De'Longhi Dedica EC685 Review: Six Years With the Slimline Espresso Machine That Refuses to Quit
- Martin
- Jul 9
- 10 min read
Updated: Jul 19
Six years, one narrow strip of worktop, and more espressos than I can count. Here is our honest, long-term review of the De'Longhi Dedica EC685, and our answer to the question everyone asks: which Dedica model is actually worth buying.
Is the De'Longhi Dedica worth it, and which model should you buy? The short answer, six years into daily use: yes, if you want proper espresso from a machine barely wider than a bag of beans, the Dedica EC685 is one of the easiest recommendations we make. It heats up in under a minute, it makes a genuinely good espresso at the push of two buttons, and ours has never missed a beat. It is not perfect, the drip tray is small, the frother has its limits, and we will be honest about all of that below. But as a espresso machine in a busy family kitchen, it has earned every inch of its worktop space.
By Martin · Nest Nomad & Beyond · Last Updated June 2026
Quick Verdict
Best for | Smaller kitchens or households where one person drinks coffee and worktop space is contested. |
Not for | latte art perfectionists, or anyone who wants a built-in grinder |
Heat-up time | Under a minute from cold. Genuinely. No preheating ritual required |
The one rule | Buy decent coffee. The machine is only ever as good as the grounds you put in it. |
Ongoing effort | Rinse the parts, empty the small drip tray often, descale when the light tells you. |
Biggest drawback | The frother makes dense, cheerful froth rather than silky microfoam. Fine for us, limiting for perfectionists. |
Would I buy again? | Yes. Six years of daily use and it has never once let us down |
How the Coffee Habit Started
My coffee habit goes back a couple of decades, to a string of temp office jobs taken to save money for a year of travelling. Long days at a desk, and the discovery that a walk to the coffee station broke the day up nicely and delivered a well-earned boost. Funny, that.
Somewhere along the way filter coffee gave way to the smoother, silkier world of espresso and longer drinks. The standing order these days is an americano with frothed barista oat milk. There is exactly one coffee drinker in this house of four, which matters more than you might think when it comes to choosing a machine, and it is a big part of why the Dedica has kept its place on our worktop for six years while bigger, cleverer machines have come and gone around it.
What You Get in the Box
The Dedica arrives refreshingly free of drama. One compact box, a handful of parts, and nothing that needs an engineering degree.
• The machine itself, a 15 bar pump espresso machine in a slimline body around 15cm wide.
• The portafilter with two pressurised filter baskets, one for a single shot and one for a double.
• A filter basket for ESE paper pods, if you prefer zero-mess mornings.
• A combined measuring scoop and plastic tamper.
• A removable 1.1 litre water tank at the back.
That is the lot. No flight case of accessories, no two-day training course required. Fill the tank, run some water through, and you are minutes from your first espresso.
Which De'Longhi Dedica Is Best? The Model Names, Untangled
This is the question that trips most people up before they even reach the checkout, because De'Longhi has quietly built a whole family of Dedicas and the names do not help. Here is the honest, simple version.
EC680 (Dedica) | The original. Same slim body, same 15 bar pump, same fast heat-up. Still sold, still decent, but the frother is a generation older and there is no proper platform for taller cups. |
EC685 (Dedica Style) | The one we own and the one this review is about. Adds an improved frother with separate settings for hot milk and cappuccino froth, plus a smarter drip tray arrangement. The sweet spot of the range. |
EC885 (Dedica Arte) | Same machine again, but swaps the frother for a proper barista-style steam wand. If silky microfoam and latte art are the dream, this is the Dedica to stretch to. |
Duo and Maestro models | Newer, larger and pricier additions that push the Dedica name up the price ladder. Worth a look if you want extras like iced drinks, but at that money the competition opens right up. |
My verdict on the range is straightforward. For most people, the EC685 is the one to buy. It fixes the small annoyances of the original without the price jump of the Arte, and unless you are set on latte art, the money saved buys a lot of good coffee.
