De'Longhi 15-Bar Pump Espresso Machine with Milk Frother & Temperature Control - Compact Home Barista Coffee Maker for Espresso, Latte, Cappuccino & Iced Coffee, Easy to Clean Design

**** UPDATE AFTER 4 YEARS OF USE**** Well it's May 2020 now, and I purchased this machine back in 2016. It has now been through 2 apartment moves, and STILL works like a dream... but recently it developed an inconsistent leak. I've woken up twice now to it having leaked on the countertop overnight. Not too much, and it hasn't done it every night. But still enough to be worried I'll someday have to replace it. For $100 or so dollars though, and especially after being used almost every single day for 4 years, this machine has STILL been one of the best and most reliable things I have ever purchased in my life. I still have to get my coffee beans ground at 1 notch more corse than espresso, however I've had a trusty coffee/spice grinder that gets a perfect grind every time (and its also cheap and over 8 years old). I'm pretty sure my last move (across 3 states) was the reason it has now started to leak, and I'm sad that I will one day have to part with it... but I'm writing this review because I truly just can't recommend this product enough. I have not been paid or given anything to write this or any reviews, I just want the amazon world to know it's a great machine for the price. Happy coffee making, espresso drinkers out there! ______________________________________________________________ I never write reviews for anything I purchase on Amazon (yet I read reviews for everything I purchase), and I'm so glad I chose this machine when looking for a new espresso maker. Personally, I am really hands on with my coffee in the mornings. I am not a "push a button and go" kinda girl, so if you are looking for that, maybe look elsewhere? This machine can be a bit finicky at times. It's so easy to use, and relatively mess free. It is a bit loud, but that doesn't bother me. It works like a breeze, and produces consistently great pours with beautiful crema markings. The milk frother works wonderfully with any type of milk (I only use almond or coconut milk). Being a barista years back I learned some milks are really hard to get a nice velvety foam, and this machine does just that with almond milk! It's not latte art quality, but juuuuust close enough that it could be. Here's my advice after owning this machine for a few months now... 1. Start off with some Illy ground espresso in the can (like a previous reviewer had mentioned) so that you can have good tasting espresso while you get used to how your machine works. Tamp your espresso lightly!! Don't cram it in there or it will ruin the flow! 2. Once you get used to how the Illy grounds work with your machine, then you can move on to local coffee shop beans. The reason being that the coffee grounds have more oils in them and are ground a bit more fine so it doesn't come out in a flow, but more of a drip. I typically put my cup right where the drip comes out, and it flows evenly for a perfect crema. Ask your barista for their particular choice in espresso beans when you go to your local roaster. I prefer Peet's Coffee or Philz Coffee's Aromatic Arabic, but make sure you ask them to grind 1 step more coarse then the typical espresso grind to make it a little easier on yourself.. 3. Always wipe your machine after use. I know I can be busy at times and forget to take out the tamp and empty the used espresso out, but try to always wipe the milk frother after use, and wipe down your machine. It comes apart easily so you can really get in there. At least 3 days I do a full rinse of the machine. I know I should do it after every single use, but I have had no problems thus far. 4. Last but not least, make sure you get a ***small*** milk pitcher and tamp (I bought mine from the seller New Star Foodservice since it was priced right and well made). I know you get a 2 in 1 scoop and tamp with this machine, but look for something slightly heavy and stainless steel.

Replaced a broken MR Coffee espresso. This was only a little more $$, and it was a big step up. Easy to use, makes great coffee, and steams milk perfectly. (I often add chocolate :) )

It works well and makes some great espresso. Had a little trouble deciding just how much coffee I wanted to use with the grind I make. I have some experience frothing milk without the little shield that goes around the frother, to make it froth no matter how poorly your frothing skills are However, after the first time I removed the inner tip of for cleaning, I couldn't get it to stay in place when I went to use it in the traditional manner without the outer sheath. It would shoot off into my milk pitcher. So I leave the sheath in place now although I can't make as dry of a foam with the sheath. It's still quite good and very usable. The one drawback this machine has is that It doesn't automatically turn off after a one or two shot pour. You have to manually turn it from the steam/coffee position to the "on" position when you want to stop delivering the coffee, and then it runs a little afterward and often continues to drip. So I time it. With the grind I use for a "normale" I use 14-grams of coffee and as soon as it starts dripping, I'll run it for 20-seconds and then turn it off. As soon as the stream turns into a drip, I'll pull it away and let the drops fall to the drip tray. That yields a double shot known as a "normale". The drip tray holds a lot and has this little red float that will poke through the top of the tray when it's getting full, so you see it and empty it before it overflows. I empty it every time I use it myself. I like this machine a lot. You can get better ones of course, but most of those start around $400 to $500 and go up over $5,000.

