The Francis Francis X3 is a road to repair, expense, aggravation, waiting and less. The x3 broke annually. The boiler is too tiny. Check out Machines in the 1000-1500 dollar range. If you buy an x3 fro 600.00 before long you'll be spending well over a thousand dollars anyway. So wait.. Research, get on line and figure out the basic fundamentals of expresso. It's a bit of a challenge and an art. If you dont figure out the basics of how to properly grind and fill a portafilter which you can view on youtube, the you will be playing with a machine which is very very easy to destroy. If for instance you are short on water, or the coffee is added with too much pressure then the next day you'll be puting your x3 into a box and 5 weeks and $150.00 later you have another chance to break it. To me it is just not dependable. Leave it on by accident and bang will be an audible sound of the boiler popping. The way around this is the pod method which is lame and will not give you the the traditional expresso as the Italians created. Not too mention the ouch of 65 cents per cup. Might as well enjoy the service of a waiter. The problem for me is that if you are talented in the repair dept. then the fact that the Francis Francis is strictly proprietary .. This means $75.00 for time plus parts. $600.00 for the X3 is monumental in light of the later cost's. The big design and the combination water-steamer coming out of a boiler the size of a small coffee cup is a disaster waiting to happen. When you taste a real expresso from a real expresso machine in the 12-1500.00 range, my guess is that you will do with your coffee maker or europress until you can pay the money and have something wonderful. There is nothing like waking up to the most fabulous machine which is dependable, beautiful, pours out steam like a locomotive, and pours out a cappuccino like a Barista from itally, You'll be thrilled about the $600.00 you saved by not buying a damn Francis Francis machine.

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