Setting It Up and Using It for the First Time
Set-up is a ten-minute job. Rinse the tank and the baskets, run a couple of blank shots of water through to flush the system, and you are done. First coffee: spoon your grounds into the basket, tamp them down, lock the portafilter in with a twist, cup underneath, and press one of the two cup buttons. That is the whole routine, two buttons and a twist, which after six years is still our favourite thing about it.
One genuinely useful trick worth learning on day one: the shot buttons are programmable. Hold the button down while your perfect amount pours, release when the cup looks right, and the machine remembers that volume from then on. Set it once for for your usual cup and every morning after is completely brainless, in the best possible way.
What Is the Coffee Like?
Honestly really good. The pressurised baskets are forgiving, which is exactly what you want at this end of the market. They pull a rich shot with a decent layer of crema from ordinary supermarket espresso grind, no obsessing over grind size, no weighing, no rituals. It will never quite match a well-dialled machine costing four times as much, and it is not trying to. What it does is turn out a consistently smooth, satisfying espresso every single morning with close to zero effort, and as the base of an americano or a latte it is everything we need it to be.
The thermoblock heating deserves a mention too. From cold to first coffee is under a minute, which sounds like a spec-sheet detail until you have lived with a machine that makes you wait. On a school morning, it is the difference between having a proper coffee and not bothering.
The Milk Frother, Honestly
The EC685's frother is an adjustable steam arm with two settings, one for cappuccino-style froth and one for simply heating milk. Used with a small jug of cold milk it heats and froths to a perfectly good level, good enough for a full, creamy latte and, importantly in this house, a very attractive-looking hot chocolate for the kids. Barista oat milk froths nicely on it too.
The honest caveat: it produces dense, bubbly froth rather than the silky, paint-like microfoam a proper steam wand makes. For everyday lattes and hot chocolates that is no hardship at all. If pouring hearts and rosettas is where you are heading, look at the Dedica Arte with its barista-style wand instead, or accept that the frother is the first thing you will want to upgrade around.
Living With It: Six Years On
This is where the Dedica really earns its review. Ours has been in near-daily service for six years and it has never once broken down, jammed, leaked or sulked. That is not a small thing at this price.
The daily routine is quick. Knock out the puck, rinse the basket and portafilter under the tap, wipe the frother arm, done in a minute. The water tank lifts off the back for filling, so the machine never has to move from its spot. When the descale light eventually comes on, the process is a guided one and takes about half an hour of mostly waiting.
A note for fellow hard water households: descaling regularly genuinely matters here, and using filtered water in the tank stretches the gap between descales noticeably. It is the single best habit for keeping one of these machines healthy long-term, and we would credit it with a good share of our six trouble-free years.
The Honest Drawbacks
No six-year review is credible without the niggles, so here are mine.
• The drip tray is small and fills quickly. It slides out and empties in seconds, but you will be doing it often.
• Taller cups and mugs need the drip tray removed to fit under the spouts. There is a platform underneath so it works fine, it is just one more small step for a big americano
• The included plastic tamper is a token gesture. A cheap 51mm metal tamper transforms the tamping feel and costs very little.
• Enthusiasts will eventually feel the ceiling. Pressurised baskets and the frother keep things easy, but they also cap how far you can push the coffee. That is the trade the Dedica makes, and for its audience it is the right one.
What It Costs to Run
The way I think about coffee kit is in coffee shop equivalents. At around £180, the Dedica costs roughly the same as forty grande lattes from the high street. One coffee a day and the machine has paid for itself inside six weeks, and everything after that is savings and better mornings. Spread over six years of ownership, ours has worked out at pennies per week, which makes it comfortably the best value gadget in our kitchen.
Who It Is For, and Who It Is Not
The Dedica is for the household where one or two people drink espresso-based coffee, worktop space is at a premium, and the morning routine needs to be measured in seconds. It is the machine we reach for every single day, and for a family kitchen it is close to the perfect size and effort level.
It is not for everyone. If you want a built-in grinder, one-touch cappuccinos and coffee shop theatre, you are shopping for a different class of machine, and we have been testing exactly that in the shape of the Ninja Luxe Premier. And if your coffee problem is the campsite rather than the kitchen, the answer is smaller still Read up on the Outin Nano.
