Cafe and Tracanzan 12 Cup Espresso Coffeemaker Replacement Gasket

Bought for my 12 cup Bialetti Espresso maker. It's not a perfect fit, but will work just fine, once you screw the two bialetti parts together. For $5 bucks...it works fine. Probably will just go with an OEM gasket next time...but can't complain for $5

Espressione 1387 Caffe Novecento Espresso/Cappuccino Machine, Chrome

First... I'm not an employee of Espressione...

I've read many reviews on this item, most of them, not very positive. I thought I would add my 2 cents as I have had this machine for a little over 2 months.

Let's start with day 1. Dead on Arrival. Bummer. Well, it was easy enough to return to the place I purchased (Sams). They sent me a new one within 3 days, and I was excited to get started. Before you buy this machine, make sure you make this checklist:

1. I have a decent conical burr grinder ( )

2. I am aware that I need to buy fresh beans to get real crema ( )

3. I have a decent tamper in the 58mm variety ( )

4. I am not a total espresso geek, but I have owned a cheap machine or two ( )

5. I never pay retail for espresso machines ( )

If you've checked most of these, feel free to continue, if you haven't, don't buy this machine. It's not for you. If you're an uber espresso geek, go buy your PID'd Rancilio Silvia or your Le Lit. You don't belong here. This machine has an aluminum boiler that has heat issues just like the rest of the lower grade machines do. It does hold heat better than most, but seriously, if you're in the $600 market, you shouldn't be looking at this machine. You can get this machine at "other" vendors in the $230 range. And for that price, there isn't a whole lot that's better. Maybe a Gaggia... but I'm sick of those pieces of plastic.

Physical Traits: It's pretty... Very pretty. It's also pretty solid and heavy at 24ish lbs. It is tall, and yes, you do have to hold on while attaching the portafilter. However, it's not as bad as previous reviewers have stated. The portafilter is almost as heavy as my Reneka Viva single group commercial machine at work. It has a very nice (and handy) temperature gauge on the top of the machine that is very useful.

Espresso:

Probably the best part of this said portafilter is that it has options for brewing espresso. If you have a decent grinder, you can remove the "crema enhancing" disks inside and use it's regular filter basket just like a higher end machine (a serious plus for me...). The pump has plenty of pressure to press fine ground espresso and make wonderful crema (as long as your beans are fresh). Some reviewers have stated the espresso is cold. Here's my typical process:

1. Fire up the machine into the standby position (heats boiler to just about 100 degrees C)

2. Once the temp is up, for the first shot of the day I do a quick blank shot to keep the portafilter warm.

3. I warm my cup up with warm water

4. Pull the shot. Enjoy.

I'm guessing people find the espresso cold is the massive portafilter is cold. Once it's warm, it stays warm. But honestly, I've had some pretty nice shots.

Steam:

Yup, it pretty much sucks in from the factory form. The machine makes plenty of steam for my latte's, but not without modification. The tip they give you for the wand is awwwwfuuuullll. Replace it with somethign... or trim it down. I used my Delonghi Ec155 tip on mine and it makes nice micro foam. But the original allows too much air into the mix. Foul bubbly milk... no thanks.

Yes, the wand is too close to the machine, but I have got used to it. It' not that big of an issue, and quite frankly I'm not that picky for $230 bucks shipped. If I were spending $700, I'd be furious.

Well I think that just about wraps it up. I really appreciate good espresso. Sure, there are plenty of better machines out there, but this one suits me just fine. Hope you enjoyed this review and that it is somewhat sobering.

I needed to add this review after I purchased this product and reread the reviews that helped me make the decision to buy. It is now obvious to me that these were paid reviews. A few of them appear in exact or similar wording on several websites.

This is a nice looking machine but out of the box we were disappointed with the quality of most of the parts. The drip tray is a very thin metal and even worse are the plastic levers and steam wand. It does come with a quality portafilter and we did really like the temp gauge on the top as well as the slick blue lights.

