Love that crema!? I hope you have a PhD.
Written: Oct 07 '04 (Updated Aug 25 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quick, easy? yes/no, great crema, use it ALL the time, looks great
Cons: Humms loudly when plugged in, expensive cleaning tablets, hard to learn useage, noisy, expensive
The Bottom Line: We love it! Quick, easy after you learn it, you'll never look back and use it all the time. Yes, I would get another.
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| coryandlaurel's Full Review: Jura-Capresso C1000 Espresso Machine & Coffee Make... |
EXPERIENCE/HISTORY
First had a small Phillips steam unit. Didn't learn my lesson and moved up to a small Faema steam unit. Thought it was the cheap $20 grinder so I purchased a Salton feed through grinder. Then became semi-wise and bought a small pump driven Krups unit. Thought it was the Salton grinder I had, so wen to replace it but became sick of blowing all this $$ and bought this $1000 Capresso C1000 unit. HA! After writing all this down, now I feel like a sucker...but I'm a happy sucker now.
MODEL OPTIONS?
It all started when searching for a grinder for my beans to use in my small Krups unit. I went into a Faema store specializing in all grades and types of espresso machines and was told to my sadness that my $150 pump driven Krups unit was a piece of Kraps (although our Krups Aroma Control coffee maker is WICKED!! -see review- ). Instead of buying a $50-100 grinder, why not get a machine that will grind the beans for you and more the sales lady said. It's only another $1000 more for the low end unit.
LOTS OF OTHER CHOICES...IF YOU HAVE THE $$$
It must be nice to have enough disposable income to drop a couple thousand on a really fancy espresso machine that does your laundry too, but we opted for this one since we managed to get it at a great price point (US$800) and it had the minimum level of features we (I) wanted. I correct this an say "I" since my wife, although she is crea-phillic, had a hard time seeing my justification for such a high priced machine. Well, especially after all my previous choices of "oh, this will make things better for sure".
Capresso / Jura / Krups (same models but different names since the companies were bought out at different times to become absorbed by the parent companies) make 3 different levels of this series when we bought. We purchased the lowest. The models above add digital displays, milk siphons, fancier blah blah blah etc.
WOOOHOOO BABAYE! GOTTA LOVE IT!!!
The most outstanding feature of this machine is the fact that we now use the espresso machine all the time. The coffee maker has been put away in a box in the basement for larger parties that require additional carafes to be filled with coffee in advance. The time and effort required to produce an espresso is so low that it gets used several times a day. I can't stress this enough. The reason why we never had many home made espressos before, was that the effort, time and mess precluded regular daily use. What do I mean?
A water resevoir coffee bean hopper waste coffee holder = no mess instant espressos
The removable water resevoir (with US$8 water filter included) can be easily moved to the water source to be filled with 2 L of water. We buy reverse osmosis filtered water (pretty close to distilled) for US$2 / 5 gallons (20 L). We also use the water for irons and our Bissell Steam Mop (see review). This means we don't need to use the filter or descale. $aving$.
The coffee bean hopper holds about 1/2 a pound of beans, although the instructions recommend that you don't fill it up completely and leave it if you're not a frequent user. I refill it every week or two.
I've tried a lot of different coffee beans bought from the grocery store to specialty roasted in the store, and boy do the beans make a difference!!! It's the difference between pouring milk or water on your cereal. The most expensive is not necessarily the best in my experience, but you generally do get what you pay for. Good luck finding your taste price point.
Waste management!!! This machine has it's own garbage man. After the beans have been used they are automatically dicarded into a 3 fist sized container inside the machine. It tells you when it needs to be emptied about once a week.
HOW IT WORKS
You push the power button. The warming up light flashes (15 sec) and then a green rinse cycle light illuminates, indicating that you should run a rinse cycle of water through the machine (10 sec). You can avoid this rinse cycle if you turn it off and then back on again. Then choose 1 cup, 1 cup strong, 1 cup extra strong (depending on how long you hold the button down for, it grinds more coffee to be used) or select 2 cups. You can also determine the amount of water that will flow through the coffee into your cup by a dial on the front. This allows the difference between short/long/Americana or greater coffee volumes and strengths to be chosen. The a whole cycle from on to finish is about a minute.
