Very stylish looking. I was drawn to the neat blue lights. Sigh.
Negative Product Points
Reservoir system is faulty - would only work if I were pressing down on the reservoir. If I didn't, no water would be drawn into the system.
Steam wand would frequently pop off, causing a huge mess, as well as a hazard to the eyeballs!
Quality of pulls doesn't even bear mentioning. To embarrassing to even say.
Detailed Commentary
I am still a newbie here; this was my first-ever machine. I bought it several years ago. I used it primirarily to make hot chocolate, with the occassional latte. I could never achieve the taste I wanted, but I was so inexperienced it never occurred to me why. I just knew that I had purchased one of the nicer machines on display (that should give you an inkling of just now inexperienced I was). I did zero research on this purchase.
Anyway, it worked as it was supposed to for the first few weeks...then it started developing all of these little quirks. Like thinking that the reservoir was empty (the fix for that was to push down really hard on the reservoir tank when steaming or pulling shots)...and the steam wand blowing off in my face on numerous occassions (the fix for that was to hold on to the miniscule rubber ring at the base of the wand where it attached to the machine, a hard trick to master without burning off half of the skin on my fingers).
When I moved out of my apartment into my house, I packed it away, where it sat in box for a couple of years. I unpacked it one day and gave it one last old college try...The pump gave a few valiant shivers, then totally died.
However, if it weren't for my experience with this first machine, I never would have began my espresso-research journey, which led me to Coffeegeek.com. And, hey, it only took me three years after that to bite the bullet on a new machine! I guess the Krups was like my first boyfriend: an experience that doesn't bear repeating, but one that paved the way for me to find true love with my husband! See, even bad experiences can have a happy ending. :)
Buying Experience
I bought this at Bed Bath & Beyond years ago. Oh, how young I was. :) One thing I will say, though, is that I actually found the dated receipt in my user manual, and took the unit back to BB&B. Despite the fact that the purchase took place four years earlier, at a different store, and with a now-canceled debit card, they gave me a full refund in cash. Thanks to Coffee Geek, I now know that BB&B is not the place to go for espresso machines, but they are a very good vendor for other things. I've returned a few things now (some without receipts) and they always offer a full refund or a replacement without question. They're like the Nordstrom's of the home accessories world.
