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The machine is located downstairs and my baby's room is closed. Flawless.Pros:Reliable, consistent, easy to use, built to last. It is very easy to clean and maintain: no messy clean-ups, three minute cleaning and that's it. We wake him up five minutes earlier since then to prevent a cranky wake up =)The water tank has to be removed every time you need to fill it up and I thought that it would have an impact in the little gromet that controls the water flow from it. When I have gone for a long time; (say) 6 months with the same beans, I've been gladly surprised about the consistency.I get the same quality in my cup of coffee every time. The name bears the Fame.This machine really has it all.
The machine delivers a very consistent cup every time and the controls are very intuitive (there is really no need for the LCD display on other models). Great value for the money.Cons:Noisy.It was not an issue for me until my wife and I realized that our 1 year old woke up at the same time in the morning when I make my coffee. I bought it since October 05 and have enjoyed a triple espresso (To get my heart start beating). The manual says that with time you may need to adjust the grinder to maintain the tightness on the mechanism but I prepare an average of 5-10 espresso shots every single day and I keep getting the same quality. Although not very comfortable (other brands let you refill just by removing a lid and then pour water on the tank), the tank comes off very easily and you can snap it back without a problem. virtually every single morning since then.
I have used several beans during these years and I have always been able to "calibrate" the settings to my taste and get the perfect cup.
Just replaced our Saeco machine with this one. To date, no problems. Saeco customer service was not good (disconnected on three times after 20+ minute waits). So far, we love the DeLonghi.
A small price to pay for delicious espresso at literally a touch of a button. The machine will pay for itself in 3 months.I think the machine even looks better than our old machine. It will appear more 'silver' next to stainless appliances. From warm up to drinking lattes, less than 3 minutes.If we run into any problems, I will repost. And, it does occupy a lot of counter space. The Saeco brew group needed replacing w/in 3 months.3 months later the thing broke again.
But, it is not stainless steel. Thank goodness we were able to return it and replace it with this less expensive machine. We've used it for 1 months and have made 4 drinks per day.
If you don't have a lot of time in the morning to make your morning latte, I would recommend looking elsewhere. The reason being is that this machine lacks power, and is very, very slow. I bought this machine after our Saeco machine finally broke down after many years of use. I have not had the problems that some of the others have had from the machine breaking, as I do not use it as much as I did my Saeco.
I had to go online and find parts and fix them myself and am in the process of finding new machines as the time and cost are ridiculous. I called the manufacturer and they were NO help at all and then I found a place that fixes them and sent them both and 1200.00 later they still don't work. DO NOT WASTE YOU MONEY ON THIS MACHINE I bought two of these machines (one from Starbucks.never ever buy anything from them and the other online), one for the office and one for home. They work very well for about six months and then started to have a plethora of problems.
Yeah, we had to play with the dials a bit to figure out just where we liked it - but that took a day or two to figure out. move the wand, open the door, pull out the tray, and dump the collection bin. Then rinse out the whole thing - use a bit of soap if you really need to, and let 'er dry. Hold in the descale button (which was flashing) for 5 sec, then when it goes fully lit, turn the frothing handle until the water comes out of the froth wand. Turn the froth handle off.
If you look really closely, you can see it - so we know what it's for, no one else would notice.Cleanup is pretty simple - you have to (OMG). Turn the froth handle off. I still had to grind the beans, but the coffee tasted a bit better and I was happy for about a week. Oh yeah, the fact that my wife and I don't have to blow $5 - $10/day on $tarbuck$ any longer means this sucker is paying for itself.
Turn the froth handle on. We opted for the 3300 and haven't looked back since.This thing makes an absolutely wonderful shot of espresso, and great cappucinos. Before I got married - I had a Mr. Then reverse the process :-)I set the water hardness when we first got it and after about 6 months of use, I finally had to descale it (we make 1-2 cups per day). Let it rinse the machine again.
Got another one that didn't work out of the box.That was it for me - I wanted something that WORKED and that I wouldn't have to futz with (too much) any longer. Rinse and refill the water tank. Good to go for another zillion cups of great coffee.We've used Illy's Dark Roast beans - they're very nice, along the lines of a Blue Mountain taste to me but at 60% of the price. Coffee Espresso maker - it did the job for me, but I had to grind the coffee myself, and I didn't know what I was missing.When I got married - someone gave us a Krupps Espresso maker.
Dry it off, and reinstall.That's it - you're done. Rinse again for good measure, and refill.Turn off the machine. If you don't like that, then pre-grind the stuff and use the slot in the middle to scoop it in (although, if you're doing that, it begs the question as to why you wanted the automatic anyway).Frothing isn't too noisy - but works much better than anything I've ever had. takes about 5 or 6 mins. Then for good measure, open it up, remove the infuser and rinse it out under the sink.
Get one of those stainless steel froth containers and a thermometer and you're good to go (again, BBB has a combo with a thermometer that has the "Froth" temperature (about 160F).Did I mention that I love the DeLonghi. boo hoo. Add in the fact that you don't have to drive over, stand (or wait) in line, listen to the gossipy drivel or inane music, then risk your life in the parking lot again for a fix and I was sold ;->Compared to Starbucks - the DeLonghi tastes a bit better to me. We've run out of Illy and I've started using Shock Therapy Coffee (yeah, find it here on Amazon - it's GREAT stuff.).As for the noise: Yeah, when it grinds, you get oh 10-15 seconds of grinding.
then steam shot out of the sides (some seal blew), and we took it back to Bed/Bath/Beyond. Empty the tank. Shove a small Glad 1.6L container under it to catch the crud.30 min later, the water tank is empty - so dump the Glad container. Once we got it set, I took a sharpie marker (fine tip) and added an extra dot on the dial.
It was very easy - empty the water container, dump in the Durgol and add 1L of water.
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