Customer Response

Great While it Lasts!
I have had this machine for about four years. It has a great design that dresses up my countertop. The yellow color I selected complements my kitchen, and elicits compliments from guests. It made a good cup of expresso as well! Now the bad news. It overheated last week then the heating system completely shut down. Now the nightmare: it is almost impossible to get this thing fixed. There is an address in upstate New York for service but no customer service number or information. Not even a wbesite for customer service (just an email address.) For the money this thing costs you would think they would do better. Other comments idicates that any repairs would be difficult to obtain and expensive.

Don't Get Ripped Off! Not Worth It At Any Price...
Style definitely made it tough to resist this machine, but we would have been far better off had we resisted, and I hope you definitely do. This gorgeous machine is a rip-off. Save yourself a whole latte trouble and get a good, solid Gaggia for your home espresso.

Many have gotten the X5 at a reduced price with a subscription to Illy coffee's home delivery program. Others paid full price. Regardless, the X5 is overpriced at any cost because it is poorly engineered inside all that glitz. The boiler casing eventually corrodes through, and the machine fails, which is bad enough in itself. But what takes the cake is that Illy and Francis!Francis! have allowed Empire Fulfillment of Victor, NY to put a lock on parts and repairs for the faulty X5. That means UPS charges coming and going, in my case from San Francisco to NY, in addition to repair costs estimated between $150 on the low side to $300 at the norm.

This should have been a 5 star review, but it is hard to give this product even the minimum single star. After struggling for weeks about what to do with our faulty X5, I am packing it away with a broken heart.

Good coffee while it lasted
I'm giving this product a bad review for poor longevity but to its credit it did make pretty good coffee while it worked. I bought this espresso machine from Illy through it's Illy a Casa program spending only about $150 bucks on it.

My machine just blew the boiler after only a year and a half. The cost of fixing the machine is going to be upwards of $150. I'd rather put that toward a new machine of higher quality. Had I paid $650 for this thing and it busted after only 18 months I'd be extremely pissed. Buyer beware, bad product for longevity!

Tips for getting the most out of this machine
I was initially reluctant to get this model (through Illy's offer), and thought I had just been seduced by it's cool looks. I've had it for 4 years now, and I'm only now finally happy with it because I've finally learned that the mixed quality shots was my own fault, not the machine's.

It's a steep learning curve to make a good espresso, and I'm probably the worst espresso snob you can imagine. I wouldn't dream of drinking the stuff from the big well known chain. But once you've learned the tricks, this machine does a good job. I strongly recommend that you read up on wholelattelove's website and elsewhere for tips.

Here are some of mine:

-use bottled water!

-get your own burr grinder! It makes a world of a difference. I got the Baratza Maestro Plus. My shots were hit or miss for the longest time, but since I got my own grinder they are consitantly great. And grind just before each shot. I put it at the finest setting.

-experiment with the beans. I've finally settled on Barrington Gold Reserve from barringtoncoffee, which makes a really thick crema and tastes almost like chocolate. I found the espresso grind from illy not fine enough for this machine, and coffee goes stale so quickly, that I wouldn't recommend the automatic delivery from them, except for the pods that are OK if you are in a hurry or making for many people at a time. My favorite coffee shop is Joe's Art of Coffee in NYC, and I bought the beans from them the first time, now I order directly from Barrington.

A couple of tips related to this particular machine:

-take the filter basket out of the portafilter and rinse it every day.

-run an empty shot of just hot water through the machine to warm up both the filter and the cup.

-learn how to tamper correctly, with 30 pounds pressure, and give the tamper a little twist to smoothen the surface. Remove the tamper handle from the disk (I like this disk, how it helps prevent sneeze and also makes it easier to see if you have the right amount of grinds in the filter)

-Turn the handle as tight as possible. The tricky thing is to get just the right amount of grinds in. If too little, the water flows through too quickly and the espresso gets watery. If too much, you have a hard time attaching the handle without extreme force. Also, if you put too much in and your grind is fine, it might leak out of the top of the filter.

-When the lights show the temperature is ready, I give it another 10-15 sec boost by pressing the steam button. Not more, or it will burn the coffee and possibly damage the machine.

-I'm saving the best for last:
Once you press the start button, wait exactly 3 seconds and then turn the handle even further to the right. I assure you, if you follow these tips and use the above combination of equipment and supplies, you'll never want to drink espresso again from anywhere else than your home, or perhaps in Sicily, and Joe's Art of Coffee shop in NYC.

(oh, one little gripe I have about this model is that the water reservoir warps if put in the dishwasher, but I still wash it every time or every other time it's empty, because slime builds up if standing too long. Now the reservoir has found it's final warped shape and is still useable)

Good Buy
The other positive reviews pretty much capture my feelings about this machine.

It is easy to use (in spite of the confusing set of manuals). It produces very good coffee (I buy peets and skip the pods). And it looks spiffy in the kitchen.

I only have three minor things to add:

I have the red machine (which is very nice); from the photographs that accompany the product, the orange also looks very handsome, much nicer than the color as it appears on the Amazon page.

The pods were stale by the time they arrived (one tin comes with the machine). So clearly the machine was pining away in Amazon's warehouse waiting for a good home.

The Illy offer for a reduced price machine with a commitment for a year's purchase of coffee didn't appeal to me. When I calculated how much I would spend for peet's for a year plus the price of the machine on Amazon, I realized I'd pay less for better, fresher coffee. And at the time I made the calculation, I didn't realize how little coffee a pod actually produces: you need two of them to make a decent sized latte.

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