Fellow Espresso Series 1, Woodland + Walnut, Woodland + Walnut – 2 liters – Matte Black – Semi-Automatic Espresso Machines

Details

• 5.0

  Verified

  Legit

  Wow! This is legit. I am coming from an old single slayer machine and this is somehow measuring up.

  Jeffrey A. · April 10, 2026

• 3.0

  Verified

  Productized Gaggimate with weak steaming

  Productized Gaggimate for nerds with boosted boiler and sub par steam. Had to return it.As much as I loved the tech in this machine and the look, I truly dislike a couple of things:1. The steaming was even worse than from 15 y.o. Dedica. Not mentioning Breville’s termo jet machines, dual boilers or heat exchangers. Maybe as bad the the basic Gaggia. Too weak. Non-existent.Maybe it was my unit, but no matter what I tried, manual or automatic frothing, I was able to get just a hot milk. No foam, not steamed milk, nothing.Getting a vortex was easy, but regardless of the milk used: full, skim, lactose free - just no go.2. Piano buttons not gonna last.3. It took me approximately 1lb of beans to dial it in, as shots were either too fast or too slow. Once I reduced the pressure to 8 bars, shots were within a 25-30 seconds window for 18 grams in/36 out, but they were both bitter and sour simultaneously. One may blame a grinder, but that particular grinder had no issues with BDB or BBP.4. Pucks came out wet. Most likely the basket provided is designed for 20 gramms. Not a big deal but why?Finally, had to return it due to weak steaming.It had been 10 days since machine arrived back to warehouse and they are still ‘processing’ my return. Just a tiny indicator on customer service level.Again, if you primarily drink espresso and not milk based drinks, got a decent grinder and do not want to deal with HX/E61 group or assemble a gaggimate - this might be a great machine.

  Rebecca N. · July 12, 2026

• 5.0

  Verified

  Great fun, great coffee!

  It’s so easy to follow the directions but you can also customize! Steaming milk is just like the pro machines!

  Kevin A. · May 7, 2026

• 1.0

  Verified

  Beautiful design, but ...

  We were not able to get consistent quality for espresso (went through 3 lbs of coffee during the 2 weeks we were trying to make this work) experimenting with settings, grind levels etc - even with exact same settings, it came out either too short or too long, with or without crema. The porta filter spraying of coffee was really bad, it spilled even on the counter and us when we were close to the machine. Beautiful design but that doesn't help if the output is not working. We had to return this today.

  Donna N. · May 20, 2026

• 5.0

  Verified

  The Dual Boiler Killer

  Has been great. No issues so far, got the extended warranty to be safe since it’s their first machine. Fast warm up, consistent shots, great steaming. Streamlined my morning routine coming from a profitec go. Also looks great on the counter. Reliability will decide if this a better value than a 2 boiler traditional machine. We will see! Does have a lot of features you can’t get on a dual boiler though.

  Anthony A. · May 24, 2026

• 4.0

  Verified

  Great first impressions but burnt plastic smell

  Overall a great machine but there are a few things that are annoying. One is you’re not being able to set the temperature for the steam or hot water prior to starting. You have to do it while you’re steaming or using the hot water. Another is there is a burnt plastic smell every time I start the machine. This might go away as it gets used more, but it isn’t the most pleasant experience to smell burnt plastic while making espresso.

  Karen N. · May 12, 2026

• 5.0

  Verified

  Budget Decent Espresso Machine

  Coming from a GCP Evo, this was quite the upgrade. Previously, without control over shot duration, temperature, pressure, and other variables from my Gaggia, getting optimal shots for different beans during dialing was tough. The ES1 offers control over nearly everything. The rapid 2.5-minute heat-up is also welcome benefit when you have a sudden drink craving, unlike the nearly 30-minute wait needed for the GCP to reach stable temperatures.I cannot speak for long-term reliability yet…Fellow’s history with first-generation products are iffy, but right now, I genuinely enjoy it! I would certainly suggest it if you are looking for a machine offering extensive control for experimentation with different beans.

  James A. · June 21, 2026

• 5.0

  Verified

  Tasty coffee - tuning required

  Great machine, it performs above its price point, looks sleek and is well received by YouTube reviewers. Bottom line it makes a very tasty cup of espresso! You do have to toy with settings a bit at first though. Word of advice, if you are only getting a small amount of espresso out initially or it seems to be stopping very early, know that it comes with an auto stop feature enabled by default that only lets a certain volume of water go through the puck. It’s set to “volumetric” by default. Initially I was only getting 18-20 grams of espresso out of 18 grams of coffee grinds. Not ideal. There’s a video they have available on how to adjust this. You can either turn the auto stop mode off (manual mode) or go into the “nerdy settings” under customization and add more water in the volumetric settings data, mine went from 44 ml to about 58-66 ml for the first shot (depending on the bean) and that got me up to 36-38 grams of espresso out of 18 grams of coffee grinds (much better). Best way to figure it out is to do some math and add however many ml of water short of 36 you are initially to the offset. Example: if you get 20 grams of espresso out but want 36, add 16 ml of water to the volumetric setting. Personally, I think it would be better for them to walk you through this initially in the setup as I imagine their defaults probably run short for most people. It seems like everyone in the forums ends up turning this setting off or adjusting it by 15-20 Ml. I still use the adjusted volumetric autostop feature as its still convenient once you dial it in for your bean of choice. Hope that helps!Decent UI and I like the shot feedback on coarser or finer and that the milk wand stops automatically at a given temperature for the type of milk (we use oat).

  Cynthia N. · July 20, 2026