De'Longhi Magnifica Evo, Bean to Cup Coffee and Cappuccino Maker, ECAM292.33.SB, Silve
Magnifica Evo ECAM292.33.SB
No compromise – enjoy style and substance
Enjoy the ultimate coffee experience from the comfort of your own home with the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo. Brew the perfect espresso from freshly ground beans, one of 5 recipes available with a single touch. Its stylish silver and black finish is the perfect addition to any modern kitchen.
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Intuitive colour display
Features an easy-to-use soft touch display, including colour icons for a range of one-touch recipes
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Fresh coffee in every cup
Enjoy freshness in every cup as the machine grinds the perfect amount of beans right before brewing
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Prepare creamy milk foam
The traditional milk frother easily prepares a creamy milk foam for your favourite milk beverages.
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Wide selection of recipes
Enjoy a wide selection of your favourite milk and coffee beverages, including 5 one-touch recipes.
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The heart of the coffee extraction
It doses ground coffee for optimal infusion and ideal extraction. Easily removable and washable.
| Weight: | 10.5 kg |
| Dimensions: | 44 x 24 x 36 cm; 10.52 Kilograms |
| Brand: | De'Longhi |
| Model: | ECAM292.33.SB |
| Colour: | Silver |
| Colour: | Silver |
I’ve had this coffee machine for 6 months. I do change the beans every month with a new type to try different tastes. Until bow I didn’t have any issues. However with the latest beans I bought(not sure if it is related to that) but the water goes very quickly thru. In 13 seconds the espresso cup if full instead of 20 or 20 plus like it used to be. Customer service is rubbish. So I’m not sure what to do. Will try to make some more research on this matte
5 STARS!!!!
I purchased this coffee machine as a replacement for my Breville One touch which I had recently returned due to fault. I seen this machine which was a little more pricey (around 70) and having read the amount of good reviews, thought I would give it a try.
Honestly I can say this is the best machine I have owned to date! Although it takes a little more time to prepare then say the breville (manual frothing of milk), its much easier to work with, clean and of course, makes better coffees. Having the manual frother makes the coffee much hotter than other machines and this machine allows you to find your perfect drink. This machine also excels having the integrated coffee bean grinder which works very well.
This machine can be a little noice but honestly for me, adds to a ‘barista’ coffee experience. WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND!
I bought this to replace the earlier model, the basic Magnifica ESAM. This is definitely an improvement, and the coffee is excellent. Gripes first – the ESAM had a lip around the drip tray which reduced splashing, the ECAM drip tray is flush so if there is a spillage, it overflows. Secondly, there is no separate control for size of drink. You get small or large, single or double. Having said those two things, there are a number of improvements. The ESAM used to clog up and required regular cleaning and sweeping out of wet grounds, this is much cleaner and easier to access key parts. Setting up is quicker (although, as others have noted, there is no Ph strip supplied for testing water hardness) and easier. And the coffee is really good, I generally use Lavazza Red beans. Not tried descaling yet, but overall am very impressed with this machine.
Bought this coffee machine in January 2019 and is still working very well. I have to say we are massive coffee lovers so really happy with its performance, the blending power is spotless and the coffee flavour is kept intact. You can regulate the blending power as well as the strength and size of your cup.
I also like the fact It works for ground coffee so could enjoy decaf blend when pregnant same time when my hubby was prepping himself a strong coffee- all in one coffee machine. You have to, however, descale it frequently if living in the area where the water is hard. The machine turns off on its own if unused for a while.
The only cons I find is the cleaning- the coffee grinds fall everywhere inside of the mwchine so it’s quite difficult to get into every area when cleaning. I found hoovering the dry grinds to be the best solution though.
It produces a reasonable cup of coffee. We only drink black coffee so can’t comment on the steam wand. It is quite noisy in operation, so much so that I worry about switching it on if my partner is still sleeping. Also concerned that it won’t be long before the silver grey plastic drip tray gets permanently stained if we don’t notice drips in time or forget to put a cup under to catch the run off during its automatic switch off. That said it looks ok on worktop but does need quite a lot of space above to allow beans to be added. It’s useful to have the ability to add a different coffee, we use this function for decaf, but it does need to be pre-ground.
