# Francis! Francis! X3



## Asif (Jan 17, 2009)

Anyone got this machine? Good results? Reliable? Good customer service and warranty?

Thanks


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Hi Asif

I have used this machine but have not got to grips with it as readily as some other domestic machines.

It still performed fairly well and certainly much better than the Francis Francis X1, which looks great but is a little gimmicky.

The machine is reliable but I have not experienced the customer service from Francis Francis.

It wouldn't be my first choice if I was buying a new machine.

What is your budget?


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## LeeWardle (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi,

We used to sell these. They are great solid little machines as with the rest of the Francis Fancis range. They pruduce a cracking espresso, and if you are a pod user all machines come with a specially made pod porta filter which performes so so well.

For the money though, there are other machines out there I would rather own. Sexy looing machine though!

Lee


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## Asif (Jan 17, 2009)

Thanks for the input. Probably stretch the budget to about £300, kind of confused what to buy. It will be my first machine, however I do want to learn the skills, so something that will make me work a bit and has plenty of room for growth. Having said that i don't want to be having really poor performance while i learn!

Any ideas?

Also recomendations on where to buy? I read some pretty bad things on the internet about machines not being delivered for ages, poor customer service and so on and its a lot of money.

Thanks.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Keep at least £120 of your budget for a decent grinder. Your coffee experience will suffer if you don't have one.

I usually pick up the phone to enquire about stock avaialbility before ordering from an online shop if the item is of value.


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## mike e (Feb 9, 2009)

Hi asif,

I brought an x3 as a first machine 2 plus years ago and have no regrets. Initially I was supplied with illy pods and pre ground coffee, the pods produced more than satisfactory milk based drinks but had no success using pre ground with this machine.

What made an improvement to espresso quality was using a burr grinder and freshly roasted coffee (obtainable from a specialist shop).

To sum up this is a very well built machine better built than most in the same price range.It has a bit of a learning curve (ideal for a coffee newbe) .Recently I considered upgrading my equipment but its a hard call this compact machine produces good cappa s and reasonable espresso s

mike e


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## novex (Jul 3, 2009)

my X2 just died a while back, while it made pretty great coffee, the aluminium boilers corrode too easily and the grouphead is a weak point in my opinion.

though the machine is still technicly functional the reason it is unusable is that i tried to replace the spring bung whatever its called inside the grouphead, only to find it was locked in place and the brass shredded when i tried removing it. the when i took the boiler chamber appart it became apparent why as the chamer was pitted quite seriously and there was a fair bit of limescale too (i admit i was less than perfect with maintaining it but not that bad).

that said i have some spare parts and a couple of groupheads for ground coffee if you wanna buy some spares


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