Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't beat it for the money!, August 20, 2006
I must start with saying that this is my second XP4050 in one month, the first suffering from two problems. One problem was the same that others have mentioned here, when water stops coming out of the filter head and instead just dumps into the drip tray from an apparent overflow-type valve in the bottom of the machine. This only happened once, corrected itself, and never happened again. The second problem was that I noticed a small amount of water occasionally leaking from the buttons on the front and the stainless portion on the front of the machine would also get VERY hot. I believe these were one problem, possibly the brewing portion leaking.
I contacted Amazon online and was shocked at the ease and speed of getting a replacement model. At no charge to me, including shipping, I had a brand new XP4050 within 3 days.
The new model works perfect. I am a somewhat new espresso afficienado, having been making my own at home for only about 2 years. This is my second machine, my first being a Krups Gusto that recently died. I decided on the XP4050 after a great deal of research and comparing features versus cost. The price I got this model through Amazon was literally half what I was looking at with other brands.
As far as use of the machine, it couldn't be easier. I use mostly pods but have tried grounds with equally easy and great tasting shots. The three different filter baskets for brewing are held in the handle firmly, which was an issue in my old Krups Gusto (I accidently threw away the single shot filter basket). The frother performs very well although I have not tried the attachment for pulling the milk from a separate container. As others have said, make sure you keep an eye on your drip tray, it does tend to fill quickly. I empty mine every 4-6 shots.
Overall, even considering my initial "problem" model, I am extremely happy with the XP4050. It's a great looking, inexpensive, easy to use machine that consistently puts out quality shots of espresso. I would recommend this model to either new beginners or someone looking to step up a little.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ahh great coffee at home, December 27, 2005
Ahh great coffee at home
Firstly I am just a wee amateur when it comes to coffee. I hate instant coffee and wanted quality coffee at home that was easy to make.
I just purchased this machine last night; it's our first pump espresso machine. It took me a couple of goes, messing around with the machine to produce a good coffee, but I seem to be getting quicker and better with each additional coffee I make.
It's fairly simple to use. The pre-programmed 1 or 2 cup buttons take all the guess work out of the coffee creation - process. It is also very quick to fire up (become ready from power up to coffee creation) in comparison to some of my friends machines.
The auto- cappuccino (milk foamer) also works well, with surprisingly little mess or effort, but be sure to use very cold milk.
So far the machine seems to be very easy to clean after your perfect cup, no drips or mess which I have read about in other reviews.
I have not tried the ESE pods yet, but I am sure this eliminates any coffee ground mess.
I hope this helps, enjoy
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Loud, rattling, rripping, But decent Espresso ..., August 7, 2006
I love my espresso and used a krups 15 bar pump machine for the last 7 years. Love that machine and so bought the latest Krups, xp4050.
ack.
On the plus side:
+ Makes a good cup of espresso. Not fantastic (not with a touch of that burnt taste that you get from boiler models), but a very drinkable cup. And that's what it's supposed to do!
+ I LOVE the auto milk frother. I just tuck the tube in a cup of milk and it draws out the milk and spits it into my cup all frothy and warm. Very nice (though a bit diluted with water from the frother, but I'm ok with that).
On the not such a plus side:
- Noisy! OMG! This thing rattles obnoxiously, much louder than the older platic Krups model I've been using. Sounds as if the stainless surfaces are not well mounted or... or... I dunno, but it's just stupidly loud and buzzy. Every time I run it my wife jumps back, 'it's broken, it's broken' Nope. Just seems to be how it works...
- Drippy! In two ways. First, the espresso seems never to end... I find that the factory "double cup" setting is almost twice the content that is traditional, not sure why it's set this way, but it is programmable, so I can change it. Either way, when I depress one of the buttons to stop the espresso (because I haven't reprogrammed the double seting yet to decrease amount), it continues dripping for a long long long time, very strange and very unlike my old machine, which dripped away, surely, but not for minutes on end... And this isn't a fault of manual control, either, I checked. Because when I hit the single cup button and let it run its programmed course, the dripping continues for so long that it more or less makes a double cup! Just, bizarre. Terrible flow control. Is it broken? Lord knows. But I just pull out my cup when it's got the correct amount (because I've been making espresso for so long I know how much a single or double should be), and stick a second cup beneath to receive all the drips. Rather defeats the notion of programmed flow control, though.
Secondly, huge amounts of water gather in the drip tray. Again, substantially more than the old model. I find that I have to change the drip tray every other time I used the machine (the old model would go weeks b/w drip tray changes). Again, odd.
In sum, I'm rather disappointed with this new model. While the espresso is acceptable and I love the auto-frother (go to Krups web site for a demo of that), the things seems very poorly engineered, with obnoxious rattling and buzzing, catastrophically bad flow control, and drippy mess underneath, wasting half of the water that you put into it.
This is not the kind of engineering I expect from Krups. I don't recommend this product and will likely not keep this one for all that long.
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