De'Longhi Vintage Icona Traditional Barista Pump Espresso Machine, Coffee and Cappuccino Maker, ECOV311BG, 1.4 liters, Cream

The third one we have owned in over ten years, used daily. Does a great job at a sensible price.

Loved it! Arrived promptly and nicely packed. This machine has an awesome vintage style, almost all of it made of stainless steel which is a bonus. Ergonomic, economic with auto off feature, water boiler heats up the water in seconds, the steam is powerful and the steam knob does a very good job adjusting the pressure, and makes a delicious cafe. The Icona leather ''vintage icona'' big tag hanging on the machine is adorable. Having said that, i read a lot of comments about ''cafe is watering'' or ''too thick'' or ''water is leaking through the steam whilst brewing'' etc.Just improve your barista skills guys! Read the instructions and download the ''De' Longhi coffee expert'' application free of charge. You ll find some awesome tips how to use this machine and make an excellent cafe. You need to experiment a little bit because not all espresso machines produce fine cafe by using them in the same way. I personally found the right balance with this machine by grinding the cafe between 2-3 size medium to fine but NOT thin (my previous machine would not make a nice cafe with size any other than 3 medium). About taping it, I prefer my cafe with a nice crema so i tap it a little bit stronger than suggested. Besides, a good espresso comes out of the machine in ''slow'' speed without a struggle. That means you grid the cafe at correct size and tap it as it should be. If cafe runs from the filter like a ''quick tab water'' (cafe is too thick) or ''painfully slow'' (cafe is too thin) better throw it and try again.About water leak through the steam when brewing or vise-versa, yes it does leak a bit but is normal for powerful cafe machines to do that and when the steam pressure is high. This is only GOOD NEWS. Is not an issue if the amount is small. 5 stars all the way so far and if anything changes, I ll update the review. Its a cafe insult to rate it lower than 5! :)

however, it's not as well designed as previous de Longhi machines I've had.Why not?Well, in their effort to produce a very pretty machine, de Longhi designers failed to take into account that the basin beneath the removable drip tray also gets drips of liquid and bits of ground coffee get in there, and because it's physically part of the main part of the machine, it's incredibly difficult to clean. Previously this whole section could be lifted off and washed, now you can't do this. Also, the design of the coffee baskets that came with this is horrible, and they're really tight to get into the bit where the water comes out. Thankfully the old design fits this machine too, so we've just carried on using the baskets from previous machines.Other than those two things, the machine is easy to use, makes nice coffee, and is pretty to look at. Clean it regularly (i.e. descale the whole machine and make sure you turn the machine over and unscrew the filter where the water comes through, the amount of oils that collect there is astonishing!)Word to de Longhi designers - don't lose sight of real life in your endeavours, please! As with all products you need to understand how people ACTUALLY use things, not how you think they should.

Great product

I bought this machine six months ago and I'm already having issues. I mean it works it's good quality and it makes delicious coffee but the steamer is very unreliable. I turn on the steam around wait for the green light and when it comes on even if I can knob nothing happened there's no Steam coming out of it like usually does and I don't know what to do. I'll be contacting the manufacturer to see if I can use my two-year warranty to get a replacement part or whatever it needs

Absolute bargain and the person I gifted it to really loves it

I was most disappointed by this machine that I bought as replacement for my old deceased De' Longhi machine, I liked the retro look but unfortunately that just about all. It has a huge 1.7L reservoir but the water heater is really inadequate, once the ready light comes on it has only heated enough for half a shot of espresso, so a double espresso that I have in the morning takes four goes and an age to be produced.The old machine could accommodate a small mug under the dispenser, this one an expresso cup or tea cup is all you can use, even a small jug is out of the question.Next when making coffee the hot water/steamer spout leaks unless you really lean hard on the knob, and it really doesn't feel like it will take too much of that!The coffee holder is lightweight and flimsy feeling is very hard to move and often leaves the coffee filter cup behind stuck to the machine, a big deal if you want to make more than one coffee as it's too hot to get off straight away so more time wasted.The old adage of buy cheap and but twice comes in here and I will be paying an extra £50/70 and getting a far better spec'd machine.Saving grace is that I bought it through Amazon so the returns procedure is smooth.