Jura Impressa F50 Classic

I bought this machine in August 2011 and has suffered repeated power failures. it just randomly decides to not turn on. It has been returned 7 times since purchase. everytime it does the same thing.

It works fine for 2 3 weeks. then refuses to power up. so I call Jura and get an rma. ship it back. I pay shipping both ways. I get the machine back and it works fine for 2-3 weeks.

Please dont ever buy this machine

ugh.

1500.00 paper weight

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Mr. Coffee SKX26 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Red

Was looking for a red coffee pot, programmable and reasonably priced. The color isn't red more wine or burgundy, but I love the amount of coffee it makes. It has a cool feature... the water arm swings out of the way to get the filter out, and the lid automatically pushes it back into place when you close it. Dual water windows are greatso no matter which side you are pouring water in ( I'm a lefty, my husband is a righty) you can easily see the water level. We have it sitting on a "Handy caddy" which makes it really easy to use!

This coffee maker does everything we want in our coffee maker and at this price it cannot be beat. It is programmable, has the drip pause, includes a filter for your water and all the normal things we coffee lovers expect from Mr. Coffee. Now, if you want a red coffee maker to go with your other kitchen items like I did, you need to go find another one. I am just going to live with it, but if I had known I would have chosen another one. It is a purpleish pink color. Everyone is my family agrees. If you can deal, then go ahead and buy.

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I really like this product. I was greatly pleased to have the lighted panel lighted in green. It really shows up in the dark. The coffeemaker is very easy to use and I have always had great coffee come from the machine. I love the red color too.

Ted

Read Best Reviews of Mr. Coffee SKX26 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Red Here

I've been looking for a red coffeemaker to replace my 10 year old Mr Coffee (that is still working BTW!) but I've updated my kitchen to red, so I wanted a coffeemaker to match. I got sucked in by the Kitchenaid brand at first, because everything else I own is by them these days, but it was WAY too tall and bulky for my vintage kitchen in my 1955 apartment in the city. I didn't realize it until I was on my 3rd red coffeemaker, but they are running much larger nowadays! I'd buy one, unpack it and it would be an inch too tall to fit under my hanging cabinet.

This red Mr Coffee popped up on my suggests list and I decided to take a chance. It showed up and is not only very pretty, it is the perfect size and performs as great as I've come to expect from a Mr Coffee. I bet this one will last another 10 years and all for under $20!! (I bought the one from the warehouse because the box had been opened it was only $15! It is in perfect condition!)

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Hi, I had the $39 Mr. Coffee last time. I thought I would save some money and get this one. It is very basic and does the job. What I don't like is

1. It is Dark Pink ( Not a bad look, I have seen this nail polish. As a guy I will pass it off as 1950's...LOL

2. The Glass pot can spill some when pouring.

3. No water filter with it. You can use a MR. Coffee filter if you want to buy one.

4. Two holes in the back of maker. This is so you don't over fill water. However the water will end up on the counter instead.

These issues aside, I like MR. Coffee Makers. Yes, I also had a Bun at one time. If You have to ask the price you can't afford it. The MR. Coffee is just as Good and is on all day. The last maker lasted 3 years so great value. Hope this helps.

Jura-Capresso 13204 Impressa E9 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center

I've had this coffee maker for almost one month now and I absolutely love it. My parents have owned the same machine for years and it's still going strong. The only difference that I could decipher between the E8 and the E9 is that the E9 is painted silver instead of black. Amazon was selling them for the same price, and silver fit better with the rest of my kitchen accessories, so I opted for this model.

The question of whether or not to buy such an expensive machine came down to a number of factors for me: 1) quality of coffee, 2) ease of use, 3) durability & build quality.

As far as quality of coffee goes, I find what this machine produces to be wonderful. I use dark roast Starbucks beans and I've had no issues. I read that the Starbucks beans can be a little too oily and cause jams; I've had no such issues, at least so far. The manual recommends "airing out" the beans for a few hours before putting them in the machine, so I do this.

Ease of use is wonderful. It even comes with a DVD just in case you find reading too laborious. I opted for the DVD and it taught me everything I needed to know to get this thing up and running, and properly maintained.

