can these things be done, and how much would it cost you?
Replacement Parts
Building on the last point, there are parts of the machine that will wear out over time and may not be the cheapest to replace. Additionally, if the machine is used every day, dozens of times, parts will break or fail at some point.
Be sure you know how easily these parts can be sourced. This is particularly important if you buy a machine that isn’t very popular or isn't from the country you live in, as parts may need to be shipped and could be very expensive.
Added Features
Beyond the points listed above, also look for any additional features the machine may have that can take your coffee-making experience to the next level.
Grinder
Is a grinder included with the machine, is it built-in, or do you need to buy it separately? While grinding coffee isn’t tricky, it is time-consuming and can get annoying if you have to do it every time you want a fresh cup.
Kay Tomei
Milk Frother
A similar thing can be said about a milk frother, as many machines will come with a milk frothing arm. However, if you don’t know what you are doing, you can burn the milk. Therefore, look for a machine that does this job itself.
Energy Efficiency
Finally, to prevent your coffee machine, or multiple machines, from costing you an arm and a leg every month, investigate how energy efficient they are. Machines require a lot of power to heat water and grind beans; therefore, being able to save money on your bill is a plus.