Flip a switch and milk can be frothed or steamed with the nozzle on the side. There is no milk siphon, but who cares since you need to clean the siphon each time you are finished with it. This can be a real pain unless you are frothing several milks.
Tea/hot water is easily made through the same spout with the push of a button. Although because of the pulsating pump system (almost like a waterpik) it splashes a litttle.
All buttons are conveniently located on the front panel, and really, once you get used to it, you just need to follow the lights to see what your choices are. When you are first learning to use it however, it is farily confusing and is not as intuitive to use as a standard coffee maker. I started drinking espressos when I was doing my PhD in neurophysiology and never had a problem with working complex biomedical electronic equipment but found I had to keep the manual at hand for about a week before getting the hang of things. Actually, I still need to pull the manual out when trying to run the cleaning cycle. But just like doing some really tough things like stripping and rebuilding your bike, making Pad Thai or putting on baby diapers, you do it enough times and you go on autopilot.
I should qualify this and say that once it is ready (warmed up), making espressos and coffee is a simple one button deal. I actually leave it on when we have parties and tell people to make their own espresso/coffee whenever they want by pushing the button beside the green light. Easy? Well, it doesn't get any easier than that....ok, maybe one day we'll have the Star Trek voice activated "give me hot coffee" machine, but until then...
MAINTENANCE
Maintenance can be cut down significantly by using distilled/reverse osmosis filtered water or the included filter to prevent scaling.
You will be reminded to clean the brewing chamber every few months. Cleaning tablets are about US$2 each. You pop them into the "pre-ground coffee" funnel and then run a cleaning cycle that takes about 10 minutes and 1 or 2 fills of the resevoir.
The drip tray is easily removable and can be cleaned out every week or so, or as your messiness dictates.
The frother nozzle screws off and can be rinsed very easily. I do this every time it's used since I don't like the idea of old crusty milk froth hanging around. I don't think there is an espresso/capuccino machine out there that has done away with this issue.
Cleaning is very easy of ground debris is very easy. There is not much at all but some stray bits can be found inside where the drip tray slides in and the waste hopper is located.
...and that's about it for maintenance. It really is a care free machine for day to day use, and that's why it gets used every day. We would not be having espressos very often if we had to grind, and tamp and regulate steam/water volumes and clean, after every cup.
COMPLAINTS
I love the machine, but I wish...
1) it was easier to use. The next model up has a lit scrolling LCD display.
2) it didn't hum so loud when plugged in. I have this attached to a power bar that I switch on before I switch on the machine, since it creates a loud annoying hum even when the machine is not on!!!
3) it cost less. I know this is the least expensive of the superautomatic series but you can drink a lot of espreso for $1000! Going out for espresso won't give you the barrista coolness factor at home though.
The grinding, pump system, and cleaning are on the noisy side but I don't actually mind the sound since it's part of the experience, just like I enjoy the sound of frothing milk with the steamer.
It is a large permanent counter appliance (about the size of a dish drainer and as tall as a juice jug) so you will lose counter space. But again, I wouldn't want to hide this thing away since (I think) it's a beautiful piece of machinery.
IN THE END
I love this machine. My wife has grown to love it, and wouldn't go without it now. It scares the kids when we make espresso. Friends either think I'm crazy for buying this instead of a $20 Braun coffee maker (they'd be happy with chicory) or they are insanely jealous when they see it in action. In spite of it's eccentricities, I would buy this again, and I don't think I would spend any extra to move up to fancier features that would not greatly improve the day to day use of this machine or the quality of the coffee.
**** UPDATE ****
There is/was a product recall on this because of the possibility of dangerous electrical issues. We ended up not opting for the free repair/replacement but moving to the Jura Impressa E80 for some more money. I will write a review shortly.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
coryandlaurel
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Location: CANADA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
We're... parents, a wife, a husband, a daddy, a mommy, kids,...
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