Build quality & durability remain to be seen, though I know 3 people who have owned these machines without major issues. The most regular complaint of the Jura-Capresso line, at least in my experience reading reviews, is that the service people are very unfriendly. I wonder if this is a function of the ego of the average purchaser of a $1,000 coffee maker, or if the support people truly are a cantankerous bunch. I'll probably find out one way or the other, but snippiness on the phone isn't enough to deter me, if in fact that is the case. I love this machine too much. RECOMMENDED!

We we wondering if we had gone overboard spending about $1,000 on a coffee machine but after 200 cups we are sure we did the right thing. The machine has had a lot of use over the past few weeks with family and friends visiting. The comments have been uniformly outstanding.

The machine is idiot-proof and the result is great.

I figure I will pay for it in 5 years with reduced spending in Starbucks :)

Buy Jura-Capresso 13204 Impressa E9 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center Now

I have been using the Jura Capresso for the past 3 years. The coffee has decent crema, but I am not happy with it's inability to make a very strong espresso. Setting the cup size is supposed to accomplish this, but the cup size is variable even when a single setting is maintained.

My bigest gripe is that 2 years ago the machine malfunctioned and again this year. There is a flat fee of $275 to fix it including mailing (find your own box) which I find extremely excessive for a delicate machine that seems to break down every 2 years. The customer service person did confirm that this happens to a number of customers, but it is not excessive in the company's point of view. Also the turn around time to fix the machine is 3 weeks.

I will switch to another product the next time it breaks down.

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Just got this yesterday, so these are initial impressions. So far I'm very happy with this though. After just a few tries I've got pretty good espresso coming out, using a bean that probably isn't ideal. The frother seems plenty powerful too it took about 150 seconds to steam 8-10 oz of milk, but it only takes about 45 seconds to steam 2-3 oz of milk right in the cappuccino cup, as they show in the instructional video.

I will agree with another poster that the frother doesn't seem ideal for producing micro-foam, although I read at CoffeeGeek that it can be done with some practice. It satisfies me at this point though, and I'd be willing to work with it to see what more it can do.

The ease of use is the best part. I've had the traditional burr grinder/semi-automatic machine combination, and it was just too much work to be worth using as much as I'd like. This reduces an espresso to a few button pushes, and a cappuccino to not much more. Cleanup is great too a wipedown of the frother, run some water through the frother, and let the machine rinse itself out. Now the problem will be not drinking espresso all the time.

Durability is my only potential concern, but from what I've been able to find out on the web, this brand should be about as good as I can get in the home market. Hopefully it lives up to that.

I didn't give 5 stars only because it's a bit noisier than I'd like. The grinder is pretty quiet, but the pump is louder than other machines I've used. It's hardly a problem, but if that sort of thing matters to you, it's there. For me, I'm very happy with the machine so far and expect to be for quite a while.

UPDATE July 6, 2009:

We've used this pretty heavily since buying it, and I only like it better. The cleaning tablets seem to do a good job of removing any gunk that might build up inside. It still is working flawlessly. Keeping it clean is easy too the trays all slide out from the front and can be quickly washed and reinstalled. I've looked inside, and don't see any coffee grounds, so I think it's staying clean inside.

The ground coffee hopper is really handy too, when we have guests and they want a flavored coffee instead of the standard beans. We can entertain a pretty good crowd with this machine.

I'm very satisfied with this, and will get another Jura-Capresso when this one has brewed its last.

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I used to work in a kitchen store that had one of these coffee centers on demo, and that's how I got hooked on the Jura machines. I bought one for home use, and while yes, they are expensive,if you drink as much coffee as I do the per-cup price goes down quickly. Even using bottled water (my local water is 15 grains of hardness) and organic beans, my per-cup cost for espresso drinks is now about 25 cents.

Re the comments on coffee strength: I'd have to say that I don't think other reviewers read the instructions thoroughly. The built-in grinder has adjustable coarseness settings and each cup of coffee can be made in either mild, regular, or strong, which corresponds to how much coffee goes into the shot. I have had no problems with this, although when switching types of coffee (light to dark roast, say) one may have to play around with the settings a bit to get it perfect. That said, there's a lot of settings to play with on this machine.

