IMUSA B120-43V Aluminum Espresso Stovetop Coffeemaker 6-cup, Silver

The instructions do not tell you exactly when the coffee is done and when to turn off the heat. The plastic parts melted the first time I used it. I am a do-it-yourself type, so I bought a metal knob and some flat aluminum to fashion a new handle. Now it is better than new. It makes great espresso, but the instructions are little help. What the instructions should say is when the top fills with espresso and steam stops coming out of the spout, it's time to turn off the heat. It was well worth the discount price I paid. However, in hindsight, I would not buy one with plastic parts.

Imusa Espresso Coffeemaker, 6 cup

My sister-in-law lives in Austria and is always talking about how weak American coffee tastes to her. I tend to prefer a European-style coffee myself, so did some checking to find out what kind of coffeemaker is most commonly used there. This style seemed to be the one that came up most often.

I ordered this coffeemaker wondering how I'd feel about aluminum once I got it. I had my doubts but went ahead based on the strength of the reviews.

The first 3 pots weren't horrible, but I was glad I'd been warned (through the reviews) that the first few pots wouldn't taste the greatest. Pot #4, and following, have been delicious!

My favorite way to drink this type of espresso is Americano-style. It makes a very robust, yet smooth, cup of coffee this way. I'm able to pour the contents of the coffeemaker into a thermal carafe, add hot water to fill and serve full-flavored coffee to my husband and myself.

Sometimes I do choose to make cappuccino or a macchiato with the full-strength coffee I get from this pot. While it doesn't taste quite as "nutty" as the espresso I used to make with my electric espresso machine, it's still a good cup.

For BEST results, I would recommend that one use a good, dark, espresso-roast coffee, but I've also gotten good results with well-roasted flavored coffees if I'm making Americano-style. The flavored coffees come out with more of the flavor noticeable than when I use other methods of brewing them.

A drawback, which is true of all "mochi-style" coffeemakers is that you can't vary the amount of coffee you make... unless you have more than one of these coffeemakers in different sizes. Thanks to other reviews here at Amazon, I knew that going in so I haven't been disappointed.

I have no problem recommending this coffeemaker to anyone who simply wants a good every-day way to make full-flavored coffee with little or no bitterness. If you're looking for espresso that tastes exactly like what you get in a coffee-bar, you may be disappointed. It's good espresso, but it doesn't taste exactly like what you get from a machine. Again, I already knew that from the reviews so I wasn't disappointed.

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I received this item as a gift and I am extremely pleased with it. Some other reviewers complained of poor instructions or melted handles. Perhaps the manufacturer has made some changes as my espresso maker did come with instructions that made it very simple to use. They specifically state that one should keep the handle positioned so that it is not directly over the burner. I have had many, many cups of espresso in the last week without any problems. The size is perfect for two people to enjoy some delicious espresso and cleaning is so easy. I think this product is fantastic for the price, especially if you are mindful of the plastic handle and keep it away from the direct flame.

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i received my espresso maker yesterday and right out of the box it had large cracks in the aluminum on the inside tube on the top half. i guess the quality control is non existing. sending it back today...not gonna order another.

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Ordered this item twice. First time, it arrived with the handle broken off. Second time, it melted after about 2 minutes on the stove. Definitely not satisfactory, even considering the very low price.

Pasquini Livia 90 Semiautomatic Commercial Espresso/Cappuccino Machine

I bought the Pasquini Livia 90 Automatic in 2002. The version I needed was for 240 volt operation so it was shipped from Italy. At the same time I also ordered the grinder and 2 drawer base. I had spent a lot of time reading reviews and comments on several sites for a wide variety of machines. The number of reviews which compared their brands to the Pasquini Livia machines was what really sold me on the Pasquini. You don't compare your machine(s) to lesser machines, you compare against the best. If so many various reviews used Pasquini as a target then it must be well worth a look. I am glad I did, it is an extremely well built and reliable machine.

I have mine on for 12 to 16 hours per day and make and serve quite a lot of espresso and cappuccino to family and friends. The Pasquini is also used for tea, cocoa, instant soups and anything else that calls for the use of near boiling water. The machine gets it right every time, any variation in quality is due to the coffee, the milk or the user. It took a bit of time to learn how to use it effectively but it has never disappointed me.

The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is due to the choice of a plastic water storage reservoir in the machine. I think that a stainless steel tank would be a better choice due to the effects of age, heat and vibrations which caused some cracks in my original tank. Pasquini replaced it free of charge even though the machine was out of warranty! A stainless steel tank would add to the noise level though and it already is not a stealthy machine. The pump is by no means quiet, but it certainly does the job and I'm sure will continue to do so for years to come.

