First let me say that I moved from a house that had a built-in espresso machine, so my expectations were high. It took me a little while to get the correct grind, but once I did, the espresso was good. The steamer is a little weak, so I usually pre-warm my milk before steaming it. Overall, this is a pretty good machine for the money. I wish it had a warning when the water level gets low. If it runs out of water while using it, it takes a long time for the machine to start up again.

I am by no means an expert in espresso machines. I wanted to be able to make lattes on the weekends so searched for a simple to use machine. This was our first espresso machine and found it easy to learn with very clear directions and videos. We use it for iced lattes, so we have never used the milk frother/steam wand so I cannot speak to how well this works. Once we figured out how to properly grind our coffee beans and found high quality beans, we were making better than coffee shop lattes in no time!

It worked great for 10 months and then encountered an issue with the water output. I contacted customer service and they were very quick to reply with cleaning directions. I followed their cleaning directions and the issues continued.

This is by far not the most expensive machine so I was surprised by their customer service offering to setup a video call with their engineering team. I had two video calls with their engineering team from China to help work through our issues. After troubleshooting efforts were unable to resolve the issue they have agreed to replace the machine with a new one, honoring their warranty.

I have had issues with products that have cost thousands of dollars and could not get anyone from the company to even return phone calls. Here is a company that set up video calls with their engineering team for a $150 coffee maker. To me, this speaks to a company that is truly interested in providing excellent customer support and helping the users of their product resolve issue to get back to enjoying their weekend lattes.

I love this machine! I have a small kitchen with little counter space so this was perfect after I did a ton of research before purchasing this one. There a lot of espresso machines out there, not all compact and if they are they are $500 or more. There are also a bunch that are sort of compact and are around $150-200 BUT the reviews are TERRIBLE. This one is almost all stainless steel, has a cup for 1 and 2 shots, easy to clean, holds plenty of water, heats up pretty quickly, AND the frother(which is a must if I want to keep my wife) works better than the one we bought a couple years ago by itself. Latte, Cappuccino, Americano or just a simple shot(s) of espresso - We love this one, I highly recommend it!

Update: After contacting customer services they agreed to refund the money. We loved the machine and will reconsider purchasing this brand again. It worked great for the first month. After that we noticed the pressure going down. Today, can't get it to brew or steam.

This replaced my old one, which worked fine but wasn't designed well. I love this one. It's really simple to use and makes great espresso. I never would have used the old one on a weekday because it took too much fussing, but I use this every morning. I like to make cafe crème, which is basically a very long espresso, but I've made cappuccino and regular espresso too. It also takes up less counter space and is very shiny. I love it so much.

Coffee nerds might take issue with the fact that you don't end up with a dry puck at the end, but the basket has a whole different design, and it makes good coffee, so I give it a pass for that. For what I paid for it, I have zero complaints.