Six cheap upgrades that beat buying a new coffee machine
Before you spend hundreds on a new espresso machine, these inexpensive fixes will improve your coffee more. Most cost under $40 in Australia.
6 November 2026
Most people blame the machine. Usually it isn’t the machine.
If your espresso is sour, bitter or inconsistent, the cause is almost always the grind, the dose, the tamp or a dirty group head. All four are fixable for less than the price of a tank of petrol. Here’s what actually makes a difference, roughly in order of how much it changes the cup.
1. A scale with a timer
Why it matters more than anything else on this list. Espresso is a ratio: you put in a weight of coffee and pull out a weight of liquid, in a set time. Without a scale you’re guessing at all three, which is why one shot tastes great and the next tastes like grapefruit.
Weigh your dose, weigh the shot, watch the clock. A typical starting point is 18g of coffee producing about 36g of espresso in 25 to 30 seconds. Adjust the grinder until you hit it. That single habit fixes more bad coffee than any new machine will.
2. A tamper that actually fits
The plastic tamper that came in the box is almost certainly undersized. A tamper narrower than the basket leaves a ring of loose coffee around the edge, water rushes through that gap, and the shot runs fast and sour.
Check your size before buying. Breville machines use a 54mm basket. Gaggia, De’Longhi and most commercial-style machines use 58mm. Getting this wrong is the most common accessory mistake.
3. Cleaning tablets and descaler
Coffee oils go rancid. They coat the group head and the basket, and every shot you pull afterwards picks up that staleness. People live with it for years and assume their machine is just past it.
Backflush with cleaning tablets roughly weekly, and descale every two to three months — more often in hard-water areas like Adelaide and Perth. This is also the single best thing you can do for the machine’s lifespan, which matters if you ever want to resell it.
Cleaning tablets → · Descaler →
4. The right size milk jug
If your latte art never works, the jug is a likely culprit. A jug that’s too big for the amount of milk won’t let the whirlpool form, and one that’s too small overflows as the milk expands.
For a single flat white, a 350ml jug is about right. For two drinks, step up to 600ml. Fill to just below the bottom of the spout.
5. A WDT tool
A WDT tool is a handful of fine needles on a handle. You stir the dry grounds in the basket before tamping, which breaks up the clumps that come off every grinder.
It looks like fussy enthusiast nonsense. It isn’t. Clumps cause channelling, channelling causes sour shots, and this is a cheap, ten-second fix.
6. Airtight bean storage
Beans start going flat about two weeks after roasting, and faster once air gets at them. The bag’s resealable strip isn’t enough.
Buy smaller bags more often, keep them in an airtight canister out of sunlight, and don’t put them in the freezer unless you’re sealing them in portions.
If you want to diagnose rather than guess
A bottomless portafilter removes the spout so you can watch the shot come out of the basket. Even, mouse-tail stream means you’re doing it right. Spraying off to one side means channelling, which points straight back to grind, distribution or tamp.
What to spend money on, in order
- A scale, if you don’t have one.
- Cleaning supplies, always.
- A correctly sized tamper.
- A better grinder — this is where real money starts being worth it. A good grinder with a cheap machine beats a good machine with a bad grinder, every time. See grinders →
- A new machine, last.
If you’ve done all of the above and still aren’t happy, then it’s the machine. Our deals page tracks when the popular ones actually drop in price, and our guide to spotting a real deal explains how to tell a genuine discount from an inflated RRP.