I'm very happy with this. it makes a nice cup of esspresso. It definitly has its tricks to get a good cup, mostly involving timing the heating cycles, but after just a couple tries you'll get it. definitly need to pre-warm the thing and even then not incredibly hot. the steam wand works fine. Didn't work well with PODs, stick to the regular grounds. Oh yeah, and the stainless steel houseing looks great! Great value for the price.