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Cheap plastic machine will break and Capesso won't sell any internal parts!
Pros:
- Makes good espresso until it breaks
Cons:
- Cheap plastic construction will fail within a year
- Poor design causes this machine to leak water and espresso grounds
- Capresso won't sell internal parts and requires that the machine be sent to their service center at a cost of $75 to be repaired
I drink espresso every day, so my espresso machine needs to be durable. I've had the Capresso Ultima espresso machine for a little over three months. At first I thought it was a great machine and sold my Gaggia espresso machine that I had owned for ten years. BIG MISTAKE! I had to replace the internal grounds bucket in the Ultima after two months as the trigger for the "grounds full" light switch broke. Then, the Ultima started leaking water internally after 3 months.
I decided to take it apart to see where it was leaking in case it was an easy fix. I had worked on my Gaggia lots of times. The Gaggia was simple to disassemble and parts were easy to get at partsguru-dot-com. The Capresso Ultima is just the opposite. It requires specialty tools, disconnecting the switches, and working in impossibly small spaces. Still, I'm a mechanical engineer and I figured it out. After some testing, I found that: (1) the internal water catch basing was clogged -- an easy fix, but a poor design as the entire machine has to be disassembled to get at it and (2) the plastic steam valve was leaking at the top of the boiler. The plastic steam valve has a small gasket and o-ring at the connection to the boiler that needed to be replaced.
Only Capresso sells parts for the machine, and no third party has them. When I called Capresso to ask for a parts diagram, they told me that they won't send out any diagram or internal parts list for the Ultima. I then asked them to provide the gasket and o-ring, and they said they wouldn't! The only option is to send the Ultima in to their service center in Pennsylvania at a cost of $75 plus shipping. They wouldn't even tell me what size the gasket and o-ring are so that I can buy one elsewhere. What's more, this is a part that will fail again. It's just a gasket and gaskets wear out. Not to mention that the steam valve is made of plastic which will get brittle and fail. I've never seen a pump espresso machine that didn't have a metal steam valve before this one. It's inexpensive for a reason. It's made cheaply and will not last.
This machine is a waste of time and money! I'm going to buy another Gaggia espresso maker (shouldn't have sold my old one). At least it can be repaired without sending it to a service center.
[Tuesday, December 23, 2008]
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A decent machine that works well
This machine does exactly what it says it does; makes shots and contains the mess to an internal container that is easy to dump out. We like to clean the machine every day, which takes between ten and fifteen minutes. Right after we make coffee, we run hot water through the steam spout and the espresso maker to clean the lines. Then we rinse off the top, wipe the excess beans into the container, and wash the other parts.
We have one complaint; after a week or two, the steam arm only works in the closed position. It spits water and steam out the wrong end of the tube in the open position, burning and drenching a small area around it. Luckily, we just like lattes, and the closed position heats milk and creates a lot of foam.
We like it because we're unlikely to spend $800 on an automatic, and the thought of finely ground espresso all over my kitchen makes my skin crawl.
[Sunday, December 14, 2008]
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Great For The Office!
When moving into our new office, I was looking to get an espresso machine, but was concerned that getting folks to clean it out after using it would prove too difficult. I came across the Capresso and decided to give it a try because it was self cleaning.
Almost a year a half later I'm extremely satisfied with this amazing machine. Because it's used differently than most espresso machines, it takes a bit to get used to it. But once folks get the hang of making espresso, it's a breeze to use.
For my office, the self-cleaning function is far and away the best part of this unit; add the coffee into the chute replace the cover, turn the handle and crank it down and turn on the pump. Cleaning is as simple as lifting the handle and turning the crank around once. The grounds dump cleanly into the interior tray, which can hold quite a bit.
This really is a great unit that makes having espresso drinks at the office easy (and clean).
[Tuesday, December 09, 2008]
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