De'Longhi BAR32 Retro 15 BAR Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker,BLACK

Update mar 2015The machine is still going after More than 4 years. 2 double shots every day since Dec 2010 though I've thought it was dead several times due to severe clogs. We have hard water though the issue seems to be small bits of coffee that work into the machine and clog the internal paths/valve(s).My 2¢ - pulling the screen with a small screwdriver & using a large, straightened paper clip to strongly push up through some sort or rubber part above the brass housing has brought the coffe making back to life many times. Good as new. Learned that figuring before I threw it away I ought to try. Thin paper clips bend too easy. Voilá!When the steam wand clogs it's a bigger problem. I found that I can sometimea snake it with a pipe cleaner or a wire but 3x I've had to let it get cold... Then open the steam valve and suck or blow (much harder than it seems... Made me glad I'd played trumpet as a kid!) into the tube ... Sucking I'll get water eventully (think thick milkshake, small straw...) and Voilá! Heat it up and I've got Steam!For the $70 I paid I'm pretty happy overall but if my wife had to do this... We'd be on unit #4 by now. Seriously- it would be a 1 year and done, max, without the "maintenance."FYI - the water lid still rattles so loud I putt hand on it when it's running. Sheesh. Read a similar complaint on a $600 model so wtf? And the steam wand, I've learned, is quite weak compared to the Starbucks Barista unit my dad and my office have. But those were like $350 retail and this machine does gets the job done. Slowly. Loudly. Inexpensively.We drink latte and mochas and serve guests Americanos and straight shots. We like our coffee better than any of our coffee shops, on average, and our guests always say they like the brew so ... Great!Also- We've long ago moved to grinding organic beans from Costco in either a Porlex JP-30 hand grinder ($40, 5 shots per hopper) or a Bodum bistro ($110/electric) to a course-end of espresso. To fine and this machine WILL CLOG IMMEDIATELY. Too course and you get brown water. Lavazza in the blue bag is just at the top fine end of the scale, so I set my grinder a touch more corse and the serious efforts to de-clogg went from often to maybe 2-3x/year and I have nearly zero really bad shots. The other help is If the machine has been warming up for awhile before I use it, I run a little water and let it hear back to green light before I load the shot. Seems it looses touch heat for a double unless you pull it just after the light pops green. We blind tasted our Costo organic (some San francisco brand) and the blue & red label Lavazza. The red label wins for me but, it's expensive. We like the blue label just fine as latte's can't tell the difference between our fresh ground & the pre-ground vaccum packed Lavazza so why pay so much more?!?We're considering a new machine but reading reviews on $200+ machines with complaints that sound just like my de-clogging efforts fix on mine... Not sure I'm up for paying more cash for similar maintenance issues /= there are better looking machines but it's clear asid to me that they'd be any less maintence hassle.Oh yea. We also pulled the plastic wand tip 1st thing. The wand is a little short like that, missing its super special tip, but it's super easy to clean with a wet rag if you run a bit of steam to heat the wa t up, then wipe it. And I'm not steaming milk in plastic ... I'm not thrilled about whatever rubber compound the coffee of running through before it gets to the filter already but don't care to spend well north of $600 for an a brass system so...---2011---As my wife and I found we had become "those people" who stop at the local coffee shop many times a week, we needed to hit the lotto, quit or buy a machine and learn to make our own go-juice. If you've never made espresso and want to, this barista-newbie and his wife found this machine (and, presumably, the EC155 as well) was beyond easy to use!The DeLonghi Bar32 (EC155 clone, best as I can tell it's all same guts wrapped in different metal and plastic dress) heats up really fast (the 30 minutes listed in the manual should read 30 seconds... I'm sure it's a typo) - we bought "Lavazza Crema e Gusto Italian Espresso" and are liking the results better than most of the cups of latte and mochas we bought at our 3 favorite shops. We've made 2 cups/day since Christmas and the results continue to beat our wildest expectations of the quality of the drinks in uneducated barista can make at home. That and having a steam wand over the holiday's made for awesome Egg Nog's & hot Rum drinks (=The really fine grind of the Lavazza product makes the cheezy built-in tamper on this machine well more than good enough, reducing counter clutter in our small kitchen, since it just needs a light light tamp.The crema produced with this machine is an effortless dream - the fancy italian (& much much much older) espresso machine at my work can't hope to achieve this result, at least with me driving it --- the DeLonghi is truly 'newbie-proofed' and brews this espresso blend really really nicely. The coffee snobs at work think the office machine is fine, but when I brew with it my coffee isn't nearly as good as what I make at home...the same coffee, same "barista," different machine yet ~BIG difference~ in the resulting brew in favor of my new DeLonghi.Though the hot water pump in this unit seems a bit loud (I wouldn't want to make espresso if my wife was asleep, but our house is also really small) - it's similar to the work machine & most importantly, has never woken the baby when we've used it. Steaming the milk is what is really loud and I don't see that being resolvable at any price so pump noise during a short espresso brew cycle is moot - nothing I'd pay extra for. Frankly, after my home/work experiment, I'm not confident I'd WANT TO BUY a different machine based on the crema that effortlessly flows from this one.We bought this machine for under $70 with a rebate factored in and - presuming it continues to hold up - would gladly pay the normal price for the Bar32 or EC155. If this machine holds up for several years, it'd even be worth the absurd retail price DeLonghi advertises on their own site for this machine.My tank doesn't leak, but we also pitcher-fill it. It's more of a hassle to pull the tank than to use a pitcher as it has a large hinged lid and the unit is pretty light with the tank in the rear. We run a rinse of the steam wand, the filter and the machine with