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List Price: $140.00
Sale Price: $89.99
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I love espresso, and this little baby makes a great cup. Here are a few points that might be useful for you to know:
Good points:
*It doesn't take up too much room on the counter and looks nice with it's silver metal accents.
*The water reservoir is a good size, you can make about 8-10 shots before you need to refill it, which is very easy to do, and there is a clear section behind the basket which shows the water level.
*Fast heat-up time (only about a minute), good frothing wand, no wait time between frothing and brewing (though you do have to wait a little between brewing and frothing).
Be warned:
*Frothing wand is only 3 1/4 inches from the counter top. Not a big deal, I just went and bought a frothing cup that is about that height.
*Distance from grounds basket to tray is only 2 1/2 inches, I usually use a small espresso cup.
*Built-in tamper sucks, buy a good metal one.
*You don't end up with a nice dry puck, the grounds basket is a watery soup after your espresso is made, so I dump it down the disposal.
*You will end up drinking more espresso than you mean to, it's that good!
Seriously, I chose this machine after a lot of online researching, and decided on this one based on its outstanding reviews and great price. What led me to it were the reviews of another DeLonghi, the EC140B, which is an older and less attractive model, but had reviews from people who had owned theirs for 6 and 10 years! I'm hoping that this one will have the same longevity.
-----> UPDATE: I've now had this machine for 8 months and it started running very slow. I'd been using only distilled water, so I knew it wasn't a calcification issue, so I looked into it and it turns out machines like this one (no backflushing) need to be cleaned every month or so to remove built up grounds that work their way inside the machine. So I ran some cleaner through it and all this nasty brownish liquid came out, and now it runs great again! So remember people, take good care of your things and they will take good care of you. A lesson I am still learning...
and to answer a question commented on this review, my tamper is 2 inches in diameter.
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First, a couple of disclaimers:
1. This is the first pump-driven espresso machine that we have owned.
2. We generally drink cafe Americano, which is an espresso with a little added hot water (or cold water with an iced Americano). We make an occasional cappuccino and have thus used the steam wand, but not extensively.
After doing a cost/benefit analysis in regards to our current cafe Americano habit (~10 per week), we realized that there would be some justification to buying a home unit. We first considered the Breville ESP8XL Cafe Roma Stainless Espresso Maker, but reviewers consistently lamented the unit's tendency to clog the filter, necessitating time-consuming cleaning. Also, not being completely sure that we would actually use the espresso maker, we balked at the $250 price tag.
We also considered moving up to one of the superautomatico machines that grind, tamp, brew and dispose of the grinds, but we worried about the reliability of technology that had only recently hit the consumer-grade appliances. After reading zillions of reviews, we realized that every mid-priced machine had some glaring flaw and, in the end, we decided to buy an inexpensive pump-driven unit and wait for the technology to catch up before investing a huge chunk of change in an espresso machine. Moving our investigation to low-end espresso makers, we were impressed by the reviews of the DeLonghi EC155 and purchased it from Amazon.
I put off writing a review in order to make sure that the DeLonghi was going to last until we had at least broken even on it. We received it in mid-July and since then it has produced about 200 double shots flawlessly. By my reckoning, that's about $400 worth of Americanos at the local cafe. Even considering the price of the coffee, we have more than broken even. So, here's our pros and cons:
PROs
Price--we paid $91.28.
Crema Production--this unit consistently produces a thick layer of delicious crema.
Powerful Stream Wand--Easily froths milk.
Mechanicals--After six months of nearly daily use this mighty-mite works as well as it did the day it arrived.
Easy Cleanup--Filter cleans easily.
CONs
Ergonomics--As other reviewers have noted, there could be a little more room between the area where the cup sits and the output nozzle. Also the steam wand could be longer.
Features--No cup warmer. Not a big deal to us, especially considering the price of the EC155, but it will put off some buyers.
SOME THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED
Using a coffee especially made for espresso, such as Lavazza, produces a much better espresso. Lavazza has the added benefit of allowing you to go for hours without blinking.
Preheating the unit for 15 minutes and warming the cups in the microwave improves the results and experience.
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This machine is fantastic and after i ordered (over great deliberation) and received mine, I could not wait to review this and rebuke other reviewers who clearly have trouble following simple directions or have no experience making espresso (point being, don't go so out of your way to bash something when you are clearly no expert). I was pretty put off by the bad reviews by seemingly well meaning and "intelligent" people. I've owned a really good espressso machine and the issues they were describing sounded like the sort of issues one might have if you didn't know what the heck you were doing. So I gambled ($60 bucks) and got this little thing. It ROCKS.
