Arkel Coast Espresso Machine Review

In the city of Porto in sunny Portugal, the Arkel brand is producing some of the most luxurious prosumer espresso machines I’ve ever seen. The brainchild of Fernando Moreira, formerly of Portuguese manufacturer Briel, Arkel’s debut machines, the Coast and Tide, are dual boiler espresso machines that lean heavily into their identity as European products made by a European company.

The topic of this review, the Arkel Coast, shakes things up with a manual needle valve that regulates pressure between the pump and the boiler for precise control over extractions. If you’ve been looking for an alternative to an E61 group machine, definitely keep reading, there’s a lot to love about the Coast (and the Tide).

The Design and Controls

Visually, the Coast is pretty similar to most non-E61 dual boiler machines with a cube shaped design with the brew boiler located directly above the brew group and concealed by the frame.

At 14.9” wide, it’s not the biggest or smallest machine we’ve seen and with a height of 16” you’ll want to double check to make sure clearance isn’t an issue. On the other hand, the Coast has a massive workspace that can fit scales and large cups and is illuminated by lights that are embedded in the hood of the machine above the tray. In the back half of the machine are the pump, steam boiler, and water reservoir.

All controls apart from the power switches are consolidated on the panel above the brew group. In the center of the display are your buttons for brewing and dispensing hot water. There are four in total and from top to bottom: two programmable shot buttons, a continuous shot button, and a hot water button.

On the left side are the standard + and - buttons you expect for a PID, but the Coast (and Tide) also have a dedicated button to access the programming menu, eliminating the need for special button presses or combinations. Brew boiler temperature can be changed in one degree increments by pressing + or -.

When accessing the functions menu via its dedicated button, you actually need to press + in order to start navigating the menu, as - will exit while the first menu option (pre-infusion) is selected. However, once you’ve navigated past the first menu option, the - button can be used to navigate back down. To make selections, you simply press the menu button when your desired function is on the screen. The full list of PID menu options include:

• Your Total Shot Counter
• Enabling (and programming) / Disabling Pre-Infusion
• Enabling / Disabling Eco Mode
• Starting a Backflush Cycle
• Starting a Descaling Cycle

Overall, Arkel has equipped the machine with a very useful set of automated features with the only one I really miss being an on/off timer. That said, both the Coast and Tide can be ready to brew in under 15 minutes (12 for the Coast and 9 for the Tide) so it really isn’t that big of a deal.

The Glass Panel

One of the Coast’s most distinctive features is its steel backed, glass front panels. Coupled with capacitive LED buttons, the machine has a glossy modern look with a very premium tactile experience. I’m particularly fond of how the white housing looks with this material choice as there’s a bit more contrast with the wood portafilter and the inclusion of stainless steel valves on either side of the machine.

The use of glass is such a unique design choice that I’ve only seen it on one other machine on the market, being the Gaggia Accademia which is similarly housed entirely in steel with black glass on its front panel as well.

Made in Portugal

Easily one of the most unique features of the Arkel Coast is that it’s made in Portugal. Prior to us carrying the Arkel brand, the only other machines in our catalog that were made there were select models from the Swiss super-automatic espresso machine manufacturer, JURA. What makes Arkel unique is that machines are fully designed by a Portuguese team and made in Portugal. On top of that, over 95% of the machine uses parts that are either made by Arkel in Portugal or sourced through manufacturers in the EU.

The Brew Group

Arkel refers to the brew group in the Coast as “saturated” but for the purposes of comparing it to other similar machines in our catalog, I find a more apt description is a “ring” group. What this means is that the brew boiler is mounted directly to the brew group. This design is shared with nearly all non-E61 dual boiler machines with the Gaggia Classic GT and Profitec MOVE being two popular examples. The benefit of this design is that the group is heated by the boiler and it helps to minimize heat loss while brewing. Like the aforementioned machines and many others, the Arkel Coast and Tide machines are equipped with 3 Way Solenoid valves to discharge waste water into the drip tray for a nice dry puck.