The frothing/hot water functions have given me no problems, either. The hot water comes out at about 170 F on my machine, so it's not perfect for some types of loose tea but works well for instant oatmeal. :) I would definitely buy another, and my only regret is that I didn't buy one sooner.

FrancisFrancis! X5

This machine makes a good cup of espresso, particularly from the Illy ground coffee (not the pods, in my opinion). But I have had inconsistent performance from the machine itself. It is temperamental, and after about five months of average use, it began to take 40 seconds to make a cup of espresso instead of 20-25, as it did in the beginning. The non ESE handle also got a little warped (no clue why; I did not drop it). And, and this is perhaps a big one, that cheap crappy clock on the front that looks so cool fell out. Kept falling out. There is nothing that secures that clock in there, and it is horribly made. I really wish they had left that thing out.

So it was under warranty and I sent it back to Francis Francis. 3 weeks later, I got it back and it doesn't appear that they changed ANYTHING about my machine. The work order claims they fixed gaskets, but I don't see a difference. They didn't even unpack the handles that they requested I send (they were still taped as I had taped them), and even though I wrote (and phoned in) a detailed description of the things I needed fixed (the clock; the warped handle; and whatever was causing the machine to take so long), they did not replace the handle OR the clock.

I called FF and they initially claimed that they DID fix these things. I insisted they did not. Then they told me that the clock and handle were "on backorder." I have been waiting over a month for them to go off of backorder, but I do not quite understand how such a widely-produced machine could have basic parts on backorder. I have been trying to reach them by phone for the last three days, and their message consistently says "due to unusual high call volume, we cannot answer your call. Please leave a message and we will get back to you." No one gets back to me.

Horrible customer service. Some very major problems with the machine itself. Nice design, decent coffee, good frothing. I probably would choose a different brand if I were to purchase again.

Update: FF did, eventually, send me my new handle and clock. The clock they sent was ALSO broken (sigh), so I just gave up on that issue. I taped the old one in there, so there wasn't a huge hole in the front of the machine. Performance, 2 years after purchase, is about the same as it was a couple months after: inconsistent, but I can still get a great cup of espresso. I just wish it were consistent.

I was initially reluctant to get this model (through Illy's offer), and thought I had just been seduced by it's cool looks. I've had it for 4 years now, and I'm only now finally happy with it because I've finally learned that the mixed quality shots was my own fault, not the machine's.

It's a steep learning curve to make a good espresso, and I'm probably the worst espresso snob you can imagine. I wouldn't dream of drinking the stuff from the big well known chain. But once you've learned the tricks, this machine does a good job. I strongly recommend that you read up on wholelattelove's website and elsewhere for tips.

Here are some of mine:

-use bottled water!

-get your own burr grinder! It makes a world of a difference. I got the Baratza Maestro Plus. My shots were hit or miss for the longest time, but since I got my own grinder they are consitantly great. And grind just before each shot. I put it at the finest setting.

-experiment with the beans. I've finally settled on Barrington Gold Reserve from barringtoncoffee, which makes a really thick crema and tastes almost like chocolate. I found the espresso grind from illy not fine enough for this machine, and coffee goes stale so quickly, that I wouldn't recommend the automatic delivery from them, except for the pods that are OK if you are in a hurry or making for many people at a time. My favorite coffee shop is Joe's Art of Coffee in NYC, and I bought the beans from them the first time, now I order directly from Barrington.

A couple of tips related to this particular machine:

-take the filter basket out of the portafilter and rinse it every day.

-run an empty shot of just hot water through the machine to warm up both the filter and the cup.

-learn how to tamper correctly, with 30 pounds pressure, and give the tamper a little twist to smoothen the surface. Remove the tamper handle from the disk (I like this disk, how it helps prevent sneeze and also makes it easier to see if you have the right amount of grinds in the filter)

-Turn the handle as tight as possible. The tricky thing is to get just the right amount of grinds in. If too little, the water flows through too quickly and the espresso gets watery. If too much, you have a hard time attaching the handle without extreme force. Also, if you put too much in and your grind is fine, it might leak out of the top of the filter.

