Lello 2730 3000 PastaMaster Automatic Pasta Maker

I purchased this pasta maker for my wife for Christmas. She had wanted one for a while and this machine looked like a good solid purchase. I was right. The machine is build very solidly with quality parts. It disassembles and reassembles easily which is important because it has to be broken down and cleaned after each use. We are only making the easy "egg" pasta recipes but each batch has come out tasting amazing. After less than half dozen batches I noticed a crack in the mixing bowl extending from the center post toward the edge. The crack was through the plastic and the part needed to be replaced. I contacted Lello via email and attached a picture of the mixing bowl. I asked them how I should apply for a replacement part under warranty. A few days passed and I had not heard back from them. I figured I would have to email again. Guess what showed up in today's mail? A replacement mixing bowl from Lello! I purchased this in part because I had read their customer service was first rate, but this proved what I had heard. Thank you everyone at Lello in NJ for sending the new part along! It's nice to deal with a company that puts out a quality product and treats their customers this well. Lello 2730 3000 Pro Pastamaster Pasta Maker

I am not impressed. I recently purchased this machine with high hopes that technology had advanced enough to out perform my old worn out, long retired early 90's vintage "Pasta Express From CTC". There are those instances when time is short it would be nice to not make pasta by hand using a more traditional pasta roller/cutter. So I decided to give this machine a try thinking Lello may have got it right by watching what designs didn't work with other vendors of similar machines over the years. But after three uses it is in my opinion a marginal improvement. First the good points... It's mixes the flour into pasta dough very well. The design of the stirring paddles do a decent job of mixing the flour and water together. Using Semolina and whole wheat blend you can generally get perfect consistency dough in about 10-15 mins. Single direction operating motor for both mixing and extruding. Gone is the need to flip a direction switch for each operation. Simple operation to swap out extrusion die, and its metal outer ring makes cutting off the pasta easy with a single scrape of a knife blade. Solid construction. This machine is heavy and definitely stays put on the counter top when operating. Clean up is pretty simple (use the let it dry dirty method) and all parts disassemble easily. The extrusion auger chamber was the only component that was hardest to clean. Well written recipe instruction booklet. Now the not so good points... Yep... it's made in China (did you expect no less?). Very noisy. When in operation the motor reduction gears are really LOUD! My first impression was perhaps the unit needs some time to "break in". Nope... the idler gear for the extrusion auger is rattling away sounding like it's in dire need of some grease. The noise this thing makes when mixing dough made me wonder if I shouldn't take it down to the nearest AAMCO transmission shop for a tune up. This is a food processing appliance but it sounds like a gravel yard rock crusher. It had me reaching for my ear plugs. However when under load i.e. extruding pasta it seems to quite down a tiny bit. This machine is one of the noisier appliances in my kitchen, second only to the blender. Extrusion speed. Can you say sloooooooooooooooow ! I've literally made a ton of pasta over the years using other techniques and this machine is painfully slow. It seems to take forever auto-loading the auger slot and produce pasta on the other end. Once it gets going the pasta oozing from the extrusion die creeps along. Many times the stirring paddles in the mixing bowl fail to push enough material into the auger slot to keep the extruded pasta coming out at a constant rate. This requires you to frequently stop the machine, rearrange the dough, and start it up again. Not very "automatic" in my view, more like semi-auto. Lello definitely needs to rethink how to improve the auger/extrusion chamber components, especially the dough feed slot. This in my view is it's weakest design point. Smelly. My new machine smelled like paint fumes when operating. Not sure exactly what is causing the odor, but once the motor had been running for a few minutes (empty or full mixing bowl) and the reduction gear oil or motor windings got warm, it smelled like old lead paint. Not very appealing when making fresh delicious pasta. Now the components that are in contact with the food appear to be mostly food grade polycarbonate plastic. But when you smell paint like fumes wafting out from the motor ventilation holes, it definitely evokes thoughts of the recent issues regarding lead tainted plastic in products coming from China. All in all I give this unit 2 stars. I find mixing the flour in a bowl or mixer and using a traditional pasta roller/cutting machine is overall quicker, and much more straight forward. Plus there is nothing like getting personal with the food you eat by using your own hands to prepare it. Sure it's a wee bit messy, but the time spent making your pasta manually and cleaning up after will overall be less than the time it takes to make the same amount using this machine. I sent my machine back for a refund. Perhaps I'll wait another 15 years before trying another "automatic" pasta maker again.

Not a good product for a new pasta maker. I followed the directions to the letter and it was not allowing the pasta to flow out to make the noodles correctly. Again, could have been me, but if you are new to homemade pasta, this is a horrible machine. It also stopped working on me during the first use so I returned it. I ordered one of the hand crank machines with a motor on it, which I am sure will be much easier and full proof than this machine. Also, the instructions tell you that the machine could stop working if you get any flour down in past a certain part -- now tell me how you are suppose to keep flour that gets in any crevice possible out of the area where the dough is suppose to flow out of the machine? Too risky for me.

My wife followed the instructions and within forty five minutes made 3 pounds of spaghetti that tasted so good!! We've had other Pasta Makers in the past and this one is by far the best. Like I said, follow the instructions to the letter and you will never buy store bought pasta again. The price is well worth it as it is a heavy duty machine. Most people have never had home made pasta and I grew up on it so this is a joy to have. Invest in this machine, you won't be sorry!!! Update 1/14/2013: I've had this for just about a month now and have used this machine at least 25 times. For the holidays I gave out so much homemade Spaghetti and everyone commented how much they loved it. Yesterday I made six pounds of elbow macaroni in about 45 minutes and put it right into the freezer. I cannot think of anything negative to post about this pasta machine! It works beautifully if you just follow the directions to the tee. My aunt who made pasta by hand is going to buy this machine after tasting some of it at Christmas. If you love to eat pasta, buy this machine. Once you start making it, you can't stop!!

I love this machine but it cracks in the bottom of the bowl after using 5 times as shown in the photos. Need a replacement.