Customer Reviews

DeLonghi BCO70 Caffe Nabucco Espresso, Cappuccino, and Coffee Bar

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

This is a good value for the price. It's fast, convenient
and makes great coffee/espresso. We particularly like the
built in milk steamer. We also like having the ability to
make coffee and espresso at the same time with one machine.
The only criticism is that it has no automatic shut-off.
We bought an appliance timer to cover that deficiency.
That was the only point that kept us from rating it 5 stars.

Our teenage son worked in a cafe' for the summer running a major multi-thousand dollar machine, and became a self-styled expert. This machine is as much as we were willing to spring for as a gift, and it's been non-stop espresso, latte & whatever for 48 hours. He's extremely pleased, which says something to us about the machine. He's found no fault with it after testing all the features...

I'd have to agree with the reviewer who thought this was a terrific machine but seems to be built to spill. We have resorted to keeping a towel near the coffee maker because it is almost impossible NOT to spill while pouring hot coffee from the large glass carafe. BTW the carafe is now chipped and I am having a bear of a time finding a replacement carafe. we also bought a gold mesh filter which works great in this machine-IF it is bone dry before each use. If it's damp or if we forget to hand dry the coffee filter area, we end up with an overflow of hot water and coffee grounds on the counter.

Dear DeLonghi, please rethink the carafe pour spout and NEVER sell a product with removable parts that can not be easily replaced. The coffee is delicious, the machine looks very cool...just make it work better.

Makes great tasting coffee, but the expresso seems weak even at the strongest level and even with cuban expresso. The BIGGEST problem with this machine is that it breaks very easily and has a couple unfortunate design flaws. We have gone through 2 in 2 years and have given up. The filter basket broke off the first one -- it just came off in my hand one morning and couldn't be fixed. The lid for the water basket just popped off one day and we could never snap it back on. Just the other day, the water basket gasket malfunctioned and now the machine is useless as it pours water all over the counter as soon as the water basket is put into place. Other annoying features are that the carafe drips ALL over the place -- we poured our coffee over the sink. Plus, more often than is barely tolerable, if we didn't snap the carafe into place exactly right, the coffee basket filled up and HOT coffee and coffee grinds ran all over the counter -- a very annoying thing to happen first thing in the morning on your way to work -- this has NEVER happened to us with other coffeemaker models. Now that our 2nd in 2 years is broken beyond repair, we're going to go with a different coffeemaker for sure! There's a reason this [money] coffeemaker is selling at [money]!

I bought this machine Christmas 2001, and it's already broken. It gets used once a day three to four times a week, and I've used the cappucino maker about three times in a little over a year. The warming plate is stone cold, and the machine doesn't even brew. When it was working, the gold filter regularly deposited grounds into the coffee, so it wasn't even an enjoyable cup back then. Cleanup is difficult too because the basket for the filter is next to impossible to replace once you've taken it out. You need a flashlight in order to see inside the machine to find the peg for the basket to catch and swing back into place. One of the worst purchases I've ever made.

We have never had an actual modern coffee pot of sorts in my family... so I decided to get this one. At the price, I decided that it seemed reasonable, given the functions. I have some major complaints, while there are some good things about it...

Pros:
*Really good coffee... appropriate strength.
*Really good cappucino/espresso.
*Easy coffee brewing functions.
*More than adequate capacity in carafe.

Cons:
*Counterintuitive design which allows for incredibly easy spills of water, coffee, coffeegrounds, and especially milk
*Cheap design (feels like i could break the entire machine in half with my hand)
*Milk frother feels incredibly flimsy and has a totally counterintuitive shape & rotation (it should be able to rotate more, and it should be longer and more dynamic)
*Coordination of steam system & cappucino brewing is totally arbitrary and impossible to understand (even for someone who considers himself tech-savvy)
*Coffee isn't at all hot (i like coffee from which steam rises, not coffee from which steam could have been rising ten minutes prior to being poured into a cup)... maybe a 1500 watt appliance could heat more than just the water.

To make matters worse, the manual absolutely sucks. Also printed on cheap paper, the step-by-step instructions are vague at best-- they refer to the steps by numbers when the steps are designated by bullets.

