CM5418 Espresso Machine 20 Bar, Espresso Maker with Milk Frother Steam Wand, Stainless Steel Espresso Coffee Machine with 34oz Removable Water Tank, Gift for Mom or Dad, Gift for Him, Creamy

Updated 2/25/25 - after being contacted in January by Casabrews and keeping the machine rather than returning it… it now leaks water all over the counter out of the bottom of the water container when I’m adding water and when I’m making espresso. I’ve taken it apart and put it back together - didn’t help. Video attached. Turns out the Bambino is worth the price. I do not recommend this machine - it is NOT made to last. Alright… longest story short - I’m directly comparing this machine to what seems to be the highly coveted Breville Bambino Plus that costs 3.6% more than this machine. For the overall response without reading any further - get this one over the more expensive option! For the longer version keep reading. I need a new machine to replace my very old espresso machine that isn’t working properly anymore. I didn’t want to go too crazy with spending if I didn’t have to. So many people seem to LOVE the Bambino Plus. I bought one three days ago. I returned it two days ago. It made espresso, but not well, and the auto milk frothing, two out of three times, did not stop and boiled fairly hot milk over the pitcher and everywhere. Not a good feature. Not worth the extra $200 they add for that feature over the regular Bambino. The regular Bambino is still slightly more than 2x the price of this machine. This morning out of frustration I opened Amazon and looked for the highest rated/reviewed machine that I could get TODAY before 3pm. Helped narrow it down out of thousands of machines quickly. So here we are. Why 3 stars? Here are the pros and cons for me (and mind you I’ve made ONE drink - the video that is attached). Pros: It’s cute / kinda retro looking with the guage. Which due to filming and watching the coffee flow I realize I didn’t even look at it so I don’t know if it is helpful or not yet. It’s very compact and is smaller than most drip coffee machines. It should cause zero space issues for anyone. It seems fairly sturdy despite the price. It didn’t rattle my cup around etc. Yes I had to hold onto it for the portafilter - but not in an agressive way. The Bambino felt like I had to hold onto it more so. The box and the directions it comes with - they really do cover a lot of information for people who are new to espresso making - which I think is a nice added touch. Cons: The steam wand, turned all the way up, does a terrible job at frothing. If you want hot milk that doesn’t get any real texture - that was my experience. Again - first use - but I steam milk everyday and this steam wand was a let down. The portafilter, the baskets, the "tamper"…. All three need to be replaced immediately. The portafilter is very lightweight and the baskets have to be turned and placed inside with little slots. They feel very low quality overall. The tamper is the flat side of a plastic spoon. I didn’t open the bag with the spoon or the single basket - I didn’t bother trying to use it. I used one I already have. No milk pitcher included. Casabrews does sell upgraded portafilters and baskets and a tamper. I don’t know if I am going to keep this machine (I make milk drinks all day and that steam wand is rough for me) - but if I do - I will spend the extra for the better accessories (bottomless portafilter - non pressurized basket etc). For a budget machine though - overall I’d say this machines reviews are pretty accurate. I did follow all the instructions - and I’m going to go make another coffee now. Update: 1/7/25 - I will still leave my rating at 3 stars because of everything I said a couple of days ago. After a couple of days with this machine and many espresso drinks made - I wanted to add a couple things. First - it really does not froth milk. I’ve tried three different kinds and it just gets it really hot with zero texture and zero froth. Massive letdown for me since I like milk drinks. I also meant to mention in the first review, the steam wand is not the insulated kind - so it gets VERY hot. Just something to be careful with if you aren’t aware that not all steam wands are made the same. I tested the machine with coffee ground for espresso machines and it did not like it. With the pressurized basket it comes with, the machine does better with a more coarse grind (similar to a drip coffee/sea salt texture grind). That would be a plus if you want to use pre ground coffee from the grocery store. The instructions for the machine also say that you cannot use the steam wand and then make another espresso shot right after. If you try to do that the machine goes into heat protection mode. It locks the machine and there is a sequence you run that ends up using a lot of water in your reservoir to cool the machine back down. If you wanted to make a milk drink for someone and make another drink right after for someone else, you can’t. Or you can’t without either waiting an unknown amount of cool down time OR running the routine to cool the machine first. HOPEFULLY this review helps in someone’s decision making. If you ONLY drink espresso shots - this machine is probably tidally worth it! If you like milk drinks…. Maybe try it out and see if you have better luck than me. Today I had to use my old espresso machine’s steam wand to go with my espresso shot from this new machine.