-When the lights show the temperature is ready, I give it another 10-15 sec boost by pressing the steam button. Not more, or it will burn the coffee and possibly damage the machine.

-I'm saving the best for last:

Once you press the start button, wait exactly 3 seconds and then turn the handle even further to the right. I assure you, if you follow these tips and use the above combination of equipment and supplies, you'll never want to drink espresso again from anywhere else than your home, or perhaps in Sicily, and Joe's Art of Coffee shop in NYC.

(oh, one little gripe I have about this model is that the water reservoir warps if put in the dishwasher, but I still wash it every time or every other time it's empty, because slime builds up if standing too long. Now the reservoir has found it's final warped shape and is still useable)

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I am extremely pleased with this machine thus far. It came with the illy E.S.E. pods, as well as illy ground espresso and a different filter kit to use with ground coffee. I found the instructions easy to understand; set-up was very easy and quick. I had never made a cup of espresso in my life, and within 15 minutes I had a cup of espresso normal and had even steamed some milk to make a fabulous latte. I have the red machine, and it looks so sharp on my kitchen counter. The machine feels very solid, very well-made, and is designed to look good and work well (how Italian!). I read up a lot on this machine at wholelattelove.com, before choosing this particular one. Slate.com also gave it an excellent review.

Read Best Reviews of FrancisFrancis! X5 Here

I bought this machine not even two years ago through the Illy a Casa program for my husband's 40th birthday. For about a year and a half, it worked well (and looked great too, except for the clock, which popped off and broke almost immediately). My husband loved it and I congratulated myself on getting him such a great gift. But one day the boiler overheated and that was it for the machine. When I tried to contact Francis Francis, I was only able to reach Illy. The machine was out of warranty, so it cost $10 for them to ship a box to me to have it FedEx'd to the service center. Before sending it in, I tried to find out how much I would be charged for the repair, but Illy could not provide an estimate; they did say it could be as much as $150. Not only that, they couldn't give me a number for Francis Francis customer service at all. So after just two years I am stuck with a very expensive and very broken machine. : (

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I absolutely love this machine! I upgraded my previous espresso machine, an overpriced model unwisely purchased from THE largest coffee retailer in the United States (if you don't have one in your neighborhood yet, look out it won't be long), and was that ever a huge waste of money totally kaput after only three years. I've since stopped buying their products and learned a great deal more about coffee. I was NEVER able to get such good results from that machine as I get from the solid high-performance Italian dream that is the X5. Beautifully designed by Luca Trazzi, the gorgeous sleek eye-popping yellow was the one for me; it really warms up all the cold stainless-steel in my kitchen. The unit's inner workings are most definitely top quality! Believe the other comments about the post-shot drip -it's only a minor annoyance, but very noticeable. It certainly doesn't interfere with the quality of the espresso you'll produce with the X5, though what a perfect shot of espresso all three layers plainly visible, and the Supercrema system definitely delivers! The steaming wand fits comfortably into my tilted larger milk-steaming pitcher, and produces fluffy, dense foam like I've only had in restaurants before. If daily espresso intake is vital to your happiness, like it is to mine, do yourself a favor and take the plunge -it's most definitely not the cadillac of machines when compared to those automated jobs that do everything but wipe your ... nose for you and take all the fun and romance out of pulling your own espresso shots, but it delivers superior and as close as you can get to professional quality espresso and steamed milk as possible without the hefty price tag attached to machines of that calibur. Thank you, FrancisFrancis!!

PS spring for the Illy coffee, too it's simply the best!

Jura 13423 Impressa S9 One Touch Automatic Coffee-and-Espresso Center, Platinum

These are fantastic machines. I've had 2 Capresso Superautomatics over the past 8 years. The first was a used one that we had for about a year before it had to go in for service, we sold it three years later when we moved. The second, our Impressa S9 is about 4 years old now. We purchased it new and it's never been in for service. We make 2 4 Cappuccinos/Lattes daily.

