Bad Quality & Poor Design

Author's Rating:

Pros: compact to fit on your countertop, 15 bar pressure

Cons: bad quality, bad value for money, little crema

The Bottom Line: 
Not worth the money

Author's Review
The DeLonghi EC330 is an espresso machine from Italy, with 15 bars of atmospheric pressure (this is the amount of water pressure that gets pushed through the coffee beans).  I was attracted by the sleek silver look and it's small footprint on my counter, as well as the price.  It ended up being much quieter than the Breville Cafe Roma I had tried previously, so I was happy with that. 

However, I was extremely disappointed by the filter and filter handle – it is very poorly made.  The filter handle had rough edges, looking like it hadn't been trimmed/ smoothed after taking it from the plastic manufacturing mold.  It looked like something you would get from the dollar store, not a part of a $200 machine.  The machine also has 2 sizes of filters, with the bigger one accommodating pods.  The filters sit very loosely inside the handle so you cannot knock out the grounds without knocking out the whole filter.  This is very annoying, since you then have to fish out the filter from the garbage or garburetor.  There is just one little plastic tab thing that is supposed to hold the filter in place when you turn it upside down, which doesn’t work well.  Also, either the measuring spoon is too big or the filter is too small because when you try to transfer one measuring spoonful of ground coffee beans to the one cup filter, it ends up overflowing the filter.  There is a built-in tamper on the side of the machine, which is useful.  The water container on the back is removable, so you can wash it easily.  The steam wand only moves up/down so it's rather awkward.  And it’s not perfectly positioned over the drip tray so it does tend to leak over the side.

I haven’t had the best cappuccinos with this machine.  Very little crema.  Overall, I was dissatisfied with this machine - poor value for money, and bad quality.