With Built in Grinders
Most of the espresso machines we sell for home use require a stand alone grinder to be used in combination with the espresso machine for optimal results. However there are many espresso machines that have built in grinders, in which case all you would need to get is the espresso machine. The advantages of machines like this is that they tend to cost less since you are paying for one unit instead of two and they take up less room on the counter.
However, there are several disadvantages to machines like this including the following: the burrs in these types of machines tend to be sub par compared to stand alone grinders, the beans are stored in hoppers on the machine that gets quite hot before, during and after operation, this dries out the beans and gives them a burnt / off flavor, the burrs are exposed to heat from the machine and when beans are ground they are ground through hot burrs, which tends to burn the beans.
Since our focus is on customers that want the best quality espresso possible, we only sell a couple machines that have built in grinders as we feel that the disadvantages of this feature outweighs the advantages in most cases. The machines we do sell with them have good burrs and tend to do a good job with particle size consistency and quality so we have decided to carry these models. This page is for home espresso machines with built in grinders, but we do also have commercial espresso machines with built in grinders. Many of the commercial grade machines tend to have higher quality burrs and cooling systems to prevent the burrs from overheating and coffee is used so quickly in a commercial environment that the beans don't have a chance to heat up much if they are sitting in the hopper. For this reason, commercial grade machines with built in grinders tend to be very good in terms of grind quality.