The Good: Easy to use, setup is easy. I suggest reading the S9 review on Coffee Geek to get an idea of how you want to setup your machine, depending on what drinks you create most often. The machine has many adjustments and the default factory settings may not get you what you expect. The machine warms up quickly and can be programmed to come on automatically, so it will be ready when you walk into the kitchen. It holds a lot of water and a fair amount of coffee beans. It has a bypass for the coffee so that you can put in your own ground coffee for such things a decaf or if you're trying different beans or using an external grinder. Brew temperature is excellent and consistent.

The Neutral: It does require regular maintenance; empty the grounds, empty the water tray, clean the grounds from within the machine (we do this once a week), cleaning the brew groups with the special tablet (usually once a month), changing the water filter and descaling (usually every 2 3 months). The good news is that many of these tasks are automated.

The Bad: It takes a lot of trial and error to get the taste that you want. The coffee puck size is smallish (46mm, vs. around 54mm on most professional machines), the brew time is too fast (13 15 seconds vs. ~25 30 seconds on a professional), the path from the ground coffee to the brew head is too long (i.e. what you just ground will show up in the 2nd or 3rd cup), there is no way to turn off the pre-infusion. Getting micro-foam for your cappuccino takes practice.

That said this machine will produce an excellent espresso, cappuccino, latte, etc. if you're willing to experiment and set it up to suit your taste.

There are numerous comments in the other reviews here that I'd like to discuss.

Customer Service: Don't know what people are expecting. You wouldn't expect a new car if you had problems once your warranty is up? Our experience is that they are excellent; they do a thorough job and provide you with a machine that's been thoroughly tested. Yes, if you only needed to clean the contacts on the drip tray the $375 is pricey but they don't know that they go through the entire machine. This is about as good as Customer Service for a Consumer Product gets. DIY parts and instructions are available, google buessert.de, you can purchase parts however, you'll need special tools, have excellent manual dexterity, and a lot of patience.

Maintenance: You'll need to follow the regular drip tray emptying, grounds emptying, removing extra grounds from inside the machine, Keep the drip tray contacts clean, the regular internal cleaning cycle with the special tablet, and regular water filter changes. Not difficult, but does require effort.

Beans: We've tried many, many different coffee beans. Anyone who says they can't get a good espresso or cappuccino hasn't explored enough beans (or varied their setting per coffee geek). Because of the limitations listed above, the beans that give you good results will be different than what your local Barista uses. Our favorite, and what we think works best in this machine are the Intelligentsia Black Cat Classic Espresso beans but big CAVEAT not the ones sold on Amazon, buy directly from intelligentsia otherwise you'll probably get beans that are anywhere from 4 weeks to 3 months old. Buy directly and get beans that have been roasted within the last few days yes, it makes a difference. Our second choice, are the Lavazza Pienaroma, and yes these will be older beans but we think brew a decent cappuccino. If you have oily beans, you should not be using them in this machine, they are over roasted, and they will tend to clog up the machine as they will stick in various places remember the ground coffee moves through the machine by gravity. You'll need to pay much closer attention to where the grounds are accumulating and make sure to wipe them away. We only use the finest grind setting and really wish there was one finer setting.

Water: Many folks indicate that they are using bottled water or filtered water. That's great and good water will help. The machine is sensitive to the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the water (Amazon sells a number of TDS meters you can use to test your water) and the filter will remove much of those as well as many other things in the water. RO water will typically have TDS in the 5 10 ppm range and will not leave behind much residue inside the machine. If you have this, you can probably use a single filter for several times and just rinse it when the machine says to change the filter. If you have water that's above about 40 ppm (that's most of us, including bottled water users) you'll need to change the filter and run the descale program regularly. Our water is whole house RO and typically has about 80 ppm TDS (need this to keep from dissolving our copper pipes) and we typically keep a filter for two cycles, and then replace it.

Foamed Milk: It's difficult to achieve good microfoam, but not impossible. The frothXpress Plus system will typically not do a good job at this, it's better for warming the milk. Manually frothing milk can achieve adequate results. The biggest variable we've found is the milk. If you're not getting reasonable results try different milk. Typical 2% major store brand bought milk does not do a good job for us. We usually end up with milk from smaller Dairies. Google "Scott Rao steam milk" and watch his video and practice with water and a drop of soap until you get it. Then you have a fighting chance. It's easy to achieve big bubbly frothy milk but that's not what you want.

