Profitec DRIVE Espresso Machine

Yna excelente máquina!

This was my first espresso machine purchase. I did a decent amount of research ahead of the purchase and spent a lot of time discussing with the team at Clive to learn even more. I am really enjoying this machine and learning to make great coffee. We went for this model to have the ability to pull back-to-back shots as well as steam multiple drinks in a row. For our household this machine has been working great and we love it. I also really like that this machine has plumb options for drain and water supply. You won't be sad with this machine and how great it looks in the kitchen (not to mention the good coffee!).

Let me start this with the Clive Coffee support team has taken care of me every step of the way so far.

However, I am now having problems with my second Profitec Drive in all of 3 months. The first machine didn’t want to fill the boilers with water on the initial start up. The second had trouble with this task as well, but eventually filled and we were off to the coffee making races.

Clive quickly exchanged machine one with machine two so I would give their customer service 5 stars.

Now machine two is having trouble keeping the brew head hot, which in turn produces cold espresso. After running about 6 shots through the machine in the morning the brew head starts to warm up.

In general, I would also say that this machine is super noisy and it rattles like it’s going to fall apart.

It’s supposed to be German made, but it definitely does not seem to be.

Prior to this machine I was running a Rocket Cinquantotto which has to be repaired after 4 years of running 24/7. That repair ended up costing me $250. I plugged this machine in to see if the brew head behaved the same because it runs the same one as the Drive, and no it was hot to the touch in about 10 minutes and has stayed there continuously since.

I would probably go with a different machine if you are thinking about the Profitec Drive.

This review is for the Profitec Drive, not the Pro 700. I am pretty disappointed with Clive for aggregating the reviews. I know the Drive is the 700's spiritual successor, but Clive is doing a disservice to their customers by combining the two machines' reviews. I'll try to be fairly comprehensive since there's not a ton of reviews out there for this machine given how new it is.

The Profitec Drive is a phenomenal machine. The first thing you notice is the absolutely impeccable build quality. I'm coming from a Profitec Pro 300 so I was expecting high quality, but even I was blown away by just how well made this machine is.

There's not much to say about the E61 group. It's tried and true and looks classic. The obvious downside is long heat up times to achieve temp stability in the grouphead. I don't use the fast heating feature because I'm worried about increased wear and tear and potentially worse scaling from the increased heat. The E61 heat up time is a non issue for me because it's easy to set auto on times for every day of the week. In fact, you can set 2 auto on and off times for each day of the week.

The big new features that the Drive brings are the included flow control and the improved PID display. The flow control device is the same that Profitec sells for installation on other E61 machines. It uses the "ball" style knob that has just under 2 full rotations of movement (though 1/14 is the "standard" flow rate, anything past that isn't really useful). I think I would prefer the paddle style of other FCDs, but I don't have any major complaints about this knob. Once you get familiar with the various positions for your profiles it is easy to use. I drink almost exclusively light roast coffees, and the ability to slow down the flow has allowed me to transition from drinking mostly milk drinks to also having straight espresso in the afternoon. There is also a built in pre infusion function. You can set a time for both "active" pre infusion which kicks on the pump for however long you set it to and "passive" pre infusion where the pump is off and there's either no flow into the puck (if using a reservoir) or line pressure (if plumbed in).

The improved display is a major step up from the old seven segment display style PIDs. No more guessing what setting you're changing. My only complaint with the display and interface is that there's only two buttons so you still have to deal with the setting page timing out if you're too slow. Otherwise, the display is easy to read and the symbols used to describe the various features are clear. There's a couple of shortcuts, as well. Hold the down arrow for a few seconds to put the machine into eco mode manually (essentially turns the machine off but the main power button is still on so you can use the auto on timer), hold the up arrow to turn pre infusion on/off, and just press the up arrow to turn the steam boiler on/off.

I'm a big fan of the joystick style steam and hot water controls. Steam pressure is fantastic. With the default steam boiler temp the machine sits at about 1.7 bars of steam pressure and can easily steam multiple drinks back to back without an issue. The steam temperature can be easily adjust if you want a bit more pressure, but I don't think it's needed.

