Customer Ratings & Reviews

I love the design and the features, what a difference in my morning coffee.

I had to return , the grinder setting would only grind super fine (almost dust) so espresso wouldn’t espresso through portafilter. Troubleshot and cleaned with no luck :/

I'm so upset. It's been 11 days and it's going back. After pretty much the 3rd espresso made the machine begin to malfunction. Despite numerous cleanings different grind settings and utilizing different baskets the espresso is coming out in single drops and tastes like death. I'm very disappointed at the price of this item and poor quality.

The machine looks beautiful on the counter and it works great!

Nice look- love the app function- great gift for my sister

Breaks down within a week. I got an exchange and that one was not working either. Don’t recommend

Forget about trekking down to your local store and standing on a line for your coffee fix! I'm in love with this awesome GE espresso machine! This is a world class espresso machine that allows you to grind your favorite coffee bean brand to the texture of your choice, froth milk with 15 bars of pressure and WIFI to customize your drink preferences with the amount of grind time and the amount of water. How sweet is that! This is all made possible with the Smart HQ App. This is a really easy machine to set up and use. Grind your coffee beans, tamp down the coffee grounds so that you remove air pockets, and brew either single or double shots. Just writing this is making me crave some espresso, however it's too late in the day for one. If I have one at this time, I probably won't be able to sleep the night due to caffeine overdrive. It's tempting though! I personally grind my coffee beans at the finest setting. So far so good. No clogs to report and nothing but great tasting espresso. Both my wife and I love the awesome taste of the espresso and the amazing results we are obtaining. The 15 bars of pressure is the strongest amount of pressure that I have ever used to froth milk. The frothing process is very quick. In about a minutes worth of time, your milk is "super" hot and frothy (the way I like it). You have to be careful during the frothing process, as the milk gets hot and if your not careful you can propel hot milk all over the place. Do not remove the steam wand from the milk before the frothing process is complete. Remember to power-off the unit or move the dial to the off-position. Either way is acceptable. Also pay attention to the stainless steel cup (hold it by the handle only) as it can become very hot to the touch. I did connect the product to the Smart HQ app and adjusted some of the available settings such as the brew volume, grind time and the exact amount of hot water. What I did like about the app, was the fact that it notified me when the water level was low in the reservoir. I really wasn't expecting that to be quite honest. I did notice that the electric cord plug is not three pronged which was surprising. It is however listed as being UL (Underwriters Laboratory) approved which is a good thing. So far I'm very happy with this product. It is beautifully made, makes awesome tasting espresso, grinds my favorite brand of coffee beans and ultimately saves me bundles of money not going down to my local coffee shop. Also being able to customize your espresso with just the right grind, brew time and water level is quite pleasing. This is a great product. A WINNER!

Functions did not work. Could not open or twist the lever for coffee

As someone who took some time in life to appreciate coffee in general, let alone espresso and espresso-based beverages, this is the most premium machine I have used in my coffee journey. In short, I love it. To start, given my space, counter space is tight, so I do appreciate “small-ish” footprint for what it is. Further, if something is going to make the cut on the counter, it has work well (looking good is important too). This machine nails both of those. The build is a lot of plastic, not all metal, but feels well-built and solid. The weight is good, with regard to the machine, as well as for the accessories. The tamper and portafilter feel good in the hand. As for design, everything is in the right spots, and is rather straight forward. Simple. I love the look. While not metal, it has a nice matte finish that gives that feel/look. The look is simple, clean, and modern. Plain. What I like. I am not in love with the copper accents (a personal thing) and would be happier without, but overall, as I said earlier, I really like the look. Setup is intuitive and is not an issue. The machine is also quite easy to use. The bean hopper is a good size (less frequent fills), has a tight seal and is even UV protected. The water reservoir is also a nice size (again, less frequent fills) and can easily be filled when needed. The grinder performs well, various sizes, without a clog for me so far, and the steam wand/frother is quick to heat up. With the clean interface, and all the things I mentioned above, I found it pretty simple to get the flavor I was looking for. It honestly was pretty exciting getting something at home that I have always relied on shops to give me. That said, there are so many variables here (beans, grind, water, pressure, etc…) that I am sure I will be playing around for some time to change and improve both what I get and what I like. GE offers a companion app for the machine, the Smart HQ app. While I don’t love that everything has an app these days, there is some nice functionality here. You can control aspects of the brewing process (grind time, brew volume, water volume, etc…), and it gives you information on water levels, and helps with the cleaning schedule. So, I do think you should grab the app. It is not the best, but I hope they improve it over time. Cleanup is pretty typical, about what you would expect, and fairly easy. You get a nice little set of cleaning accessories and quite a few pieces (drip tray, bean hopper, grinding burr, etc…) can be removed to make the process easier. Like anything, I think a quick clean/wipe down per use would be best to reduce buildup, but cleanup has not been an issue for me. Ultimately, I like this espresso maker. It is a beautiful machine (just lose the copper lol), is well-built, is well thought out, and produces professional looking and tasting espresso that I have really been enjoying. No doubt, it is an investment, but I think the value is there. Taking an occasional trip to the coffee shop, rather than daily, is easily worth it to me…for several reasons.