For the money saved, it's still a bad buy. The past 4 years, I've owned a Breville with the grinder included. It was expensive..... I thought. I paid about $600 after I found it on sale. That is a LOT of money. So after it broke down after 4 years, I was furious and vowed never to spend that much on an espresso machine again. So I bought this machine to simplify things. I regret it. First of all, you have to buy a separate grinder. Yes, you do. If you really want exceptional espresso, you've got to grind it fresh. So a good grinder is imperative. .. and expensive. That's another purchase. Then this stupid machine "air locks" if you do not make coffee prior to steaming your milk. There's even instructions regarding this issue. See, I prefer to steam my milk first, so my coffee espresso is piping hot when I add my frothed milk. Nope. With this machine, once you make that frothed milk, the machine requires you to wait before you can make another cup of coffee and if you don't follow these steps in precise order, it air locks until it cools down which takes about 10 minutes. Yes, it does instruct you regarding this issue, but when I make my cappuccino and froth my milk, the next person has to wait for it to cool down to make their cup. Secondly, God help you if the water reservoir runs dry. Air locks again. It's not a large reservoir either. Next, this machine is LOUD and vibrates like A Boeing Max. So much in fact, that your cup will shimmy right out from under the dispenser and your freshly ground coffee will dispense no where close to that expensive custom made cappuccino cup you bought on Etsy. It's a cheap version so I didn't expect much, but it really never delivered a great espresso. And in the end, it saved me no money because now it doesn't really work after less than a year and I'm out my purchase price and have endured hassle and shitty espresso. My advice? Suffer through shitty coffee and save up till you can buy a Breville. Trust me, it's worth the investment. This machine doesn't save me counter space either, because now I have to have a separate grinder on the counter, too. It's a messy ordeal. Just don't. Now after less than a year, it broke. Complete crap. So, I'm saving my money up for another Breville. Four years of no hassle and exceptional coffee with a grinder included was worth the $600. Lesson learned.

The espresso is fine, but using the machine is awful. It's loud. It rattles. The portafilter isn't great - the insert is really loose and comes out half the time when knocked the grounds out (more on that in a sec), it's got this weird maze of stuff below the insert, it dispenses espresso unevenly if using two smaller espresso cups. I have yet to knock out a solid puck, they're all soupy messes. The steam wand is the loudest, most obnoxious thing I've ever heard maybe. Oh and also it takes forever to steam anything. And while I don't like foam, my wife does, but this has yet to produce any. So it's going back.

This espresso machine pushes way too many bars when pulling espresso. No matter how fine I grind the coffee grounds or how hard I tamp, the shots are pulling so fast that it leaves the espresso sour tasting. I would not recommend this design to anyone. It’s a quality machine that’s built well, but it’s over engineered in the pressure department.

It makes coffee fine but if you do anything out of order it goes into screw you mode and won’t do anything. If you steam the milk you can’t make another cup of coffee until you turn it off and leave it for awhile and start over from the beginning. If you push the button to make a cup of coffee before the light stops flashing to indicate the water is hot it then won’t work at all until you unplug it and leave it for awhile.

