In my 2 years into this espresso hobby, I’ve been able to check out a lot of different machines including the Flair 58, Gaggia Classic Pro, Rocket Appartamento, and Lelit Bianca.
Today I’ve reviewing the Profitec Pro 700 - a German made espresso machine.
Firstly, this was sent to me by Profitec in collaboration with one of their US distributors, Whole Latte Love, so shout out to both for sending this over. Be sure to use my affiliate links in the description below to continue to help support the channel and help me get more machines to review for you guys. Second, this is not sponsored, no one is looking at this review before it goes live, and no money exchanged hands. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own as they always are in all of my review videos.
This version of the Profitec Pro 700 is modified with the flow control knob that is compatible with E61 machines.
(HEAVY) UNBOXING
So in the box you get the drip tray and a drip tray riser piece, both covered in a protective film. You also have some pieces for plumbing the machine in. Both the water line and drip tray are plummable.
You also get a blind basket, 2 portafilters (one single and one double spouted). And it would have been nice to see a bottomless portafilter included too.
ITALIAN DESIGN, GERMAN BEAUTY
Espresso machines are, as you likely very well know, of Italian descent and design. This machine is manufactured in Germany by Profitec, a sister company to ECM.
German design is historically known to be innovative, sophisticated, and generally considered high quality.
And that absolutely holds true here.
But first, let’s run through the specs.
This is a feature packed machine. It’s an e61 58mm grouphead machine featuring 2 stainless steel boilers, both of which are PID temperature controlled with this little control pad in the front.
This machine is quite large, even bigger than my Lelit Bianca, it’s about 19 inches deep, 17 inches tall, and 14 inches wide. It’s also incredibly heavy, weighing in at nearly 70lbs or nearly 32kg.
Before you ask, yes it was extremely difficult to haul up the stairs into my apartment.
The machine is filled via a water reservoir tank underneath this top lid and has a huge 101 fluid oz capacity, or about 3 liters. The drip tray has a capacity of about 32 fluid oz or just under a liter.
The steam wand on the machine is a no-burn steam wand, with a nice little rubber piece to hold onto as well. This is a dual hole tip steam wand which has been a little more challenging for me to steam with compared to what I’m used to on the Lelit Bianca, not because of the dual holes, but because of the power.
The steam here is incredibly powerful, and I crank the steam boiler up to the max temp to get the most out of it.
Materials all around on this machine are super premium feeling with lots of sturdy stainless steel used and chrome plated brass on the group and included portafilters.
DESIGN DETAILS
There are a few nice detailed parts to this machine that I particularly like, but also a few that I don’t.
Starting with what I do like, first up unlike the traditional bent steel panels you see on most machines, this one is thiccccc, has a nice soft bevel to it, and yes, referencing that infamous review, the panels have minimal warping.
I like that the top panel has this second layer to act as a cup warming tray and the top surface holes don’t overlap with the holes underneath which is great in case you happen to place a wet cup or spill some liquid over top - minimizing the chance of water making it into the internals.
The cup rail however does have some rough edges, as do some other stainless steel components, but I mention this one specifically because it sits right on top of the machine for all to see.
Because of the way this top surface is, you would have to remove all your cups from the surface to refill the machine which can be a moderate annoyance at times.
Another thing I noticed is that the top surface isn't actually flat. It’s slightly warped, which I’m not sure if that could be an issue from heat, but something I thought I’d mention anyway.
The knobs are all excellent with very minimal play to them, certainly better feeling that the knobs on both the Lelit Bianca and previously the Rocket Appartamento.
The drip tray grate does have a very tight tolerance which is both nice but also sometimes a very minor inconvenience to put back in.
The integration of the switches for the steam boiler and swapping between a plumbed in versus water tank is a nice touch as well.
The feet are solid and minimally height adjustable, so while the machine itself is about 19” in depth, you could get away with something like a 17” depth countertop although I probably wouldn’t recommend that for safety purposes.
Because of the wider footprint of the machine, I do like that the hot water valve can sit facing front nicely and doesn’t have to awkwardly scootched to the side to allow for the lever use.
What I am not a fan of and this isn’t necessarily a fault of the machine, is the flow control integration. This is an add-on for E61 groups, and it allows for flow control but I don’t like it for 1 main reason compared to the paddle on my Lelit Bianca.