If you have a good grinder, the espresso this machine produces is decent with some crema, but the bigger problem is the steam wand. It only moves forward and back, and is very short you will either be holding the pitcher throughout steaming or you will need to stack something under your pitcher which is always likely to spill (and isn't all of this fiddling and rigging one of the reasons you wanted to upgrade in the first place?). And the production of steam is just poor. You can pay much less for many of the budget machines and they will serve you much better.

Bottom line, please do not buy this machine unless you can find it for less than $300 (I haven't seen it for less than $400 so I'm talking a closeout price here). We returned ours and purchased a Rancilio Silvia for $550 and it is a quality piece of machinery inside and out. If you are looking for a machine that is more practical (the Silvia has a learning curve), go with a Gaggia. This machine is lovely (from a few feet away) but not worth the money!

Buy Espressione 1387 Caffe Novecento Espresso/Cappuccino Machine, Chrome Now

It looks absolutely great, but that's not why you spend $400-500 for an espresso machine. This is my first machine at this level, so I'm not a complete expert, but I do know a good shot when I drink it. It took me some time to get used to it. The portafilter needs some serious muscle to tighten. I use the rail on top to provide leverage and it has actually gotten easier with time. The most important thing to know about the Novecento is that it has a powerful pump, so you have to use a fine grind and tamp REALLY hard. I bought a 58mm metal tamper Rattleware 58-Milimeter Round-Handled Tamper, Long and it made all the difference. The plastic one provided is almost useless. Properly ground and tamped, the espresso is excellent with plenty of crema. It takes a couple minutes to go from brewing temp up to steaming temp. The steam wand is close to the body and does not allow for a lot of room to maneuver the milk pitcher, but what can I say, it works! I just hold the pitcher there until it's ready under a minute. Overall, quite functional and as I said, beautiful.

Read Best Reviews of Espressione 1387 Caffe Novecento Espresso/Cappuccino Machine, Chrome Here

This machine looks like $1000 kitchen toy. If you learn or know how to use it properly you be satisfied with results. The best frothed milk and excellent espresso, I use Lavazza btw. This machine worth every dollar it cost. I owned Krups for few years, and its like night and day comparing to this one.

Want Espressione 1387 Caffe Novecento Espresso/Cappuccino Machine, Chrome Discount?

I bought this machine, even after the negative reviews here, because I got it for $169 (an offer I couldn't refuse). It turns out that the negative reviews are all a bunch of bunk. This machine makes a great shot of espresso and it looks really cool sitting on my kitchen counter! The only gripe I have about the machine is the muscle it takes to get the basket seated properly. I have some minor arthritis in my hands and it makes it rather difficult for me. But, what the heck, I'm getting some serious exercise for my wrists! I also expect it will loosen up after a while.

Now, if this machine lasts as long as my prior Sacco machine lasted, I'll be a very happy camper.

Starbrand Products Gevalia 12-Cup Coffeemaker

I got this free from a Gevalia offer bought 2 pounds of coffee, didn't even have to pay s/h. I liked the looks of it we got the black with stainless steel.

That said, I would never have paid any amount of money for this. The first one broke within a week. It worked for a few days. Then, the coffee came out cold. Then, it stopped working completely.

Gevalia sent a free replacement (the guy on the phone admitted, off the record, that these things break often). They didn't need the old one back, so I opened it up to see if it could be repaired (a hobby of mine).

No surprise that ALL the parts came from Asia. I also discovered that BOTH the pump and the heating element broke, separately. So even if I fixed/replaced the pump, the coffee would still come out cold. This is quite amazing to me, since my previous coffee maker still works after nearly 20 years, and after having been dropped many times. Oddly, the wiring was sturdy & just fine (side note: a high percent of appliance problems/failures are simply frayed wires, which can be easily mended with electrical tape, even by a novice, in under 5 minutes).

