De'Longhi EC685M Review

The De'Longhi EC685M offers a manual espresso brewing experience in a small package, and makes some pretty tasty shots to boot. However, the lack of a grinder and its price point bring up some extra considerations before you buy.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Performance Comparison

Buoyed by good taste and a fairly painless cleaning process, the De'Longhi EC685M performed above average overall in our testing. To find out more about how it did in all of our individual tests, read on below.

Taste

Earning an above average taste score if 7 out of 10, the EC685M was able to pull a nice and robust shot in our testing. This machine's espresso did taste slightly watery when compared to that of the highest performing machines, but it was still stiff enough that it satisfied that craving for the concentrated punch of a good espresso. We found it easy to get some good foam for a cappuccino with the built-in steam wand, but the texture of its steamed milk left a little bit to be desired.

The EC685M pulls a fairly good shot.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

It's important to note that this taste score is even with that of the Gaggia Brera, which can make cappuccino at the push of a button and has a built-in grinder. It is also noticeably inferior to the taste quality of the Breville.

The steam wand makes good foam for cappuccinos.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Ease of Use

The EC685M was again right around average in our ease of use testing, earning a 6 out of 10.

Simple Setup

Thanks to a well-written instruction manual and very little assembly required, we had this machine out of the box and heating up water for the first brew in less than 10 minutes.

A Bit of A learning Curve

Like any semi-automatic machine, it will take a newcomer a bit to get used to manually tamping and brewing espresso. Beyond that, the interface is fairly intuitive, and the steam wand's setting are conveniently labeled 'hot milk' and 'cappuccino' indicating how much foam each setting will produce.

Learning to properly tamp and dose espresso shots is going to take anyone a few goes before they get it right.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Ease of Cleaning

The EC685M was relatively painless when it came to clean up, earning it a score of 7 out of 10 in our cleaning tests.

Short Term Cleaning

The portafilter tended not to build up too much coffee gunk when pulling a shot, so wiping it off was pretty easy. The Steam wand also easily bras down into multiple pieces and is dishwasher safe. Even if you forget to wipe it off a few times and you get some buildup, you can just toss it in the dishwasher.

The steam wand disassemble and is dishwasher safe.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Descaling

The descaling process took us just 27 minutes and was very clearly described in the user manual. However, we didn't feel like we could leave the machine alone to do its thing while descaling, so our attention was required for most of those 27 minutes.

Milk Steaming/Frothing

Here again, the EC685M was a bit above average, earning a 7 out of 10. We were able to get it to make some nice foam to top off a cappuccino, but its stem milk didn't quite get that creamy texture that we wanted.

The steam wand is good, but falls a bit short of great.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Value

It's kind of hard to peg the EC685M's value. First off, it lists for $430, but often sells for considerably less. This is still good for a manual machine that performed so well. If you're going to pay full price, we strongly feel that both the Breville Infuser offers better performance per dollar. However, if you can find the EC685M on sale it is a good deal for a nice semi-automatic machine. Just remember you'll either have to invest in a nice grinder as well or commit to buying specialty pre-ground espresso coffee.

We also calculated its lifetime cost per shot (with an estimated 8 year life at 300 shots/year) at $0.53. However, this assumes that you get it at list price (it often sells for less), and that you either already have a grinder or commit to some of the cheapest preground espresso coffee.

Conclusion