Imusa Electric Espresso/Cappuccino Maker

I bought this machine in May 2023. Yes, it's not true espresso; I use Cafe Bustelo and less water to get at least very strong coffee. And yes, unless you have the patience to do a cycle with just water to juice the machine up your coffee will not be hot enough & you have to zap it in the microwave. But what I noticed immediately is it has no on/off switch. Instead it has a very small dial with teeny-tiny writing *that wears off completely over time* where "off" is simply one station on the dial. The indicator light is very hard to discern (I have literally turned my kitchen lights off to see if it is lit or not.) It is very very easy to either forget to turn the dial to off or turn it to the wrong place. There is no "click" to let you know, and the "off" writing isn't in another color, like red or something. Only reading these reviews did I see that you are supposed to UNPLUG the machine after using. I never read manuals, which I suspect a lot of people don't. But i, for safety, had decided to do that myself, at least every time I leave the house. Which is stressful. "Oh no, did I unplug the espresso maker?" VAPOR LOCK WARNING So two days ago the machine stopped working. Only a tiny amount of coffee would trickle out, but the steam would build up and explode out of the top cap like Vesuvius. It was scary. I thought "it blew a gasket!" (I have no idea what a gasket is.) I came on here to look at reviews and saw a number of people had this happen. I felt terrible because I really hate discarding broken appliances for environmental reasons. So anyhow I decided to Google "why is steam coming out of the top of my espresso machine" or something similar, and I found this quaint little site for home espresso machine repair that described what was happening as "vapor lock." Apparently it's something that can happen with machines that have boiling water and steam. It's fixable and they have clear instructions and it worked. I will describe what I did, but for safety reasons please google and find the site. Try like "home espresso machine vapor lock" or similar. WHAT I DID First clean out your grounds basket thoroughly, like with a scrub pad or brush, and run water though it in the sink to make sure it's unobstructed. Also, with the machine unplugged and entirely cold, clean with brush and damp cloth the metal "shower head" thingie where the water actually comes down into the basket, so it ,too, is unobstructed. Then put water in the machine, put the empty basket attachment on, and plug in the machine. You need two receptacles (I used tall glasses, to see through), and also, because of potential escaping steam, I had a thick kitchen towel I held firmly over the top cap of the machine. Turn the dial to "steam" *without letting the machine warm up.*" Because of the vapor lock you will get just a few drops of water coming out of the steam wand into your glass. But keep it open on that setting for like a minute. Then switch the dial to espresso (the cup icon). Again, very little may come out and by now the water is really roiling. Keep it on that setting for a minute. Switch it back to steam. Now actual steam should start to come out. You could have cold water in the glass under the steam wand because i had hot steam just pouring up on me. Turn the machine off, unplug it, and LET IT COOL COMPLETELY. 20 minutes or more later, plug in the machine and repeat the entire thing. It took 2 cycles for the vapor lock to break and for steam and hot water to come out in a true flow. The second time I did it I did not put on the basket attachment, just to get a true unimpeded flow. *If you do this make sure you have a wide-mouth receptacle that comes all the way up and encloses the hot water coming out completely. You do not want to get sprayed with boiling water!! Anyhow it took two cycles but now my machine is fully functional. I am not mechanically minded and it feels great to fix something and not feel guilty and waste money. If this doesn't work for you I suggest waiting for several hours before trying again. -------------------- All in all, you get what you pay for. i didn't expect barista-level espresso. But this machine seems to fly in the face of long-established guidelines for safe design. You need a clear on/off mechanism. It boggles my mind that the design choice they made creates a safety hazard that is completely avoidable, and has been solved on any other machine I've used.