** I have to clarify that this does not happen often, in fact this is the second time in my years at Amazon that this has happened to me.** ** The facts: The machine is used, it arrived without the protective plastic on the steel surfaces, the group head was dirty, had coffee residue, and had scratches on the steel surfaces, cup base, and plastic parts. The cup warmer does not work. ** My opinion (ignoring the situation): The machine has a nice, neat and clean appearance, they take very good care of the finishes, I think the materials used are of good quality. Personally, I think the silver version is the nicest of the 3 available. The base where the cup is placed is removable to allow the use of a larger cup or a medium sized glass. It should be noted that the space of the cup seems to be designed for the sizes of commercially used coffee cups and glasses, that is, if you want to use any cup, you will find that the space is insufficient, it is even difficult to place a scale under the cup, this is because the space is designed for a commercial cup, and the cups that are sold for coffee usually respect a certain standard in their size and capacity. 3 filters are included, for 1 and 2 cups, and for pods, the filters are pressurized, so it is advisable to carefully select the coffee to be used, as well as the ground coffee, to obtain good results. On this point, my personal recommendation would be to change the filter holder for a non-pressurized one, this will force us to change the filters as well, but the results will be better. I leave you an example, but there are many brands, choose the one that best suits your preferences: https://www.amazon.com/portafilter-Delonghi-bottomless-Stainless-Replacement/dp/B09W5QY63R It comes with a plastic spoon that is also a tamper, we can say that it fulfills its function, but the ideal is to acquire a tamper that is a little more professional, in fact there are very complete kits, but that is another story. I leave you an example, but there are many brands, choose the one that best suits your preferences: https://www.amazon.com/Espresso-Tamping-Station-Distributor-Cleaning/dp/B0CCCY8MVQ The steam nozzle seemed a little short to me, but it could be because I am used to big machines, I saw on YouTube that it can be replaced with a longer one, perhaps this could be an improvement for those who make intensive use of the steam nozzle. Cleaning the machine can be complicated, and this is true for all espresso machines, whether home or professional. For home use, it is essential to clean the machine after each brewing cycle to avoid damaging the machine and to prevent coffee residues from accumulating in the group head or milk in the steam nozzle. To make the cleaning a little easier, the ideal is to attach a filter to prevent the group head from filling with coffee residues. I leave you one as an example: https://www.amazon.com/Normcore-Screen-Espresso-Portafilter-Contact/dp/B09DD7Z8M9/ ** General recommendations: Be very patient, when I started, the coffee was terrible, it takes some time and practice to get to know the machine, discover the little tricks and achieve good coffee. Be very clean and tidy, cleaning the machine can be tedious, but it is necessary, this will prolong the life of the machine and prevent the accumulation of coffee and milk, contamination and proliferation of bacteria. Having an adjustable coffee grinder, the grinding level must be adjusted according to each type of preparation, and also to the espresso machine, this guarantees that we can enjoy a good coffee, with body, aroma and flavor. Taking a barista course, not necessarily a very advanced one, in fact the basic one is a good starting point, it is important to understand the nature of the machine, the coffee, the milk and other additives that are used in this niche. Take it easy, this is a niche market and there are a thousand and one accessories that you can buy and it is easy to feel overwhelmed, start with the basics, familiarize yourself with the machine and then purchase the accessories that you think are appropriate according to your needs.

The first one I received looked beautiful out of the box. I used it for a while, not realizing something was wrong, and it worked well for a while, however, locking the portafilter in the grouphead with almost any amount of ground coffee (7-18 grams) was hard. It's my first espresso machine, so I had no idea this was wrong, and it sprayed water around the grouphead when extracting. I went to a friends house who had a different espresso machine, tried my method on theirs and realized that it shouldn't be difficult to turn the portafilter, and what I did on their machine didn't spray water in the surrounding area. I started a return, and got a replacement and it's perfect. The sheer compactness of the machine is amazing, the coffee that is yielded is great, and has a large capacity water tank to show off my skills to all of my pals.

