Caffeine is my drug of choice, but I do not love paying $5 daily for my fix of coffee goodness, so when my old reliable pour over coffee maker finally decided to retire by shooting steam and water all over the kitchen, I decided I wanted to try my hand with an espresso machine to hopefully save a bit of coin. The problem is that I also wanted a normal coffee maker because the family usually drinks coffee throughout the day. After a lot of studying and research, I finally came across this coffee maker/espresso machine. It took me another few days, and caffeine withdrawal, before I bit the bullet and ordered the machine. Overall, I am rather pleased with the machine thus far. I made it a point to pay for the extended warranty because several of the reviews mentioned problems cropping up a month or more in. I have only used it for a month thus far and it seems to be working smoothly. There is a learning curve with the machine. A fairly steep one, if you are not familiar with running an espresso machine. My daughter is a barista so she gave me pointers. One of my bigger gripes is the user manual is detailed but lacks in a lot of places. One of the bigger ones is troubleshooting. The machine is persnickety. If its not very clean, it will produce bitter coffee. If the porta filter is not clean and squarely inserted, it will not finish a pull. A detailed cleaning insert in the manual would have been nice and saved me a lot of time and frustration. As far as cleaning goes. Always, ALWAYS, run a single shot pull without the porta filter to remove coffee grounds that may have snuck into the upper part of the machine. If this is not done every time you make a cup of espresso, the next pull will not finish, you will start it and it will stop mid cycle and reward you with a rapid flashing blue light. So, not only do you have to clean a hot machine, but you also wasted coffee. That is a wasteful lesson. I also strongly recommend running a soft bristle toothbrush along the upper plate after the cleaning run. Personally, I use the brush that came with my krups burr coffee grinder to do this, but any small brush will work. Wiping down the plate is also a good idea. Be careful, however, it is hot, scorched fingers take away the pleasure of a fresh brewed espresso drink. Cleaning the milk steamer wand and pour over coffee section is fairly straight forward. It is only the espresso components that seem so particular and prone to cycle failures. I make sure to clean everything down when I finish making my cup, its easier than trying to get dried steamed milk off the wand and drain plate. Another complaint I have is that the espresso is not hot enough after being brewed. It is easily solved by setting the cup in the microwave for 30 seconds while I am steaming my milk, but it is irksome to me. I think the coffee should be as hot as what is brewed in the pour over section. It is easy enough to work with so not a deal breaker for me but something perhaps that should be looked at by the company for ways to improve the machine. The pour over side is nice, does what it should, user friendly and brews a nice pot of coffee. The filter section comes out and is easy to wipe down and clean. I wash all the parts of the coffee machine by hand. If I recall correctly, only the coffee pot is dishwasher safe. I do not like the double click lid on the pour over side. Occasionally it sticks and takes some futzing to get it to work right. This could become a problem if it persists and ends up breaking. There has to be a better way to lock down the lid. Overall, I would recommend this espresso/coffee maker. It is an excellent option for those who like both pour over coffee and a good cup of coffee house espresso but cannot afford to buy two separate machines, nor have the counter space for them. Thus far, with a little care, it performs exactly as it should, produces good crema on each pull of fresh ground coffee and tastes lovely, no matter how its brewed.