Where Arkel shakes things up with this design is that the brew group is actively heated with a 150W heating element. The result is a best-of-both-worlds scenario because the machine heats quickly along with the portafilter. On the topic of portafilters, the group is also compatible with E61 portafilters, opening up a wide variety of options aesthetically.

What’s in the Box

On the topic of parts from the EU, Arkel includes a number of high quality accessories with the Coast, including: 1x Wood Handle Stainless Steel Portafilter, 1x Wood Handle Stainless Steel Tamper, 1x IMS Single-Shot Basket, 1x IMS Double Shot Basket, 1x Cleaning Brush, and several cleaning accessories including a Brita water filter.

While Arkel includes a Brita water filter with the machine, we recommend a water filtration solution from BWT. While not included with the machine, bottomless portafilters from Arkel are available and sold separately.

The Boilers

Inside the Coast, brewing and steaming are handled by a pair of vertically mounted, stainless steel boilers. Both boilers are insulated, and Arkel also included drains on both of them so they can be emptied when being placed in storage or transported.

Something else that's very nicely done on the Coast is that the machine has two pumps, one for each boiler. The primary benefit of two pumps is that when brewing and steaming simultaneously, if the steam boiler needs to be refilled its own dedicated pump will run to refill it without disrupting brew pressure.

The dual pump design is also featured on machines like the Gaggia Classic GT and the Rancilio Silvia Pro X.

Brewing on the Coast

Being a non-e61 machine, the Coast uses a suite of three dedicated brew buttons as opposed to a lever. There are single and double shot buttons that can be programmed by time, and a manual button for press-to-start, press-to-stop operation.

To program the single and double buttons, you simply press and hold the button for six seconds, the navigation buttons next to the display will blink to indicate you’ve held for long enough. Shots are programmed by time and you’ll want to reprogram as needed for different coffees, or as a coffee ages.

In addition to programming shot timing, you can also enable pre-infusion for the single and double shot buttons. To brew with pre-infusion, it must first be enabled in the settings menu. When switching it on, you’ll set both an active wetting phase (confirmed by pressing the first shot button) and then a passive soak phase (confirmed by pressing the second button). It’s worth noting that pre-infusion is set for both brew buttons, so both will use the same programmed setting. It's also worth nothing that the continuous button does not utilize your programmed pre-infusion.

If you disable pre-infusion, you will need to program it again. Something else to note is that the solenoid valve closes after the active phase so you cannot use line pressure pre-infusion in the passive phase on the Tide.

Performance

In terms of temperature stability, the Coast was very stable and consistently produced brew temperatures that were very close to our set temperature of 93° C or 199.4° F. For the time being, the Arkel Coast and Tide can only be set in Celsius so that's something you'll need to get used to if you've only ever used Fahrenheit. Regardless of units, the temperature we observed was very stable and the Coast is a great choice for anyone looking to brew at specific temperatures for specialty coffee.

The Needle Valve

One of the marquis features of the Coast is its stainless steel needle valve which is located in line between the pump and the boiler. The valve allows you to increase or decrease the pressure of water flowing into the boiler. Our testing found a range between 9 bar (fully open) and 1.5 bar (fully closed) when using the machine in its stock configuration. I say stock configuration because the Coast is also fitted with an OPV located in the back of the machine next to the water reservoir, allowing you to make further changes to brew pressure on top of what the valve permits.

Looking at a feature like this, the first comparison that comes to mind is a flow control device on an E61 group machine. The key difference with the Coast is that the valve is actually controlling pressure much earlier in the water line, reducing the incoming pressure of water going into the boiler rather than the water flowing through the group. I found that the valve was very responsive, with the pressure gauge reacting quickly and in real-time with the precision to make.

If you do modify brew pressure with the OPV, it’s a good idea to use a backflush disc and make note of the minimum and maximum pressure the valve permits so you know the ranges you’re working with. Personally, I feel that the needle valve does a good enough job, so changing pressure with the OPV, while nice, is less necessary to adjust as a result.

Vs. Flow Control

There's obviously no avoiding the comparison of the Coast's needle valve to the monolith that is the E61 flow control device. Having used both, I can say that the needle valve on the Coast is a pretty strong alternative.

