Russell Hobbs Distinctions Espresso Coffee Machine, 15 Bar Pump Pressure + Milk Frother Steam Wand, Latte & Cappuccino, Detachable Water Tank, ESE pods, Cup warmer, Titanium, S/Steel, 1350W, 26452

works well except the steamer arm is to short if you do not want to use the frother

Not easy to work but will do the job

This espresso coffee maker is not as good as I was hoping it to be.Good points…It is simple enough to set up and use. You can use ground coffee or the ESE pods. You can get 50 for £10 which isn’t too bad. It doesn’t take up a lot of space on the counter top. The addition of the milk steamer is great. The instructions are straight forward enough.Bad points….i can’t get my latte mugs underneath. I have to use a small cup for the espresso and then pour it into the mug. However you could argue that it does say it is an espresso machine so maybe I am just being picky. It has a finish that means that it is forever covered in fingerprints and the top cup warmer is slow to heat. It doesn’t really do what it says in that respect. You can’t steam the milk when the machine is running. You can’t control the temperature and I like my coffee hotter than it produces.For me the bad outweighs the good and, considering the price (£200 currently) I can’t say that I would recommend it.

I have used a few different Espresso machines over the years but for a manual machine, this one gives one of the best coffee's I have had for a while. There are some quirks to the machine though, so it can take a bit of trial and error to get it just-right.The machine is well made with a titanium effect steel finish that looks good in most kitchens. The front panel has simple controls for the quantity and the size of the drink. This does give one of the first quirks though. There is no way to turn on water only after the initial Espresso has been dispensed. You have to keep your finger on the button the top up and make the coffee how you like it.The rear of the machine has the water tank. This has another quirk in that it can look like the tank is fitted correctly but is very slightly up. In this scenario you will find a puddle of water behind the machine after a few hours as it leaks out from the bottom. I know now to make sure to push the tank firmly into place.The portafilter is a simple one with two push fit filters. One for a single cup and a deeper one for two cups. The single one can also be used for ESE coffee pods if you use them. The portafilter fits into the machine well and I have had no issues with this fitting. Knocking the used coffee grounds out of the filter gives rise to yet another quirk. Many times, the filter comes out before the coffee does, meaning I am left scooping out the used grounds by hand rather than knocking them out. The filters could do with a locking mechanism to hold them into the portafilter unit better, rather than the simple push fit they use now.At the end of the day though, the quirks are not show-stoppers for me, especially as the coffee the machine produces is excellent. The coffee comes out just as I like it with a nice rich crema on top and a refreshing brew underneath. When looking for a milky coffee, the milk frother works brilliantly to make a frothy milk that pours into the coffee well - I just need to work out how to do coffee art in the crema!

Initial impressions were surprise at how light this felt on removal from the box; it looks like chrome but feels as though it is mostly made from plastic, albeit of reasonable quality plastic. It needs to be wiped clean and the water reservoir filled and primed before it is ready for use, all easy. Then I hit the problems.I managed to get it to produce one cup of espresso. Not a great coffee, but it takes time to get used to a new machine and I put it down to that. But I was unable to get the machine to produce a second cup of espresso or warm any milk; it made a lot of noise, but nothing was forthcoming, and I then started to get an error message displayed. The troubleshooting mainly seems to tell you not to do something when you have a problem, and I didn’t find a solution there. So, I switched off and left it, went back, had the same experience, and switched it off again. Several times over a few days.It should be very easy to use but, whilst the lights come on, nothing happens except the body gets hot. It makes some noise when I try to warm milk, but it doesn’t do any actual warming or frothing. Trying to produce any more coffee either gets it to display one bar warming up and nothing further or straight to the error message.Unfortunately, I cannot get this to work whether I try to produce coffee or hot milk first and nothing in the troubleshooting section of the manual has resolved the issue. It looks good on the worktop but is very lightweight and I doubt build quality is great under the surface (well, it doesn’t work, anyway). One cup of espresso is all I have achieved, plus a lot of wasted ground coffee and milk.