Customer Reviews

Cuisinart EM-100 1000-Watt 15-Bar Espresso Maker, Stainless Steel

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

I purchased this machine at a Kohl's for roughly $220. I think it's of an exceptional quality for the price.


Positives: #1 Well built (it's actually quite heavy)
#2 easy to use, filters allow for a single or double shot to be made - also comes with a pod filter but I've never used it
#3 large water reservoir that has allowed me to make 4 or 5 espressos and steam milk too
#4 comes with a DVD that teaches you how to use it (much easier than reading the booklet) - this is especially helpeful if you're new at making your own drinks
#5 easy to clean
#6 has a warming plate on top (good if you need to make more than one double shot cups or two single shot cups
#7 espresso has a good taste (although I think this has as much to do with the quality of the coffee you're using) The machine actually does produce a good amount of crema for the price you pay
#8 Stainless steel frothing picture is just the right size for one latte or two cappucinos
#9 15 bar pump allows for more than enough pressure and for great taste.
#10 has a feature that allows you to get plain old hot water too if someone isn't interested in the espresso and wants tea/cocoa/whatever

Negatives: #1 the steam nozzle is too long - you kind of have to tilt the pitcher to get the nozzle out - this isn't a problem so long as you know so you can use less milk or you can place the machine so the nozzle can be used on a non-countered space. The nozzle has a good range of movement so this does help counteract.
#2 the distance between the portafilter (where the coffee comes out) and the drip tray is not very tall - I've found that I have to use a smaller cup to brew and then dump it into a larger cup if I'm going to make a latte and want to fit in a decent amount of frothed milk.
#3 you have to be really careful to not overtamp your grounds or you'll end out with coffee everywhere - this machine is a little pickier than I expected (and pickier than the really cheap machine this replaced). But, with that said, the taste is 100x better. You can catch it if you overtamp too so long as you closely monitor and make sure the water is coming out of the portafilter at a decent rate. If you overtamp, barely anything drips out. After a while you figure out how much is too much.
#4 - my biggest complaint, and this one is quite dangerous - There's not a great way of knowing that pressure has been released - this means that once your espresso is made and you're ready to clean out the coffee grounds you have to be really really careful or it'll explode the hot coffee grinds all over you and your kitchen. I've been seriously burned a couple of times. It might not be a problem if you're used to espresso machines (I wasn't when I first bought this one) or you learn to be super extra careful always.

We had a Krups combo coffee pot/espresso machine and after several espresso calamities in a row, I gave up and got this Cuisinart. So far it has been great! It seems that there used to be only basic espresso makers or extremely expensive ones on the market, with nothing in between. But the Cuisinart satisfies the coffee connoisseur on a budget by making truly wonderful espresso and more.

One of my frustrations with our last model was the "perfect froth" tip, which was disastrous to say the least. I just need a basic steam wand and I can take it from there, and the Cuisinart fits the bill - it steamed and frothed my milk easily and quickly. Just be careful to use less milk than you might think, because the volume doubles in no time. I'll probably switch to a larger pitcher than the one that comes with the Cuisinart, though it's fine to start out.

A couple tips to get started: the instructions say the heating light should come on right away, but it didn't for me until I switched the small knob to the droplet icon (as opposed to the middle neutral position). I figured this out by watching the video, which I recommend as the instruction manual is pretty bare. It's also good to see how much pressure one should use to tamp the grounds.

The only negative thing I can say is that the warming tray doesn't seem to get very warm, but I do like being able to store my cups on top anyway (more space in the cabinets now, plus a certain café aesthetic is always nice), so I don't mind. Positives are that it's fast, it's quiet, everything is sturdy and well designed (and clicks or locks solidly in place so you know things are seated correctly), and the espresso is truly café quality - an enormous difference from the more basic espresso machines on the market.

UPDATE: Since this review I have had some experiences with clogging. Cuisinart customer service was totally unhelpful, but here's what I do to remedy the situation:

1. As soon as you notice espresso isn't coming out, turn off the machine, take off the basket (you may have to wait for the pressure to subside), rinse it out well, and fill the machine with water.

2. Scrub the underside of the metal grid that the filter basket attaches to with a damp cloth.

3. Reattach just the basket with no filter. Heat water and run that through to get any clogs in the upper part of the machine. I fill up a milk pitcher. Then turn the big black dial to neutral, add the empty filter to the basket, and repeat. As long as water starts running through that ok it should be all right. I hope it works for you!

I like my coffee. In fact, I freely admit to being a coffee addict. And before I say anything else, let me say that this machine makes great coffee. With the right beans and a bit of practice, you can beat the taste of any coffee shop with this.

That said, I am glad, I still have my french press, because sometimes this machine decides to be difficult. It usually starts if you tamp your coffee too hard. The coffee maker is then unable to pass water through and ceases up completely. Make sure you watch what you are doing, so you can stop it from trying if necessary. Now, the real problem with this is, that you will have a very hard time removing the basket, as long as there is still pressure inside. It takes somewhere between 5-10 minutes at least, before the pressure has gone down enough, that you can pry the basket off (watch for exploding coffeegrounds, if you didn't wait long enough).

