Sage Bambino Plus SES500: the automatic steam wand explained

Nine milk settings before you lift a finger

Everything that makes the Plus worth considering is at the end of its steam wand. Sage lists 3 milk temperature settings and 3 texture settings: nine combinations. You fill a jug, set it under the wand and choose; temperature and texture then follow the setting, not the angle of your wrist. Our tables class this as an automatic frother, where the Bambino has a plain steam wand.

The wand also works manually. Choosing the Plus therefore closes no door: if you later want to learn to texture milk yourself, the same machine lets you.

What else changes from the Bambino

	Bambino	Bambino Plus
Steam wand	manual	automatic, or manual
Water tank	1.4 l	1.9 l
Hot water	separate function	through the steam wand
Portafilter	54 mm, aluminium	54 mm, stainless steel
Tools supplied	plastic tamper	54 mm tamper, levelling tool
Price bracket	mid-range	upper mid-range

The larger tank fits the purpose: steaming and purging the wand draw on the same water as the coffee, so a household of milk drinkers empties a tank faster than the espresso count suggests.

Everything about the coffee itself is unchanged. Heating is ThermoJet, with Sage’s heat-up figure of 3 s; PID temperature control is listed; the pump rating is 15 bar and the power 1,600 W, the upper end of a 1,300 to 1,600 W rating plate. Both basket types are in the box, dual wall for pre-ground coffee and single wall for freshly ground. We have measured none of it.

The sum to do before buying: Plus and grinder, or all-in-one?

The Plus has no grinder, and it already sits in the upper mid-range bracket. Add an espresso grinder from the entry-level bracket, a Baratza Encore ESP or a Sage Smart Grinder Pro, and compare that total with the two all-in-ones in the same bracket as the Plus alone:

• the Sage Barista Express has the grinder built in, but a manual wand;
• the Ninja Luxe Café Premier has both a built-in grinder and an automatic frother with 4 presets, the only espresso machine in our database to combine the two.

Our machine-and-grinder pairings set the options out bracket by bracket.

Who should not pay for the wand

• Mostly espresso or americano: the Bambino’s brewing figures are identical. Spend the difference on the grinder.
• Milk every day, and willing to practise: the Bambino’s manual wand will do it; the Plus spares you the practice, not the jug.
• Milk every day, done for you: the Plus, or the Ninja if you want the grinder in the same body.
• No jug and no portafilter: that is a different kind of machine. See the bean-to-cup comparison.

Two contradictions on Sage’s pages

If the machine has to slot into a particular space, check the box or measure it in a shop. No Amazon listing has been matched to this model, hence a search button. Sage’s user guide for the Bambino Plus gives a limited guarantee of two years, and the Sage range comparison shows the Plus beside the Bambino and the Barista Express.