Oh no! Stick to the sunbeam!! It is such a good machine and having control over the final product is worth its weight in gold!

Which sunbeam did you have? The 6910 is an awesome machine, it really has power behind it and is the next best thing to an industrial machine. Although the Rancilio Silvia is another great model! Sorry I am a very keen home coffee machine pusher, and I am absolutely sold on manual. I really worry about the fully auto machines, if you need to alter some of the way the coffee is made - every different bean needs some tweaking and then as beans get more and more stale, there is more tweaking required - be it grind adjustments, shot length... then there is the worry if something goes wrong with the actual machine

I know that these details don't matter for everyone - but I have admitted I am a coffee geek so that should explain things! (Plus we did have an industrial machine plumbed at home for a bit!!) I think if you have the passion, have the grinder etc, you might as well keep challenging yourself. Just make sure you make friends with a good local roaster and buy freshly roasted beans!!!! Rio coffee in Adelaide are good for that! Or check out the Coffee Snobs/Coffee Geek forums for other suggestions.

But seriously... the next step is home roasting... it is not that hard and can be done as simply as with a popcorn machine! The flavour of freshly roasted coffee is just sublime. It was an absolutely magical discovery and a real awakening for me when my husband began roasting at home. WOW!

Oh, I could talk about this for hours... and I am not even drinking the real stuff at the moment due to the pg! Lucky me gets freshly roasted decaf though!

Hope you get your coffee production up and running again very soon...