Skip to main content
Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024
Ive had one of these on my 'want' list for over a year. It went on sale so I got it.
its a great machine. it does what you want it to do, it makes espresso. everything about it speaks to its quality.
before i was using a $120 machine and a $30 grinder to make my americano's every morning. This new machine, at about $800 on sale, simplifies that morning routine. Is that worth $650? Eh...
I honestly dont notice a difference in the quality of my americano. so on that single metric, no, its not worth it.
The additional $650 does make the process less messy. It looks nice. I dont have to keep my beans in a separate air-tight container now, saving space on my counter.
out of the box i had to fiddle with the grind setting a few times as it grinding so fine it would come out as a dribble, producing less than an ounce of espresso. I have it at a 22 now fwiw which produces about 1.3oz of espresso. supposedly your looking for a target of 1oz to 7 grams of grind.
a quirk i noticed is the overflow tray fills up pretty quick. I actually thought something internally was broken, but research indicates that the machine relieves pressure after a pull and sends that extra water to the tray. It does mean your filling up the tank more often and your filter will wear out quicker.
the directions say to not use filtered water..... i use filtered water from my fridge water source. not trusting some cotton looking filter in the tank to deal with fluoride, chlorine and other chemicals the government insists on sticking in tap water.
the hot water spigot is a nice feature, but i hate having to fill up the tank so i just microwave additional water as needed.
I havent used the steam wand other than to put it through the initial cleaning cycle, but im sure its top quality also.
So... do i recommend this. Yes? I dont quite have buyers remorse... but only because the $$ isnt that big of a deal. If you dont have $ to blow... no... its not worth it.
Dont get me wrong... its an awesome product... the $ point is where im iffy on the whole thing. Maybe if i was using more than just to make americano's?
In the future im probably going to engineer some line from my fridge water source to the tank so i dont have to manually fill it.
its a great machine. it does what you want it to do, it makes espresso. everything about it speaks to its quality.
before i was using a $120 machine and a $30 grinder to make my americano's every morning. This new machine, at about $800 on sale, simplifies that morning routine. Is that worth $650? Eh...
I honestly dont notice a difference in the quality of my americano. so on that single metric, no, its not worth it.
The additional $650 does make the process less messy. It looks nice. I dont have to keep my beans in a separate air-tight container now, saving space on my counter.
out of the box i had to fiddle with the grind setting a few times as it grinding so fine it would come out as a dribble, producing less than an ounce of espresso. I have it at a 22 now fwiw which produces about 1.3oz of espresso. supposedly your looking for a target of 1oz to 7 grams of grind.
a quirk i noticed is the overflow tray fills up pretty quick. I actually thought something internally was broken, but research indicates that the machine relieves pressure after a pull and sends that extra water to the tray. It does mean your filling up the tank more often and your filter will wear out quicker.
the directions say to not use filtered water..... i use filtered water from my fridge water source. not trusting some cotton looking filter in the tank to deal with fluoride, chlorine and other chemicals the government insists on sticking in tap water.
the hot water spigot is a nice feature, but i hate having to fill up the tank so i just microwave additional water as needed.
I havent used the steam wand other than to put it through the initial cleaning cycle, but im sure its top quality also.
So... do i recommend this. Yes? I dont quite have buyers remorse... but only because the $$ isnt that big of a deal. If you dont have $ to blow... no... its not worth it.
Dont get me wrong... its an awesome product... the $ point is where im iffy on the whole thing. Maybe if i was using more than just to make americano's?
In the future im probably going to engineer some line from my fridge water source to the tank so i dont have to manually fill it.
