General question about the Mr. Coffee Esp...

Greetings!

Put desired amount of water in resevoir (plus a little extra to be used to steam your milk for latte) and close up tightly.

Put espresso grind coffee in basket and tamp down with a tamper. If grounds are not packed, steam will seep through and will cause an erosion of sorts instead of just letting the steam hit the grounds.

Put the basket with handle group in recess rotating to the right as far as it will go.

Rotate the ON/OFF switch to the symbol for "Brew" until you get out the desired amount of espresso.

Then, take a caraf of milk and immerse it with the plastic black steam arm. Rotate switch to "STEAM" and froth milk. In the beginning, ensure that you have enough water for the espresso AND enough left to froth without having to shut off machine, refill with water, just to froth.

Be careful when you open the water resevoir cap after brewing because there is a vaccuum created and a burst of steam will shoot out the lid and may burn you.

The gasket above the grounds hopper eventually will deteriorate and more steam will escape than espresso is produced. There is no replacement parts for this machine since it was made in China according to a Mr. Coffee representative that I called this morning at 1-800-MR-COFFEE (800) 672-6333.

Good luck with your machine. Hope this helps! If you don't have a tamper for the grounds, I found one at Bed Bath and Beyond. It is stainless steel with 2 sizes. The smaller size works for this model.