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Well. It comes with a 2-year warranty. Last week, I came across it again and noted their new model uses ground coffee (known as WildomePod model) vs ESE. To provide perspective, I own a Rancilio Silvia, known for its ability to make great espresso. those days are over. I had used now for two days in the office and I am loving it. It probably was the rubber gasket that was a bit loose, but from the third attempt and four more brews later, the machine works like a charm. I must say that the first two times I used it when it arrived, i thought the machine was a hoax, because the coffee splattered and water leaked from the side.
And ground coffee is a lot cheaper than ESE. I am now drinking a very decent espresso at work both in the morning and in the afternoon. The trick to great espresso with ground coffee is how well the coffee is grind. $90 seems a bit pricey, but the handspresso should pay by itself when you compare it to buying coffee at work. ESE is convenient but at a price and you can't just not match the quality of fresh ground coffee.
I used the same setting that I use for my Rancilio and is perfect. The instructions are clear and simple to follow. That same night, I found the WildomePod model in Amazon and placed the order. Handpresso says the machine should be serviced after 5 years or 5000 brews. So normally, I drink office brewed coffee. It comes with an extra gasket and a second filter. The flavor is full bodied and the machine is extremely easy to use and to clean, you just rinse it.
Upon watching the promo video from the company, I was curious because it seemed to be able to work as advertised. As spoiled as I am for high quality coffee, I hate to pay up for espresso based coffee at Starbucks when at work. The machine is well made, although a bit larger than I had expected. I hope to retire before them but in the meantime, from now on I will always enjoy my coffee break. I estimate it will take me about 13+ years to reach 5000 brews in the office. I heard of the handpresso a couple of months ago and quickly dismissed it. My office now uses Keurig, which is a step up from drinking garbanzo bean coffee.
With a spoon you compact the coffee in the filter basket and that's all it takes.
The crema is at best mediocre. I just wish it would work with a larger air chamber, allowing more pressure, longer; that would, in my opinion, generate a better end product with more crema/extraction.I only use it as a last resort and will probably sell it soon. Since only ESE pods can be used with this device, it severely limits the quality of espresso that you can produce. Temperature is mediocre and only hot enough if you "shoot" the shot - no time to sip as it will cool off too quickly.However, all that said, the quality of design and construction is excellent.
My own fault- I didn't read carefully enough. Returning it to Amazon without using it.\ It's a mass produced item, not something you can get from fresh roasts at your local coffee roaster. Pods, by definition, cannot be fresh coffee. If you like pods, fine. It seems like a fine device, but I wanted to underscore that this is a POD ONLY device. They are expensive and the choice of coffees from pods is limited. So while I believe this might be a nice travel coffee device, don't be a chump like I was and order it thinking you can use your own coffee source for it.
I think if they had integrated 2 options, of using pods and fresh grounded coffee, it would make this product incredible. Pros: sturyd, nicely built, convenient, easy to clean, delivers.Cons: only use pods. I think the fresh bean, grounded makes a big difference in freshness. The coffee does not feel fresh, since they already have been packed and grounded. The product itself is beatiful, quality built, and feels very sturdy.The machine is good and simplistic. I bought this because I love espresso shots, and the review for this products were awesome. It delivers a regular espresso, but of course don't compare this with a cup of espresso from a regular coffee shop.I got this model for convenience, since it uses pods I can have espresso anywhere.the bad thing is that these pods are not that great (or at least I haven't tried one that I like, I use Lavazzo Crema Pods). But I am willing to sacrifice a little favor for convenience.So overall the product is good, because it only can be used with PODs.
She was very nice and said that since I had been waiting so long, they would go ahead and send a new one. No problem, right. Let's also assume based on my experience that between shipping time and repair time, Importika will take about 6 weeks to get the unit back to me. I give the concept 5 stars. I received no further communication from Improtika, and five weeks later, I called.
You know how you buy those home printers that cost about $100 and come to find out it won't work unless you buy $80 in toner every month. I went through the RMA process, and sent it back to Importikia. Let's say my experience is average, and I can expect my Handpresso to break every two months of use. The math is pretty quick on this one. I got a call today from the same nice lady requesting a credit card she could bill $30 for return shipping. Wha. No calls were returned. Based on my shipping and their fees, the annual total maintenance for the Handpresso comes to $112.50.
Overlooking the fact that postage between here and there would be about $7.50, this was a product that completely failed in under two months. It is now plastic. If anything, you would think that they would say "oops, our bad", and get me a working one ASAP. Then almost exactly two months after I bought it, it failed to pressurize. As it stands, they are trying to turn what should be a cost they incur from selling low quality product(their problem), in to a situation in which the customer pays for the "warranty" repairs on the defects (our problem). They can't afford to do the right thing considering the volume of RMAs they must be getting.Follow Up: I paid the the return freight, and just opened my replacement Handpresso.
It looks like they have changed the manufacturing process to cheaper parts as well. Yeah, me too.To sum up-Handpresso- $88.99 (with free shipping).1 year maintenance cost- $112.50Actual functional lifespan- 8 monthsConclusion: If they had just asked for the $201.49 up front, and provided a better product, I would probably be happy as a clam. It was great. I left a message per day for about six days. Clearly there was a mis-communication right. Warranty is a concern with such a high maintenance item, and according to the schedule, the Handpresso would break again about two weeks after the 1 year warranty expired, meaning I can expect 8 months of total lifetime use before the thing is a paperweight.So it is likely based on my experience that I would need to exercise the Handpresso warranty three times in the first year of ownership.
The water reservoir had been a nice heavy glass-like material like Pyrex. I loved this when I got it. On the seventh day, someone accidentally picked up the phone. That would means in my first year of ownership, I will only have the Handpresso in my possession for 7.5 months, the other 5.5 months, it would be at Importika for repair.
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