I bought this machine a month ago, hoping I would love it.  Well, I like it but I don't love it as much as I had hoped.  I have a Pixie originaline that I used to make great americanos for the last 10 years, and thought I should branch out. Unfortunately, my Vertuo does not make as good of americanos and it is a hassle even trying to make one.  There is no button to just add hot water, and so you either have to hit the cleaning cycle or empty an old pod and use it to get hot water.  Those are both work-arounds and seem to mess up the machine's brains a bit because I have had to reboot it quite a few times to even make that work.  Also, the coffee has a thick, bitter foam with large bubbles on top, not like the smooth crema from my Pixie.  The milk frother seems to work well, but I don't use it a lot.  Overall, I expected more.