Here are some tips:
1. It's all in the grind, grimsy. You still want it slightly grainy about cornmeal but I actually have ground it into virtual powder, just to test it, and this thing still has no problem pumping the hot water through amazing.
2. The level and compression of the coffee grinds are CRUCIAL and I have found, after much use, that the single most important thing, is how hard you twist the "basket" on (no idea why they call it a basket but it's the thing that holds the coffee). I have found the ultimate way to make this work!!! I figured out the problem that everyone was having:
IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS PRODUCE PERFECT SHOTS WHeRE YOU END UP WITH ROCK HARD LITTLE PUCKS OF SPENT COFFEE AND BEAUTIFUL, CREAMY JET BLACK SHOTS LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WITH A GOOD MACHINE:
FILL THE THING WITH COFFEE, PILED WELL ABOVE RIM, TAMP AS HARD AS YOU CAN TO RIM LEVEL
TWIST IT ON FAIRLY FIRM (IT TAKES BOTH HANDS)
THEN TURN IT ON AND THE SECOND YOU SEE A DRIP OF COFFEE COME OUT, TURN IT OFF
ONCE MORE, TWIST THE COFFEE BASKET ON EVEN HARDER YOU WILL FIND IT IWLL MOVE QUITE A BIT.
TURN IT BACK ON, AND IT WILL MAKE A BEAUTIFUL SHOT
This helps settle the grounds a little so you can compress them even more.
What I noticed is that, because this machine is so small and light, it's really hard to twist the basket on hard enough (the first time) without just yanking the whole thing off the table you have to wrestle like a little piggy! So you just can't compress the coffee enough and, if you don't, it won't pull a good shot and, that's where this "soupy mess" comes from that everyone complains about. I have it down now and don't need to do the turn it off and on thing when I twist mine on the first time, it seem fine and there seems to be no diff in the product that comes out. I am strong however so for those of you who may not be able to bear hug their machine as well as i do do the method above.
One thing that might also be happening is, I ONLY use the larger "double shot" coffee basket but the machine comes with a smaller single shot basket. I haven't even used the smaller basket (because uh, who drinks "one shot" of espresso) and it might actually be a little harder to get the right compression and all that with the smaller basket but honestly, I would exclusively use the double basket, and you will get a richer shot.
I also bought the metal 2 inch tamper that others recommended and I feel I could not be without it now after using for months. You need something hard and shaped like this to really really tamp the coffee in very very hard. I can smash a mountain of coffee down with this thing so it is in fact important.
If you pulled a good shot, you will get a nice, thick, crema (tan foam) with a buckskin or carmel color (this will settle more and more the longer the shot sits there). When you fill your shot glass and turn off machine, the crema should be around 2-3 mm high. If it's really high (say, half the glass) you probably didn't tamp it hard enough or your grind is too course. If there is no crema, you didn't tamp or compress coffe hard enough).
When you pull the basket off to clean it, you should have a hard, fairly dry coffee puck that is slightly resistant to coming out and has to be dug out with a little wooden stick (use chopsticks or similar blunt, wooden device or you wll harm rubber ring inside).
3. You can remove the little silver tray (it's superfluous and serves no great purpose) and just put a larger cup in the catch basket underneath problem solved for all the whiners who complained about "no room." I love how small the thing is whereas at first I thought "Oh god, it's a toy." It's not.
4. My machine seemed to heat up in no time (under 10 minutes) and my shots were scalding hot (I have no idea what to say to those who complained that their coffee didn't get hot mine would give 3rd degree burns and the cup is far too hot to hold). I admit there seems to be some confusion in the literature about warm up times (15 mins, 30 mins what is it guys?) but I guess it involves the fact that you can preheat it (by actually using it to cycle water only, with no grinds involved) and reduce the actual "ready time" and by practice, this seemed to work (though, again, the instructions actually say "preheat for 15 mins, cycle water...and it should be ready... now wait 30 minutes" what??? This is clearly a typo text left in when it should not have been and as I used to be a technical writer (computer manuals, etc) I can tell you that's a common mistake typos are eazy to see but sensible text, mistakenly left in is not since it does not at first blanch appear out of accord.
Look, once i was in a hurry, I turned it on (I always turn it on to steam first and make steamed milk, BTW) and 5 min later I made steamed milk and espresso, no problem.
After a full year of use, I routinely wait just 3-5 minutes for warm up but my trick is i always put it to "Steam" because that makes it hotter initially.
