Howard wrote:We like cappuccinos so I admit we are not really coffee purists. I use a DeLonghi basic espresso machine with a milk frother. Having practiced making coffee the way we like over many years it produces very good results comparable with the quality offered by a typical coffee bar in Italy. Much better than most UK restaurants. The creaminess of the milk is quite important to get the taste we like.
However we live in a hard water area and after a few years, despite regular de-scaling, the frother valve starts to allow drips to form during the coffee making process.
A replacement may be needed soon, I guess the DL machines last about six or seven years. Do more expensive models cope well with hard water?
regards
Howard
All coffee machines will need descaling regularly if hard water is used.
John