De'Longhi EC155 15 BAR Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker

 (1,006 customer reviews)

I love espresso, and this little baby makes a great cup. Here are a few points that might be useful for you to know:

Good points:
*It doesn't take up too much room on the counter and looks nice with it's silver metal accents.
*The water reservoir is a good size, you can make about 8-10 shots before you need to refill it, which is very easy to do, and there is a clear section behind the basket which shows the water level.
*Fast heat-up time (only about a minute), good frothing wand, no wait time between frothing and brewing (though you do have to wait a little between brewing and frothing).

Be warned:
*Frothing wand is only 3 1/4 inches from the counter top. Not a big deal, I just went and bought a frothing cup that is about that height.
*Distance from grounds basket to tray is only 2 1/2 inches, I usually use a small espresso cup.
*Built-in tamper sucks, buy a good metal one.
*You don't end up with a nice dry puck, the...Read more

First, a couple of disclaimers:
1. This is the first pump-driven espresso machine that we have owned.

2. We generally drink cafe Americano, which is an espresso with a little added hot water (or cold water with an iced Americano). We make an occasional cappuccino and have thus used the steam wand, but not extensively.

After doing a cost/benefit analysis in regards to our current cafe Americano habit (~10 per week), we realized that there would be some justification to buying a home unit. We first considered the Breville ESP8XL Cafe Roma Stainless Espresso Maker, but reviewers consistently lamented the unit's tendency to clog the filter, necessitating time-consuming cleaning. Also, not being completely sure that we would actually use the espresso maker, we balked at the $250 price tag.

We also considered moving up to one of the superautomatico machines that grind, tamp, brew and dispose of the grinds, but we worried about the reliability of...Read more

I was always skeptical of expensive espresso machines and wondered why anyone would pay hundreds of dollars for an expensive machine. It turns out that the more expensive and quality machines are "pump-driven" rather than the typical "steam driven" found at your local Wally World and such. A pump driven machine will hit pressures 4-5 times greater than that of a steam driven machine and gets much better extraction from the espresso grinds (better flavor) and are the only machines capable of generating the "chrema" foam at the top of the espresso.

The DelLonghi EC155 is an excellent budget machine found for under $100 that is pump driven. I was happy with my old steam driven Delonghi, but once I received this I realized that I didn't even know what I was missing. This espresso is as good or better than anything you'll get in a nice Italian restaurant or at your local Charbucks. The chrema that this thing produced is flat out great (you'll get a nice 1/4 layer of tasty...Read more