Bezzera Unica PID Kitchen Espresso Machine Tank Vibe Pump E61 Machine

A domestic machine worth considering, build quality very good.It has a reasonably small foot print if portafilter not left in and a low head height also. From cold can take a while to fully heat up, but then all E61 heads do, but once there boy it stays hot !!! You have been warned :-). In use once you have dialled in your grind in the repeat results are excellent, sorry but any problems with shot quality is down to the operator. I generally only make two milk based drinks at a time and the small boiler is no problem either shots or steaming. It's fast to reheat and using steam wand open and water pump on quick to get back down to shot temperature. I would be happy to do six milk based drinks at a time, doing more would have to be batched otherwise the first couple out would be getting cold. A quick note on steaming (two hole nozzle) boy is it quick around 10 seconds from cold to 140+ takes a bit of getting used to. The PID does work to alter temperature for light roast to dark roast has a noticeable effect.Just a couple of noteworthy comments ....1. PID has to manually be altered from brew to steam and back again, you need to make sure on finishing it is set to brew, otherwise on switching on for next days use it stays on steam ... boy does it spit and shout when you do a brew head drain prior to adding filled portafilter.2. Water supply tank although relatively large, there is no visual indication of fill level, has a switch under tank as it gets low (lighter weight) it just switches off leaving three "---" on PID display, did it a few times initially and kept thinking machine broken.Once into a routine of use this fades and your back to searching for the GOD Shot ... happy hunting.

I bought this machine after coming back from a vacation trip to Barcelona. The coffee in Barcelona was so good that that was all I can think off when I came back. After researching long I settle on the Bezzera Unica PID Kitchen Espresso machine. Its a great looking machine but thats were everything ends with it. It has a diaphragm pump that does not do the trick, its very noisy and the heating element is not powerful enough to maintain steady heat through the entire brewing process. The steamer and the brewer share the same heating unit so when you switch from steam to brew you have to wait for the machine to change temperatures, a process that can take several minutes. Also the steamer waters down the milk as its steams it. The manufacturer instructions ask to bleed the steamer for ten seconds before steaming milk still it waters down the milk to a skim milk consistency or worse. I bleed the steamer even longer and still it water down the milk. For the money this machine cost I believe one should enjoy a quality cup of coffee. I make a better cup of coffee wit a stove top pot and a stove top steamer than with this machine. Still out on the market looking for a espresso machine that delivers the excellent cup of coffee I had in Barcelona. as I said its a great looking machine but makes a bad cup of coffee, if you are more into looks rather than coffee quality this is the machine for you.