Es de buena calidad y para su precio es buena

J'ai longtemps hésité à commander cette machine à espresso, cherchant à avoir un bon café de qualité sans trop y mettre d'argent. J'ai finalement passée ma commande et reçu la machine le lendemain. Je pensais sérieusement que j'allais devoir faire des essais-erreurs avant de réussir à avoir un bon espresso. J'ai préchauffé la machine comme recommandé par la marque, en faisant couler un 2 tasses, sans y mettre d'espresso, avant de faire une vraie tasse. Hé bien, mon tout premier espresso était vraiment excellent. J'ai choisi un sac de café Lavazza "crema e gusto" moulu finement que j'ai trouvé au supermarché, j'ai mis 11-13g dans mon portafilter, et dès ma première gorgée j'ai été grandement surprise. Aucun arrière-goût, aucune amertume. Un café très doux, mais fort en même temps. Points importants à noter: - Le mousseur à lait prend parfois un peu de temps à être bien chaud et je n'ai pas réussi à faire mousser mon lait au complet, mais ce n'était pas ma priorité. - Le mousseur est aussi très bruyant, au point de faire siler mes oreilles. - J'utilise l'eau chaude du mousseur à lait (sans mettre l'option steam) pour allonger mon espresso, mais parfois l'eau n'est pas aussi chaude que j'aimerais qu'elle le soit. Je suis très contente de mon achat, et après une semaine à me faire des café régulièrement je n'ai aucun problème majeur avec la machine. Je recommanderais clairement cette machine pour ceux qui souhaitent se faire des espressos, ou allongés de qualité, sans trop dépenser (surtout considérant que certaines machines à pods sont encore plus chères que celle-ci). Évidemment il est possible de "modder" la machine en changeant le portafilter, mais honnêtement, étant quelqu'un qui prend de 2-5 cafés par jour, je ne vois pas l'intérêt pour le moment puisque le café est très bon! Je recommande!!

Es una excelente compra para empezar a preparar espressos reales. Solamente recomiendo comprar por separado un portafiltro sin fondo, ya que el que viene es presurizado y si te gusta explorar diferentes cafés con ese no es la mejor alternativa.

4 stars if you're intent on learning to make great espresso, 5 stars if you're happy to stick with beginner mode. There's nothing inherently wrong with this machine. It can make good espresso, with a nice crema, if you use fresh, quality coffee that's ground correctly AND you run it at least twice without coffee before making a cup -- the portafilter needs to be hot or you'll get a subpar extraction that's thin and lacks the silky smooth mouth feel. Ignore the single shot basket. It's pretty much useless. No one makes single shots. Fill the double shot basket as close to the max line as you can (~15g of coffee), and MOST IMPORTANTLY reprogram the 1 cup button so that you get about 30 to 32 grams of espresso in your cup. 15g of coffee for 30 grams of espresso is the "golden ratio" of 1:2. From the factory, both the 1 cup and 2 cup buttons allow way too much water. The ratio is closer to 1:4, which will yield a terrible espresso. Buy a coffee scale with a timer function and reprogram the 1 cup button as I said above (for ~30g of espresso in the cup). The 2 cup button will be your "manual" button -- you can use it as an on/off button to do a manual extraction while watching your coffee scale and timer, the way a professional manual espresso machine is used. If this is all you ever want to do, and you like the results, then it's a 5 star machine. However, if you were hoping to experiment with your grind and your tamping to achieve different extraction pressures and times, then you'll have to buy a new portafilter, one that does not use a pressurized basket. The cheapest I found was a bottomless portafilter from a 3rd party for $60 CAD. You'll also need a real tamper, which is another $20 to $30 depending on features ($30 for a spring-loaded one). And you'll likely need a coffee distributer and leveler too ($30) since you'll be working with a bottomless portafilter and they are much less forgiving (on purpose). That's why I say 4 stars if you had aspirations of learning the art of espresso making -- after buying all the additional parts, you'll have spent almost as much as a De'Longhi Maestro Plus which comes with both pressurized and non pressurized filter baskets (so you get the best of both worlds) plus all the accessories you need, AND you'll still be stuck with the Casabrews 51mm portafilter which is a little small and only holds 14-15g of coffee -- larger diameter portafilters are preferred, 58mm being the standard for pro systems, and being able to hold 16-20g of coffee is preferred. Like I said, it does make good coffee. It just doesn't offer any way to grow your skills and make even better coffee. I've had it for 24 hours and I already wish I'd bought something more professional, but I'm the kind of person who will take the time to learn, so if that's not you, then go for the Casabrews.

Muy bien en potencia, ligera y bonita.Hace muy buenos expresos