I have been using a french press for years and love coffee this way, but I used to have an aluminum "moka" pot from Italy that made excellent coffee without the breakable glass carafes. I didn't want the aluminum so I looked at all the Vev Vigano stainless pots. After studying all the reviews on Amazon, I chose the Kontessa 6-cup for the styling and seemingly good quality (and, yes, it makes 6 SMALL espresso cups of coffee -don't expect American sizing here. but, n.b. you can get 3 full cups of American style coffee from a 6-cup moka by making "Americanos" -half water half espresso).
The coffee pot is beautiful and looks great sitting out on my stove. I use it daily, and it makes delicious coffee. You can avoid the problems with the "seal" or steaming that one reviewer wrote about by making sure there are no grounds on the "lip" or gasket before screwing the top to the base.
After a year of daily use, I have not had any problems with corrosion of the interior lining as one reviewer wrote about -perhaps there is an issue with their water quality?
My big complaint is that after a year of daily gentle use the lid hinge broke (actually, the welding broke, the hinge & "bolt" are still intact -think eyeglasses). I purchased the espresso pot from Espresso Zone, and since I moved since purchasing the coffee pot I couldn't find the warranty information.
Well it took Espresso Zone a week (too long) to tell me that Vev Vigano doesn't warranty these pots and that they had no repair locations in the US. Since Espresso Zone doesn't guarantee their products longer than 30 days, I was out of luck. I'll stick to Amazon from now on.
I did read another reviewer here say that they've had their Vev Vigano repaired so I'm not sure what the deal is -is there a repair service or not? Regardless, one year is not acceptable for such an expensive moka pot. Apart from the hinge becoming unwelded, it appears that this unit would otherwise last a long time. If I could find a repair shop, I would rate this 4 stars. 5 stars if it didn't break in the first place.
If anyone has the address of a vigano repair shop in the states -please post it!
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