Not enough pressure to make a good cup of espresso.
Positive Product Points
This is a nice-looking machine with a very solid feel.
Negative Product Points
The water tank is awkwardly placed. This is a heavy machine, so the placement of the water tank at the back on the bottom, means that you have to pull the machine away from the wall in order to refill the tank. The big problem is, however, that it just doesn't make good espresso. Despite the size and feel of the machine, it only produces nine bars of pressure and that's just not enough to deliver quality espresso in a reliable manner.
Detailed Commentary
I really liked the look of the machine, but the difficulty in getting it to produce a decent cup of espresso made it overall a real disappointment. Because the pressure was too low, the machine was very finicky about the grind. Get the grind too fine and the machine just couldn't push the water through it (and this is with no packing); get the grind too course and you end up with a thin cup of espresso (that could pass for a decent cup of regular coffee).
I cannot recommend this machine to anyone. After giving it a few months, we gave up on it today and returned it for a refund.
Buying Experience
We bought the machine from a Williams-Sonoma outlet. The purchase experience was fine, as was the return. When we took it back because we were too disappointed to keep it, they accepted it and gave a full refund with no questions asked. Hard to beat that.