5. My steamer doesn't work, it only makes hot water, whaaaaaa!!! Yes it does, you just havn't had your cup of joe and you're still ASLEEP. You have to turn the knob....get ready for it, here it comes...to "STEAM." It does not make steam when the knob is in the "I want espresso" position it makes hot water. Mine makes plenty of steam. The knob doesn't say STEAM, or, I WANT ESPRESSO, but the little pictogram showing steam blasting out of a nozzzle that suspiciously looks like an espresso steam nozzle should be enough, even for sleepy heads.
This thing also takes the pre-made "pods" of coffee and as far as I am concerned, I would never use something like that. Old school for me, all the way and I guarantee you my shots blow those hugely overpriced poodle pods out of the water.
So, there is a tiny little art to this but it's not that hard to get it right so long as you know the importance of how hard you tamp it in. Have a little patience or you will be going back there to have teenagers make your $5 cup again which i don't really mind except I don't have time to stand in line for 30 minutes.
That's about it. have used for (over a year) now and it's awesome.
Honest reviews on De'Longhi EC155 15 BAR Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker
I was always skeptical of expensive espresso machines and wondered why anyone would pay hundreds of dollars for an expensive machine. It turns out that the more expensive and quality machines are "pump-driven" rather than the typical "steam driven" found at your local Wally World and such. A pump driven machine will hit pressures 4-5 times greater than that of a steam driven machine and gets much better extraction from the espresso grinds (better flavor) and are the only machines capable of generating the "chrema" foam at the top of the espresso.
The DelLonghi EC155 is an excellent budget machine found for under $100 that is pump driven. I was happy with my old steam driven Delonghi, but once I received this I realized that I didn't even know what I was missing. This espresso is as good or better than anything you'll get in a nice Italian restaurant or at your local Charbucks. The chrema that this thing produced is flat out great (you'll get a nice 1/4 layer of tasty emulsified foam). The convenience of pulling a single shot is great too, and you really only need the machine to warm up a few minutes before you pull a shot.
The best feature about this machine in my humble opinion is that it is E.S.E certified (easy serve espresso). This means that you can pick up the ESE certified pods from Charbucks or a good online pod retailer and not have to go to the trouble of grinding and tamping. This is a HUGE feature that even some more expensive machines do not have and is what eventually sold me on this unit. Having grown accustomed to the convenience of pod coffee, it was only natural to look for the same thing in my espresso machine. Do note that coffee (senseo style) pods will not work in here as those are much larger than the ESE certified pod. Try a nice blend from Baronet or another find espresso brand and you won't be sorry.
I highly recommend this machine. In short, it has fantastic features for the money, makes awesome espresso chrema, and it ESE certified for pod use. You will definitely not do any better than this machine for under $100.
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I really wanted to like this machine, I thought DeLonghi had given us an affordable pump-drive cappuccino maker. And it just isn't quite.
(n.b. I'm trying to get customer images up. If the technical difficulty goes away please refer to my customer images for visual reference.)
Things to like:
1. Pump drive! So much better than steam pressure machines. It works pretty well too.
2. The espresso comes out very good (though in small amounts, see below). All 3 proper layers are discernable, crema is especially satisfactory.
3. The removable tank is very handy. And large.
4. Price is right, I don't think there's a more affordable machine with such quality performance "guts".
These pluses are solid reasons to own this machine.
Why I am returning it:
1. The holder for espresso grounds is WAY too small. There are two of them and the bigger one is less than half the size of any standard equipment. Unless you only ever plan to pull 2oz at a time the espresso will come out weak. I usually pull 2-3 shots minimum and can't be bothered to pull, empty, and tamp for every 2 oz I want.
2. The frother is so low to the counter that even a small frothing pitcher won't fit under it. Boo.
3. The wand is so shallow that I cannot properly froth any decent amount of milk since the wand only goes down into the very top of the milk. Also boo. I can't make milk stretch with this gizmo and it's one of the reasons I picked this machine.
4. The only thing that fits under the espresso spout is a shot glass or espresso cup. 2 inches of clearance offers no flexibility for pulling into a mug or small pitcher. I could have lived with this if 1-3 were not already problems.
All of these issues, which I consider design flaws, could easily be corrected in a product redesign. The internal works are fine. A taller machine with a longer wand would fix all my problems. As is it takes too long to get coffee I don't want and there's always a clean-up mess.
I started with a super-cheap steam drive machine and upgraded to this one expecting an affordable way to take my coffee production to the next level. This machine should be great and instead it's just frustrating.
If you're only looking for a small shot in some modest foam and don't mind some hassle this is a fine machine. I regrettably will be looking for something else.
