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☕ How to Brew · 2026Which De'Longhi you have, then the sequence for it: priming, pre-warming the filter holder, the 7 g dose De'Longhi specifies, frothing volumes, and the descaling rule that De'Longhi ties to your guarantee.
Written and reviewed by the CoffeeLabAdvisor editorial team · Published 9 September 2026
Start by identifying which of the three De'Longhi families you own, because they do not share a procedure. On a manual machine such as the Dedica or Stilosa: fill and prime the tank, let the lights stop blinking, pre-warm the empty filter holder by running water through it, then dose one level scoop, roughly 7 g, tamp evenly, lock in and brew — espresso first, milk second, because one heater does both jobs. On a semi-automatic the machine grinds for you but you still handle the portafilter. On a bean-to-cup there is no portafilter at all: you set a drink and it does the rest. Every figure and instruction on this page comes from De'Longhi's own materials, and where De'Longhi ties a procedure to your guarantee we quote them directly.
Which machine you have decides the whole procedure. Look for the portafilter handle: manual and semi-automatic machines have one, a bean-to-cup never does.
This is not a pedantic question. The three families share a brand and almost nothing else about how you operate them, and following the wrong sequence is the most common reason a new owner thinks the machine is faulty.
| Family | How to recognise it | Examples we cover |
|---|---|---|
| Manual | A detachable filter holder with a handle. You grind, dose and tamp. A steam wand you point into a milk jug yourself. | Dedica EC685, Stilosa EC260 |
| Semi-automatic | Still has a portafilter handle, but a bean hopper on top and a grinder inside. It grinds and often doses; you tamp and lock in. | La Specialista Arte |
| Bean-to-cup | No portafilter anywhere. A bean hopper, a spout, a drink menu, and a bin inside that collects used pucks. | Magnifica Evo, Dinamica Plus |
The sections below are ordered manual, semi-automatic, bean-to-cup. If you want the general theory of pulling a shot rather than the De'Longhi specifics, our general espresso machine guide covers that and this page does not repeat it.
De'Longhi's own Get Started guide for the EC685 puts three things before your first cup, and the first two are easy to skip and annoying to have skipped.
Prime the machine. Fill the water tank, switch on at the main switch on the side, and turn the steam dial to the hot water position. The machine primes and, in De'Longhi's words, “a little water will be released”. Until that has happened there is no water in the circuit for it to brew with.
Wait for the lights. The machine performs a self-test, which De'Longhi describes as “signalled by the sequential flashing of lights”, and then warms up. De'Longhi's instruction is simply: “when lights stop blinking the machine is almost ready for use”. Brewing before that gives you a cool, thin shot and no fault at all.
Test your water, then set the hardness. This is the step almost everybody skips, and De'Longhi is direct about why it matters: “Choosing the water hardness is very important to set the correct frequency of the descaling cycles.” A test strip comes in the box; you immerse it for a second, wait about a minute, and count how many of the four squares turn red. Each square is one level, and you enter that level in the machine's setting menu. Get it wrong and the machine asks to be descaled at the wrong intervals.
If you use the optional water filter, De'Longhi's own timing is worth knowing before you rely on it: “The filter lasts about two months if the appliance is used normally. If the coffee maker is left unused with the filter installed, it will last a maximum of three weeks.”
This is the Dedica and Stilosa procedure, taken from De'Longhi's guide rather than from general espresso practice.
If the shot runs too fast and tastes thin, or too slowly and tastes harsh, the variable to change is grind, not tamp pressure. De'Longhi's own guidance: coffee ground too coarse “will flow too quickly and be weak (under extracted)”, and ground too fine “will flow slowly and may be thick or burnt (over extracted)”. Our grind size chart shows where espresso sits.
Listing states 0.3 mm spring wires, 9 prongs, anodized aluminium handle - needle diameter, not basket size, is the fit that matters for a WDT tool
On a manual De'Longhi the same heater serves brewing and steaming, so the two are sequential. Brew the espresso first, then steam. De'Longhi's guide names the signal for the other direction too: “If both coffee buttons are blinking, you must cool down the boiler” — that is the machine telling you it is still at steam temperature and too hot to brew.
