Produces much better expresso then my Krups and less messier too.
Positive Product Points
The Silvia dosen‘t leak like my Krups Bravao (which would spew coffee and grinds all over the place) when using too fine expresso grinds. Also the solenoid which the Silvia has is wonderful for not having to fill the water reservoir so often. The old Krups would leak out half the water supply while warming up the boiler. Each cup for expresso would require a full reservoir (1.0 to 1.5 liters?) of water. My Braun grinder (after adjustments) can just barely make grinds fine enough to make a 25 sec./20 pound tamp expresso for my Silvia (in other words, I don‘t have to go out and buy a new coffee grinder).
Negative Product Points
The removalable water reservoir isn‘t really removable in the same sense as my old pump Krups. The Krups had a handle on the reservoir and no hoses to move around. The Krups reservoir was easier to remove, fill and replace (of course you had to do it very often for the Krups). Also, the instructions for the Silvia, while in english are in very poor english. Their use of the appropriate nouns and adjetives need a lot to be desired. It is probably best that the purchaser of a Silvia has had previous experience with a pump expresso machine -- it would make things a lot less confusing (either that or know Italian :-).
Detailed Commentary
Overall, the Silvia is a superior machine. Filling the reservoir with small pitcher is no big deal compared to the superior expresso coming out. Also, everything that everybody else has to say about the Silvia is true (i.e. amount of steam, being able to use very fine grinds, level of control, etc). I was going to delay the purchase but I saw that the Daily Grind had dropped the price to $325 (The price had since just gone up to $345). It may be odd to say, but I‘m glad that I worked my way up the expresso machine chain (Krups steam toy -$60; Krups pump toy -$100; each busticated from use before being replaced). I would have hated to have dropped the money on a Silvia and then find out that it didn‘t really matter to my quality of life -- spending money for the sake of spending money is a very expensive hobby.
