Good espresso, lousy switches. Good value but temperamental.
Positive Product Points
With good coffee (e.g. Illy) you get a great crema and a lovely espresso. Easy to use, easy on the eye without being pretentious or super cool.
Negative Product Points
Needs time to warm up to produce more than a single espresso, steamer produced volcanic milk without froth and therefore useless for cappucinos but as I don't drink them I don't care.
Detailed Commentary
As other reviewers have mentioned, the switches on this machine are a problem. We are on our 3rd set of switches and they have just gone - hence the visit to coffee geek to find possible alternatives without this annoying problem. In between Gaggia repairs we have rewired it ourselves to use the steamer as the on/off switch to maintain our supply of coffee however when this too has died, we have been forced to submit our machine to the care of Gaggia. The issue here is more that we are without coffee than anything else.
Gaggia itself have provided exemplary service. Each time our machine has gone back, we have received our machine back in pristine sparkling condition with switches that work (at least temporarily). The staff have been helpful and we can't complain. Although as Gaggia know the switches are rubbish maybe some re-engineering would be a good move.
Buying Experience
No problems with Amazon. Purchased, arrived and it worked. Customer service was fine
