Traditional Pump Espresso Machine

Very nice tool except that the inside of the Portafilter is plastic and no lime filter comes out of it. Also, if you buy the part called “puck screen”, you will extend the maintenance life. Drinking coffee outside has become very expensive for coffee lovers. It pays for itself in about a year. Whatever els

Satisfied with the quality, some parts were missing.

I chose this machine because I like the look of DeLonghi products. It looks great on the counter and is compact enough to fit in a small space. I have the black one and the colour has a nice semi-matt finish which looks good with the chrome coloured / metal components.

The quality of the coffee is very good and there is a long lasting crema. I haven't used the steam wand to heat / froth milk as I always drink it black, but it looks straightforward.

The only issue I have found (hence 4 stars not 5) is that the descale process is very tricky and doesn't always work. I tried contacting customer services but they would only help me if I sent them a video, which I haven't been able to do, unfortunately. I've watched videos on Youtube which make it look simple, but that isn't the case in my experience. I don't know if this problem is common to all coffee makers, or just this brand, so I would recommend doing thorough research before purchasing.

My first impression was that it was a beautiful and compact machine that would look lovely in my kitchen to replace a 5 year old pod machine which I felt was not environmentally friendly.
I read the instructions carefully because that's the kind of person I am. I suspect that if you are not a read the instructions kind of person you may be disappointed with the coffee that you get!
So, I cleaned it as instructed and set it up. Then I ran the circuit program to clean the insides. No problem at all.
Now, I live in a hard water area so wanted to change that setting. I read the instructions again and made my first attempt, this resulted in my getting water everywhere. I realised that I hadn't been quick enough to press the right button and it made me a cup of coffee instead. I suggest removing the drip tray and putting a container under the outlet when in programming mode, just in case.
Some reviews say that the coffee isn't hot enough. Well, you can change the temperature of the water. I like mine hot so I changed the setting to hot, it made very hot coffee.

I bought this De'Longhi espresso machine about a year ago, and I waited before writing a review because these machines can sometimes work fine for few months and then start to develop problems.
But in fact, I have used it every day to make between 2 and 8 espressos cups, and the results have always been excellent.
You can use either E.S.E. pods or ground coffee with this machine, just replacing the coffee filter, which is very easy to do.
For convenience I normally use E.S.E. pods, but I had excellent results also with ground coffee (of course you need a good quality ground coffee made specifically for espresso).