Temperature: I see a number of complaints about temperature in the reviews. The espresso comes out at a pretty constant 194º F if you've set the temperature to the "hot" setting that's too hot to drink without scalding your mouth. But you're getting like 1.5 ounces of liquid from an espresso shot and then if you're making a cappuccino, another 3.5 ounces of milk at 150º F. If you're putting this into a cold ceramic cup, yes it will be tepid; all the heat will be going into heating up the cup. You've got to pre-heat the cup before you add the coffee. Fill your cold cup up with hot water from the tea portion and let it warm the cup, then discard the water and make your drink you'll have a very hot cappuccino. The frothXpress Plus system produces heated milk that's in the 150º F range and manually frothing the milk you can go up as high as you want, which will scald the milk. With the frothXpress Plus system it's very important that the top on the container is in tight and the small hole in the lid is the only place where air can get in, otherwise you will not get good results. So I'm not sure why folks are getting cold drinks.

If you're willing to spend some time and setup your machine (and for this kind of money, you should) you'll get a very acceptable espresso/cappuccino. But you do have to read the manual and experiment. I hope this helps some folks out and sheds some light on some of the issues described in other reviews.

Update: Going on 7 years and still working strong. We've had to send the machine in for maintenance in 2011 since it stopped working. Essentially $250 covers the maintenance and shipping. They replaced some critical parts and returned the machine in solid condition. Still strongly believe this is normal for anything mechanical and am still very pleased with the product. Heck, don't think we can get 7 years out of anything today.

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We've had the S9 for over 5 years now. The customer service is pretty good when you have a maintenance question. Makes the most of a good coffee bean by ensuring you get a hot espresso with a lot of real crema. Use strong non-oily beans for the best coffee in the world. Brands I have used include Intelligentsia, Lutz, Kimbo, Lavazza, and others. Again, stay away from oily beans. What I really like about this machine is you can make other coffee (in addition to the beans you have loaded in the machine). It has a one button function to override the beans you already have loaded and lets you add grounds to a compartment at the front of the machine. For example, I have Dunkin Donuts decaf grounds on hand for folks that want a decaf coffee. I also have decaf espresso grounds.

Keep up with the maintenance on this machine and it will take care of you. It's pricey, so just keep up with the maintenance to get your money's worth. The machine will let you know when it's time to change the water filter, clean using the tablets, and de-calcify.

After having a coffee from this machine, we never go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop for coffee. Their stuff will not compete. Maybe over 5 years, we broke even on this machine by the $$ we saved by not spending 4-5 bucks on double lattes. Good luck with your choice.

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I have used capresso coffee makers for 10 years, starting with the basis C1000. The quality of the coffee is outstanding. I have had the impressa S9 for about 7 years. My problem is the repair record.

My husband and I average 6 cups of coffee per day for the two of us. I follow the maintenance instructions scrupulously, i.e. change the Claris filter and use the cleaning tablet on schedule.(I might add that the filters cost $16 and need to be changed monthly. I also use filtered water.

However, on a yearly basis there is a function failure of one kind or another and I need to send it to the factory in Closter, New Jersey. The flat rate for the Impressa is $275. The warranty on the service is for about 60 days. I have been unable to find a local repair service that will repair it. The last minor function failure was about 5 months ago and it was returned to my home within 4 days after I mailed it. This tells me the repair is limited to the particular problem and there is not a general inspection for further potential problems. Now, 5 months later< I am getting a "Malfunction 4" message and I am unable to make coffee. The response of the company? You guessed itthe fee will be another $275.

I decided to give up on my beloved Impressa and find another product.

Read Best Reviews of Jura 13423 Impressa S9 One Touch Automatic Coffee-and-Espresso Center, Platinum Here

I spent hours researching Automatic Espresso machines. After reading the specs and reviews, the S9 seemed like it was the Gold Standard of espresso machines. But is it?...

I used the machine for an average of 2-4 espressos per day.

ConstructionEverything you see and touch on the machine is plastic except the cup warming tray on top of the machine, and the tray under the espresso/coffee cup. For over $2,000 I think everything that looks stainless...should be. The machine itself is heavy so there must be metal inside.