filter removed every time we use it and don't find pouring water into it from a pitcher every other day to be any issue at all.If you steam milk in a frothing pitcher (or much anything else really), you need to raise this unit off the counter or pull it to the counter edge so your cup can hang over. The steamer wand is short enough it will just reach the liquid in our average sized steamer cup, but it does reach & froths fine - allowing good foaming before the milk can burn. If frothing is your thing, this machine is fine. We pour a double-serving of milk into the pitcher and give up on frothing in favor of getting two drinks in one heating session using our existing pitcher. After all, what's the point of making froth when you're using non-fat milk and pouring the result into a travel cup to drink in the car? We mostly want hassle-free hot milk and this machine makes that just fine fine fine. FYI - we pulled the plastic tip off the steam wand, which makes it an inch shorter - it's both easier to clean now and limits the plastic contact with our hot beverages - can't escape the plastic in the filter housing, though, so welcome to the modern age of plastics everywhere.Noting the reviewers that have had clogs - I bet they have. We choose to rinse the filter with hot water after our daily brew is done but cleaning it in the sink, then re-attaching it and 'brewing' a cup of brown water. Removing the filter after this always rinses a bunch of grounds that were previously stuck. We then run the pump with the filter off for a few seconds to help flush remaining grounds from the pump - though it's probably just a matter of time before it will need cleaned per the factory instructions, so far, so good! We get a lot of fine grounds out each day we rinse and I've found if I rinse twice, I DON'T get more out - so hoping that this simple daily step will limit the need for more thorough cleaning over time.Will plan to update this as the machine ages - hoping it'll have a long run in our house! -J.

First, thanks to those that reviewed this, as I based my decision in large part of those that took the time to do this. So, thought I would return the favor for those considering this.This is my first pump driven espresso maker, and I've just had it a few days. I have been using a Krups steam espresso machine for years, as my morning coffee has been an Americano, and it seemed to work just fine for that. However, it's starting to have some issues so I decided to step it up a notch. I have been drinking espresso and espresso drinks for years, mostly from a local shop that puts Starbucks to shame, have a friend with a really high end machine that makes great expresso, and have experienced great coffee in Europe. So I figured I would know pretty quickly if the Retro was any good, and with Amazon's return policy, decided to go ahead and give it a try.Before purchasing, I considered many machines ranging from $100 to $700. I decided I didn't want to jump in with both feet with a machine that would require significant expense and possible repair and maintenance costs. So the list quickly narrowed to this brand and a few others in the lower price range. In addition to these reviews, I checked out reviews and options on different coffee and expresso related sites, and also looked at the De'Longhi site.The most important consideration was quality of espresso. I am quite surprised by this machine's quality....it's really good!! I follow the pre-heat method from the booklet, turning it on, running water into my cup twice, and find it's fast enough to not be a hassle. A little experimentation and I seem to have found the sweet spot for tamping to get a great coffee. I have a plastic tamper, but picked up the metal tamper that was linked to the machine on Amazon. It fits perfect. I tried the one that comes on the machine, and found it worked fine too. I needed to put my thumb on the top to steady it and get an even pressure. It is a little awkward, so I just use the tampers I own. Applying the right pressure for your grind is the most important thing, regardless of what you use. I've made both single and double shots and find both work great. I just keep an eye on the color of the crema coming out and turn the machine off when it lightens up. As far as the quantity of coffee, I find just about one scoop for single, and a little shy of two for the double work great. And I like the storage spot for the second filter on the back. Very convenient.I get my beans ground at my local coffee shop, and it seems to be more than adequate. I love their espresso, so buy the same beans they use in theirs, request expresso grind, and let their top of the line grinder do its thing. With the coffee I buy, I find a light-medium pressure gets the perfect result. Coffee tastes exceptional, and the crema is awesome. Obviously, I'm not a perfectionist, or I would have sprung the big dollars. But I couldn't be happier with the coffee from the Retro.My wife likes the frothed milk and this machine does a great job frothing. Actually, it's so good I'm enjoying that too. I bought the little silver pitcher that linked to the machine, and it fits perfectly. No clearance issue. I was also concerned about the cup clearance but it is fine for the cups I use, which are larger than than espresso cups, but smaller than a full size coffee mug. I have been unscrewing the plastic end piece of the frother to wash out the residue after each use, as the instructions indicated. I am a little concerned that doing so day in and day out may eventually damage the plastic part, as it screws on to the metal tube, so I am being careful and use a light touch. Not sure why they didn't make the end cap metal, but it is what it is.I read a few reviews about the tank leaking. I did see water after I moved the machine on my counter by pulling it holding the tank. It quickly became obvious that the seal moved at the bottom of the tank when I did that. So I just move the machine by holding the base and fill the water without removing the tank. Guess time will tell if a problem develops down the road with that seal. Figure leaving it alone most of the time will reduce the chances of a problem.Overall, I am really happy with the purchase so far, and hope to get a few years of service out of it. Sure, there's a lot of plastic. You get what you pay for. But it looks good, doesn't take a ton of counter space, works quickly, and when my wife told me that the drink I made her was amazing, I was satisfied. I'll post an update if I run into any issues, but fingers crossed.