I do not believe that the rich have more fun. necessarily. then again, this blog may or may not reflect the views of the owner.
case in point is my 'De'Longhi Bar 14 Café Treviso espresso maker', you can turn up your noses, the coffee cognoscenti but the truth is - having held my self back from the precipice of buying a gaggia hasnt been something i have regretted. sure, the coffee (even with the best bean, burr ground) not quite the same, but whats important is that its good enough (it is, in fact, pretty damn good) and that is just good enough. i was now certain, until last week that my marginal utility would have been strictly negative had i gone an spent the extra £££ (or is that ££££) on the gaggia and related components. instead, this little ugly de'longhi became mine for a cool £45, delivered. and until last week (which, you should be able to guess was a bit of a watershed), things were going more or less swimmingly - even if we'd both lost the first flush of romance for each other.
come last week however, and the water has trickled to a slow drip and crema was now well and truely gone. even my best / freshst beans would produce a brown slop that only a coffee vending machine SMist could appreciate. things were bleak. i thought the de'longhi had kicked the bucket, and i was considering eco-friendly disposal options. and then, i decided on a hunch to pour some vinegar (apple cider) into the little thing and fire her up.
et voila! a couple of cycles of the vinegar later (no nasties, see) and the she was purring like the good old days. a few rinses with fresh clean water, a few tablespoons of a newly opened pack of illy (arabica only, mind) and we were ready for the halycon days of  perfectly turned out coffee..
ah, i love happy ending. sigh.
Usage Statistics and Inadvertent Destruct-Testing
I have been making an average of 11 double espressos per week. Always when I have been tired and clumsy.
I have forgotten to top up the reservoir at least once every six weeks. and so have been rushing to give load back to a pump that was screaming as it raced with nothing but thin air.
3 days out of seven I have forgotten to turn it off and it has remained on for up to 8 hours.
It has worked perfectly until today when the pump just quietly hummed and only a few drops dribbled out.
Quality of Output and tips for use.
I achieved crema four days out of seven and have still not worked out what I need to do to make it predictable. This is a skills rather than hardware issue but I mention it for competeness' sake.
I achieve good coffee every day ... except when I do not 'pre-charge'. This has been mentioned before and I will reiterate: Switch on and wait until red light comes on. Do a 'blank' espresso ... filter bowl attached and pouring into the cup UNTIL the red light goes off. Everything gets fully warmed and the water is primed. Remove filter bowl and full with coffee. Tamp down. By this time the red light has gone on and you are ready to reapply filter bowl and pour your espresso.
I confirm that extra fine-ground coffee must be used or you are guaranteed RUBBISH. I have always used Lavazzaa. I once had nothing except medium-ground filter-coffee and in desperation tried it. The result was watery ... insipid, tasteless slop.
The milk frother is stable and effective. The frothing widget on the end of the pipe does its job. My previous three Espresso machines had standard pipe which, though effective, required some concentration and coordination. This one heats the milk quickly when dipped low and creates masses of thick froth when dipped shallowly. I use Skimmed Milk straight out of the fridge. I used to use semi-skimmed until one day I accidentally got skimmed and found it made a stiffer and thicker foam.
Some reviewers have mentioned the plastic reservoir imparted a slight taste to the coffee and recommend rinsing and refilling it often. I had not noticed this problem ... could it be because I was using it daily and thus my natural frequency of topping up bypassed this issue?
NEWS FLASH: It is working again. I remembered I had a sachet of liquid descaler and decided to apply a farewell; attempt before finishing this review and ordering a replacement.
Here follows a VERBOSE account of the descaling process I used including unexpected twists and surprises:
Since the 'evidence of breakage' was that the pump motor was hardly making any sound except a tiny hum, and only mini-dribbles of water were coming out, I emptied the respire and put the sachet and minimum about of extra water to top up to just above the opening of the intake tube which hangs just above the bottom. This tiny amount of concentrated descaler sucked up very slowly and due to the heat of the boiler, got into the pump mechanism and proceeded to froth and vaporize ... forcing through and creating a massive pour. Having achieved initial 'movement' I added more water to the reservoir and poured what had come out .. back in again. I kept this running cycle of pour, pour back into reservoir and repeat .. leaving to cool down a bit and cycle again for about half an hour, during which time the action became progressively easier.
I then went into rinsing procedure ... cycling fresh water through the system until it ran clear. I then put the steam switch on and opened the steam valve until that ran even steam .. no splats or blips.
THEN Surprise ... I went for a final normal rinse though the coffee pouring part of the system and it was again running dark brown and sedimented. So .. back to running clear and ..... Another Steam heat and opening of steam valve as above and back to normal operation with more brown water and sediment. Eventually that also ran constantly clear.
via
Amazon.co.uk: Mr. G. B. Powell's review of De'Longhi Bar 14 Café Treviso espresso cap....