Foamthe foam produced with the foam attachment is sub-par. Although not large, the foam bubbles are not micro. As the nozzle is used over time (approx. 3 months), you will notice the bubbles become progressively larger. Dis-assembly and cleaning helps but they are still too large. I believe the machine does not produce adequate steam pressure to make "coffee house" style foam. You will not be making any foam designs with this machine!

SteamAs mentioned, it's not sufficient. It's slow to produce.

CoffeeThe coffee is not drinkable. No matter what settings are used it just tastes like watered down bitter coffee. Almost any $20 drip coffee maker is better. If I included the coffee quality in the rating, it would have to drop one more star.

EspressoI could not adjust the grinder to a setting much smaller than medium because of a design fault. If the grinder is adjusted too small (espresso size), the coffee beans will not flow. It has nothing to do with the coffee bean oil. After using the machine for 6 months, coffee bean oil did cause the machine to indicate beans must be added when there were still beans in the hopper. It is easy to rectify, just keep extra beans in the hopper. After adjusting the grind size to medium, it works. It uses more beans than it should but, I love the espresso! I am spoiled now. I can't drink regular coffee because I love latte's from this machine. This is why my rating on the machine is higher than 1 star.

ElectronicsReally cool. This machine indicates when it needs cleaning, beans, water, descaling, old grinds removed etc. It comes with a 1 time use stick to test water hardness. Once i set the hardness the machine indicates when it needs to be decalcified. All steamers need this done at some point. For me, it's every 3 months. I don't have soft water nor really hard water from the tap but I use filtered water which is a not hard at all.

ServiceWithin the first 6 months the machine quit. I followed the troubleshooting guide in the book without positive results. I called customer service, they sent me a shipping box with return postage. I didn't pay for any shipping to or from New York. I'm in California. They said they refurbished the machine. All Free! That was great customer service! Within 2 months steam progressively got worse and worse with less and less steam until finally it didn't foam at all. And it began leaking. Mostly it leaked into the coffee tray but sometimes it leaked under the tray. My mistake was waiting. I did not want to do without my latte for 6 weeks again. Because it was now outside the 1 year warranty period, I had to pay $275 to have Jura fix the problem they created with their repair! I argued with the service person to no avail.

MiscellaneousDue to the "duel heating element" I thought I could make one espresso while I steamed milk. Not so. The machine will only allow one function at a time. The machine is loud! People have to yell for me to hear them when speaking in the same room.

ConclusionI do not recommend this automatic espresso machine. I doubt any automatic machine will match the local espresso house's manual machine. For the almost $3,000 I paid for the machine, I should have bought a cheaper manual machine and spent the rest on a mini vacation.

Update: The machine is now about 3 yrs old. It quit again. The fancy electronic brain is telling me the tray needs to be emptied even though it was just emptied. Of course the machine is out of warrantee and after sending it back for repairs 2 times already, I'm done! Customer service says I need to return it again for "refurbishing". I am not spending another $275 to have them "refurbish" the machine again. I just did it 6 months ago. Their "refurbished" warrantee is only 3 months. That's a rediculous joke! You may have figured it out, I am not happy!

New Update: I talked to a "Jura Capressi Guru" I found on the internet. He said to clean the electric tabs in the back of the waste tray with soap and a toothbrush. It worked! I've got my machine working again. Why couldn't customer service make the suggestion. Maybe they wanted another $275?

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We had a horrible experience dealing with Jura Capresso customer service.

After buying a $1200 Jura Capresspo F8 machine and using for 3 years, we had to fix it once (paid additional $230), a bit less than year later we started suffering water leaks now. So we claled in to ask for a repair with no charges, and after long conversation essentially my wife was told by MR Rodriguez (lead CS @JC) in a very disrespectful manner that if "we did not like it, we'd better buy another machine/brand" or pay the @230 for another fix.

So, now we're following MR. Rodriguez (from Jura Capresso CS) advice and we'll probably buy a Gaggia Brera (or any other brand) cause we do not want to deal with Jura's horrible customer service ever again.