De'Longhi's own steps, in order: purge the steam nozzle first to clear condensed water before the milk goes anywhere near it; fill the pitcher with “3.5 oz. for Cappuccino, 6 oz. for Latte”; keep the frother immersed in the milk but “not beyond the highlighted mark on the spout”; froth until you have the foam you want; then tap the jug on the counter to knock out large bubbles, swirl it to a glossy finish, and pour immediately, because De'Longhi warns that waiting lets the milk and foam separate.
On milk itself De'Longhi's guide says to use it “fresh, cold”, and notes that “some milks that do not require refrigeration will not produce an acceptable foam”. Their tip names skim or 2% milk at about 41 °F. Oat and soy milks froth well too, and barista editions are formulated for exactly this; if you are working in plant milk, our frother guide covers the gear, and the machines we have reviewed carry a plant-milk rating on their review pages.
De'Longhi attaches a safety warning to steam and hot water that is worth reproducing rather than summarising: “Never leave the machine unsupervised while delivering hot water or steam. The spout becomes hot during delivery. Hold by the handle only.” Their guide also states you should not run off hot water for more than two minutes at a time.
On a machine like the La Specialista Arte the grinder is inside, so the first two decisions move from your hands to a dial: you set a grind level and a dose rather than scooping. What does not change is everything after the coffee is in the basket — tamping, wiping the rim, locking in, and the espresso-then-milk order if the machine has a single heater.
The one genuinely new habit is grind adjustment. Because the grinder is built in, changing grind is a dial rather than a separate appliance, and the temptation is to leave it where it came. Adjust it in single steps and pull a shot between steps; jumping several levels at once tells you nothing about which direction was right. Our La Specialista Arte review covers the specifics of that machine.
On a Magnifica Evo or a Dinamica Plus there is no portafilter, no tamping and no dosing. You fill the hopper with whole beans, fill the tank, choose a drink, and the machine grinds, doses, tamps, brews and ejects the puck into an internal bin. The skills that matter on a manual machine simply do not apply.
What replaces them is maintenance, because the machine is doing more inside where you cannot see it. Three things carry the whole experience: empty the grounds bin and drip tray before they fill rather than after, keep the milk system rinsed after every milk drink, and descale when the machine asks. If you want the shape of that comparison before buying, our espresso machine versus bean-to-cup guide sets out the fork, and both machines have their own reviews.
We cover the operating detail for these models on their review pages rather than here, because their menus differ between models and a generic sequence would be wrong for at least one of them.
De'Longhi's rule is simply: “Descale the machine when the orange light comes on.” The interval is not a fixed number of weeks, which is exactly why the water hardness setting above matters — that setting is what decides when the light appears.
The procedure, in De'Longhi's own order for the EC685: empty the tank completely and remove the water filter if fitted; fill the tank to MAX with descaler diluted per its instructions; place an empty container of at least 50 oz under the hot water spout and brewing unit; enter the setting menu and start the descaling program, which De'Longhi describes as performing “a series of deliveries at intervals to remove the lime scale from inside the coffee machine”. When the tank empties and the orange light blinks, rinse the tank, refill with plain water, and run the rinse cycle to clear the solution out.
Two things De'Longhi states that are not optional advice. On which product to use: “Use De'Longhi descaler only. Under no circumstances should you use sulphamic or acetic based descalers. Their use invalidates the guarantee. Failure to descale the appliance as described also invalidates the guarantee.” That rules out the household vinegar trick for this machine specifically, whatever it says elsewhere. And on the consequence of skipping it: “Repairs to the coffee machine relative to lime scale problems are not covered by the warranty if the descaling procedure described above is not performed on a regular basis.”
De'Longhi also warns about the process itself: “Descaler contains acids which may irritate the skin and eyes”, and during the cycle “Hot water containing acid flows from the spout. Avoid contact with splashes of water.” Follow the safety text on the descaler pack itself, which is the instruction De'Longhi gives.
Note that De'Longhi's descaler rule is specific to De'Longhi machines. Other makers specify their own products, and our cleaning guide keeps those separate rather than blending them into one piece of general advice.
Anything involving opening the machine. De'Longhi's own safeguards are unambiguous, and we are not going to talk around them: “To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not remove the exterior of the unit or the cover. Don't attempt to repair or modify the machine, doing so will void the warranty. Repair should be done by authorized service personnel only!”
