MiiCoffee Apex Espresso Machine

This is the new $500 King. With a DF64 you're out <$1k for a fantastic espresso setup.

I love the support from MiiCoffee, they included a free upgrade in mine and are shipping me another (again free). I also love that the group is 58mm and has the standard portafilter shape. Everything is compatible!

I like the PID, pressure gauge, included portafilter, and steam power.

I don't like the aesthetics of the steam knob, the drip tray, or the cup clearance with the included spouted portafilter.

I'm still giving 5 stars because the value for money is off the charts. The closest competitor, the Profitec Go, is over $1k by itself, and doesn't have the separate thermoblock for steam.

I’ve had this machine for three months now and would agree with others that a bottomless portafilter basket is nice quick upgrade. Turning the flow rate down has helped dial in a good shot. The warm up time is 5-7 minutes. I wish the steam wand came with a single, pro-wand, hole rather than the 3 hole, this would help
with pressure and control of foam. The first few times it took a while to purge the line before frothing milk. Now I consistently get 2g of water in the purge before getting steam and haven’t had issues with too much water as long as you wait for the machine to heat up first. I don’t use the auto pre-infusion and just hit the middle button for 2.5-3 sec and then wait to pull the shot.
So far this has been a nice machine for the price and will follow up with posts about longevity in the future. Thanks MiiCoffee for a very nice entry level machine to get my morning fix!

I like the looks and it WIPES the Giggia classic pro. So much functionality! The PID works great, you can steam literally 3 seconds after pulling your shot. The steaming isn't as good as my Profitec 500, but that's almost a 2 Grand machine! Need practice on steaming, haven't tried the 1 whole tip yet. As far as the pressure, the 15 bar is the maximum and what you get with a bLind basket. BUT ... when you put the espresso in, turn down the screw to lower the flow, I can easily get 7-9 bars (or any other value). So .... PID that works, no problems with high pressure, the USABLE startup time from cold (using the bottomless portafilter from Profitec) of approx 9 to 10 min, what's not to love?! My stupid pre-sales questions are always quickly answered graciously. Shipping was superfast. I suppose the final question will be the longevity. I can't say, but, for the most part it feels solid and I xn always swap out a part if necessary.

For $500, there's no machine out there that will produce a better espresso. The closest machine to the Apex would probably be the Profitec Go and it's double the price. The Miicoffee Apex is extremely good, but has three glaring issues.

The first issue is the portafilter. It sucks. It leaves no space under, making it a hassle to place even a cup under, let alone a scale. A bottomless filter from a third party is a huge upgrade on the Apex and is worth it.

The second issue is that the steamwand is lowkey garbage. It's okay that you can't steam at the same time as pulling a shot, but it takes way too long to purge all the excess water and even still puts out a whole bunch of water, ruining the milk. It doesn't produce enough pressure, so the milk doesn't froth.

The third issue is the pre-infusion. It doesn't work well, so I turn it off. It may have been better not to include it.

Very easy to use, and very quick to heat. I am still quite new so getting used to it and dialing things in. Note that the directions don't really tell you the doses for each basket. The double is around 14g by my estimation.