Commercial coffee machines

This depends entirely on the type of commercial coffee machine! There are three major groups: bean to cup, traditional espresso, and pour over (also known as filter).

Commercial bean to cup machines are automatic, so at the press of a button, whole beans are ground up, pressed into a puck, and pressurised water is then forced through the grounds to make an espresso. Other ingredients, such as water and milk, are then added to make up the different drinks.

Traditional espresso machines are similar to bean to cup, except you do all of the work. You need to grind the coffee separately, then add it to a basket and press it to form the puck. Place this in the traditional espresso machine, and this will then force the water through to pour a shot of espresso.

Filter coffee machines, again, require the coffee beans to be ground up. The coffee is then placed in a filter paper, in the filter coffee machine, and water is slowly poured through.

You can read more about the different types of coffee machine in our definitive commercial coffee machine buying guide.

A standard espresso (and drinks with an espresso base, such as americanos, cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites) from a commercial bean to cup coffee machine would use, on average, 11g of coffee beans. As such, 1kg of coffee would make just over 90 drinks. The average office worker drinks two to three cups of coffee a day, so 1kg of coffee will serve 30 – 45 people over the course of a day.

As such, an office of 50 people can expect to consume anywhere between 5.5kg and 8.25kg of coffee beans per week when using a commercial coffee machine.

Commercial coffee machines typically cost thousands. In our range, for example, the capital cost of a commercial coffee machine starts are around £3,500, and goes up to around £14,000. When you start adding essential accessories, like milk fridges, these costs rise even higher.

This is why we usually suggest a rental model, where the weekly cost is typically a lot more manageable. It can be as low as £39 per week, or as much as £212 per week.

You can read more about approximate costs on our dedicated pricing page, or by using the cost calculators on each of our commercial coffee machine pages.

In the majority of cases, yes, but we do have some specific commercial coffee machines that operate using a water tank, rather mains plumbing. For example, the F3 Jura GIGA X can be rented or purchased with a hand fill option.

We usually recommend plumbed in machines for ease of use and convenience. If a commercial coffee machine is plumbed into the mains, you don’t need to constantly refill it with water. And due to the high volume usage nature of these machines, you would be refilling a water tank very frequently.

The standard answer we give for this is 10 years, but this is based on a lot of factors, including how well the machine has been maintained, and the level of usage it has endured. The best bet to keep a commercial coffee machine in good working is to have a comprehensive service package, which includes proactive maintenance (as well as reactive breakdown cover). We offer this as Complete Care cover.

The frequency of cleaning your commercial coffee machine depends on whether it uses fresh milk or granulated milk. A fresh milk coffee machine requires cleaning every day, as stagnant milk in the system can quickly go off and affect the quality of drinks. Commercial coffee machines that use granular milk on the other hand only require cleaning on a weekly basis. This is because the milk is stored dehydrated, and is mixed into liquid for each drink, meaning it doesn’t sit in the system long enough to go-off.

You can find coffee machine cleaning guides and videos in the resources section of our website.

The best way is to make sure the scale never builds up in the first place! All of our coffee machines are installed with a scale filter, which protects the internals of the machine from limescale build up. These generally need replacing every 12 months or so, but will keep your commercial coffee machine protected.

In the event that a scale filter isn’t equipped, most machines have a built-in descaling cycle, which needs to run using an approved descaling agent, which is usually a tablet or liquid.