Steaming the milk must be done somehow coordinated with making the espresso/cappucino, but I can't understand how-- last time I attempted this, it ended up only steaming the milk and not making the actual coffee. It can only make two cups of cappucino, and I think that the assumption is that it actually makes less than you put in since some of the water is used to make steam. (There is also a compartment above the milk frother which serves no discernable purpose....)

A conclusion to the consumer : Read into this very carefully before buying. I have been satisfied with DeLonghi products before, but I feel screwed on this one. Supposedly, this device can steam milk, brew coffee and cappucino. One shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand a commercially avialable machine...

I bought mine on impulse at my local warehouse club without having read the Amazon reviews, and now I'm kind of glad. I find it much better-designed and easier to use than earlier reviewers, so much so that I think maybe some of the issues have been addressed.

There's no arguing with previous complaints about the instructions; they're just crummy. They're printed in four languages, and they're equally useless in all four. The cappuccino explanation is just plain wrong. The company has now added a little slip in the package that re-explains the cappuccino function, which helps a little. However, the fact is that the markings on the machine and caraffes are pretty intuitive. If you've ever used an espresso maker before, or paid close attention when someone else used one, just look at the machine, think for a minute, and you'll figure it out.

I also agree with those who mentioned the flimsy construction of the machine-- but remember that you get what you pay for. This machine costs about the same as a cheap espresso machine plus a moderately-priced drip coffee maker, and that's the level of quality you get.

I'm mystified, though, by the people who had spillage issues. I am the queen of spillage; they haven't invented the "spill-proof" cup that I can't get to spew coffee all over a 50-foot radius. Yet even I haven't managed to spill with this machine yet. It has a lift-out water container for the drip maker that I find very easy to remove and replace. I was concerned that it might take some work to get it properly seated, but it settles right in. The espresso maker has a cut-out near the opening that lets you get the lip of the caraffe right up against the place you need to pour. What really makes me think that DeLonghi might have done some redesign is that the caraffes don't drip at all. If anybody could make them drip, i could, but I haven't dribbled yet. (As for the cost of the replacement caraffe, other brands fit. The espresso filter and caraffe from my old Magic Chef work perfectly fine. Get a replacement from the Goodwill store; it won't be as pretty as the original but it'll do the job.)

I'm particularly pleased with the milk steamer. It makes LOTS of steam, and the frothing bit is designed so that it's easy to control the amount of froth. You can steam the milk with almost no froth, or you can turn 1/2 cup of milk into 1 1/2 cups of froth. I use skim milk, which is notorious for not frothing, and I get more than enough foam for a great cappuccino. And it's incredibly easy to clean the steamer, much more so than other cheap-to-moderate machines that I've seen.

It's not a full-featured machine, but it's not priced like one, either. It does what it says it'll do, and if you normally buy a couple of Starbucks' a week, it won't take long for this thing to pay for itself.

This machine works wonderfully...but don't break either carafe!! I had to special order the carafe from Italy and it cost nearly as much as the whole machine. For whatever reason they are nearly impossible to find in America.

Great coffee bar however if you should ever need to order spare parts, watch out.. The coffee pot developed a hairline crack in it after a week and of course the coffee leaked out. I called Amazon first who in turn gave me the number for Delonghi. I explained the situation and they told me I had to purchase a new pot and that the glass is not covered under warranty.. Here is the kicker, the damn coffee pot is 1/3 the price of the entire machine. $30.00 for a pot please, $5.50 for shipping.. I will never purchase Delonghi products again knowing this information.

Within 60 days of purchasing the machine, it malfunctioned. As I live in a remote area and the nearest service center is 350 miles away, one way, I did not get the machine to the designated service center until January 2004. They told me they would have the repair completed by the next week. When I did not receive the machine back and did not here from them after 4 weeks I called. They DID NOT CALL ME TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO. At that time they told me I had to send a check for $8.50 (???) to DeLonghi America and they would replace the machine. I did so on January 28, 2004. The check was cashed on February 13, 2004. After calling them twice, I was told that they had to wait 6-8 weeks to send me a new machine. I questioned why it took so long, especially since they cashed the check, and they stated that it was "just their policy." When I asked to speak to a supervisor during both inquiries, that request was denied. So, I still don't have a very expensive machine after 2 months of "service".