Am I making espresso correctly or is my new machine broken?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been an Espresso and Latte drinker for several years now. I bought a cheapo “boiler/steam” machine several years back and it has given me extremely reliable service for about 8 years.

However, yesterday, I saw a fancy-schmancy Krups machine on sale. It was a “Pump” style. Since my old one is on its last legs, I thought what the hell, I’ll pick it up.

Well, this AM I go to make my first cup of Espresso with it. I a happy camper. I followed the instructions. I filled the resevior with water and turned it on. After about a minute, a light illuminated telling me it was OK to go to the “brew” position. Which I did. Espresso started coming out of the machine almost immediately, but it was cool and not very dark. I went to steam some milk for my late. The steamer worked really well, and foamed the milk up… but it was cool and didn’t heat up the milk at all.

So, I ended up with cool, “tastless” espresso and my foamed milk was cool too.

With my old machine, it would take about 3 minutes to boil, and when it did the espresso was HOT coming out of it. The steam pipe was damn hot too, and would actually heat the milk as it foamed.

What gives? Am I an idiot?

2

I’ve never had one myself, but if you’re sure you followed the instructions, then I’m guessing you’ve got a defective machine. Did you keep the receipt?

3

You have tho let the water reserve heat up for a little more than a minute. 15 or 20 minutes will do.

4

That long? Why do you think the light illuminated so early then? Think it might be broken?

DDG - Yep. I’ve got the receipt. I plan on hauling it back.

5

I think that it’s fine. It will keep the reserve hot when it stays plugged in. When you first pluged it in, the machine thought it had been plugged in all along, thus thinking the reserve was hot, thus giving you the go light to brew.

6

Ah! Interesting. Too bad I already returned the damn thing. I saw a gool little Italian stove-top Job that looked like a cast iron pressure cooker. I think I may give that one a try.

I appreciate your assistance though. Makes sense.