The coffee taste should be important for you when you decide to do the investment in a barista-type machine. If you are for the challenge you are looking for handling the two components of your beverage you need full control over all of them: .- The water and steam: With a reservoir that can be removed and filled with almost 12 water cups, you will have enough water for many services. The fast heater can generate steam up to 15 bar of pressure in no time. This is significantly important when you are preparing your espresso, after properly pressuring coffee in your portafilter, steam should pass through if you plan to extract all the natural coffee oils. .- Coffee and the importance of grinding: The coffee reservoir is big enough for 0.6 pounds of coffee beans in a sealed container helpful to minimize reducing the oxidation of coffee. The machine includes a grinder to transform your beans in the ground size needed (15 fully customizable sizes). The process, after setting the size is hands-free and the machine secures the exact dosage. This is not small detail because grinding size is the component that determines the taste and caffeine level that goes in your coffee cup. In addition to the basics: This machine's aesthetics are amazing. This machine will dress the counter of your kitchen and will attract the attention of visitors. The Bellissimo machine comes with a Milk frother for those moments when you need to add some textured milk to the drink (cappuccino or latte options). The frothing pitcher is also included. Nice accessories that complement your inner barista: cleaning kit with a brush, a solution for descaling plus a steel temper, and the coffee filters. This model is wifi connected and the app is allowing you some basic controls like the grinding size for your coffee. Ok but not used too much until now. In my house, the no coffee drinkers, are also using the frother for heating the water for preparing tea or the hot milk for chocolate. Quite easy to clean with all parts removable. Including the fully detachable reservoir for the excess water and other brewing subproducts. Final considerations, This is not an automatic (but semiautomatic) coffer machine, this means that the human intervention is a must With a ton of combinations of water, steam pressure, and coffee griding sizes, the infinite (almost) possibilities are going to provide plenty of fun time to find the exact beverage that makes everyone in the house happy. I think that the price is the right one for this kind of coffee machine compared with others in the market that deliver the same functionalities. Because I only have it at home for one week, I can not talk about machine lifespan but considering the value for money of the investment I wish that the guarantee will be bigger than one year. I love it!

Bought this at Thanksgiving, not even Christmas yet and my grinder is broken. Tired to clean it several per the instructions in the manual. Highly disappointed.

Besides looking good, it can produce amazing coffee. Thee grinder is kinda loud but the coffee is firm ad needed.

Just what we needed ,, it’s nice to have options since we like espressos as well as regular coffee

Had to return it. Did not work properly. Won’t buy again.

I’m probably on the border of being an aficionado and just an ordinary coffee lover. I’m pretty simple as I’m not particular about the details of my drink, as long as it tastes good. That said I’m not much of a fan about the over-sugared drinks at your local coffee chains and wouldn’t call the coffee from your local gas station my favorite. With all that out of the way, this thing is seemingly designed for the true master. With various pressure options, different grind amounts, and various water ratios that can be set, it’s plenty to mess with to get that perfect cup of coffee to your preferred taste. It’s simple and elegant, with 4 buttons across the face and a knob makes for ease of use. The only downside to this simplicity is that other functions become more complicated. Additionally, the app feels rather redundant and serves little purpose. The only true functions to get from the app are amounts of water, grounds of coffee, and amount of hot water. Nothing else, just a shop portal to buy more smart products offered by GE. The overall build quality feels rather good with a decent weight to the machine. It does spin a little however when I go to twist the portafilter handle on/off, but it’s reasonable as that area is supposed to seal tight and prevent leaks. It’s countertop friendly and frankly looks really well in the kitchen with beans in the hopper ready to grind away. As a side note, you do not necessarily need to purchase whole coffee beans, you can use pre-ground coffee (what I had to do the first 2 days as all I had left was a cup of beans left). As a bonus, you could also use your pods from your old machine. Using the milk frother/steamer wand is the icing on the cake and incredibly simple to use. Clean-up is also very simple if you wipe and run hot water right after. Frothing leaves a considerable amount of residue from your drink on the tip of the wand and sets on very quickly. I found that wiping it down as soon as your last drink is ready was best. Cleaning and maintenance is quick and simple. A couple of keypresses to descale while a twist of a lock and brushing of the grinder. Under the grill, the entire tray slides out allowing you to dump any liquids from its base. Behind that, you’ve got your cleaning brush and pick to use in the grinder. I was really impressed with the red floater under the tray. It raises through the grill as a visual alert that the tray is full. But like I said at the beginning, I was pretty simple with this machine. The defaults worked just fine for me, my only real adjustments came to the hoppers grind level. That alone made some great coffee.