For one, it’s not as nice to use. The paddle is linear while this knob is small and can rotate more than 360 degrees to open it up all the way. I’ll save more thoughts versus the Bianca for a future comparison video between the two machines.
USABILITY
Like most E61 espresso machines, you’ll follow the same steps. Dose, grind, tamp, puck screen (link in description btw), lock, pull, steam, and pour.
Where this machine differs is in the flow control and PID functionality. So let’s talk about this little screen first.
It’s a little led display with 2 buttons, a plus and a minus. The machine allows you to set the temperature of each boiler using this little display, which isn’t super intuitive.
You have to press a combination of the + and - minus to switch between modes labeled as T1 and T2 which refer to each boiler. From there you can set the temperatures of each.
You can also program in a cleaning reminder so after X number of cycles up to 200, it will give you a reminder to clean your machine.
And you can also program in an eco mode which basically turns down the temps of the boilers. From eco, it takes about 10 minutes to get back up to brewing and steaming temp.
The eco mode can also be programmed in increments of 30 minutes of when to kick in.
Now I’ve heard from people and read that when your tank is empty the display should flash “FILL” but mine didn’t and I’m not sure why.
In fact, I thought my machine was broken because the light was on but the display was off and nothing was working. Turns out, it just was out of water. So I’m not sure if that’s a common issue or maybe I didn’t turn on a setting of some kind, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
Now in terms of the flow control functionality, here are some of the stats I measured. From this resting position, aka 0% with no flow, a 25% or 90 degree turn output about 5.5g in 10 seconds.
At 50%, 24g.
At 75%, 55g.
At 100%, 75g.
At 125% 90g.
At 150%, 106g.
And at 175%, 125g.
Now it can keep opening up further and further but I don’t anticipate anyone going beyond 175%, in fact I don’t anticipate really even going beyond 100%.
For reference, at 100%, the flow on the Lelit Bianca outputs about 52g and about 14g at 25%. Equivalent to about the output on the Profitec at 75%.
Despite the large range of flow outputs on this machine, I found myself sticking to going up to about 100% at a max.
However, I’m not a huge fan of the flow control integration versus something like the Bianca’s paddle. This little knob just isn’t as smooth and is not great ergonomically to use this little ball head.
That being said, it is still fully functional.
Next let’s talk about the steam wand.
This is a 2-hole tip steam wand and the steam boiler can be programmed up to 133 degrees celsius and reaches about 1.5 bars of pressure. Which is a lot of pressure. This machine has the strongest steaming power I’ve experienced yet on any machine I have tried.
Going from the Gaggia Classic Pro to the Rocket Appartamento felt like a huge jump. Going from the Rocket to the Lelit felt like a smaller jump. And going from the Lelit to the Profitec feels like another relatively big jump.
I have found a bit of a learning curve to having this extra power because it steams so much faster. I’ve had to reduce the initial air incorporating phase pretty drastically and focus on texturing more.
If you need to steam lots of milk, you’ll have no issues with this machine, although I did have a slight annoyance with the fact that there’s barely any clearance for my larger milk pitcher.
DON’T LIKE
Now for what I don’t like about this machine, and I’m happy to say that there really isn’t too much besides what I’ve already touched on earlier.
The flow control integration, which is no fault of the machine itself.
The top surface drip tray which while has its pros is also a minor annoyance to have to refill by removing it entirely.
The rougher edges of the exposed cup rails which kind of take away from the smooth feel of the rest of the build.
And finally, poor UI on the little display. In fact I thought the machine was broken at one point when it was completely blank and nothing was working. Turns out, it just means its out of water.
IS IT WORTH IT?
This feature rich machine sits at about $3,000, and closer to $3,200 with flow control. Now this isn’t the comparison video to the Lelit Bianca, that’s for a later time.
This machine offers a lot. Dual boilers, PID on both, huge steam power, and excellent build quality. It produces great espresso with the ability to flow control and has some insane steam for making milk drinks back to back to back.
A machine like this will be an endgame tier machine for most people. It's certainly within an endgame price tag. Not looking at you Linea Mini owners.
The build quality is outstanding, the machine itself has all the features you’d likely ever want from an espresso machine.
So I’d say this machine is worth it. At this price range, you don’t have a lot of competition other than the ECM Synchronica as a sister company and product and say the Lelit Bianca - which again the comparison is for a different time.
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