Capresso 117.05 Stainless Steel Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Machine EC50, Black/Stainless

I received this machine on 10-30-2020. I had an excellent drip coffee maker - and still do - but it's just collecting dust. I have had a few espresso makers over the years, but I usually just reverted back to the good old Mr. Coffee or whatever. So when I bought this, I had in mind that it would be a special occasion thing or an extra to supplement the drip stuff. The adults in my household drink three or four cups a day on average. So I thought this would be nice to also have. Well...things have changed. Pretty much since I first fired it up. It's simple, approachable, looks good, and it just sits there, waiting to flex its muscles and provide a cup of the creamiest coffee I'll ever have. And it takes no time. It's not one of these new fangled plastic one-time use things. It's pretty ancient in its method. It has muscle. It's solid. It's steel. It works and makes me happy, for about 3 1/2 months so far... Do I recommend it to friends? Yes. Do I love it? Yes. Is the coffee awesome and fast? A thousand times yes. It's good. And as I type this, I still wonder if it will one day explode. Explode coffee grounds all over me and the other small appliances. Just burst. Blow a fuse. Be silent. Whatever. Place a frown upon my face. As my dad would say crap out. That's why my Mr. Coffee still lives beside it I think. But so far, my gosh is this a great thing. I like the name too. Capresso. It's almost like cappuccino and espresso blended together. Right? So the thing looks good, works fabulously, and I am actually sitting here AT NIGHT writing this. Crazy. You only need a little passion for details and a little obsessiveness to live with it. Here's the routine: Wake up. Go to the kitchen. Turn on the high quality rocker switch. Wait about 30 seconds. Put coffee in the filter wand cup thingy and press it down. Slide it in and crank it over. Turn the huge lever. Wait 30 seconds and watch the crema accumulate. Turn it off. Pull out your cup. Take a sip. Be the envy of everyone you know. Rinse used, spent, packed grounds down the drain. Sit on the couch and check stocks or Facebook or news as you enjoy a hot cup of frothy, roasty deliciousness. It's pretty much stupid easy and stupid good. I feel as if I could sponsor a snooty European coffee snob for a few weeks and act like a dumb American, know-nothing, football watching nincompoop. And he would secretly buy one of these when he got back to Paris. Is it a $1,100 Breville? Nah. It's a hundred bucks of game-changing perfection. It's the underdog. The frother works very well also, but for me, it's just straight Joe, whenever I want it. No silly plastic throw-away things to mention. No BS whatsoever. Just grounds all over the place and on demand, excellent espresso on the cheap. UPDATE I have had the unit for just over two years and have not gone back to the drip. In fact, about six months ago, my neighbor’s coffee maker broke down. So I gave my old dripper to him for an emergency remedy and he still has it. I am pretty sure I use less coffee grounds per month with the Capresso than with the drip. I buy Starbucks French Roast whole bean at Costco in 2.5lb bags. When they are on sale for $13.99, it’s a smashing deal, and in my opinion the best coffee there is. I grind the beans fresh each morning in a big grinder I have and although it’s a lot of work, the coffee is superb. Also the frother gets quite a bit of use. My office is right near Starbucks and so my wife used to ask me for a latte on my way home for lunch. At around $7 per cup, this was outrageous. That’s half as much as the bag of beans! So now I come home and put some cream and sugar in a cup and froth it up and it’s awesome and more like twenty five cents. The frother is good. It’s very simple. It’s also pretty loud, so you know it’s working hard. The good part for me anyway is that sometimes I do like a little cream in the coffee, like on a Saturday morning, and the frother not only froths the milk, but it heats everything up, so the milk is not cooling down your coffee too much. Here’s the routine: Turn on the unit. Pack some coffee Slide it in and crank it over Pull out the frothing wand Put some heavy cream or other milk substance in your cup When the light turns blue, crank it to froth Froth the crap outta your milk for about 10 seconds Turn it off Put your cup under the nozzles Turn it to brew Pull off the plastic frother wand cover and rinse under water Wipe the milk off the stainless wand Put plastic cover back on and swing it back out of the way Turn coffee off and enjoy that creamy goodness Like I said, it’s awesome. If it weren’t I would probably not use it much. So this unit has been perfect for over two years. SOME CONS I wish it had more vertical cup clearance. I keep the stainless drip grate permanently out so I can put a full size cup under there, and even so, not every cup fits. With my usual cup, it’s a careful tilting affair to get it out without spilling. And of course this means your cup is sitting in brownish water each time (The mechanism releases about an ounce of water from the heat block each time you brew, and without the grate, your cup sits in it). I wish the water reservoir was bigger. It’s good for about 3 ½ full cups of joe, then it must be filled up again. We have some really hard water here, so we have water delivered to the house. This means I have to take a pitcher over to the water dispenser etc. each time I fill the tank, which seems to be twice a day or more. Other than that, this thing is killer. It could crap out tomorrow and I would gladly buy another.

I love this espresso machine! I’ve had it for 6 years and it still gives me quality shots of espresso with gorgeous creama! Easy to use, don’t have to refill the water too often & doesn’t take up much counter space. It’s not exactly quiet but I dont mind the little noise it does make.

