Customer Reviews

Krups FNC3 Novo 3000 Premium Pump Espresso/Cappuccino/Latte Maker

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I've read several reviews good and bad on this unit. I can't comment on machines that are actually defective, but I have learned some tips that might account for disappointing experiences by other owners.

Tamping is probably as important as getting the grind right. Since Krups provides no tamper with its machine and finding a tamper that fits is rather difficult, I suspect that many folks have had to improvise and this can easily lead to disappointing results, especially when you combine this with never having tamped espresso before.

1) The tamper size is 53mm which is hard to find because most are 50 or 58mm. Being warned in previous reviews, I experimented with the least pressure, graduating to firmer and firmer pressure and found one that works right every time. (It is true that too tight a pack will block the puck from passing the brew.)

2) Getting the right grind is all important and it's very easy to overgrind. Even the best of home grinders can make too fine a powder if left on for just a couple of seconds longer. Looking for some granularity and avoiding the powdery appearance is key.

3) Expect the puck to be consistently soupy if ejected too soon after a brew. If you wait about five minutes or so with a spare cup under the filter holder, the puck will drain and allow removal without a mess.

4) Cleaning. I try to clean the filter holder, filter, head gasket and surface within about 10 minutes of my last brew (and also between consecutive brews.) Coffee does a number on rubber or plastic-rubber seals, so I always use a dishrag with soupy but very mild detergent, then rinse a couple of times.

I've had great success with this procedure and consistently good pulls without explosions or mess.

Just in answer to the previous reviews by people who haven't got a clue what espresso is or how it's made...

Firstly, I have this machine, it is excellent - maybe not up to the best professional cafe espresso makers but certainly capable of making excellent espresso & cappucino.

The two filter bowls supplied with the machine are perfectly sized for 7gm and 14gm of coffee - 7 grams is meant to be used to make a single shot espresso (1 or 2 fl.oz depending on your tastes) so the 14g makes up to 4oz of espresso - the amount needed for a large cappucino coincidentally.

Secondly, the grounds come out as a perfect solid cake IF you know how to use a tamper to tamp them down in the first place! If you can't use a tamper, or use old dried up coffee, sure they'll come out as sludge!

The clearance spout is only meant to clear demitasse cups, show me an espresso maker that you can put a full length latte cup under as I've yet to see one. Incidentally, my cappucino cups happen to fit under as well.

The 2 cup filter drips relatively evenly - they all use the same idea, one filter & 2 holes, what kind of perfection do you expect? Move the emptier cup under both nozzles at the end.

Can't comment on the ESE filter holder myself as I don't use it but this is a perfectly respectable espresso maker with a great milk frother and certainly doesn't deserve the extremely poor reviews from people who don't seem to know what they are talking about.

The Novo 3000 Premium is of very poor build quality.

1 - The 2 cup filter drips at different rates for each nozzle, therefore making 2 cups of espresso simultaneously next to impossible.

2 - The ESE filter holder leaks, I have only tried about six pods the leaks become more extensive with each use.

Another annoyance is the used ground coffee does not empty as a hardened cake as indicated in the instruction manual, emptying the coffee after each use is a pain.

This is the most disappointing item I have ever purchased from Amazon.com since 1997 so I returned it.

I have used a Krups steam-powered espresso maker for the last 15 years. I bought this pump-powered machine as an upgrade to my existing system but I was very disappointed.

The machine comes with coffee holders in two different sizes. Even the larger one is not deep enough for making enough coffee for a large cappuccino. Each run of the machine is good for about 2.5 ounces of brewed coffee; too little for a cappuccino.

The clearance below spouts is too low to accommodate anything other than small demitasse cups. That's OK if you use the machine for espresso only, but not good if you want to make a cappuccino or latte.

Removing used grinds is a big mess. Unlike other machines where used grinds come out as a dry cake, here you get liquid mud. You have to be very careful not to spill the mud on the machine or on the counter as you remove and dispose it.

I am not sure if the pump on my unit operates properly. It does not appear to be producing much pressure. Even with very loosely pack grinds it produces a very weak stream. This particular unit may be defective but I am not interested in trying out another one.

The machine is being returned tomorrow.

After 2 months of use, this machine started to leak. I can't find where the leaks coming from but the problem seems to be worsen everytime I use it.

I always use fresh filtered water, and clean the machine after each use, so I think may be the one I got is defective... Also, the pump seems to be very poor quality. 7g of espresso tamped with about 30lb of pressure gets me about 3 drops of extraction. if I don't tamp, I hardly get crema.

Overall, it was waste of money in my case. I'm shoping for another one now...

I have not had much luck using this with real ground espresso. The usual problems, either very little espresso or none at all. A soupy mess when trying to empty the coffee. Perhaps I just don't tamp or grind very well!

To that point, I've found ESE pods to work pretty well. The first pull of the morning tends to leak either a little or quite a bit. The second seems to get a better, I assume the gasket gets warm and produces a better seal.

I have no idea how the straw/steamer thing is supposed to work. When I do as planned, the milk comes out too watery. However a work around is to just dunk the arm in coffee as a normal system would do. It's not quite long enough, but will work.

Getting the water hot enough for steam from the brewing setting takes pretty long. Not great.