De'Longhi Scultura Traditional Barista Pump Espresso Machine, Coffee and Cappuccino Maker, ECZ351BK, 1.4 liters, Black

Wow, there are some scathing reviews of this coffee machine! So I’m writing this to give some perspective. I bought mine in 2017 and have used it pretty much everyday since.Bottom line: it makes a great quality coffee for the price point. I’ve used more expensive ‘auto’ machines that cost twice as much which don’t come close. However, you do need to spend a bit of time understanding how to get the best out of it.Some things that I found helped me:-buy pre ground coffee for espresso machines, I use Lavazza gold, the ground needs to be moist. Multi purpose ground coffee that can be a bit drier do not work well and you end up with a weak and tasteless coffee-don’t be tempted to overfill the coffee, if you do it causes the water flow to slow down during extraction and the coffee isn’t as strong as it should be, so weirdly a bit less coffee makes for a stronger espresso!-use a large steaming jug, the frother pipe is designed for idiot-proof cappuccinos which it does great. If you want to make a flat white you need to keep the milk swirling to create micro foam instead, a larger jug helps to do this and it takes a bit of practice-only switch it on when you need it! This is not an appliance you leaved turned on. It actually turns itself off if you leave it on too long. It also auto-turns off if you try to switch it on with either the pump or steam button pushed in!-when you’re steaming milk the light will go off half way during steaming but the pressure stays high enough to finish the job, you do not need to stop mid way to let the steam build back up againThe good points:-It’s super easy to use once you find your way with it-It makes a creamy and full bodied espressos with the right type and amount of coffee-The frother is easy to use and can make rich foam or micro foam with practice-For the price point it’s superb value for money and feels solid and well built, mine is still going strong 3+ years in-the water tank is huge and will do at least 4 cups without refillingThe not so good points:-The frother pipe needs stripping down and careful cleaning on a regular basis as milk gets trapped inside the parts, leave it too long and it gets nasty and ruins your milk-The auto switch off will annoy you if you forget and leave the coffee or steam buttons pushed in, it took me a while to figure out!-You can’t fit a tall cup under the coffee head, I use shot glasses instead which is also a good aid to time the extraction right, about 30-35 seconds

I know this is not an industrial or professional coffee machine but for the price I bought it coz I didn’t mind will die after a year. It’s been 6 solid years making and average of 10-15 coffees a day sometimes more! With a staggering over 25 thousand coffees made in its lifetime, I bet Delongi didn’t even expect that one of their coffees machine will last so long. Me neither I’m not pay for this review it’s just honest what happen, also I always where priced as the best coffee in town. Such a shame now can’t find a new one of this!

I bought the Scultura on the strength of Which reviews (very good, best buy etc.). My previous machine was a Gaggia Baby which expired at 19 years old. Firstly the Scultura looks great and is easy to fill with water. The portafilter is narrower than the Gaggia and therefore a bit more difficult to fill. If you fully fill the portafilter and compress the grains firmly the pump is not powerful enough and the flow peters out after a small expresso has been made. Slightly underfilling and not compressing too hard seems to work best. The pump and boiler both seem underpowered compared with Gaggia but use a lot less electric... The quality of the expresso though is very good with the tricky little de'longhi portafilter. If making Cappuccino you have to wait a liitle while for the machine to be "steam ready" because of the low powered boiler. But this is ok because the machine makes very hot expresso. Foaming the milk is trickier than with the Gaggia wand and its easy to end up with creamy "flat white" milk rather than Cappuccino foam, but I think practice will make perfect.All in all this is an "ok" machine but I think I may live to regret not investing the £450 needed to buy a Gaggia Classic (todays equivalent of the 1990's Gaggia baby....

I've only had this for four days, but I couldn't be happier. It arrived swiftly and in perfect condition.After running the required two tanks of water through it, it made perfect espressos and hot frothed/textured milk. I had a Kenwood Cafe Retro before this that had put in a decade of great service, but this machine takes coffee-making to a whole new level. I'm not using particularly special coffee or even anything new to us - it was a surprise to receive this so quickly so we've been using our every day (but still great!) local ground coffee, Bean 14's Joyful Cliff Path if you're in Guernsey/fancy ordering some. Without a doubt, it's the best homemade coffee I've ever produced.I'd done extensive research before purchasing - including Which? magazine's extended reviews and Best Buys. This was very much one of them and I can see why. It's incredibly easy to use and easy to clean. I defy anyone to made a bad coffee with it. The drip tray removes very easily to reveal a molded plastic section that accommodates a normal mug and is contained enough to catch any drips/moderate overflows. It's also easy to clean. The main drip tray has a great feature (as yet untested IRL) that shows you the drip tray is getting full, rather than when it's too late to safely empty the contents without a spillage.The milk wand is easy to use and clean too, making excellent hot/frothed/textured milk even when I was using it for the first couple of times. We've drunk a lot of coffee over the bank holiday weekend, so we've put it through its paces. My partner refused to touch my old machine but has been happy to give this one a try. Even he's made good drinks with it!After reading other reviews here I've ordered an extra filter handle, but so far I've not needed it. I've found that if I leave the coffee in place until the drips have stopped (into a warm espresso cup), when I remove to make the next cup/finish using it the grounds have easily dried out enough to be tapped out without the filter popping out into the bin.Of course, anything could go wrong from here on in - and if it does I'll add a follow-up review - but for now I'm delighted with it and am happy to recommend this machine. It arrived with a standard British plug and was in perfect condition (despite being left out in the rain by our postman). Thanks for double boxing with care, Amazon!