Vintage Icona Traditional Barista Pump Espresso Machine, Coffee and Cappuccino Maker, ECOV311BG, 1.4 liters, Cream

Loved it! Arrived promptly and nicely packed. This machine has an awesome vintage style, almost all of it made of stainless steel which is a bonus. Ergonomic, economic with auto off feature, water boiler heats up the water in seconds, the steam is powerful and the steam knob does a very good job adjusting the pressure, and makes a delicious cafe. The Icona leather ''vintage icona'' big tag hanging on the machine is adorable. Having said that, i read a lot of comments about ''cafe is watering'' or ''too thick'' or ''water is leaking through the steam whilst brewing'' etc. Just improve your barista skills guys! Read the instructions and download the ''De' Longhi coffee expert'' application free of charge. You ll find some awesome tips how to use this machine and make an excellent cafe. You need to experiment a little bit because not all espresso machines produce fine cafe by using them in the same way. I personally found the right balance with this machine by grinding the cafe between 2-3 size medium to fine but NOT thin (my previous machine would not make a nice cafe with size any other than 3 medium). About taping it, I prefer my cafe with a nice crema so i tap it a little bit stronger than suggested. Besides, a good espresso comes out of the machine in ''slow'' speed without a struggle. That means you grid the cafe at correct size and tap it as it should be. If cafe runs from the filter like a ''quick tab water'' (cafe is too thick) or ''painfully slow'' (cafe is too thin) better throw it and try again. About water leak through the steam when brewing or vise-versa, yes it does leak a bit but is normal for powerful cafe machines to do that and when the steam pressure is high. This is only GOOD NEWS. Is not an issue if the amount is small. 5 stars all the way so far and if anything changes, I ll update the review. Its a cafe insult to rate it lower than 5! :)

Great little machine. Does the job perfectly. This replaces my other DeLongi that I've used for about 8years.

As the other reviews say. First couple of coffees come out great, then begins to drip from steam nozzle and pressure is lost when steaming. We had the previous model of this machine and it was great.. but i'm not sure what they changed but it's broken. We had two separate machines and both broke in the same way. I was told by Colin the amazon specialist that they would remove this model and speak to De'longhi, but it seems like its not happened so thought I would tell you to avoid until its fixed. I also severely dislike the extra addition of the frother disc.. another thing to clean and hard to remove after use...

however, it's not as well designed as previous de Longhi machines I've had. Why not? Well, in their effort to produce a very pretty machine, de Longhi designers failed to take into account that the basin beneath the removable drip tray also gets drips of liquid and bits of ground coffee get in there, and because it's physically part of the main part of the machine, it's incredibly difficult to clean. Previously this whole section could be lifted off and washed, now you can't do this. Also, the design of the coffee baskets that came with this is horrible, and they're really tight to get into the bit where the water comes out. Thankfully the old design fits this machine too, so we've just carried on using the baskets from previous machines. Other than those two things, the machine is easy to use, makes nice coffee, and is pretty to look at. Clean it regularly (i.e. descale the whole machine and make sure you turn the machine over and unscrew the filter where the water comes through, the amount of oils that collect there is astonishing!) Word to de Longhi designers - don't lose sight of real life in your endeavours, please! As with all products you need to understand how people ACTUALLY use things, not how you think they should.

Nice simple coffee machine Easy to use

I bought this machine six months ago and I'm already having issues. I mean it works it's good quality and it makes delicious coffee but the steamer is very unreliable. I turn on the steam around wait for the green light and when it comes on even if I can knob nothing happened there's no Steam coming out of it like usually does and I don't know what to do. I'll be contacting the manufacturer to see if I can use my two-year warranty to get a replacement part or whatever it needs

This is a great little coffee maker. Easy to use and excellent results. If you want a machine that just makes super coffee, look no further.

...and any fault I can find are so minor in comparison to what the product is doing that it feels like nitpicking to complain. The design and build is lovely, and everything feels great when using it - the handle has real weight to it, nothing feels cheap, and I've had no problems with pump pressure, etc. It's well worth reading the instructions thoroughly before using - there's actually quite a bit of detail in there, and the cleaning processes will be invaluable to you. Makes a perfect espresso - and using the frother is easy, too. My advice, be sure to keep the frother clean, and there's a tiny hole on the back of the black plastic piece that slides off that can easily get clogged, resulting in loss of froth - but once you figure that out, it's a relatively hassle free journey to making a great mug of coffee. The machine has a few quirks - off the top of my head, if you don't 'unclick' the steamer button after you have frothed coffee and turn the machine off, it won't turn back on again (this caused a good ten minutes of confusion until I figured out I hadn't depressed the steamer button) - but as I said, relatively minor in the bigger picture. Overall, two months of great coffee so far. Highly recommended.