The Stilosa is De’Longhi’s entry point into manual espresso: a 15-bar pump machine with a stainless steel boiler, a 51mm portafilter and a steam wand, built to a price under $150. It looks and feels like a budget machine, and in one specific way it tests like one too — TechGearLab measured its extraction well below the standard range.
The basket is the bottleneck
TechGearLab’s lab testing put the Stilosa’s extraction yield at 11.8%, against an 18–22% range considered standard for balanced espresso. Their notes point to a specific cause: the double shot basket maxed out at 15 grams with a fine grind, so a dose that a larger basket would hold comfortably was crowding the filter. Espresso quality scored 4.0 out of 10 in their testing, and the machine finished 44 out of 100 overall — 10th of the 11 machines they tested that cycle. That is a real, measured result, not a guess, and it lines up with what a too-small basket does to a shot: water channels around the puck instead of through it, and extraction drops.
What the rest of the spec sheet gets you
Away from the basket, the Stilosa is a conventional single-boiler machine: a 15-bar Italian pump, a stainless steel boiler, a 33.81oz water tank, and 1100W draw on 120V. De’Longhi lists dimensions of 13.5 x 8.07 x 11.22in and a weight of 8.61lb, with a 1-year warranty (extendable to three with registration). It ships with a portafilter, a tamper, single and double filter baskets, and a measuring spoon. Tom’s Guide, testing the closely related EC230 model, found the steam wand notably strong for the price and heat-up quick — the machine’s real strengths sit in the boiler and pump, not the basket.
A tamper that doesn’t fit its own portafilter
Tom’s Guide’s other complaints were about the accessories, not the engineering. The included plastic tamper doesn’t properly fit the 51mm portafilter it ships with, the group handle is hollow plastic and the portafilter can jam in it, and no milk jug is included despite the steam wand being capable enough to want one. None of that is fatal on its own, but it means the machine you unbox is not quite ready to make good espresso — you’re buying the hardware and expected to source a real tamper yourself.
Who it actually suits
Tom’s Guide’s reviewer, working from a barista background, got shots with “airy crema and honey-colored body” after switching to a separate grinder and dialing in technique — so the ceiling here is higher than the TechGearLab number alone suggests, if you’re willing to work around the basket. That makes the Stilosa a machine for someone who already owns or will buy a decent grinder, wants to learn manual technique, and doesn’t mind buying a proper tamper on day one. It is a poor fit for anyone who wants to open the box and get consistent shots with no adjustment.
Before you buy
- Budget for a tamper that actually fits a 51mm portafilter — the included one reportedly doesn’t.
- Plan to dose lighter than 15g in the double basket, or expect the channeling TechGearLab measured.
- Pair it with a separate burr grinder; pre-ground coffee removes your only lever for fixing weak extraction.
- Confirm you’re buying the current EC260BK/EC230 model, since De’Longhi sells several closely related Stilosa variants.
Specifications from De’Longhi’s official product page for the EC260BK; extraction and rating data from TechGearLab’s lab testing; accessory and steam wand observations from Tom’s Guide’s review of the related EC230 model. CoffeeLogik has not tested this machine in person.
