Explorer Bundle

The taste was good after the 6th try at it.I tried a number of different levels of grind to no avail.The results were the same. A weak cup of coffee with one compression. 2 compressions would give me a stronger flavor. It requires too many steps to achieve a good cup of coffee.I'm not satisfied with the purchase.

I've owned this for over 8 years. Originally it had the clear plastic reservoir, then the GC kit came out so I upgraded to it. No matter what I did, keeping the temp correct was a pain. The included portafilter is good quality but an odd size. The tamper was useless and the other accessories were cheap. The machine itself..... very well built! If you look at my included picture you'll see I have seriously modded mine over the years. 58mm adapter, all brass so it retains heat better ect.... It's still a pain to keep temps correct and consistent. Over all I would call this a novelty item. It works if you want to put in the effort, but even then it has only produced a mediocre shot for me. It looks great on display and if your pulling a shot to mix in an iced drink or anything else that may mask the fact that it doesn't make a great straight shot.... then you won't be disappointed. I'm hear leaving a review after 8 years because I think its finally time to put this on the shelf for display purposes only lol. Its time to get a real machine.

This is my first time with a manual espresso machine. Quite a lovely experience. However the instructions from the manufacturer are a bit lacking, overly simplified as I look at reviews online and tutorials there's a bit more Nuance that could stand to be in the owner's manual. But overall a part of my collection, no regrets.

They could do a lot better of a job explaining what this ships with, because I wound up paying extra an extra 45 bucks for the Naked Portafilter just to get the non pressurized basket it comes with, only to find out one was included in the box alongside the pressurized basket...

The included portafilter's plastic handle is cheap feeling (the metal portions are perfectly fine though), and already developed a crack after ONE use. The brand new naked portafilter I ordered extra arrived with a loose handle. The handles don't use the standard screw, so I cant just swap them with a nicer handle like I can for other portafilters. Given the abnormal portafilter size, I feel like this is a huge setback that the included ones are so bad.

The funnel it comes with is OK but doesn't stay on well. The spoon tamper doesn't fit well, with a bigger gap around it than most tampers. Considering the unusual basket size, ordering the official upgraded accessories winds up bringing the price awfully close to the cafelat robot, arguably a better overall manual brewer.

To my surprise, my 51mm baskets all fit the stock portafilter and the naked portafilter, despite the information saying it's an uncommon 50mm. This allowed me to use my stockpile of 51mm accessories, which makes the machine infinitely better.

The biggest issue I'm having overall though, is the preheating. No matter what I try, the shots come out a few degrees short of what I can get from my other machines. While they aren't exactly cold, the shots are just a little unsatisfactory as a result. This also rushes me to get powdered creamer in before it cools down too much to mix in properly.

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On the bright side, the main unit feels very well made despite the bad accessories. The metal is smooth, well machined, and thick in most places. The plastic/glass composite materials have a certain sturdiness to them too.

Most of the smaller parts have very reasonably priced replacements, and they even chose to sell retrofit kits to upgrade the older models.

I love the repairability and overall aesthetics of this. The positioning of the (sold separately) pressure gauge is also so much better than the Cafelat Robot, though it's metal housing touches the water and further complicates the preheating.

I love that I can pick this up and rinse it out in the sink as needed. The tray is also big enough for MOST scales, though the recess makes some of my nicer ones trickier to use with it. The recess does catch a LOT of spills from the preheating process. so it's not without benefit.

At least according to the pressure gauge accessory, this can hit and exceed 9 bars with the right grind settings in the single wall/non pressurized baskets. If your idea of espresso requires 9 bars to be considered "real", this can do it.

I'm really enjoying this machine overall, but they REALLY need to overhaul the included accessories, at the very least swap the portafilters to using the standard screw handle, and widen up the spoon tamper just a bit. Would be great if they revised and even sold an upgraded plate to use 51mm portafilters specifically. Between that and the preheating being a messy pain, just to get not-quite-hot-enough shots, I've had to drop this to 3 stars for an "Okay" product.

A LOT disappointed! Paid a decent amount on this espresso maker and it came with absolutely no instructions!! Hard to figure this out on my own!! Quite upset. Tell me - how do I use it??!!!