Gaggia · Model review

Gaggia Classic Pro Review

Name: Gaggia Classic Pro E24 (RI9380) Review
Item: Gaggia Classic Pro E24 (RI9380)
Rating: 4.3
Author: Stephen V.

A 58 mm commercial portafilter and a brass boiler for less than a Breville. The catch is that it asks you to learn something.

By Stephen V., coffee enthusiastLast updated July 13, 2026How we review

The short answer

Buy the Gaggia Classic Pro if you want to actually learn espresso and keep the machine for a decade — it has a 58 mm commercial portafilter, a brass boiler and group, and a 3-way solenoid valve, which is real hardware. Skip it if you want to press a button and walk away: there's no PID and no automation.

We earn a commission if you buy through a link on this page. It costs you nothing extra and it does not change what we recommend. Full disclosure.

Our verdict, scored

4.3/5

Espresso ceiling: 4.5; 58 mm commercial basket, brass group, solenoid. With a good grinder this pulls shots that machines several tiers above it would not be embarrassed by.
Steam power: 4.0; A genuine commercial-style wand. Single boiler means you wait to switch modes.
Ease of use: 2.5; No PID, no timer, no gauge. This is the one score that is deliberately low, and it is the whole trade-off.
Build & repairability: 4.8; Brass, steel, standard parts, an enormous mod community. The highest score on this page, and the reason people keep them.
Value: 4.5; Commercial-format hardware at a mid-tier price — provided you budget for a grinder too.

These are not test results.They are our editorial judgment, formed from the manufacturer's published specs, the current price, and what owners report publicly. We have not run this machine in a lab. Here is exactly how we score.

Who it's for

There are two kinds of people buying a first real espresso machine, and they want opposite things.

One wants espresso tonight, wants the milk textured for them, and does not want a hobby. That person should buy a Breville Bambino Plus and be happy.

The other wants to understand what they're doing, wants a machine that will still be running in ten years, and is willing to be bad at it for a month. That person should buy the Gaggia Classic Pro. It is not a better machine in the abstract — it is a machine that rewards a different thing.

Gaggia is unusually honest about this. They ship it with a pressurized basket and traditional baskets, and their own manual advises you to start on the pressurized one and graduate to the traditional ones "to appreciate real barista use." That is a manufacturer telling you the machine has a learning curve. Believe them.

The generation trap: brass or aluminium?

This is the single thing most Gaggia Classic Pro reviews get wrong, and it can cost you the exact feature you're buying the machine for.

While we're here: you will read a widely-repeated story that Gaggia downgraded the Classic in 2015 to a panarello wand and restored the commercial wand with the 2019 "Pro." We could not verify that from any official Gaggia source — their own documentation only goes back to the Classic 2019. It may well be true. We just aren't going to tell you it is when we can't show you where it comes from.

Specs

Type	Semi-automatic, no grinder
Portafilter	58 mm — the commercial size, so baskets and tampers are easy to find
Boiler	Single boiler (brew + steam), lead-free brass on the current E24 generation. Earlier Evo Pro and Classic 2019 units used an aluminium boiler — Gaggia's own service manual confirms it. Check which one you're buying.
PID temperature control	No
Built-in grinder	No — you'll need a separate grinder
Milk	Manual — commercial-style stainless steam wand (a panarello attachment is also in the box)
Pump pressure	15 bar
3-way solenoid valve	Yes — dumps pressure off the puck after the shot, so the used puck comes out dry
Pre-infusion	No
Water tank	2.1 L
Power	1350 W1350 W per gaggia.com and Gaggia's service manual. Gaggia's North American site says 1425 W. We're citing the two that agree.
Dimensions	8" W x 9.5" D x 14.2" H
Weight	~18-19 lb — Gaggia's global and North American sites disagree (8.1 kg vs 19 lb), so we give the range
Warranty	1 year parts and labour (wear parts excluded)
In the box	Three baskets — 1 pressurized 'Crema perfetta' (pre-installed), 1 traditional single, 1 traditional double — plus a plastic tamper, a scoop, and a panarello frothing attachment

Specs for the Classic Pro, taken from Gaggia's own documentation — Gaggia Classic E24 official spec page

What the hardware actually buys you

Three specs on that table are doing almost all the work, and they're the reason this machine has outlived every generation of its competition.

The 58 mm portafilter

58 mm is the commercial standard. Every café machine on earth uses it. That means the entire aftermarket — precision baskets, bottomless portafilters, calibrated tampers, distribution tools — fits your machine and costs very little, because it's made in enormous volume for professionals.

Compare that to Breville's 54 mm, where the accessory market is real but smaller and pricier. It is not a difference in shot quality on day one. It is a difference in what you can do on year three.

The brass boiler and group

Brass holds heat. A thermoblock or thermocoil heats water on demand, which is fast and clever and works fine — but a lump of hot brass is more thermally stable across a shot, which is why every commercial machine is built around one. It's also why the Gaggia takes minutes to warm up while a Breville Bambino is ready in three seconds. You are trading convenience for stability, and the trade is deliberate.

The 3-way solenoid valve

Gaggia's own spec sheet lists a "3-ways solenoid valve." When the shot ends, it dumps the residual pressure out of the group instead of leaving it in the puck. In practice: the puck comes out as a dry disc you knock straight into the bin, rather than a wet slurry you have to rinse out. Machines without one are messy in a way that becomes genuinely irritating twice a day, every day.

The missing PID, honestly

The Classic Pro has no PID. Its temperature is controlled by a thermostat that switches the heating element on and off around a set point, which means the actual brew temperature depends on when in that cycle you pull your shot.