Change out your portafilter to a bottomless, remove the extra pieces of the steam wand and you have a budget friendly espresso machine that can make very very good espresso with practice.

After making espresso triple shots for my morning brew exclusively for the last few decades or so, I’ve seen these basic machines go through their life-cycles, working great to start, pushing back the inevitable with descaling, then eventually the pump fails toncut the mustard and no amount of cajoling can make it caffeinate your AM any longer. I had a basic Krups that lasted about 5 years and thought that was a real pity. My next machine was a Braun that required a different manual of arms to operate, but brought superheated steam into the kitchen. It advertised a pump that pressurized the the pre-espresso a life-changing amount. That one failed to keep it up after a couple of years, but we partially restored it with various attempts to descale. After 8 years about, itwas dissected for fun and a nervous looking DeLonghi took its place on the trials counter. It lasted a gear, the pump began to make a shattering sort of sound and the output tasted of dying machine. It was replaced, of course, with another DeLonghi. This was the EC155. It worked very wellfor a solid two years, December 2016 gift until stopped making sufficient pressure to form espresso, just sort of dribbling hot liquid from the pressure cup in a sad parody of its younger self. It had been a mighty contender, frampling well tamped filter basquets of very fine grounds and producing awesome amounts of crema. Enter the EC3420. It promises a host (one or two?) of new, fantastical featurs I’m not sure how we have thus far lived without. But now that it’s on the counter of espresso machine deat, how well does it perform compared to the last, $35 less expensive, but very adequate machine? I don’t really cotten to the three categories suggested anove, “Blending Power”? Not sure what that means. I compare its vagueity to “Streaming Experience.” Ill defined, and not wholly applicable. Instead, let’s look at what was promised and also what is expected of such machine: ⚫︎ heating the water to make espresso it takes a very long time, minutes. Ok, Ill wait for the first cup, but even then it doesn’t heat enough water for a double, much less a triple. The first double winds up less than optimally hot! The manual says it won’t probably be right until at least thesecondcup. What? I’m supposed to waste water and time and electricty getting this thing ready to make one good shot? The cheaper machine was ready to do its best when the ready light came on, this one is not ready.... ⚫︎Water jug: the reservoir is nice and large; I’m guessing that you could get 3 or 4 triples out before needing to replenish. It lifts right out for filling or cleaning or just to admire it, but it’s so tall you can’t lift it underneath the inevitable over counter cabinet, you’ll bave to move the machine, usually not too big of a deal ⚫︎Cup-warmer: oh, wow, a new feature. Not good, not good at all! It could warm the average ‘cup’ in about 6 hours. It reached an astonishing 88°F in my 68°F kitchen. As for heat transfer, the warming surface is sheet steel, not a heavy gauge, so it doesn’t have much mass to gain energy to transfer, so heating even small, tiny little cups in a cool room isnot effective. I believe it is transferring heat from the water charge heater, wasting it in an ineffective feature that instead robs needed heat energy from the main purpose of the machine, making a decently warm espresso! ⚫︎CREMA: the EC155, the cheaper cousin, uses a different basket and strainer that has fewer and less fine holes in the strainer. It produces two or three times the amount of CREMA or cream and brown colored coffee foam. I like the foam, I think it adds to the end product, along with sufficient heat and extraction (and properly fresh ground good quality beans) I would count it as one of the legs of a great espresso. So far this machine, the EC3420, is barely producing good CREMA. ⚫︎Hot water delivery through a nozzle for tea and such. That seems to work ok though once again, especially with the volume of an entire mug as tea or hot chocolate are typically served, this is not a sufficient hot water producing machine. It is labeled to consume 1100 Watts, but I have seen water heaters operate at 1100 Watts that produce water that is suitably hot for the task, and this machine does not. I have to rate it ★★ two stars out of five ★★★★★ for poor performance of its basic function, to make a decent, warm, CREMA covered espresso.

I've had this machine and used it consistentlly for multiple years now. We have loved it. Works great and the espresso tastes as expected. There is a bit of a learning curve with how full to fill and tamping etc. but that's all user error etc. I would buy this again for sure. We have had no problems with leaking or breaking or anything. It looks great and is easy to clean. I love that is fits well under my cabinet.