For the money it is a reasonable machine. Out of the box it did not work, I had to phone DeLonghi and talk to an engineer to go through a sequence that reset the logic so it would work. Not difficult but the help number they give you in the box is out of service so a search on the internet was needed to find a number for their service department. After a few minutes of covid announcements I was eventually put through, chap who answered was very good. Very helpful and would not end the call until he was sure I was happy. It then takes quite a few wasted coffees to get to the exact settings that you need for the flavour and crema you want. I have invested in a separate grinder so I can have some different flavour and strength options, the built in hopper for the built in grinder is not convenient for anything other than you daily usual beans. The milk steamer is not at all brilliant, it heats the milk but I have yet to achieve a decent froth for a cappuccino. All in all a good competent machine, but not one for a serious barista.
For the money it is a reasonable machine. Out of the box it did not work, I had to phone DeLonghi and talk to an engineer to go through a sequence that reset the logic so it would work. Not difficult but the help number they give you in the box is out of service so a search on the internet was needed to find a number for their service department. After a few minutes of covid announcements I was eventually put through, chap who answered was very good. Very helpful and would not end the call until he was sure I was happy. It then takes quite a few wasted coffees to get to the exact settings that you need for the flavour and crema you want. I have invested in a separate grinder so I can have some different flavour and strength options, the built in hopper for the built in grinder is not convenient for anything other than you daily usual beans. The milk steamer is not at all brilliant, it heats the milk but I have yet to achieve a decent froth for a cappuccino. All in all a good competent machine, but not one for a serious barista.
For the money it is a reasonable machine. Out of the box it did not work, I had to phone DeLonghi and talk to an engineer to go through a sequence that reset the logic so it would work. Not difficult but the help number they give you in the box is out of service so a search on the internet was needed to find a number for their service department. After a few minutes of covid announcements I was eventually put through, chap who answered was very good. Very helpful and would not end the call until he was sure I was happy. It then takes quite a few wasted coffees to get to the exact settings that you need for the flavour and crema you want. I have invested in a separate grinder so I can have some different flavour and strength options, the built in hopper for the built in grinder is not convenient for anything other than you daily usual beans. The milk steamer is not at all brilliant, it heats the milk but I have yet to achieve a decent froth for a cappuccino. All in all a good competent machine, but not one for a serious barista.
For the money it is a reasonable machine. Out of the box it did not work, I had to phone DeLonghi and talk to an engineer to go through a sequence that reset the logic so it would work. Not difficult but the help number they give you in the box is out of service so a search on the internet was needed to find a number for their service department. After a few minutes of covid announcements I was eventually put through, chap who answered was very good. Very helpful and would not end the call until he was sure I was happy. It then takes quite a few wasted coffees to get to the exact settings that you need for the flavour and crema you want. I have invested in a separate grinder so I can have some different flavour and strength options, the built in hopper for the built in grinder is not convenient for anything other than you daily usual beans. The milk steamer is not at all brilliant, it heats the milk but I have yet to achieve a decent froth for a cappuccino. All in all a good competent machine, but not one for a serious barista.
1 – Not too expensive
2 – Great coffee
3 – Easy to use/looks good
The delonghi Magnifica S ticks all boxes.
I didn’t want to spend too much on my first bean to cup, so chose the Magnifica S. Its also so easy to use, once you have completed the initial set up, you just select your cup size (espresso/long) I use the 2 cup long option for a full mug of coffee. The coffee is really good and always has a good crema. I like strong black coffee, but you can easily select the strength and latte’s are very easy to make. The machine itself is compact and easily fits in my kitchen.
I did read all comments which had 3 stars and below, I have not experienced any problems at the moment. It does use water to clean itself, but I’m happy with this, as I don’t need to do it. It isn’t excessively noisy – and comes with a UK plug. I did pinch one recommendation, and do put a cup under the spout to catch the water as it cleans the machine.
The machine lets you know when to fill the water tank, empty the used coffee and drip tray and descale.