To make matters worse, the machine seems to have a hard time recovering after an incident such as this. It seems to get even pickier, with what it will accept, and it will be easier to resort to the backup plan, and let the espresso machine recover.

I would rate the EM-100 a 5/5, if it weren't for this problem. I hardly apply any strength, when I tamp my coffee, and I still run into trouble from time to time. In fact, the first one I had got so picky, that I took it back to the store and exchanged it.

To minimize my risk, I take great care to clean every bit of the coffee maker after each use. If you can live with this issue, the coffee that comes out of this machine really is to die for.

The Cuisinart EM 100 is a true bargain and a great espresso maker. Over the past 15 years I've purchased two Krups and one Capresso in the $250 range. Neither brand was capable of processing an espresso grind. They usually blocked up and let no water past the grinds. I had to resort to using drip grind coffee. The Cuisinart does a great job processing an espresso ground coffee, leaves a fine crema, steamer works perfectly and is a breeze to clean up. Its built like a tank, looks cool and I'm totally surprised and satisfied with its performance.

Use it at least twice daily with both ESE pods and ground espresso. It really is a nice machine. If you are like some other reviewers and have problems with coffee grounds blowing out over the kitchen after you are done then you are likely tamping them too hard or using a grind that's too fine. Easiest way for a first time user is to buy some coffee in ESE (easy serve espresso) pods from the internet and feel it to see how hard the coffee is tamped in the pod. Cut it open and see how finely it is ground. Go to the grocery store and grind a pound of your favorite roast to about the same grind. At my grocery store the second or the third finest setting works fine. You can use your own grinder but a good burr type grinder costs some money and the less expensive blade grinders are useless for espresso. Tamp it to about the same hardness as the pod was. It makes wonderful espresso with lots of crema on top. I've never had an issue with grounds or steam blowing out after I release the pot--even with the machine on and waiting just until the coffee stops dripping to detatch it. I don't see how you could go wrong, but some obviously do.

This one looks nice. It works well. Has a self-priming pump (a good feature that alot don't include). It comes with a tamper, a stainless-steel frothing cup, filter holders for pods, single, and double shots. It also includes 2 tolls to clean the little holes the espresso is pumped through. It comes with pretty much everything you would end up buying for it in the first year. I have a water softener so scale will never be a problem but you would want to descale it once in a while if you don't use distilled water. The only thing I wish it had was a dial thermometer so I could watch the water temp more closely. I believe that it has an aluminum boiler. I would prefer brass but you just can't get it at this price. The pump makes some noise but not more than any other I've used. Steam espresso machines are cheaper, much quieter but burn the coffee and it doesn't taste nearly as good.

Overall, very good product, easy to use and the best value by far at this price.

I have been using this machine for several months and wanted to give a little feedback about the machine not pumping water through the portrafilter, because this happened to me last night.

I thought the machine was defective or broken... but what I found was that it had to do with the size of grind of the coffee I was using. I've been experimenting with the fineness of the grind (using a burr grinder) and I got it too fine and it clogged filter itself. I found this out because once I managed to get the portafilter and handle off and swapped it out with the second filter that comes with the unit, it worked fine. The clogged filter-- even with no grounds in it-- would not pass water through it!

If you notice the bottom of these filters (for using your own coffee rather than pods) you'll see there is only one very small hole for the coffee to exit into the portafilter body. If this hole is clogged or for that matter if the holes just under the grounds of the filter are clogged (by, in my case, too finely ground coffee) then no amount of pressure will push the water through the grounds of even the empty filter, and the whole machine will lock up.

I soaked the clogged filter overnight in a weak bleach solution and then used the small tools that are supplied to unclog the exit hold on the bottom of the filter. It now works just fine.

I got a can of Illy ground coffee to study the size of the grind they recommend. I was way over on the extra fine side of the spectrum by comparison,

I compared the filter with my old (now defunct) Buon Cafe machine that I got about 15 years ago and that filter has an equal number of small holes on the top and bottom of the filter-- so that one is much harder to clog.

I got on several web sites to study up on the areas of grind size and tamp pressure and that's where I may have gone wrong at least with this particular machine. I was coming up with figures like 30 pounds of pressure to tamp (using a bathroom scale to push against to get an idea of what 30 pounds would feel like...). that may be fine where you have more than one exit hole and keep your grind from becoming too fine!. Cuisinart recommends moderate pressure.

In any event, if you grind and tamp your own coffee instead of using the pods, Cuisinart's recommended timing of 15 seconds for a single shot or 25 seconds for 2 shots works just fine, but you have to balance the grind size and tamp pressure to achieve that. That's probably why people use the pods! My advice would be to stay away from grinding too finely thereby clogging the filter holes-- just use the middle of fine (not towards the super-fine end)-- if you are using a burr grinder, and then get your time in range using the tamp pressure to avoid this problem (as I noticed some others have mentioned in their reviews).

To start with, the machine leaked water out of the bottom from the beginning.