The community answer is "temperature surfing" — timing the shot against the heating light so you catch the boiler in the right part of its swing. It works. It is also a chore, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. If you want a machine that simply holds its temperature, Breville puts PID in machines that cost less than this one, and the Bambino Plus is the obvious alternative.

What you get in exchange is that the Gaggia is the most modifiable machine in home espresso. PID kits are a well-trodden path, as are OPV adjustments and bottomless portafilters. Whether "I can fix the missing feature myself" reads as a bug or a feature is genuinely a question about you, not about the machine.

The grinder question

The Classic Pro has no grinder, and this is the part of the purchase people underestimate. A commercial-format machine fed by a bad grinder makes bad espresso — the machine cannot rescue an uneven grind, and the Gaggia is less forgiving here than a Breville, because the traditional (non-pressurized) baskets you eventually want will expose every flaw.

Budget for it up front, not later. We wrote a whole page on which grinder actually suits this machine: the best grinder for the Gaggia Classic Pro. If your total budget is tight, read machine or grinder first before you spend anything — the answer surprises people.

How it compares

The two comparisons people actually agonise over:

Gaggia Classic Pro vs Breville Barista Express — the all-in-one with a built-in grinder, against the bare commercial machine. This is the real decision for most people, and it's much less close than it looks.
Gaggia Classic Pro vs Breville Bambino Plus — learn it, or let the machine do it. Two completely different philosophies at a similar price.

What we know, and how we know it

Researched, not used

What we did

Took the specs from the manufacturer's own documentation — Gaggia's Classic E24 spec page. Not from a retailer listing, and not from another blog.
Priced it from Amazon's API, with the date we checked shown next to the number. If that price is more than 48 hours old, this page stops showing a number at all rather than show you a wrong one.
Formed a verdict from those specs, the price, and what owners publicly report.

Where we hedged, and why

Gaggia's global site and its North American site disagree about this machine's wattage (1350 W vs 1425 W) and its weight (8.1 kg vs 19 lb). We cite the two sources that agree and flag the third. We also declined to repeat the popular story about the 2015 Classic being "downgraded" — no official Gaggia source we could find supports it, so we won't assert it.

What we did not do

We do not run a lab. We have not pulled thousands of shots on this machine, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We have not used this unit ourselves. Everything above is sourced research, and it is labelled as such. Where we have used a machine, we say so and show it.

How we're paid

If you buy through a link on this page, we earn a commission. It costs you nothing extra and it does not change what we recommend — we link to the better option for the buyer even when it earns us less. See how we review and our full disclosure.

What's good

58 mm commercial portafilter — the same size cafés use, so baskets, tampers and bottomless portafilters are cheap and everywhere
Brass boiler and brass group on the current E24 generation: real thermal mass, and Gaggia says so explicitly
3-way solenoid valve — Gaggia's own spec sheet confirms it. The puck comes out dry and the machine doesn't dribble
A commercial-style steam wand, not a panarello (though a panarello attachment is also in the box)
The most modifiable machine in home espresso: PID kits, OPV mods and bottomless portafilters are a whole cottage industry
Parts are available and it is genuinely repairable — which is why decade-old ones are still running

What isn't

No PID. Temperature is managed by you, with timing, and that is a real skill you have to build
No pre-infusion, no shot timer, no gauge — nothing tells you what's happening except the coffee
It ships with a pressurized basket that flatters bad grinding; the good baskets are the traditional ones you graduate to
Steaming and brewing use one boiler, so you wait between the shot and the milk
Gaggia's own sources disagree on its wattage and its weight — a small thing, but we noticed
Needs a real grinder to be worth owning, which is a hidden cost of a couple hundred dollars or more

Frequently asked questions

Does the Gaggia Classic Pro have a PID?

No. It uses a thermostat, not a PID, so brew temperature swings around a set point and you manage it by timing your shot — the technique commonly called temperature surfing. PID kits are a very common aftermarket modification, and Gaggia does sell PID on its higher Classic GT model, but the Classic Pro does not have one out of the box.

Is the Gaggia Classic Pro's boiler brass or aluminium?

It depends on the generation, and this catches people out. The current Classic E24 is specified by Gaggia as a lead-free brass boiler with an upgraded brass group. Gaggia's own service manual for the earlier Classic 2019 and Classic Evo Pro specifies an aluminium boiler. If the brass boiler matters to you, confirm you are buying an E24.

Does it have a 3-way solenoid valve?

Yes. Gaggia's own Classic E24 spec page lists a 3-way solenoid valve. It releases the pressure from the coffee puck when the shot ends, so the puck comes out as a dry disc rather than a wet mess.

What size portafilter does the Gaggia Classic Pro take?

58 mm — the commercial standard, confirmed by Gaggia as a 'professional stainless-steel filter-holder (58 mm)'. This is a real practical advantage: baskets, tampers, distribution tools and bottomless portafilters in 58 mm are made in huge volume for cafés, so they are cheap and easy to find.

Do I need to buy a separate grinder?

Yes. The Classic Pro has no built-in grinder, and it is less forgiving of a bad grind than a machine with a pressurized basket, because the traditional baskets you will eventually want expose an uneven grind immediately. Budget for a grinder as part of the purchase, not as a later upgrade.

Should I buy the Gaggia Classic Pro or the Breville Barista Express?

If you want to learn espresso and keep the machine for a long time, the Gaggia gives you commercial-format hardware and a repairable machine. If you want one box that grinds, doses and brews with the smallest learning curve, the Barista Express does that and includes a grinder. The Gaggia plus a good separate grinder will out-perform the Barista Express; the Barista Express will get you drinking espresso faster and for less total money.

Sources

Specs come from the manufacturer's own documentation. Prices come from Amazon's API. Where a claim comes from what owners report, we link the thread and say so.