****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
As part of my consideration to purchase this unit (or most other things), I look at the "bad" reviews and take them into consideration. I was a bit worried after reading them given the price of this machine. For whatever reason, I went against my gut and bought it anyways even though they seemed alarming based on what I read/saw online. And... well, I'm glad I did. If you're new to the world of espresso and considering this machine, hopefully you'll find my rambling helpful...First off: if you're considering purchasing an E61 HX machine such as this, do some research first! Do understand the cleaning commitment these machines require: daily (wipe down), weekly (backflush with detergent, break down portafilters, scrub the group head, ...), monthly (wash down the water tank, ...), and quarterly/biannually (descale, deeper cleaning). If you are not willing to follow a cleaning regime and use filtered/quality water (to prevent scale), it is not to say this machine is for you... but do not expect the decade(s?) of life out of it that it is otherwise capable of.Decade(s)? Yeah. That's one of the reasons I invested in this machine. Virtually everything is replaceable and it has a simple design -- very few electronics and simple mechanical design leads to a product that is both built to last and highly repairable. Most things fall into the DIY class and there is certainly no planned obsolescence here. If you are willing to learn/watch YouTube videos, pull out some wrenches, and follow the cleaning regime it requires... this machine will last you a very, very, very long time.Somebody earlier mentioned about how it "leaks and steams". Just open the steam valve for a bit if you haven't made a shot in ~30m+. There's also an attachment you can screw into the E61 stem that will show you the temperature of the brew water that you can use to help guide you decision making here. There's also a green "ECO" button under the lower right side of the unit that you can use to have it shutoff after ~90m (don't quote me) to prevent it from getting out of hand if you are busy and leave it on.Other thing that you will need: PATIENCE, a quality grinder, and a cheap scale (you will need to get a rough idea of how much 9g of coffee is for a single and 18g of coffee is for a double... and then to measure/time how long to produce 18 or 36g of espresso, respectively -- you want it to be somewhere in the range of 20-30s extraction time). Do NOT cheap out on a decent grinder (another $200-300 investment). Do NOT expect to be pulling world-class shots out of this thing on day one or be switching coffee beans all the time. For someone who's brand new to the world of espresso, I thought I understood these things... until I got this machine, and was humbled. The first few shots I pulled had no crema and it was a bit frustrating between all the steps I was trying to internalize and follow. It took me a bit to realize the default suggested grind setting was wholly inappropriate for the bean I was using, and that I had to go way finer on the grind. As soon as I did... I pulled a shot with a ton of crema. From there, the taste and scale/timer let me hone in the grind setting to figure out what was right for the bean, and at that point I was glad that I had invested in a $300 grinder. And honestly, I would not consider myself a coffee snob... in fact, I started with regular, store-bought espresso beans because I figured they would be good to practice on.I really have no regrets with this machine. Probably the most annoying aspect that I did not account for is the grind cleanup. Even if you're fairly neat, you'll be wiping down the countertop of your coffee station daily or at least every few days. I do not mind it... but again, plan for a little bit of a time investment with these machines. The end result is worth it in my opinion.The one "downside" of this particular E61 variant I have seen online is that the brew pressure runs a bit high out of the box. I cannot independently validate this claim. Supposedly you want 9 bars of pressure and these units deliver ~13 bars, which results in bitter shots. You can remove the water filter and some of the screws on the top to expose something adjustable with a wrench, but I have not bothered yet as I did not purchase the add-on to measure the brew pressure before doing so. It still delivers outstanding coffee out of the box compared to what I am used to, though some fine-tuning may be required in the future. Some of the other E61s reviewed do not require this level of tuning if it something you want to avoid... go look at YouTube to see which ones.