I recommend Pasquini without reservation based on the machine and the service I have had when dealing directly with the company on several occasions.

This is a serious coffee machine. It's "commercial quality" so it's heavy (almost 50lbs) and very well built. It takes up some counter space (mostly depth) but it looks elegant and is easy to keep clean. The portafilter (handle with basket for coffee) is very sturdy and fits snugly. It has a useful ready gauge and simple buttons (as noted above) for on-off and start-stop.

Now the important stuff: It makes great coffee consistently. I moved up to this machine from a Braun pump espresso machine. This one has better pressure and temperature. I used to brag about my Braun machine because it was inexpensive and made consistently good esperesso. The first shots I pulled from this machine made me realize that I didn't realize what I was missing. If you know how to make espresso, this machine lets you pull easy, consistent, and quality shots.

Another great feature of this machine is the continuous steam and hot (very hot!) water outlet. If you've ever had trouble steaming milk on machine you'll be impressed and maybe even surprised at how well this works. The machine also recovers well and quickly after you pull shots or use the steam wand.

The tanks is removable and holds a lot of water. It's easy to fill in place as well. You can leave this machine on all day if you like (it's designed to work that way) and you might want to if you're like me and drink too much coffee. The reason is that it can take a little while to warm up if it's been off for a while. That's probably the only thing I'm not fond of with this machine. First thing in the morning it can take a while to warm up (5-10 mins). This makes sense given the size and build of the machine. It simply takes time to warm up to the proper brewing temperature. However, I had gotten used to a machine that only takes a couple of minutes. So, my new morning routine includes going down to turn on the machine and coming down after my shower for my great coffee!

If you've never had a pump machine before, you may need some practice, but I think this is a good machine to learn on (due to its consistency). Just remember to follow the instructions (especially not to overfill the filter) and adjust either the grind of your coffee or the pressure of your tamping to get the desired results.

I hope this is helpful to you if you're considering this machine. I'd say it does well or better to other machines in this price range. It's a definite step up in quality and build from the machine's you'll find in the $500-1000 price range. It's a complete improvement in machine and coffee from pretty much any machine under $500.

One last comment, Pasquini has been excellent and very responsive to questions. I'm very pleased to see them here on Amazon.

Good luck with your quest for great coffee...I found it with this machine!

UPDATE: I originally posted this review in 2005. Almost 4 years later, I'm still very happy with my Pasquini and find it makes consistently good coffee. My only comment after all these years is that a little maintenance on this machine goes a long way. Regular backflushing and occasional cleaning keep it working great. We've had to replace one gasket that Pasquini was very kind in sending us. So, overall I would still highly recommend this machine. Hope this is helpful!

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I have just received the machine from Illy USA at a very attractive price (considering I order the Illy beans regularly anyway, their price on this machine with a one-year coffee subscription is a excellent indeed). I have been needing to replace an espresso machine every 2 years ca., I figured, I might as well try out one considered to be in the light duty commercial catagory.

After the first few cups I learned the proper pressure on the temper and out came from the machine coffee that any Italian coffee bar would be proud of. It could be my imagination, but, the brew from this mahcine seems to be stronger (more bitter) then the Saeco, Krup, and Solis ($300 range machines). Although the crema is not as much when compared with the others I used before. Also, being able to leave the machine on all day long means instant hot water/steam which is very nice for a small office environment. I used the hot water mainly to heat the cups. It does however, take about 7 minutes to reach its operating condition (to bring a mass of water to the proper temperature and pressure in the internal boiler) when first turned on every morning and the noise from the pump that transfers water from the holding tank to the boiler is quite loud.

There are some minor flaws that I could see so far. The fit and finish on the machine is fine but not perfect. There are corners on the rear that could be finished a little better and some spot welding marks should be polished out. The water tray (the one below the group head to hold liquid that drips off after a brew) is very small and needs to be emptied quite often.

This is a new machine; thus, I cannot report its long term performance and endurance. My past experience with the $300 range machine is that they last about 2 to 3 years before something expensive to fix breaks. I shall see if this seemingly robust machine will last.

So far, I am very satisfied with it.

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I've owned mine for about 3 years. I an an espresso connoisseur and roast my own beans. Pros for this machine are good build quality, good steaming power and consistently good espresso. I strongly recommend getting an aftermarket 2 HOLE steam tip critical for making microfoam. FORGET the lame-o plastic frothing attachment. It seems to be make for a Starbucks reject. The drain reservoir is WAY too small. Not a huge issue, but a pain in the a$$. I had my pressure relief valve die on me within the first year, but since then pretty smooth sailing. Try not to pay full retail for this and you'll be happy.

