Nice and very good looking machine, but very bad aftersales by company.
Positive Product Points
- Pulls out excellent caffé's - The looks. Best looking machine in its range. A state of art. - Very good (looking) drip tray (large volume).
Negative Product Points
- Filling the watertank is a bit painfull. - Electric minimum-level control of the tank and boiler is very sloppy. Sometimes it works, but most times, it fails to do its job. -The manual which comes with the machine is very poor in any way. First;, It was a very bad copy. Very hard to read (not really something you would expect for a machine at this price range). Second; for a beginner in making caffé's and cappuccino's it wasn't that quit as helpfull as you would expect (and hope) from a manual. A lot of needless tips about the safety instructions, charateristics and technical data and last but not least decline of guarantee. But no decend instructions how to use the machine for a beginning Barista like me. Not even mentioned the very tiny photographs who accompany this instructions (did somebody see my glasses?).
Detailed Commentary
It took me quit a long long time to decide which machine to buy. First there was the ECM Giotto, then the Quickmill Andreja, then the Vibiemme Domobar Super and finally the Unico Splendor.
While I love caffé and cappucccino, I was looking for a machine with a good steaming performance. After contacting a well known dealer in Holland, there were only two left; the Vibiemme and the Unico Splendor. The dealer praised the (new) Vibeimme Super Ellettronica for its steaming power. But about the Unico, he also was very satisfied. In fact, the Unico would be defenitely in the top three of his ranking.
After the delivery, I first pulled out only caffé's. Just to get some feeling and experience with the machine. After a while, I finally found the strenght(read; courage) to make cappuccino's. But just like the most beginniners (I guess), it wasn't easy to create nice milkfoam. In fact, it looked more like soapfoam. After some inquiries I thought that I had all the answers to my foaming problems. Great was the disappointment, when I discovered that all this tips and information didn't put an end to my foaming problems.
Then I read the Coffeegeek review from Tobias. He replaced the steam wand tip by another (two hole) one, from www.espressoparts.com. And believe it or not, since I tried this steam wand tip I'm able to create microfroth like a pro (read: Barista). It may sound unbelievable, but my steam wand now suddenly seems to be a magic wand.
Overall I'm satisfied about my machine. But due to the bad aftersales by the company Espressione Snc. who delivered the machine to me, I probably would buy another machine (Vibiemme Domobar). Although it hasn't got the looks of the Unico. But just like my mother allways said: looks ar not everything!
Buying Experience
I bought the machine directly from Espressione Snc. in Firenze Italy. In first instance (untill I bought the machine) the director of the company, Mr. Andrea Bernini, was very helpfull. But after the machine was delivered to me, they didn't reply to any of my emails anymore.
