DeLonghi ECO310BK 15-Bar-Pump Espresso Machine, Piano Black

Comment: Purchased to fit the look and size of my small European kitchen, I use it with the little Deca Premium pads easily available here in Belgium for a reasonable price. Haven't yet tried tamping my own cup with ready-made, or grinding & using my own beans, but when I do, it'll be Illy or Lavazza, or Douwe Eggberts coffee, that I try. The coffee itself, and fineness of the grind, is 9/10ths of the equation when it comes to filter coffee or espresso, in my opinion.

Haven't had a bad cup yet using the Deca pads, and the temp has been just fine, every time, so no reason to go crazy trying everything under the sun. Around the corner, there are 8 caffes I can use for that, anyway! What I wanted was a way to get my caffiene fix, quick, here at home, without needing a degree in avionics or engineering to learn the ins and outs of the machine.

It was simple to use using the "quick card" pictures included to set up and get going, and in a few minutes--voila! Hot, delicious espresso.

The machine is brand new to me, so maybe over time I'll come to find some things I don't like about it. For now, it's exactly what we wanted at a price we didn't mind paying.

Comment: We were worried about purchasing this product after reading the previous review about the lukewarm results. However, we had read so many other reviews of similar machines that we thought it could easily have been user error. When we bought the machine, we actually read the manual very carefully before doing anything. (Not our typical style :) We followed the instructions. We did more than the minimum 5 recommended times of running the machine using water only; it needed about 10 times of this to get really hot -- but only on the first time out of the box. The espresso itself can be pretty good, but probably only for a casual espresso drinker. Even for casual sippers such as ourselves, it is easy to pull a shot that is completely undrinkable. (Actually, my husband is less discerning, so we feed him the "bad" shots.) I know what a beautiful espresso tastes like since I work next to a famous Illy shop in DC, and this espresso is, sadly, not the same. But, it is still very wonderful and enjoyable. Very drinkable, if you take care. Overall, I am very happy with this purchase.

I would like to give another tip, which is that the first 10 or so times that you use the machine, the filter attachment (the thing with the handle) is extremely hard to get to its fully attached position. Fully attached is perpendicular to the machine; this is not indicated anywhere in the manual. So if your machine is LOUD, you may not have this fully attached. It gets easier after a few uses. The machine is not very loud when you use it properly.

Cheers!

Comment: We were in search of a quality espresso machine and thought the DeLonghi ECO310 would be the answer.It was not the case, although the frother/steamer worked well, the espresso itself always came out lukewarm at best. We followed all the instruction and tried every way we could but the unit failed at it's most basic function -make hot espresso! We returned the unit to Amazon and recieved a full refund.