Personally, I prefer the size and feel of the valve on the Coast as it's comfortable to use and isn't hot to the touch. There's also a reduced chance of scaling in the needle valve as the water that passes through it is cold rather than hot like the flow control device.

That said, the E61 flow control device does allow you to completely stop the flow of water if desired, and is more responsive than making an adjustment via the gear pump in the Arkel Tide (due to the delay in pressure from the change in pump speed). Another win for the E61 device is that it doesn't interact with hot water dispensing the way the needle valve and potentiometer do with Arkel, so if you're a fan of Americanos like I am, it's just one less thing to think about when it comes to using your equipment.

Coast vs. the Tide

I can’t talk about the Arkel Coast without mentioning its sibling, the Tide. Fortunately these machines are actually quite similar to each other, so it’s not a lengthy comparison. The Tide is more or less a plumbable version of the Coast with the ability to regulate brew pressure via a gear pump with variable speed as opposed to a needle valve.

Tide’s main differentiating feature is that it can be plumbed into a water supply and is equipped with a gear pump in order to do so. The gear pump is a bit bigger than the vibration pump, so the boilers have been shortened to allow it to fit.

Comparison Chart

Otherwise the Tide features all of the same interface and programming options with the gear pump being controlled by a potentiometer to vary brew pressure as opposed to a needle valve.

The Gear Pump

The Tide’s gear pump allows it to be plumbed directly into a water line. On top of that, the Tide replaces the Coast's needle valve with a potentiometer that controls the speed of the pump which controls brew pressure.

It works similarly to the Coast, but I found that because the pump pressure is fixed on the Coast vs the Tide, when making adjustments via the needle valve vs the potentiometer, the pressure changes on the Coast happen much more immediately as the gear pump in the Tide needs time to build up or ramp back down.

Steaming on the Coast

Steaming with the Arkel Coast makes use of its 1L steam boiler and fairly large wand on the right side of the machine. This orientation is a departure from the common leftward positioning of steam wands on E61 machines and more in line with single boilers like the Gaggia Classic and Profitec GO, or non-E61 dual boilers like the Classic GT, Lelit Elizabeth, or Rancilio Silvia Pro X.

Despite being a dual boiler machine, steam temperature on the Arkel Coast is not adjustable and is instead regulated via a pressure stat. Pressure idles around 1.8 bar when the boiler is fully heated.

To dispense steam, the Coast uses an identical knob to the needle valve positioned on the opposite side of the machine. You twist the knob down to steam, but you can also press upwards for a quick jet to purge condensation.

Performance

Based on our testing, heating 142g (5oz) of refrigerator temperature milk was heated to 140° F in just 12.25 seconds on average with added water at just under 11%. Overall the Coast steams fast and dry and is perfectly capable of keeping up with back-to-back milk drinks with a recovery time of about 32 seconds on average.

Hot Water Dispensing

A unique feature of the Coast is that unlike most dual boiler machines, the hot water is pulled from the brew boiler and not the steam boiler. As a result, water is dispensed without sputtering and splashing. To accommodate this feature, the brew boiler is equipped with a fill level probe and the pump will run automatically to refill it as needed. You can program your desired amount of hot water by pressing and holding the hot water icon just like programming the brew buttons.

An interesting feature of the Coast and Tide’s designs are that the needle valve / potentiometer used to control the flow of brew water also affects the rate at which water is dispensed from the hot water spout. My preference is to dispense at max flow, so if you follow an extraction profile where pressure is ramped down at the end of your shot, make sure to reset the knob after brewing to ensure full flow for your hot water.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I’m very excited to see a new brand enter the fray, especially with such a strong first impression. The Arkel Coast is a dual boiler with strong European roots and premium build quality. The needle valve presents a compelling alternative to the E61 flow control device and the temperature stability and rapid heating of the brew boiler makes pulling consistent shots both convenient and repeatable. If you’ve been looking for a machine to break from the E61 orthodoxy, look no further than the Arkel Coast.

Photography by Grace Walker

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