A couple of months before the 1-yr warranty was up, the plastic (!) piece holding he steaming wand broke and sent the wand shooting under pressure. Cuisinart agreed to replace the machine, but I had to pay return shipping AND new shipping. I believe they sent me a refurbished machine, as immediately the wand would barely release steam and no water stream through the wand at all. The front knob would get so hot under all of the pent-up pressure, that it was too hot to touch! A couple of times the wand came shooting off. I called back, but Cuisinart told me now the warranty was up, even though they just sent me a faulty machine! Told me they might make an exception, but again I would have to pay shipping both ways! What?!?

No more Cuisinart for me.

I got a defective machine. There is no seal between the basket and the rest of the machine so hot water spews everywhere. I called Cuisinart "customer service" and they told me I could pay to ship it to them AND pay for return shipping. All before I made my first espresso.

I bought this espresso maker and it was not working straight out of the box. I sent it back and few weeks later I received the replacement, which worked fine- for 2 months. Water started leaking from every crevice possible on this sucker. I called cuisinart and they are sending yet another replacement, of which, they are going to charge me for return shipping. Skip this device and pay a little more for something else- I have lost more money in time spent haggling, re-boxing and shipping.

UPDATE June 24, 2010
I am not sure about this product even though it makes a good cup of coffee. I notice a small puddle of water underneath it everyday on my counter top! It collects on the grout between my tiles, which is not good. The puddle appears to come from a leak.
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After using Cuisinart EM-100 for a month I can say that it can make delicious coffee comparable to that bought in a coffee shop. I continue to be happy with the purchase, after using the espresso maker and getting to know it well.

* Ease of use
The espresso maker has many nice and useful touches. It is simple and fool proof to operate, which helps when making coffee when one is not fully awake. The controls allow one to continue or to stop pouring coffee, water, or steam when one wants to. A regular 8 ounce cup fits easily under the portafilter. Other nice touches are that the water tank can easily be removed or put back, and the drip tray can be slipped out easily and washed off. The length of the steam/hot water nozzle is suited to the frothing pitcher included in the purchase and is not really a problem in my experience. The espresso maker is fairly quiet.
It makes hot water and steam in an amazingly short time. I'd say in less than a minute; perhaps the solid 1000W specification has something to do with the internal boiler.

* Preparation and clean up
The preparation process for making espresso is very short: just pour water in the tank if there isn't enough left over from before, fill a clean portafilter with ground coffee and attach it in place, wait about a minute, turn the dial for coffee, and it pours out into the cup, presto!
Clean up is simple: the screen above the portafilter, the steamer nozzle and the portafilter need to be cleaned, all of which are easy to do.

* Coffee grind and clogging
All that is needed to make good coffee with the coffee maker, is to use the right grind of coffee, since everything else has been made simple to do. Some suggest that a burr grinder is required to grind the beans for superior coffee. It takes a short learning process to find the correct fineness of grind to make good coffee. I found that the finer the grind the tastier the coffee. A word of caution, as with any espresso maker, too fine a grind (Turkish grind, but not Espresso grind) will clog the basket for the portafilter and coffee will not pour out. I have now learned how fine to grind my coffee so that particles do not get through the holes of the strainer in the basket and get trapped inside its double wall.
When it is clogged, the pressure created by the pump can make it hard to remove the portafilter, but it must be removed in order to take steps to unclog it. This issue would be the same with any espresso maker. Instructions and a pin are sensibly provided. I was able to unclog the basket for the portafilter with the pin, so that one can make a mistake and recover from it.

It has not been my experience, as a couple of other reviewers have claimed, that you cannot tell when the pressure is more than usual, and coffee explodes as you remove the portafilter. If the portafilter is not clogged, it requires little effort to remove it, and there is no explosion or mess involved. However, if it is clogged, you will find from the outset that you need to use much more force, enough to tell the difference, due to the pressure created by the clog. When I removed a badly clogged portafilter, the coffee grounds stayed in the portafilter, and there was no mess to clean up. The high pressure that is naturally developed due to clogging makes it a problem to remove the portafilter. I once turned the machine off and waited for 15 minutes, and still found that the pressure was high. I haven't tried this, but if the water from the tank is emptied by passing it through the nozzle for example using the hot water setting, perhaps the pressure in the portafilter could be reduced enough to make it easier to remove a clogged portafilter.

* Tips on using hot water and steam for a hot cup of coffee
If one uses a cold cup and cold cream directly from the refrigerator, one's espresso will naturally not be as hot as one might want.
I use the hot water to heat up the cup first of all. I leave the hot water in to warm up the cup, until after I steam up the milk to heat it. I then move the dial to making espresso and proceed to pouring the coffee. Doing things in this order, heats up the boiler more and gets the water hotter.
A good froth can be made with steam, with the normal amount of noise caused by bubbling steam through cream, otherwise the unit if fairly quiet. I use the steam more to heat up the cream which is cold from the refrigerator, than for making a froth.

* Making more than one cup at a time
For making several cups of espresso in a row, the portafilter can be safely and easily removed as soon as one is made, so that you can go on to making the next one, and so on. The water tank is large enough for making several cups. The protafilter is naturally hot for a while after making a cup of coffee, so be aware of it while handling.