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Couldn't be happier with my Livia 90! Reviewers that gave it a bad review because it arrived damaged sort of miss the point of the review. The question is: Does it consistently make great espresso and steam for milk and YES it does! The espresso is perfectly extracted. There are machines that cost a lot more but this one has served me well for more than four years now with daily use and not a problem.

Gaggia 90800 Platinum Vogue Automatic Espresso Machine, Silver

This machine is aesthetically pleasing and pulls great espresso shots. With good quality beans I am able to make as good a latte as I can find in places like Peets with pleasing frothing and nice crema. But the machine is falling apart! After just 4 months the ball joint of the frothing wand is broken and to have it repaired I was told by the US distributor that I must send it back to NY (at my expense) and be without it for 3 weeks.

Bottom line the best machine imaginable if you are ok replacing it reliability and good customer service is not a concern to you. Maurigo

My Gaggia machine works perfectly now,but it wasn't easy to get good one.I had to replace 3 brand new machines because they were broken out of box.I had great support from amazon staff but Gaggia tech support(IMPORTIKA) WAS USELESS AND NOT FRIENDLY AT ALL.

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I agree. Nice looking machine with great tasting espresso but questionable durability. The worst part is that once you send it to New York, Importika the distributor/importer is unresponsive and unreliable. My machine arrived at Importika for service on March 23rd and I am still waiting for an ETA. Gaggia has always stood for the highest quality. I am afraid that this awesome machine may fail in the last mile: durability and service from its importer.

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We've had this Gaggia for almost three years now (updated from our original review -still very happy with it). We use it every day to make probably 10 cups a day. This is one VERY nice machine and it has been completely dependable. Excellent espresso and coffee, and of course it pays for itself compared to buying by the cup. It has a fairly quiet grinder, and if you want to make coffee while kids are sleeping just put your hand over the single-dose hopper and the sound level drops by about 80%, making it really quiet. It takes about a minute to heat up from standby mode. After that, it produces espresso in 50 sec., regular coffee in 90 sec. We bought the milk island and it works, but isn't worth the effort: Cleaning it is a major hassle, and it's easier and faster just to foam the milk manually with the steam spout, which you can rinse off in a few seconds while the coffee is brewing. The steam spout has a sleeve so it isn't too hot to touch.

There is a much more expensive version of this machine that has more electronics -save your money and get this one. The coffee produced is exactly the same.

The Gaggia is incredibly versatile. You can use the presets, you can adjust the presents to suit you, you can program the machine to brew just the way you want for each type of coffee using "learning" mode, or you can just press the start button again to stop the brewing. You can adjust the amount of coffee. You can bypass the grinder and use single doses of ground coffee -for example to make a cup of decaf. You can make hot water for tea or steam for cappuccino using the steam/hot water spout.

The tank has a water filter that is optional to use and the machine has a descaling cycle that we don't need because we use only distilled water, which I highly recommend. (If you can afford this Gaggia, you can afford a distiller too!) It also has an automatic cleaning cycle for everything but the brew group, which itself is very easy to clean by rinsing it off.

The four minor but irritating downsides: (1) A stupid design flaw for such an expensive machine is that the "fill the water tank" message is useless. It OUGHT to display the message when there's not enough water to make the type of coffee you select. Instead, if there's not enough water, the machine doesn't warn you. It will go ahead and start the brewing, abort it in mid-cycle when the water runs out, and THEN display the message (which might as well say "you should have filled the water tank"). The result is wasted time and coffee beans. To prevent this from happening, each time before you make coffee, you have to pull the water container to see whether there is enough water. There's not even a visual water-level indicator. This got to be so annoying that I made my own water-level indicator by drilling a hole through the plastic exterior and into the bottom of the tank, inserting a transparent tube and silicone-gluing it in, and inserting the top (open) end of the tube into another drilled hole in the plastic just above the top of the tank. I marked low and high water levels. Problem solved! See photo. With that one irritating problem solved, the machine is just about perfect. The other downsides listed below are minor by comparison.

(2) There is no optional water-feed option similar to a refrigerator icemaker water line connection. The tank has to be refilled a LOT, in part because the coffee is so good that you tend to drink a lot of it. When I was solving problem #1, I added another plastic tube that runs from our water distiller, so that we can manually fill the tank when our homemade water-level indicator shows that the level is low. The photo shows that too.

