DeLonghi EC140 Espresso Machine

Pros: Acceptable design, decent brew, great frothing control.
Cons: Frothing arm too low, it takes a lot of grounds, wait longer than instructed.

I’ve had a love affair with coffee for a while now. I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just sort of happened. I can’t remember exactly when, but I do know it started in college. That wonderful institution of higher learning that has ...

Pros: Reasonably priced with what appeared to be favorable specifications.
Cons: Everything else...

I purchased this item new in box from Ubid. Total price was approx. $60~, including shipping, and replaced an older other brand machine that failed after ten years of constant use. The DeLonghi arrived well packaged and free of external shipping damage. ...

Pros: Low price, acceptable coffee
Cons: Needs lots of coffee; uncomfortably light; build quality; leaking issues

{English is not my native language, so forgive me if I don't live up completely to the "write clearly with accurate grammar"-rule.}

I bought two of these machines; the first broke down after 1,5 years, and the second one is close to breaking down as well. Both machines started leaking after about one year.

Before, I used to have a USD 500 TurMix, an excellent machine that worked without a hitch for over 20 years.

Of course, one can't expect the same quality for this low price. However, it is possible to make an acceptable espresso or cappuccino with this machine, provided you give it 20 minutes to warm up, and use a lot (did I say a lot?) of coffee.

Build quality is so-so and the machine is very light; while handling the portafilter, you need your other hand to keep it in place.

My conclusion is that with a little bad luck (like I had), these machines are not very good value. When they break down so easily and use twice the amount of coffee, the price per cup is actually higher than of a decent Rancilio. And then we didn't even talk about the taste.

Pros: makes decent espresso, reasonable price
Cons: nothing major comes to mind

Bought it a week or so ago to replace an old steam Krups that died a couple weeks ago after 10 years of service. Paid $95 + S&H.

High points:
Compact size, makes very good espresso & cappuccino, fast, relatively inexpensive for a pump machine. Simple to operate. Takes a couple minutes to make the first cup, less than a minute for the second. Seems to be well-engineered.

Not so high points:
Forget about making two cups at the same time (unless these are thimble-sized cups). It just doesn't hold enough coffee to make two cups of strong espresso.
Removing water tank is a hassle - it's pretty tall and intake tubes get in the way. I use a separate glass to fill in water to avoid pulling out the water tank.
Cleaning frothing attachment is a hassle.

All in all, a decent machine for the price.

Pros: not very expensive
Cons: poor instructions, low frothing arm.

Never having made espresso before, I needed good instructions. I didn't get them with this machine.

For example, they opened with a diagram of the machine and gave every part a name, but then they used different names in the actual instructions, leaving me to guess which part they were referring to.

Another example, they tell you about a cleaning routine you should go through "before first use" but they fail to warn the user that hot water will all of a sudden start spewing out of two different places in the machine. So, I had no containers in place ready to collect the water. I had to clean up a lot of hot water from my counter top.

They could do a better than this...

The arm for frothing milk is very low, making it difficult to work a container under it. I have to bring the machine close to the edge of the counter in order to fit the cup underneath.

I dunno, I am thinking of taking it back....