Frothing Unit, White or Black

I bought this item because I have a great espresso machine and I read how happy everyone was with this wonderful frother. Well after 2-3 mos. it quit working. I called the manufacture and they told me to send it to them for repair. I paid for the postage and sent the machine. It came back and never worked again. I feel that I was completely ripped off and should have been sent a completely new unit. Instead I got no help from the manufacture.When everyone on here says that they were taken care of...... it makes me wonder who is writing these reviews!!! I was never offered a new machine and they did not fix the machine that I bought. What kind of customer service is this? I am so upset that I spent money buying this, spent more money sending it to be fixed.....then having it sent back unusable.I usually like the service of most items from Amazon. I am extremely disappointed with this item. It is also very difficult to clean. In fact the owner of the company told me to buy the more expensive model and it would not be so difficult to clean. Too bad that I didn't ever get my money back to buy another item.Very, Very disappointed in the customer service.

Bought this to warm up our milk with the morning espresso. It's a nice product but DIFFICULT to wash. Imagine that the milk gets hot and builds a layer that gets stuck to the bottom of the frother. Try scrubbing that off.Most people, myself included, we like to warm up our milk, pour it over the espresso and enjoy our drink with breakfast. If there's leftover milk we can store it in the frother till the next day and add some more and froth again. After the milk is finished then we can clean it. Now, imagine cleaning the bottom of the frother with a lay or two of layered hot milk build up. Even if I washed it everyday, it would be after I drank my coffee... and after the build up gets hard (harder than when it's first ready). Because it's so hard to clean, sometimes you end up forgetting to get EVERY single milk particle. Now imagine the smell from that over time. Hope this makes sense. Anyways, I wouldn't buy this again and wouldn't recommend others to do so either. Instead find one with a plastic bottom or slippery kind of metal (like we use now), it's MUCH easier to clean.

The Froth Au Lait produces the very best and thickest milk froth I have ever tried hands down - thicker than at most speciality coffee stores. It comes out warm (not hot) and holds its shape for at least 30 minutes no problem. It would be an insult to even begin to compare this froth to that produced by Aerolatte or other hand-held, batter-powered tool. For me it's been about a month and I absolutely love this machine. Admittedly, however, some of the other users' reviews have me a bit worried. Here are the main criticisms I have seen in the reviews:1. BREAKS DOWN / DOES NOT LAST -- This is a disturbing trend that many people have observed. The 30-day manufacturer warranty is not reassuring either - I would have expected a year! Then again, most specialty electronic gadgets of this sort (particularly those with a motor and moving parts) tend to have a short life. The last really neat kitchen gadget I owned was the Cooper Cooler  Cooper Cooler Rapid Beverage Chiller, Brushed-Silver , which also suffers from durability issues. In the case of the Cooper Cooler, mine lasted about 4 years or roughly 50 bottles of wine chilled. Time will tell how long the Froth Au Lait lasts, but I'm not optimistic. That's the nature of purpose-built electronic gadgets with moving parts.2. CLEANUP IS DIFFICULT / HYGIENE ISSUES -- The inside of the Forth Au Lait looks like a small blender. It has a removable blade with two whips on it that spins at a very fast pace and incorporates air into the milk. The other important factor is the heating element. The bottom of the Froth Au Lait looks identical to the inside of an electric kettle. This device not only froths milk, but heats it up at the same time and at a very past pace (in about 2 minutes you go from cold milk to warm froth). Anybody who has heated milk knows how nasty it can be to clean up, even if you're using a non-stick pot you've got a mess on your hands. The clean-up is an expected part of the process and, needless to say, if you don't do this correctly you will end up with a stains, bacteria and a rotten smell in your unit very quickly. Immediately after enjoying my frothy drink/coffee, I fill up the Froth Au Lait with warm soapy water. About 30 minutes later I dump the water and use a no-scratch kitchen sponge with dishwashing liquid to clean it up. However, you cannot put the Froth Au Lait into a dishwasher. You also cannot submerge it, as the bottom of the unit has a circuit "plug" that fits into the base, which can be damaged if it gets wet. It takes about as long as it would to wash a pitcher. No big deal. Make sure you use non-fat milk, which gives you a thicker froth and makes clean-up easier.3. NOISY / LOUD -- I have not observed this. In fact, I find that the Froth Au Lait is whisper quiet during its entire 2-minute cycle. So I have to assume that for other reviewers either: (A) The whipping blade is not installed correctly, which is highly unlikely; (B) Their unit was submerged in water or otherwise damaged from neglect; (C) Quality control is not up-to-par in the manufacturing process, hence yielding some good units and some bad ones; or (D) The internal moving parts must be low quality and not designed to withstand the test of time, which would be consistent with the first set of issues discussed.All-in-all, my personal experience with this device is 5-star, but since I've only used it 7 or 8 times I'm giving it 4 stars because it does not appear to be a machine built to last. At about $60, a 30-day warranty is pretty horrible.Lastly, on the outside of the Froth Au Lait pitcher there are measuring markers at 0.5 cup, 1 cup, and 1.5 cup (maximum) intervals. My observation is you can only get a really nice thick froth if you add milk to between the 1.0 and 1.5 cup lines. Anything less just produces foam, not froth.