I usually use an $800 espresso machine and grinder for my home coffee experience. I choose to think of making espresso drinks at home as a hobby instead of a convenience. When my younger brother asked for an espresso machine for his birthday this year, I started to worry. Does he know he is asking to pick up a new hobby, or does he want some automatic, convenient "espresso-ish" experience? Turns out, he wanted to learn some skills. Whew! Now the challenge... to find a machine that was inexpensive enough to justify the purchase to use to learn the basics. I was searching for a machine that could be modified easily into a something that could effectively deliver consistent 28(ish)-second double shots with about 16g of coffee in, and roughly 40ml of espresso out, with decent crema (depending on origin, roast, grind, etc.), at what I would consider a tasty temperature for extraction. Bonus if I could ditch the panarello-style steam attachment in favor of a far more simple pinhole on an articulating metal tube. I'm pleased to say this machine ticks all of those boxes, with some modification and proper accessories. Upon pulling everything out of the box, enthusiasts will be disappointed. You will find a pressurized portafilter basket, plastic tamper, plastic panarello-style steam wand with basic articulation (side to side, but not up and down), and no frothing pitcher. So what can you make with the included kit? You will be able to produce drinks that will somewhat resemble what you can get in a cafe, but good craft baristas will always give you a product that is lightyears ahead of what you can make with this thing out of the box. So you've bought some good, fresh coffee beans. Now what do you need to do so you can pull cafe-quality shots out of this thing? 1) First, get a 51mm non-pressurized, single-wall portafilter basket. I found one on Amazon for about $10. Amazon item #B07JM8F4YS worked for us. It maintained a seal. 2) You'll need a decent tamper, again, 51mm ($7 on Amazon). Watch tutorials about tamping. We had to remove the black plastic insert from the portafilter to get the tamping pressure right. It really doesn't do anything, anyway. 3) Frothing pitcher recommended. $11 4) Most important: you need a grinder that can grind fine enough, with some possible fine-tuning of grind. I found a grinder that works, with the caveat that there are not enough fine steps for the enthusiast, but it worked for my brother to start to learn: $93. Amazon item #B0833F31MS It grinds fine enough to choke the machine, which the Cuisnart from Costco was not able to do. Dial in from there. 5) Watch some of the great tutorials about "dialing in" your shot on YouTube. You may need to learn about "temperature surfing" as well, to make sure you pull great shorts consistently. 6) There's no automatic "preinfusion" in this machine, so we learned to replicate it by turning the switch to brew mode for 1 second, off for 1 second, then brew the shot. Seems to work well for his needs. Steaming milk: Remove the plastic "panarello" jacket from the frothing arm, and you will find a simple, semi-articulating metal pipe with a single pinhole at the end. Perfect for learning actual milk-frothing technique. This machine takes a while to steam milk, which is great for learning to produce microfoam for latte art, but not great if you are in a hurry. Steaming milk takes a couple minutes. Compare that to a $1000 machine that does it in about 20 seconds. That's the sacrifice you are making to save $900. There are plenty of great tutorials out there to help you learn to produce cafe-quality foam. Watch them. In summary, this is a basic machine that I would not really recommend, unless you put in the time, money, and effort to make the changes I outlined above. If you do, this is probably the best sub-$100 espresso machine money can buy. The shots we pulled are almost indistinguishable from the shots I pull every day on my much more expensive machine. The milk we frothed, while slightly time-consuming, was well textured and consistent. I'm not saying this is as good of a machine as mine. It's not really close. It's just a darn-good machine at this price point.

When my trusty espresso machine went on the fritz I needed a replacement quickly; this arrived quickly! Unpacking it, I was slightly worried how light it was, and the frothing wand felt a little "flimsy". The acid test would be how it worked. Controls are pretty much self explanatory; turned it on and waited for the lights to turn solid; I left the plastic cover on the wand and started to froth the milk; PERFECT, and when I sat the jug aside, the froth stiffened as it should! NEXT, brewing the espresso; AMAZING! The espresso filled the glass caraffe and actually put a really decent head of crema on top of the brewed coffee! NEXT, was the acid test: TASTE. AGAIN, this rivaled its preceeding $300 unit and brewed the perfect espresso! Just carefully poured it into the large coffee glass I use, preserving the crema, and then spooned the froth from the frothing jug on top of the espresso. AGAIN, it surpassed its predecessor, and the very first time it was used I actually had an EXCELLENT cappuccino. The whole thing is basically plastic with the metal core for heating the water to high pressure, so the fact it was light concerned me; we will see how well it lasts. Slightly more worrisome is the wand; it is a thin tube of metal that moves a little too freely for my liking when moving it from it's "locked" position to the outward position for frothing; it feels a little bit on the flimsy side and my concern is if it will break off from the unit; we will see. Will this work as well long term as a much more expensive "Barista" professional unit? Probably not, but for the price this little unit cannot be beat and makes a more than acceptable home cappuccino, espresso and even a latte! I'm very pleased initially, and if this thing only lasts a year or so, considering the price, hey, I won't complain: I'll just buy another one!