So to sum up, if you are in the market for a dual boiler, rotary pump machine with flow control and pre infusion, you absolutely can't go wrong with the Drive.

I had owned a Profitec 500 for the last year, which ended up being a real pleasure to use. It makes great espressos and cappuccinos. Thinking that I might improve on that, I wondered if the 700 could make an even better drink. Clive helped me with the decision and offered a very fair trade-in for my 500. The 700 is a very similar machine in appearance and user interface.
Significantly it has dedicated shot and steam boilers and a rotary pump. Those items do result in reaching a higher level of performance. It makes excellent and consistent espresso shots, and has wonderful steaming power. The 700 is a higher priced machine, but I can say from my experience that it has bee well worth it. I love this machine!

A few hiccups in the shipping process got sorted quick by Clive’s staff. Great machine is up and ready and some great coffee selection was sent as well.

I purchased the Profitec Pro 700 with the walnut trim in Dec. 2022. I've been using it for a little over 2 months now and this machine is excellent. Easy to set up. It's a heavy machine (approx. 77 lbs.) and the build quality feel rock solid. The dual boiler system works great but you do have to wait about 10 mins for the steam boiler to get up to operating temp while the espresso boiler is ready much faster. The steam wands have excellent power. No issues creating frothy cappuccinos or lattes. I use the water tank. It's very big and I feel that I get about 8 (10 oz.) lattes out it before needing to refill. Easy to customize and adjust boiling/steam temps. Beautiful looking machine. With this machine, the only reason you'll go to a coffee shop anymore is if you run out of beans. Highly recommended!

I made a big upgrade from my Breville Barista Express. Absolutely loving the machine. It’s very well built and feels fantastic. Clive’s customer service is a pleasure to deal with as well. Very happy with my purchase!

Every morning, I am confident I have in my hands the best double espresso in town.

I’ve had my Profitec Pro 700 for several weeks now. I have used several other machines for years and decided I wanted a machine that could give professional results. I’ve pulled shots one after another while making lattes for guests and I don’t have to wait between shots to let the machine warm up or develop pressure for steaming. As important as the machine is, the help from Clive support has been invaluable. Don’t go to Google for tips, just go to Clive and watch their blogs, videos, or send an email. They respond and give very consistent feedback.

Absolutely amazing machine. Very sleek, very consistent pulls, great steam power, the right amount of customization/settings control, etc. Build quality is exceptional as well. Would strongly recommend this machine to anyone looking for a high quality dual boiler machine that's simple, consistent, and sleek. 10/10

Unbelievable. We rarely drink coffee from shops anymore. We love this thing.

It is a great machine, very close to being a perfect machine except for a few nit-picks I have. Mostly, they are around the machines dimensions.

I wish that the front controls / brew group area was just ever so slightly more spacious. The brew group, lever, and the knobs are all rather close to one another, which at times make it feel bit tight and cluttered, and I've definitely gotten minor burns from being a bit too close (and I would say my hands are around average size). You can basically get around this by rotating the two wands away in their respective directions to get more space, but then they become a bit more awkward to work with.

On top of that, the other size complaint I would have is that the drip tray seems to fill up rather quickly, and I do not have it in a place where I could realistically run the drain port. This means I have to empty the drip tray around every three days, which just feels like more often than I had expected to need to.

Other than that, the machine is pretty much perfect. The build quality is exceptional, the finish is very handsome and fits perfectly in my space, steam wand is incredibly powerful which makes steaming a breeze, and the espresso I pull with the machine is always tasty. The machine always hits 9 bar on the nose, and I didn't need to do any special setup or calibration, it was plug-and-play.

