The Breville that makes it to the top of those lists is not available in SA - it's a double boiler machine and very good value - but sadly not available here in SA - given it would not be exactly cheap - 2000AUD - 3500AUD https://www.breville.com/au/en/products/espresso.html
And then..... you need WIFE approval too...... Personally I never recommend that people buy full on espresso machines as presents... Bean to cup machines - yes - they are in lots of ways more functional for the "average" person - so my opinion is that she should rather buy him a Jura something or other than a Sylvia - this will never be wasted. Then he can buy his own machine if he gets into it - as time and budget allow.
How high is your tolerance for frustration? they are so difficult to use because they are not temperature stable - and many of them deliver 15 bar pressure when you want 9 because they are too cheap to have a pressure reducing mechanism. So you land up chasing your tail trying to deliver consistent.... rather save a lot more and buy a good machine - will save you pain - and much cursing after you discover how much easier it is to use a decent machine
You would be better off with one of these imho: https://www.yuppiechef.com/bialetti-coffee.htm?id=1262&name=Bialetti-Venus-Espresso-Maker Won't steam milk at all - but will deliver strong - remember the cup sizes are for espresso cups - so don't buy a 2 cup - 6 or 10 at least for 2 strong mugs - perhaps 3. Also works pretty well with pre-ground coffee.
Do it yourself - there is an active Gaggia group on the web and all the information you need is available on how to strip, clean and descale that - will save you a lot of money and time - should take no more than 2 hours for a beginner - about an hour for someone who has done a similar machine before.
Try ABB for properly decent sized UPS devices.... sinetech don't normally play with the big boys. For Reme - this is a cut and paste from the Sinetech site. Power level: from 700VA to 100KVA (or several MVA with imported systems which can be paralleled) No normal house will use 100kva....... let alone approach anything like 1 MVA
bull****!!! - you do understand that data centers with a draw of megawatts use UPS's - a house is chickenfeed in comparison = my little office 15kva UPS has enough capacity to handle a large house's maximum normal draw easily - with enough batteries to hold my office up for an hour, it's about 1000mm tall, 300mm wide and 700deep - and in the greater scheme of things it's a tiny UPS. Do not compare a little under desk UPS to a proper device.
No, it is not a functional impossibility - with a correctly sized UPS, and enough battery backup, you can run it forever. The UPS itself would not be physically huge - but the battery bank will be fairly large.
This is much less expensive than you think for a small sized one you can use for knives - couple of refractory bricks and a bit of ingenuity and an lpg bottle. Helped a mate build one so his kids could build some knives for a school project (ok - the forge was also a project for 1 of them) He got the bricks free from one of the cement kilns when they did a refresh of the liner, but they are not expensive.
True - and in any case the batteries only last a couple of years till there performace is poor - so unless you are in the business or replacing UPS every 2 years, it's worth learning how to do it - think I am on about the 4th set of batteries on mine - but the device itself is still good.
Next step is to put a PID temp controller into that machine - will make a huge improvement in temperature consistency and usability - only way I could get reasonable consistency out of my smaller machines was to put PID's in them.
Does anyone here know where I can source decorative wood grained plywood sheets at minimum size of 2.7m x 1.0m - around 15 - 18mm thick - I have a table project for my braai area, but before I start I need to find a suitable surface layer. Anyone got a source?