I read the reviews for this machine and was so hopeful. First impression, I boxing was that it seemed cheaply made. It's plastic and super light. My previous machines had some weight to them. The water tank is tiny. We make several cups a day and would be filling this constantly. The most disappointing thing was the cup tray. I drink decaf, my husband likes regular. This is why we use this type machine. I'll make the occasional mocha but we mostly make americanos. We have always been able to brew them in a regular mug by removing the drip tray so it will fit under the portafilter. The drip tray can be removed on this machine but steam and water drip pretty heavily, from the bottom of the machine when brewing stops. It goes into the (tiny) water tray which would be ok but placing a mug in the tray with the screen removed means the mug sits in a puddle. If you remove the whole tray the water runs out on the counter. There is even more steam/water produced brewing two cups back to back. That means the tray would need constant emptying even if you were pulling shots in espresso cups. Overall, I'm very disappointed and will be returning this machine.

Review of the new 117 My first 117 died. Fortunately I had the extended warranty. I knew it would likely die and sure enough, in the 3rd year it died. All the Capresso machines die. None of them have lasted 4 years. This was the first to die from electronics. It just quit powering on. The previous ones all died from some tramatic rupture of the water/pump system, spewing water all over the counter, which is why we always run it sitting in the drainboard leading to the sink. So I went to buy another 117. Why? Because we tried a De'Longhi ECP3420 and it was weak thin espresso by comparison. So we returned the De'Longhi ECP3420 and got another Capresso 117. Bad news --- these 117 machines break so often now Assurion won't even offer an extended warranty for them. You have to buy a monthly warranty on Everything you bought on Amazon. Expensive warranty. But we bought one anyway. The new 117 is even better than the old one. The pump is quieter. The extraction is better -- more crema. The electronics are slightly different. It shuts off after being in Standby for about a half hour. It also will shut off an extraction at about the 8oz mark. Fine for me, but my SO wants a bigger cup of coffee. Oh well. I know it'll probably break but it's just amazing how even with pre-ground Seattles Best I get such a good double-espresso. Tons of crema. Original review of the 117 I went through three Capresso 119.05 espresso machines in about 8 years. The 119 got discontinued so I bought one of these 117's after the last one died. (Yes, Capresso machines die. Always get the extended warranty. The fatal flaw of the 119.05 was the water line out of the pump always sprang a leak.) Anyway the 117.05 seems to have more power and a better extraction. I get more crema. I'm using Seattles Best 4 and it's a pretty good cup of espresso. Yes most coffee shops could do better but for a home machine this is a pretty good pull. Another thing about the pull is it's nice and slow. Takes about 30-40 seconds to get a double. So I don't have to flip it on and off to keep it strong like I did with the 119. Cons. It's louder than the 119. That might matter to some people. You can't buy extra portafilters. They're not sold separately, and Capresso portafilters do break -- they're cheap plastic handles painted to look like metal. Pros. There's more room for cups to fit under it than the 119. Conclusion: I'll keep buying these when they break, and build up a new collection of portafilters like I did with the 119.

This is a wonderful machine! It makes a frothy cappacchino aas well as the foam I don't have to add water everytime the water tank is large enough so that I can fill it up and not have to do it again for a few days. MY only complaint is that it didn't come with a carafe and my existing one is too big! Had to go out and buy small cups so it could fit under the thing wwwhere you put the coffee....

I received my first machine and when I tried to use it the first time, water leaked all over the counter. So I called Amazon, and they shipped me a new machine, no questions asked. Now, 10 months later, the knob to start the brew won't turn on the machine. I did purchase a 3 year warranty through Amazon, but after they give you credit for the machine, the warranty is over. So, since the machine is only 9 months old, I called Capresso. They have a 12 month warranty. They sent me a shipping label, and I have to mail them the machine and it will be fixed, and returned to me. (I figured that I'd save the additional warranty for after the machine breaks down after it's a year old!) I asked the customer service rep if this was a common problem, and he said he had never heard of this problem happening to this machine! Upon reading the other reviews, I see that this has been a problem. I like the espresso it makes and the steamer works well.... but don't like the reliability.

La verdad me ha salido buenisima mi máquina. Ya voy a hacer 5 años con ella y ningún problema me ha dado. La quiero regalar para navidad.

I had an older model of the Capresso Pro since about 8 years: a most excellent machine. A problem developed: the water came out partly as steam. I did not want to repair an old machine nor to pay for another deluxe one, so I chose this model. It boasts a 15-bar pump and an attractive price. It is masterful at producing a rich crema... and the taste! For over a month, I have been drinking cup after cup, more than ever before. I am very pleased with this machine.

Excelente producto, facil de usar y hace un cafe perfecto,una muy buena compra con valor agregado sin anunciar pero valiosa

Love it and easy to use

Excelente opción por valor precio. Hace muy buen café, con excelente crema y el estimador hace bastante bien el trabajo. La compre para tratar de adaptarme a tomar e café en casa en vez de salir a comprarlo, pensando que si me adaptaba Bien luego compraría una más cara, pero no podría estar más contento con ella