The replacement unit came & works (almost 2 years old now). But I still have major problems with it:

Pros:

* Stainless/black steel looks sleek

* Digital clock

* Auto-shutoff

* Reservoir float indicator is nice

Cons:

* "Pause & pour" does NOT work well. Only works 50% of the time, again, due to bad design. The rest of the time it makes a huge mess. This was the case on both my units.

* The stainless finish gets dirty easily

* There is no backup battery, so the clock resets every time you unplug the unit.

* The pump will definitely not last long it's overworked due to poor design/layout.

* Because it's a top-load pump & filter, the steam comes up through the top. You cannot change the filter for 20 minutes, without risk of scalding yourself. It would be very difficult to make 2 consecutive pots of coffee (i.e., if you have guests). Plus, the excessive steam warped the cabinets above the unit.

* The worst problem the reservoir is only about 1" in diameter. It's impossible to load it without spilling.

-> Bottom line: Looks nice, but I've never heard of such a difficult, problematic coffee maker. This almost seems like a practical joke by some engineers, or perhaps designed by someone who has never used a coffee maker before. Avoid this one.

This is your basic coffee maker.

Things you should know:

The "stainless" finish is actually grey paint. That's fine; it doesn't look bad. I would actually describe the color as "aluminum".

It uses cone filters. This is a plus, and what separates this maker from, say, a Mr. Coffee. The rest of it is basically the same thing. Ancient technology.

If you pull the carafe out while coffee's dripping, it'll stop -a "pause" feature. Don't they all do that nowadays?

I never use the timer/programmability feature. As stated elsewhere, the clock has no battery, so, if you unplug it, you have to reset the time. My stove and microwave both have much bigger/brighter/better clocks, so those are my main ones. The main advantage of the electronic on/off switch is that it will switch itself off after some time, in case you forget. Not having the house burn down is always welcome.

There is a water tank float gauge on the side, so you can tell exactly what the water level is. This is nice, especially if you can reach the maker using your sink sprayer, to fill it. (I can't, but wish I could.)

My main complaint? The carafe dribbles when pouring coffee. You have to do it slowly. It's kind of annoying -but not enough to make me buy another one; I'm just going to wait until this one dies. (I've been waiting a while now. Murphy's Law.)

A friend of mine gave me her Cuisinart grind and brew, real stainless, $200 coffee maker. It turned out to be ridiculously complicated and hard to clean and missing some basic feature this one had, so I went back to this simple Gevalia. Simple + reliable = good.

As stated elsewhere, this is the kind of machine you get when you sign up for Gevalia's coffee club. (I didn't do this. I think I bought it used on a leading auction website.)

Would I buy again? Probably. I'd want one that has all the same features, minimum.

Buy Starbrand Products Gevalia 12-Cup Coffeemaker Now

I got this coffeemaker for $14.95 from the Gevalia website with a stainless steel scoop and pound of coffee included. Not sure why anyone would pay $100+ dollars for it when they offer it on their site for next to nothing. That aside this is a great coffeemaker. It has pause and serve feature, so you don't have to wait for it to finish brewing a full pot to pour a cup of coffee. The stainless steel look is perfect for kitchens with or without stainless appliances. All the functions work perfectly and the coffee they offer is GREAT coffee!

Read Best Reviews of Starbrand Products Gevalia 12-Cup Coffeemaker Here

Over 3 months ago in early January, 2009, I ordered a replacement carafe for the "free" coffee maker they sent me. The wrong one was sent. I called and was assured they would send me a return address label. After a month, I called again and was told the same thing. The third time I asked for a supervisor and was told it would be handled. The forth time, I threatened to put up a youtube video and promised results. This was Andy employee number 643113 on April 2. Still nothing in the mail. On April 20 I called again and was told that my credit card had been refunded, but to get the proper carafe I had to re-order and be charged. I said, "You have got to be kidding. After 3 months of hell?" I still have not heard from them, nor do I expect to. I am stuck with the wrong carafe cluttering my house. I sent this review to Gevalia and they simply repeated their new song: your account was refunded to get the correct carafe, re-order. Fat chance!