Both my husband and I are in love with this machine. It's easy to use, drinks are wonderful and delicious. We are trying to make all espresso drinks to find new favorites. Would highly recommend this to even a newbie which is what we are..... :)

Ok so I’ve had my machine now for about 2 months. I’m very happy with it. Clive Costomer service was tip top with answering my questions about machine performance and water quality! The highlights of the machine: I upgraded from a breville so you can guess that steam performance is a massive upgrade. I love steaming milk on this machine. Plenty of power along with quick recovery times! Did approximately 30 lattes back to back and this machine didn’t even sputter! However I think of you would have 2 people running in say one steaming and one pulling shots you may have to give it a bit of a break now then. Consistency on pulling shots. Temperature runs quite stable to help with really dialing things in. General aesthetics I love the attention to detail. Quick heat up times. I have mine on a smart switch works great. Great job profitec would recommend the 700 and Clive to anyone. This machine is a great pleasure to use.

After much shopping, reading reviews and doing machine comparisons, we went with Profitec Pro 700 Duel boiler Expresso machine.
This is an easy to use, durable machine that provides quick and delicious expresso shots. Easily keeps up with any demand we've encountered and looks great doing it.
We wasted a lot of time purchasing and returning the Beville Oracle machine, which was a disappointment in both performance and customer service.
This machine is exactly what you're looking for in high end equipment

I loved this machine at first but then the problems started. First it started leaking everywhere and delivering black specks through the hot water and group head. I sent it to Clive at reasonable difficulty (From Florida across the country) and they "fixed" it though the leaking didn't stop and the particles remained. I gave up and changed the seal myself which took care of the leaking at least. Then it suddenly started tripping my 30w breaker and would not work at all. Clive hasn't been taking repairs forever now apparently due to COVID which feels confusing to be honest. In any case, they suggested a place in Florida (Jaguar Coffee) which has been really a nightmare. After calling endlessly over about four months and being continually promised a quote to fix the machine I FINALLY got a 3k+ quote. Seriously? Now Clive stopped answering my emails and Jaguar wants more than a new machine is worth. So, if you are going to buy this machine you should be careful to buy it from someone that is willing to service it (NOT CLIVE) OR at least have access to an honest, capable repair facility. I expect everyone will have some problem at some point. Currently I have to throw away a 3k machine and look for an alternative. Perhaps worth you considering before you go down the same road. . . .

We love it! Takes a little while to figure out. We recommend watching the Clive videos, very informative. We also recommend getting the other basket and tools Clive recommends!

I chose the Profitec 700 based on what the reviewers said about it’s ability to produce micro foam, as I mostly drink cafe lattes. I’ve been super pleased so far. The results are indistinguishable from my favorite espresso bar in San Francisco. Seriously, the micro foam is as good! I’m still struggling a bit with the espresso portion as I’m getting used to the lever style, but this machine _wants_ to produce excellent shots. And it usually does, despite my learning curve. As espresso machines go, this one is really solid and well designed, which was also the impression of the espresso tech who installed it for me.

Although aesthetics weren’t high in my calculations, I’ll say that the reviewers are also right that this is a gorgeous looking machine with beautiful finishing details and an air of solid craftsmanship. It makes me happy every time I walk in the kitchen.

This is my second Profitec 700 espresso machine and I LOVE it. I had to get the second one to put at our lake house! It looks beautiful on the kitchen counter, people always comment about it and I always offer to turn it on to pull them a shot of espresso, latte or Americano! Clive Coffee has amazing videos to help with anything you need and their service is amazing! You will not be disappointed in performance or quality of this machine!

the first machine arrived with a dent in the front and a bent back panel. the packaging was not damaged so I wonder if it was mailed out in this condition. I had to go through some trouble getting it repackaged and mailed back for replacement and refund. I had to call to ask again for refund. eventually the new machine arrived and Clive replaced the tamper with an inexpensive rattelware brand- this was not what the original machine package contained. the instructions were rather simplistic but not entirely easy to follow so it was challenging to get started. eventually, the machine was easy to use for making espresso and latte and easy to maintain. then, about 7 months in, it developed a leak- I had to take it apart and identify the leak (with help from an engineer friend) and turned out one of the fittings needed to be tightened (design problem or just poor quality?) and now I am back to making my lattes. would I buy it again at this price? probably not but I have it now so I'll keep using it.

