I have owned the Dualit Espress-Auto for a number of months now and am impressed at the quality of the product. The machine is considered to be very good value for money and is very versatile as it has two different sizes of porta filter for coffee, an adapter for ESE pods, has a dedicated tea making facility, steamer and the operation buttons can be custom programed to allow temperature and how much water is dispensed. The machine has a single boiler, which means that all of the hot water and the steam is obtained from a single heating boiler. Which does mean that the boiler has to heat up and cool down to different temperature’s for different usage. However the heating up time is quite quick and the cooling is via flushing of cold water, so the single boiler is not much of a drawback.
The unit has a cup warming plate on the top which I find to be somewhat useless for my use. I tend to switch on the coffee maker only when I want coffee so there is not the time to warm the coffee mugs on the plate before making coffee. Warming mugs with hot water from a kettle is more effective. In addition while the machine is a reasonable weight it vibrates when the pump is operating so any mugs would probably fall off the machine when in use. While a good idea, I think that a switch to turn it on and off would be a good idea which would save on some electricity!
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I find the auto cooling a little frustrating as it operates very quickly after making a shot of coffee and does not give enough time to make the next coffee with the water having to heat up again. I am guessing that the reason for the cooling discharge is to take away latent heat in the boiler system which will help in longevity of the machine. The down side of this discharge is that it fills the drip tray quite quickly. Luckily there drip tray is of a good size and has a pop up indicator to show when the tray is full.
The only other thing that I find a little disappointing about the machine is the plastic measuring/tamping instrument, I would have proffered an alloy type of instrument which will last longer than a plastic one.
Having said all of that I still have no hesitation in recommending the Dualit express-auto, it does make great coffee and tea and is considered to be great value for money.
If you are interested in this machine just clock on the image above to view the Dualit Espress-Auto on Amazon and/or the image below to view Dualit ESE Coffee pods. (Amazon Affiliate)
Click on the image to view the Dualit ESE Coffee Pods on Amazon. (Amazon Affiliate)