Want Starbrand Products Gevalia 12-Cup Coffeemaker Discount?

I'd been looking for this coffemaker for about a year; makes great coffee in about 5-6 minutes! Went to the Gevalia website first and they wanted $40(+/s&h) and coffee membership. Amazon had it for only $25, still in the box! Very please with the service-right on time!

Ovente MPE Stovetop Espresso Maker Size: 9 Cup

I used this coffee maker a total of three times. The first time I was learning how to make the coffee; so it was so so. The second time, it made fantastic espresso. The third time, it almost killed me when the pot exploded on the stove. Heat was 'medium', the coffee was coming up nicely when I heard an ominous 'blonk' sound. The bottom part of the maker got a little malformed and canted the canister over a bit. I grab the handle and was lifting it off the flame when the bottom part of the maker blew off sending scalding coffee everywhere. I was incredibly lucky not to have gotten hurt.

DO NOT BUY THIS, ITS A DANGEROUS PRODUCT

Very affordable way to make fantastic espresso. Easy to use, place your desired amount of espresso in the designated area and place right on the stove top. In a short time you have a delicious cup of espresso. easily cleans up just unscrew and wash out. Highly recommended for espresso lovers that can't afford the expensive coffee shops or home brewing machines.

Buy Ovente MPE Stovetop Espresso Maker Size: 9 Cup Now

Primula Aluminum 1 Cup Stovetop Espresso Maker

I have been using a moka pot for years and have never had any problems. My old moka pot finally wore out and I decided to buy this one. The first time I used it just to clean it out, things worked fine. However, this morning I put it on the stove to make my first official espresso and to my surprise (and somewhat horror), I walked back into the kitchen and the handle had melted off the pot, completely off and had fallen onto the side of the stove (I put the pot on the edge of the burner so the handle doesn't get too hot, so fortunately it didn't fall on the burner). I then went to lift the lid to check and see if the coffee had come through and when I lifted the knob on top it came off! It also had melted through. No coffee came up and both handles melted off. As I mentioned, I've been using a moka pot for years, so I know how they work and how to properly use them. Either this particular one is faulty or all of them made by this company are just terribly poor quality. I'm not sure, but I will not try this brand again and I'm returning the one I have.

I have one PRIMULA ALUMINUM ESPRESSO COFFEE MAKER and my very very bad experience was with the handle. It now is completely melted after four or five uses.

Buy Primula Aluminum 1 Cup Stovetop Espresso Maker Now

I can recommend this espresso maker without any complaint (also have one for six cups and the big one does not always makes 6 cups because some water is kept in the lower part of the maker but not with the small 1 cup one!)

Read Best Reviews of Primula Aluminum 1 Cup Stovetop Espresso Maker Here

Miele CM5200 Espresso Machine

I have owned the Miele Cm5200 in black matte for about 3 weeks. We love it. I have had manual and semi automatic machines for about 17 years and when my last one (Breviile) had broken second time in two years, I decided to give this a try. I researched several apsuper automatics and tried in stores the Jura, Krups Barista EA9000 and the Miele CM 5200. The Krupa and the Miele has the best tasting drinks. I selected the Miele based on my past experience wi their customer service on other products and that their literature and warranty options support their claims of 20 years/50,000 shots. The Krups was the same price ($2,500) but claiming 6000 shots.

It takes a few days of finding your grind settings and testing the factory settings of the drinks verses the options you have to increase or decrease the amount of coffee grinds used, temperature and proportions. But once you do that, it is fabulous to get a consistently great tasting coffee drink every time. You can remove and rinse the brew group weekly (cant do with the Krups) and there are automatic reminders to rinse the machines and use the cleaning/Descaling tablets periodically. I use the finest grind setting, 2% milk, the strong (more grinds) and the normal temperature ( there is one hotter) for my latte macchiato and the drink tastes just like the one I get at the coffee shop where I buy my fresh roasted beans. I love not having so much cleanup anymore. No more constant wiping up of grinds on the counter and scraping clean the milk frothier.

