Gaggia Baby Espresso Machine

Pros: Quaility, Quality, Quaility
Cons: You wont ever use instant again

This is my second Gaggia, and believe me when you buy your second Gaggia its not because the first broke down, its because you have decided to move up in the brand. My old one is salivating my girlfriend now, so I can now get great coffee when I stay ...

Pros: None for that price.
Cons: Tedious to use. Takes a long time to get an espresso with crema. Cheaply-made housing.

It takes a bit of learning to use this machine but we learned to cope with it.
However, if you want to get a good espresso upon waking up, this is NOT your machine. It takes about 20 minutes to "prep" the machine and to get there.
The quality was inconsistent by using the same method and same coffee.
After using a few times, we went on to buy a good Swiss machine (Solis), that served us well for about 5 years.
Now, that our Solis is on it's last leg, we dug out our practically new/barely used Gaggia Baby. We worked out about 4 good espresso in the past couple of days. Today the "On" button only stays on if I keep pressing it; as soon as I let it go, the machine goes into off-mood.
That's a lot of baby-sitting in the early morning hour for about $380!

Pros: Solid construction, extremely good value, great brew
Cons: none

We use the Baby 3 or 4 times a day. It has lasted 6 or 7 years. Always a perfect cup. We use the gaggia MDF grinder for the proper grind. It has the strongest pump and above average wattage heater block in its price range. It works better than machines 4 times as expensive. We especially like the extra inch it has over even the other gaggia models between the base and the coffee holder so you can use normal "Mug" size cups if you want. It heats up in less than a minute, holds lots of water and is easy to refill. Couldn't be happier

Pros: You will consistently get a great cup of coffee after some practice.
Cons: The plastic parts of the machine cheapen the overall look of the machine a little.

I did a lot of research on espresso/cappuchino machines when I needed to replace my faithful DeLonghi, which died after 6 years.  The comments from other reviews here are accurate.  It does take practice to work the Gaggia Baby and patience to wait for the water to reach the right temperature.  The steamer also takes some getting used to to use correctly.  But it does make a really good cup of cappuchino when I have the leisure time to use it on weekend mornings.

I'm not so pleased with the plastic parts, which seem to cheapen the stainless body a bit, but otherwise it looks really good in my remodeled stainless steel and wood kitchen!