The Café Bellisimo is a good espresso machine with some issues. For now let’s start with the good. Aesthetically pleasing, makes good espresso, quality accessories/tools. At the end of the day you want an espresso machine to make good espresso, and you can extract a good shot of espresso from this machine every time once you get accustomed to the machine. The milk frother worked flawlessly and I found the water to get hot within a reasonable amount of time for milk frothing and for pulling shots of espresso. The bad. The user manual states to grind espresso beans at grind setting 10 or above when first using the machine, yet I had to get a replacement for the first espresso machine because the grinder was clogging up at grind settings above 10. I became familiar with disassembling the burr grinder and clearing the burr grinder since I had to unclog it three times. Every time I cleared the burr grinder, I would attempt to grind coffee beans at settings above 10 (as indicated on the hopper) and eventually the grind button would flash magenta/pink at me and the grinder would stop functioning. The second/replacement espresso machine did not have this issue, however I am not the only person that has had issues with the grinder. The grinder seems to be the weakest point of the espresso machine. For a combo grinder/espresso machine, the grinder must be as good as the coffee making side or else you end up with a combo machine doing 1 job but taking up the countertop space of two appliances. If the grinder portion of the machine doesn’t stand the test of time it would be best to buy a separate grinder and espresso machine. Minus the issues I had with the grinder on the first unit I can say the Café Bellisimo makes good espresso drinks. However I expect the grinder to be an issue going forward and I do not look forward to having a large appliance where only ½ the side is properly working.

Terrible coffe machine and have this for a three months and now is broken again

I love the machine! The problem is the grinder stops after every 2 shots! To have to take it apart, clean it and then put it all together is excessive! The single shot does grind below 9.5 seconds and it over flows the portafilter! Let it go below to 8.5 or 9 seconds! The espresso shots are perfect when it works! I just opened it about 4 days ago and…not sure what to do! It could be a perfect machine if…they fix the issues! I would love to recommend it if it gets fixed!

Café - Bellissimo Espresso Machine with 15 bars of pressure, Milk Frother and Built-In Wi-Fi - Matte White (the machine I received was matte black, not white). The Bellissimo Espresso machine is a standard espresso machine with the addition of the milk frother to produce Cappuccinos. It is well made with a precision bean grinder built in. It has a standard single and dual modes with customization for bean grind, water injection , and hot water amount. When first turned on and configured with the APP it did an update that took about 5 minutes. Once I got into the customization it asked for another update. This one took about 10 full minutes and during this updated the power light went off and the light ring flashed a few times. There was no warning about what was going to happen, the update only said it could take up to 30 minutes, this could cause someone to unplug the unit that seems unresponsive. If you wait it will restart in about 10 minutes. The phone app allows you to add Alexa and Google control over the unit. I’m not sure why you would want this on a machine you really need to be in front of in order to work it. The app gives you the ability to call service, and do maintenance. On an update note, before the 2nd update it stated I had 44 liters of life before cleaning. After the update that changed to 35 liters. My thought was they had realized the hard water in most of the US caused cleaning to be more frequent. Cleaning tablets are included as well as a complete set of cleaning tools. The app is a little slow because instead of just being an IOT unit, it actually logs into your Wi-Fi and has to call home before doing anything. The app seems a little intrusive, it wants all of your information before giving access to any of the controls added by the app. On the up side of this is you can just use the machine as is, without the app. The milk frother works well with the pressure of the steam it can create. I had no issues making a perfectly acceptable cappuccino. If you have old eyes, the writing is going to give you issues. It is dark gray against black. Even with my kitchen light on I needed a flash light to fully read the writing. This of course will not be an issue with better eyes and with daily use of the machine. You’ll know what button to press and what way to turn the 1 dial to get your coffee made. When I installed the app I used a junk email address I use when I don’t want to give out the one I use daily. Within just a few days I have started getting advertisements for other GE kitchen products. You can unsubscribe from these emails but that’s no guarantee they will actually stop. The water container is removable and is large enough to be useful for several days depending on your use. Like all espresso machines it is dirty to use. You will be spending almost as much time cleaning it after each use as you will using it. The white one I wanted would be worse and show every little drop of coffee that gets sprayed while making a cappuccino, so the black is slightly better in that case. This is completely normal for this type of machine. It’s kind of like a toaster oven, use it once and it’s now dirty. I like how small it is to be a complete system. Very useful without requiring additional space. Make no mistake, it will be large on your countertop, about twice the size of a normal coffee maker.

I had this machine over a year with great results. Everything was dialed in just right and worked phenomenally well for something at this price point. This issue came when it began leaking from the side of the grinder area. Taking apart the machine revealed an ABS plastic water distribution block directly behind the center knob that was spraying a fine mist through a crack and into the machine. I called for service, but they didn't want to know anything. They don't have any parts for it. If it's been a year, throw it out and get a new one. I felt bad because this was such a good machine with many years left in it. If anyone has a 3d printer and could make this part, let me know.