Customer Reviews

Solis Master 5000 Digital Espresso Machine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our machine worked great until we ran into a common display problem (read design error). Solis told us to send it to Empire Fulfillment; it's been there for over a year now. The parts "should be here any time now." In short this product is not supported in the USA. There's almost a $1000 down the drain.

I'd give the machine 4 1/2 stars and the support -5.

I love coffee and drink a lot each day. This machine is well worth the price. It's quick, makes a decent cup of coffee, easy to clean, sets up to my specs in a few moments and I can adjust the brewing to suit my tastes. After a few months of using the machine I am not disappointed.

My friend has 3 of these machines and I decide to buy one for my partner's birthday. It has been working great making perfect coffee cups after cups. It is simple to use and easy to clean. By pressing a button you can switch to steam. The only complaint is that it is quite noisy grinding and brewing. However it saves me the trouble of using my old Krup espressoo maker.

Summary: This is a durable and reliable machine that stores water and beans, and makes a good cup of coffee or espresso one at a time, at the push of a button. It also has the standard steam nozzle found on other machines.

Details: We've had this machine for 6 or 7 years now. I'm amazed it still works considering all the complex moving parts, not to mention heat and pressure. I've done several detailed cleanings but other than that it just keeps chugging along.

We use it primarily for what I call "Italian coffee," which is a strong coffee about half the size of a typical American cup, with a layer of tan-colored "crema" on top (this is how the coffee comes out...it is just a layer of coffee froth and is not something added by either the user or the machine.) It can also make a smaller espresso or a larger cup of "normal" coffee. Each of the three serving sizes use the same amount of coffee and the same brewing process and differ only in the amount of water. The three sizes can also be programmed to a particular quantity to suit your taste or your cups. To program the quantity, just press and hold the button to start a brew cycle, then release the button when the coffee reaches the desired level in your cup. Thereafter, each press of the button will dispense that same amount of coffee.

I give it four stars but it's really close to a five. I wish it had an easy way to accept a water line rather than having to manually refill the water tub (about once every two days with our level of use.) I also wish there was a way to program it to "wake up" at a particular time. As it is, you have to hit a button to start a warm-up cycle (4 or 5 minutes) before you can make a cup. The dispensing nozzle also broke after a few years of use (not required for dispensing single cups as we normally do, but required for doing two cups at a time.) But even when doing two cups, the machine still does one cup after the other and just splits the dispensing between two cups sitting side by side. So the nozzle is slightly more convenient for two cups, but no faster.

There are three ways to adjust the flavor of the coffee: fineness of grind, quantity of grounds, and quantity of water. The quantity of water I have already addressed; the other two settings are done with knobs inside the bean holder.

There is a fairly in-depth electronic menu for doing cleaning cycles and other functions. One interesting little bonus here is the total cup tally for the life of the machine.

I can enthusiastically recommend this machine for typical home use and for making specialty coffee for guests. If you need to make a pot of coffee for guests or a large family, I would recommend having a separate machine to do that.