(3) The single-dose unit is very picky; use just a tad more than the standard amount of coffee and it will reject the whole thing, abort the brewing, and dump the wet but unused ground coffee in the dump bin.

(3) Even if you use only distilled water, this machine insists on descaling its boiler every month or so, even when the water-hardness scale is set to minimum. There is no "0" or "distilled water" setting. So you have to let it run the descaling cycle, which takes about 10 min. and half a gallon of water, and it's happy.

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have used many super automatic machines and this makes by far the best espresso that I have ever had. The espresso comes out nice and slow and is dark and rich. The milk island makes a very creamy froth and is easy to clean but I normally use the steam wand, which also works great. The grinder is very quiet so I can use it and not wake up my wife (I get up early). I very highly recommend this beautiful machine!!!!!

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Senseo Coffee Pods

Our Senseo coffee machine was given to us as a house warming gift, and we have loved from the first time we used it! The dark roast coffee pods seem to taste so much better than any other brand or flavor I have ever made from home. The dark roast blend is simply the best. It is smooth, rich, and brews so quickly in our new machine, it's fantastic. I suggest using stevia powder as a natural (and chemical free!) sweetener with this blend, 30 Grams (1.06 Oz) Stevia 95% Steviosides Bulk Powder. I don't even use cream anymore, no kidding!

These pods are excellent. They are great hot or cold. I did not purchase the special pod holder; I believe the regular single pod is just fine.

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We were among the first owners of a free Senseo coffeemaker way back like 10 or more years ago. We have a white machine in our laundryroom & then bought my husband a black one for work. Soooooooo I guess you could say we looooooove this coffee/method of making it, & medium roast is the best. I recently saw Douwe Egberts non-pod coffee @ a local gourmet shop & it was like $9 something for 12oz! Good to know one can get the coffee to use in a regular drip pot as well, however, @ that price, I guess we will just continue to have this as "treat coffee" via our machine.

All this being said, I would like to say that @ both Target & Walmart here in Buffalo, NY area stores, I can get the pods for $4.24 each. However, when Target in particular, wants to rotate stock, they mark it down to the wonderful price of $4!!!!! Needless to say, I buy them out, go to another store & do the same. That's almost $4 less for 6 bags than Amazon sells it for!!!! I encourage all of you Senseoholics to do the same & check out the above mentioned stores. I wish Amazon would stop reminding me it's so cheap, when they don't mark it down to Target's level.

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Years ago Philips and Douwe Egberts were partners in the development of the machine and coffee pods. The copyright on the pod system was ruled invalid and a decision was made to offer the pods via on line vendors only; no more brick and mortar stores. Philips then sold their share of the coffee business to Douwe Egberts and are moving pod production to Brazil. This is causing the delay, especially with the Dark Roast. According to Senseo the coffee should be by June or July at the latest. Or so they say. I am surprised that they have not made this info more available. Seems like many will simply move on to another coffee machine. Meanwhile try using a regular coffee filter and espresso grind your own coffee. I've tried Starbucks coffee and not bad. Less creama, but good flavor. Google 'make your own coffee pods' to see the methods used to trim the filter and pack the coffee. It's easy, but not so easy as dropping two pods and pushing the start button.

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I enjoy my senseo so much more now that I have these pods. I had worked as a barista for 8 years and was having a hard time adjusting to life without free lattes. I certainly won't say that Senseo espresso by itself is in the same league as freshly ground, coffee shop espresso, but having the freedom to easily and cheaply make my favorite coffee drinks at home has been a Godsend. I usually mix two shot of Senseo espresso with a spoonful of Xylitol, a spoonful of Black and Green brand unsweetened cocoa powder, and a splash of half and half for a sugar-free mocha that tastes almost as good as one from coffee shop, but for about a quarter of the price. Try it!

Bialetti 9 Cup Moka Espresso Stovetop Coffee Maker

I purchased the 9 cup coffeemaker for my husband who is never happy with the drip coffeemakers I usually buy. He complains that the coffee is not strong enough. Well this coffee is STRONG. Originally this is an espresso maker. I put about 3 scoops of coffee beans into my grinder and then into this little guy, fill the water up to the line, cook on the stovetop for about 10 minutes and I get two smaller cups of coffee. Then I make another pot. I should have bought a bigger size so we could each have two big cups of coffee at a time, but it's hard to know how big these things are and how much they make since all the descriptions are for cups of espresso...very small cups. But it is simple to use and the coffee is strong and robust and my husband is happy. The only complaint I have is it a bit to small-I should have gotten a bigger size. Otherwise, it's awesome!