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Bialetti Mini Express 2-Cup Stovetop Percolator

The Mini Express works great. It's easy to use and clean (remember not to use soap), and it brews some nice expresso. I'm usually just making coffee for myself, so I bent one of the spouts around so they both go into one larger cup; I'm not sure if you're supposed to do that, but it worked fine.

A couple of other remarks: The cute cups in the picture aren't included :(, and at the end of the brew, it tends to "spit" coffee until you remove it from the heat. If your cups are tall enough, it's not a problem, but otherwise you'll get little coffee specks all over your stove.

I purchased this Bialetti Mini Express as a present for my husband. We have several Bialetti mokas and are thoroughly satisfied with them so I did not hesitate in purchasing this one. Unfortunately, this model does not make two equal cups of coffee. One expresso is almost full and overly strong. The second cup is one third full and very weak. It is possible to mix the two for a double shot, but alone they are undrinkable. This product is a disappointment.

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Let me begin by saying that I am a Bialetti fan. However, I would recommend that you avoid this particular product. I've used it about 20 times since I've gotten it and only once did I get reasonably equal volumes in the two cups. Usually, it's about 70%/30%, always favoring one particular side. I've tried taking the filter out to see if there were any obstructions, but didn't see any. I've tried heating at different rates but to no avail. Rinsing the top part upside-down under the tap results in equal amounts of water coming out each spout so I know it's not plugged. Eventually I may try crimping the more productive spout a bit in order to constrict the flow in hopes that that will remedy the problem...

Anyway, I usually end up having to pour from one cup to the other to make them roughly equal volumes which is messy. Tonight, the cups were about 97%/3%, which prompted this review. I'm very, very disappointed, however, I'll still probably end up buying a Bialetti 3-cup caffetiera to replace it.

UPDATE, August 30th, 2010: This thing still sucks. I just bought a DeLonghi Espresso machine and it dispenses two equal volume cups. I'm probably going to chuck the Bialletti 2-cup.

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I purchased this brewer at a local shop in Brazil about 4 months ago, and brewed nearly daily on it. My first brews were uneven and made a mess on my stove. After quite a few bad brews and almost giving up on it, I began to understand what was going on.

I usually brewed finely-ground coffee and got mediocre results. I would, usually, fill the basket up to the top, tapping it just a little bit, and let it heat. Coffee would begin to brew unevenly, leaving me with a tiny extra-strong cup and a large extra-weak one. In other words, bad coffee. If I took too long to turn off the heat, there would also be coffee spills everywhere in the kitchen.

If you run a test brew with no coffee grounds in it, only water, you'll see it comes out perfectly even on both cups. I realized what the secret was after getting a sack of coarsely-ground gourmet coffee from a relative. Being coarser, the grounds would allow a free flow of water even if I filled the basket up to the top and tapped it. That way coffee would come out perfectly even on both cups. Coarse grounds give you a milder brew, but that's a matter of taste.

Learning from that, I realized that I couldn't fill the basket up to the top with finely-ground and tap it. Water wouldn't flow evenly and coffee would come out wrong.

Nowadays, I usually fill the basket leaving about 2-3mm free space at the top of the basket when using finely ground coffee and progressively less free space the coarser my grounds are. That leaves space for water to flow through more easily, making evrn cups of coffee.

That's a peculiarity of its unique design. There's a limit to how strong your coffee can be, and that will depend on the grind and toast of the coffee you"re using. A regular stovetop won't be limited by that, but it also wont' look this charming to a visitor.

In my opinion, this is the most charming way to enjoy a cup with your coffee-loving significant other. Great value, as long as you learn its ways.

**Regarding the coffee spills, it's all about timing when you turn off the heat. I turn it off just before air begins to come out of the coffee machine, that is, just before it ends brewing. I set the heat to minimum, wait for it to brew and, very few seconds after the brew begins to come out in a very light yellowish tint, turn the heat off. That's just before the brew ends. This reduces coffee spills to nearly zero.

Definitely NOT a novelty item!!

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I have been looking at electric countertop espresso makers for years, but was afraid to buy one because of the cost and size. We got one of these on a whim because it was so cute, and it has worked wonderfully! It only takes about 3 minutes to make 2 shots of espresso, and cleans up very easily.