If your machine has stopped working rather than working badly, that is a service question, not a technique question. And if a specific button sequence for your model is what you need, the model's own instruction booklet is the authority — De'Longhi publishes them, and the Get Started guide this page draws on says itself that it “is not intended to explain all the functions of the appliance”.
The De'Longhi machines we have evaluated, each linking to its full review. Award standing is shown where a product has it.
Semi-Automatic · Manual milk A guided all-in-one with smart tamping and a built-in grinder, but the proprietary 51mm portafilter and coarse grinder cap its ceiling. Good for guided beginners; less flexible than 54mm or 58mm rivals.
Check price on Amazon →
Bean-to-Cup · Automatic milk The best-value bean-to-cup machine: integrated grinder, automatic LatteCrema milk and one-touch drinks at roughly $750. Convenient and consistent, with plastic internals and less control than premium rivals.
Check price on Amazon →
Bean-to-Cup · Automatic milk The strongest mid-tier bean-to-cup: touchscreen, app control, Over Ice and excellent automatic LatteCrema milk. Great foam and features for the price, with plastic build and a single thermoblock as the trade-offs.
Check price on Amazon →Fill the tank, switch on at the main switch, and prime the machine by turning the steam dial to the hot water position until water is released. Wait for the self-test and warm-up to finish, which De'Longhi describes as the lights stopping their blinking. Then test your water with the supplied strip and enter the hardness level, because that setting decides how often the machine asks to be descaled.
De'Longhi specifies one level scoop of freshly ground coffee, which their guide states is roughly 7 grams. The supplied scoop doubles as the tamper. An E.S.E. pod, if you use pods instead, contains 7 grams already measured and pressed.
Change the grind rather than the tamp. De'Longhi's own guidance is that coffee ground too coarse will flow too quickly and taste weak, and coffee ground too fine will flow slowly and may taste thick or burnt. Adjust in single steps and brew between adjustments.
De'Longhi's guide states that if both coffee buttons are blinking you must cool down the boiler. It means the machine is still at steam temperature, which is too hot to brew at. This is normal after frothing milk, and it is why the espresso is made before the milk rather than after.
Not according to De'Longhi. Their instruction is to use De'Longhi descaler only, and states that under no circumstances should you use sulphamic or acetic based descalers, and that their use invalidates the guarantee. Vinegar is acetic. Whatever general cleaning advice you have read elsewhere, De'Longhi's own rule governs your guarantee on a De'Longhi machine.
De'Longhi's guide states 3.5 oz in the pitcher for a cappuccino and 6 oz for a latte, using fresh cold milk from the refrigerator, and to keep the frother immersed in the milk but not beyond the highlighted mark on the spout.
The most common cause is coffee grounds on the rim stopping the holder from sealing. De'Longhi's own preparation steps end with removing any residual grounds from the filter and holder rim before fitting it. If the machine leaks with a clean, correctly seated holder, that is a service matter — De'Longhi's safeguards state that repair should be done by authorised service personnel only.
Sources for this page: Every operating instruction, figure and quotation on this page: De'Longhi's own EC685 Get Started guide, published by De'Longhi and read 2026-09-09 — priming, the self-test and warm-up signal, water hardness testing and setting, water filter life, pre-warming the filter holder, the roughly 7 g level scoop, the tamping guidance, the rim-wiping step, grind guidance, the E.S.E. pod contents, milk volumes of 3.5 oz and 6 oz, milk temperature guidance, the boiler cool-down signal, the full descaling procedure, the descaler restriction and guarantee statements, and the safeguards on repair and on hot water and steam · Dedica EC685M specifications referenced in the family table: De'Longhi's own copy on the verified Amazon listing B072WZL4ZT via the Creators API and De'Longhi's US EC685M product page, both read 2026-09-09 · Machine families and the specifications of the reviewed De'Longhi machines: our own published reviews of the La Specialista Arte, Magnifica Evo and Dinamica Plus · Grind bands for espresso: our grind size chart and the manufacturer sources cited there · Not covered here, deliberately: model-specific button sequences for the bean-to-cup machines, and anything requiring the machine to be opened We have not lab-tested brewers; where a figure is a manufacturer's, the page names the manufacturer, and machine capabilities come from our own published review records.