Krups F88041 Vivo

I love this Krups F88041 Vivo machine. It's a good friend. With a premium coffee bean it makes appreciably better coffee than any of the coffee I have when I'm out and about ( and believe me I've tried a lot of the good and not-so-good establishments). I give it a descaling every two months which hopefully will help to prolong its life for several years more. It's a good idea to get to get the Krups descaling pack 054 at least once to establish the hardness of your local water. It contains a litmus paper to make that test. After that I use citric acid ( I get it from my local Indian supermarket) which is much cheaper, 50p a dose.

Krups Vivo - My parents own an expensive espresso machine, so when I wanted one for my room at college I was looking for a combination of reasonable price and the best quality possible (given that my home machine has spoiled me rotten). The Krups Vivo was it. It's light (ideal when storing things during vacation) but surprisingly sturdy. The pressure it produces while not 100% top quality is very good. The only thing to be aware of is that the coffee cannot be ground too fine - I tried a very fine grind on it that we use on our machine at home and the water started to back up (not enough pressure to force it through the coffee) and spill out onto the table. This is corrected by using a slightly less fine grind or not packing the coffee down so tightly.

The Krups F88041 Vivo is one of the best value coffee makers I have ever seen if you are an espresso lover! You need high pressure (to push the steam through the ground coffee) and get those wonderful oils out of the coffee (those lighter coloured surface oils you get on the top of a great espresso) and this is the only coffee maker at this price range to offer a whopping 15 millibars - compare that to competition of around 2-3.8 millibars (from what I've seen) - and therefore can properly acheive this! Really, if you are considering another coffeemaker (unless you are forking out a real lot of cash...) you aren't thinking straight!

The graphite/silver one looks better than the black one in my opinion :)

(Service and Support rating is assumed - never had to use it :D)

I have had this Krups F88041 Vivo machine a week and I am delighted with it. I bought it on price ( the cheapest machine I could find ) and on sipmplicty of functions.

The instructions are complex and the processes a little firghtening pressure water steam.....

Krupps obviously recognise that you will need to consult the instructions because the sheet is laminated! I photocopied it so I could pin up both sides at the momment the instructions are blue tacked to the kitchen wall.

The machine comes with two filter cups ( for two or one cup) a gadget for tamping down the coffee. When you need to clean the filter there is a neat thumb guard which helps hold the little filter dish in the handle.

On the box illustration there are two cute coffe cups and a little jug these do not come with the machine.

The machine is effective but a fiddle to use and to clean and I love it.