De'Longhi Dedica Duo EC890: narrow, touch controls, cold brew

What De’Longhi confirms about the Duo

The Duo is better documented than its older sibling in one respect: its manual has a technical data chapter, which the EC685’s lacks. Together with the product page, that gives a short list of facts you can plan around.

On record	Figure	What it means for you
Case	14.9 cm wide, 33 cm deep, 30.5 cm high	It takes the slot of a Dedica EC685, to the millimetre
Weight	4.2 kg	It can come out of a cupboard for breakfast and go back afterwards
Water	1.1 l	About 18 doubles at 60 ml each, fewer once you steam milk
Heating and power	Thermoblock, 1,450 W	The same as on the EC685
Basket dose	up to 16 g	A target to set a grinder or a set of scales to
Cup height	up to 12 cm	Espresso cups and small mugs, not a tall latte glass

The pump carries the usual 15 bar rating, a maximum that tells you nothing about the pressure at the coffee. The steam wand is manual, with no milk presets in the data.

What the extra bracket pays for

Set against the Dedica EC685, three lines of the spec sheet change:

• Controls. A touch panel replaces the push buttons.
• Presets. De’Longhi counts 3: espresso, double espresso and cold brew. That is the maker’s own tally.
• Cold brew. De’Longhi advertises the recipe as ready in five minutes. That is all we have: no temperature, no strength, nothing to compare it with a jug left overnight in the fridge.

So the decision is a plain one. If you would press the cold brew button most weeks in summer, the Duo is the only machine of this width that has it. If you would not, the EC685 brews with the same pump, thermoblock, power and tank in the entry-level bracket, and what you save can go towards a grinder.

One of three machines with a weight on the page

Weight sounds like a detail until the machine has to share a small kitchen. Of the nine espresso machines in our UK database, only three have a published weight: the Stilosa at 3.5 kg, the Duo at 4.2 kg and the Ninja Luxe Café Premier at 11.7 kg. If your plan is to store the machine and bring it out when needed, the Duo is one of the two you can check that plan against.

Two things De’Longhi does not say

Neither the product page nor the manual states whether the baskets are pressurised, and neither gives the portafilter diameter. For pre-ground coffee that hardly matters. For anyone about to buy a grinder it does: a pressurised basket forgives a coarse-stepped grinder, a non-pressurised one does not, and without a diameter you cannot shop for a spare basket or tamper with confidence. The grind size guide explains the difference.

Two smaller points: the pod filter is supplied with certain versions only, and our market study contains no Amazon listing for the UK model, EC890.M, so the button on this page leads to a search. Make sure the listing you pick carries that code.

More on record elsewhere

• Documented baskets, same bracket: the Sage Bambino states a 54 mm portafilter, comes with pressurised and single-wall baskets and has a 1.4 l tank. What it lacks is a width we can vouch for: Sage’s published dimensions are not usable.
• Same case, no cold brew, one bracket lower: the Dedica EC685.
• Grinder included: La Specialista Arte, also mid-range, at 28.5 cm wide.

All of them are in the first espresso machine comparison, and the machine-and-grinder pairings show what each costs once a grinder is counted. The guarantee runs for at least two years, according to the coffee machine care pages of De’Longhi’s UK site.