This was a great choice for a dual boiler. It arrived nicely, Paul was my salesman and he was great. I have really enjoyed the machine and haven’t had any issues, it makes fantastic espresso. The steam is top notch too, lots of power and it’s super fast with a 4 hole tip.

I have been a professional Barista for about 10 years, and now work on the weekends as a Barista still. When I moved away from coffee shops and into office work, I knew I would miss the fun and joy I get from making coffee in a coffee shop. I saved up and purchased this machine and I would say it is one of the best purchases of my life. Paired with the right grinder and scale, this machine can be fine tuned for great coffee quality and quantity. I use this every morning for my personal cup/s, but I have also catered events and hosted at pop-up coffee shops in my apartment for friends.

In addition, as someone working on a tight budget, this is a great machine that is sturdy, and fairly unbreakable (within reasonable parameters). With minor problems like the Vacuum Relief Valve getting gunked up (which happens to every machine and is 10 dollars to replace), this machine has traveled a lot for events, and moving apartments multiple times. Currently, this machine is on my desk in my bedroom and works great away from the kitchen!

I will say that the steam pressure is a little less that I would like, since I'm used to commercial grade machines. The group head is sturdy and effective, and the PID has great and easy variability in boiler water temps for either boiler.

I would not recommend using the hot water dispenser for teas or hot chocolates, but that goes for all machines (metallic taste always)

I wore out a Breville XL 900 series recently and purchased the Profitec Pro 700 as an upgrade with the money I saved from stand coffee. After weeks of searching and reading reviews, and verifying Clive ships to Alaska (thank you Clive!), I decided on the Profitec.

I make shots almost 7 days a week, so stepping into the 'prosumer' class seemed like a good idea. I bought a filtration system and plumbed in water, one of the key features for me on this model was plumbed in water supply and line pressure pre-infusion. I plumbed in the drain as well.

First the good: SHINY! Chrome everywhere, and most of its spotless. I noted a slight blemish on the chrome right under the pressure relief valve vent that points at the drip tray. Not worth complaining about in my world.

Machine warms up quickly and operates exactly as intended. It's taken me some time to adjust my grinds and brew times, but I never stop refining that stuff anyway. I ended taking off the top railing and using the short legs to fit more comfortably under my cabinet in my smallish kitchen.

Now a warning:
I've never been a E61 group head user before (the Breville was a solenoid-operated valve) and through USER ERROR (not the fault of the machine) I managed to run several hundred gallons out the group head over time by not returning the brew lever fully to its 'down' position. Some labeling someplace of brew lever position might take away from the clean traditional lines of the 700, but I would hate to have something like this happen to someone who DIDN'T plumb in the drain and might have saved me from myself in this case!

Clive support was very helpful in starting diagnosis of the group head 'drip' that was operator error, even answering emails on a Saturday. 5 stars to them on that.

Sadly my mistakes also cost me a $100 filter which was exhausted by the unintended flow through the group head. To be clear again, this was my fault for not operating the brew lever correctly and having basically pre-infusion water flow happen for hours while I was at work. Thank goodness I plumbed the drain in though--I calculated about 55 gallons per 12 hours if flow was max pre-infusion rate. I'm belaboring the point in the hope of preventing others stepping up from a similar machine as I did from making my mistakes on any E61 group head which all seem to have the same brew lever valve. Make sure that thing is straight down when you're done brewing.

The last thing:
The drip tray wobbles ever so slightly when in place. With the pump running when filling a double shot glass or anything lighter, the drip tray vibrates very noisily. With anything larger (a ceramic mug) the vibration is suppressed by the mass of the cup. A better fit, some sort of dampening material, maybe a rare earth magnet would resolve. A bit of mechanic's toolbox drawer liner well away from anything hot did the job for me.

To recap: An excellent machine that makes a great beverage. A few small detail-related design improvements would have turned the corner to that 5th star for me.