4 Cup Coffee Espresso Machine, with Steam Control with Jet Steam Nozzle Espresso Maker

It is cheap, so you can't expect too much from this coffee maker....the taste of your cup of coffee will be awful...you don't want to start your day like that.

Paula Deen 8-Cup Stovetop Percolators

In seeing so many nasty reviews about this little perk pot, I am putting in my two cents. First of all What do all these one and two star folks think this percolator is supposed to do for them?? Take them to Starbucks... I mean, seriously......

The reason I bought this percolator was because I had tried some stove top espresso makers, which clearly made much richer and fully flavored coffee, the only problem was that is was much too strong. It was evident something about the water and steam passing though all the grounds fully, and very slowly was making all the difference in the world. So I bought this percolator to see if this could make a richer home brew that was not as strong as espresso. Indeed this old fashioned process adds to the flavor and if properly perked your coffee will turn out just fine. The coffee is so rich that I save the left overs for iced coffee in the late afternoons during the summer.

Best thing to do is follow the instructions which say to let the water come to a boil then turn it to low heat. Yes, this means you need to stand there by the stove . Yes, if you over cook it, it will taste bitter. Yes, if you put too much water in the percolator it will over flow onto your stove. However, if you fill the percolator and coffee basket half way, all should go well.

The design is nice and this is a very sturdy item. Would have been very helpful if this came with a silicon grip in this day and age. Yes, you have to use a pot holder, just like way back when. Also, the orange is close to a bright red, the red is a very dark red, and the blue is nearly an aqua green.

Would be five stars but for the lack of a silicon grip. Nice job Ms. Paula Deen. Thank you!

It all started with the knives. I moved into this apartment in early Feb., My son gave me a gift card as a house warming so I went on a spree buying

kitchen things. When I considered a new percolator the fact that the landlord payed for the cooking gas entered into the choice. It's not possible to

just go out to Wall-Mart and pick up a stove top unit. I had purchased red knives and red cooking pots so it had to be red. It's a well made product and

a credit to the Paula Deen brand name. I agree with another review I read when shopping on amazon, the bad reviews for this unit come from young people who have never used a crank to lower a car window or lowered a needle on a 78 RPM record.

Buy Paula Deen 8-Cup Stovetop Percolators Now

Best coffee pot I ever had! Bought a DeLonghi coffeepot for over $100 and between filters that had to be purchased every few months, descaling the pot with vinegar, it just wasn't worth it. The descaling didn't work and after a year I threw it away!

The Paula Deen coffeepot makes excellent coffee even without using the strainer, when less coffee is needed, but with excellent flavor!

I even make tea in it. Somehow, the heaviness of the pot and tight, snug double lid gives coffee and tea a full-bodied flavor! It makes coffee so fast, and has a slowly, brewed taste!

Read Best Reviews of Paula Deen 8-Cup Stovetop Percolators Here

We have had our Paula Deen stovetop percolator for more than a year. It brews the best coffee we have ever had. You need to pay attention to when the coffee begins to percolate and then turn the heat down to low and brew for six minutes. We then turn the heat off and let it set for a couple of minutes before pouring. It makes perfect coffee every time.

Want Paula Deen 8-Cup Stovetop Percolators Discount?

Bought this for my hubby, the coffee drinker in the family. Cute, seemed sturdy and sustainable, no plastic, so I bought it.

But this thing takes 20-25 minutes to fully percolate on med-high heat(what a waste of energy!) Seems to be taking longer the older it gets(right now about 6 mos. old). Like other users we also have gotten some some grounds in the coffee.

I wish I could find another one that makes a similar amount that is as pretty as this one! I don't mind having this live on the burner.

Please improve the design, Paula! I'd probably spring for another if issues have been fixed.