De'Longhi Dedica EC685 Review: My Final Verdict
Six years, thousands of coffees, zero breakdowns, and a footprint so small it has survived every kitchen reshuffle. The Dedica EC685 does one job brilliantly, everyday espresso without fuss, and it does it in a package that fits kitchens where other machines simply do not. We would buy it again without hesitation, and for one-coffee-drinker households like ours we struggle to think of a better way to spend the money.
SIZE | ■■■■■ | Around 15cm wide. Fits where no other proper espresso machine fits, and looks good doing it |
EASE OF USE | ■■■■■ | Two buttons and a twist. Programmable shot volumes make mornings brainless |
THE ESPRESSO | ■■■■□ | Rich, smooth and consistent from ordinary grounds. Enthusiasts can outgrow it, everyone else will be delighted |
MILK FROTHER | ■■■□□ | Dense, happy froth for lattes and hot chocolates. Not microfoam, and not pretending to be |
RELIABILITY | ■■■■■ | Six years of near-daily use without a single fault. It just works |
VALUE | ■■■■■ | Forty grande lattes buys the machine. It pays for itself in weeks |
Frequently Asked Questions
Real questions, answered from six years of owning and using this machine daily.
Which De'Longhi Dedica model is best?
For most people, the EC685 Dedica Style. It improves the frother and drip tray of the original EC680 without the price jump of the EC885 Arte. Choose the Arte only if a proper barista-style steam wand for microfoam and latte art matters to you. The newer Duo and Maestro models are larger and pricier, and at that money it is worth comparing beyond the Dedica range.
Is the De'Longhi Dedica worth it?
In my experience, yes. Ours has run near-daily for six years without a single fault, heats up in under a minute, and makes consistently good espresso from ordinary supermarket grounds. At roughly the price of forty coffee shop lattes, it pays for itself within weeks for a daily coffee drinker.
What is the difference between the Dedica EC680 and EC685?
They share the same slim body, 15 bar pump and fast thermoblock heating. The EC685 adds an improved frother with separate settings for hot milk and cappuccino froth, and a better drip tray arrangement including a platform for shorter cups when the main tray is removed. If the prices are close, the EC685 is the one to buy.
Can you use pods in the De'Longhi Dedica?
Yes, ESE paper pods. The Dedica comes with a dedicated filter basket for them, which makes for a very quick, zero-mess coffee. It does not take Nespresso or Dolce Gusto capsules, those are entirely different systems.
Does the De'Longhi Dedica work well in hard water areas?
Yes, but descaling matters. The machine tells you when a descale is due, and the process is guided and straightforward. In a hard water area, using filtered water in the tank noticeably stretches the time between descales and is the best habit for the machine's long-term health.
Can the Dedica make lattes and cappuccinos?
Yes. The adjustable frother heats and froths milk to a good everyday standard, enough for a full creamy latte, a cappuccino or a very respectable hot chocolate. It makes dense froth rather than silky microfoam, so latte art is where it reaches its limit.
How long does a De'Longhi Dedica last?
Ours is six years into near-daily use with no faults at all. The habits that seem to matter are regular descaling, using filtered water if your area is hard, and rinsing the baskets and frother after use. Treated that way, many years of service is a realistic expectation.
Product Specifications at a Glance
Model | De'Longhi Dedica Style EC685 (ours is the EC685.M stainless steel; also in black, white and red) |
Pump pressure | 15 bar |
Heating | Thermoblock, ready in under a minute from cold |
Water tank | 1.1 litre, removable |
Width | Approx. 15cm slimline footprint |
Coffee options | Ground coffee (single and double pressurised baskets) plus ESE paper pods |
Milk | Adjustable frother with hot milk and cappuccino settings |
Extras | Programmable shot volumes, cup warmer top, auto stand-by |
In the box | Machine, portafilter, three filter baskets, combined scoop and tamper |
Shop the Kit
De'Longhi Dedica EC685 | |
Stainless steel milk jug | |
51mm metal tamper | |
ESE paper pods |
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