1 month of using the Magnifica S and I’m really happy with it. I’ve had to descale it once – but this is what I’d normally expect.
Good but with issues. Produces a very nice drink that can be tailored to individual tastes. Takes a while to sort the programming and not easy to ‘tweak’ – perhaps more range of choice than I have been used to. Relatively quiet compared to my old Krups machine. Some areas not as good, others better. I only had to decalc the Krups twice in 4 years but this machine demanded it after 3 weeks! Cleaning is similarly easy for both machines. The one BIG difference is the automatic start/stop cleaning cycle on the Delonghi which uses half a large cup each time and it you have to refill it almost daily. I don’t understand why it needs so much when the Krups has none and still works effectively. Good at the coffee but not perfect in other areas
This machine is compact for a bean to cup one, it looks tidy and after 7 months has proved easy to use and clean, though descaling has been a bit of an issue. More later.
It took me a while to find a blend and strength of coffee I was happy with but it’s now ok, although set almost at max settings for grind, (just below 1 on the dial) at 3.o’clock for coffee volume and 11.o’clock for water level/strength. If I wanted any stronger a flavour, not sure where I’d go other than to venture into stronger roast.
Other reviewers have commented on the noise. It is noisy and I’m not sure why it is so bad. Some of it seems to be material and construction which exacerbates the grind and infusion noise.
In this household, it’s predecessor was also a DeLonghi, Prima Donna costing 3 times as much. It made a far superior cup in my view but as it did not live very long (4 years, is that a good life for an 800 coffee machine?) I decided to try this less expensive model. Its doing alright. For the money I’d call it a good buy.
On the descaling I have found the instructions less than helpful. completed the task twice now and neither time did the process work as instructed nor take 30 mins as advised. Neither does it go “perform a series of rinses and pauses to remove limescale…” but pumps the cleaner through twice only before coming to a stop a) before the water tank is actually empty and b) within about 5-10 mins max. In fact the water tank cannot empty because the water outlet is necessarily above the bottom of the tank and therefore cannot drain the bottom. This also confused me initially on the actual rinsing process. The instructions say “When the tank is completely empty the descaling light goes out.” It doesn’t completely empty and in my case the light does not go out. “The water jug light, cup lights and steam lights flash.” In my case they all came on and stayed on. Confused again, I waited a few minutes and then turned the steam knob back to zero (as instructed). The machine then switched off as it was supposed to. Anyone else had this experience?
For the first 2 months I was having to descale this machine every 2 weeks even with a water filter in it! I posted a question re descaleing on Amazon and ended up phoning De’longhi customer services who were brilliant.
My instruction manual DOES’NT have the part where it tells you how to set the water hardness/softness, neither did my machine come with a water test kit.
De’longhi sent me a water test strip and emailed me the instruction manual that does include how to set water hardness ( also the pdf manual below this item on Amazon DOES include how to set water hardness )
The machine was set to hard water but my water is soft. I’ve changed the settings and everything is great now!
I’ve had this Magnifica S just under 3 months and love it. I use it exclusively for lattes.
I’ve found 3 brands of beans (so far ) that this machine makes beautiful lattes with, I’ve also found lots of brands that were nasty!
The Magnifica S is easy to use, easy to clean and makes perfect coffee. 5/5
Enjoy 🙂
Really easy to use. As for flavour – it’s a bit hit & miss to start with Especially if you haven’t already got a favourite coffee bean blend, patience pays off in the end! I really enjoy my coffee now – well worth having to ‘try’ different blends etc.
I have one gripe though – the sales pitch says that the grinder is quiet ….. I hate to think what they consider noisy!! Good job I’m living alone or I’d have to wait until everyone else was up before using it. (I live in a bungalow- so maybe ok if you’re in a house). My little dog still goes into hiding when I switch the machine on in the morning. However, she soon comes back for me to put a spoonful of the milk froth in her bowl. – The milk frother/warmer is really good & easy to keep clean. All in all I deal this machine is worth every penny & will soon pay for itself with my not going to cafes so much or buying endless pods for the Tassimo I had – expensive to buy & nowhere near as nice. Plus the tassimo pods aren’t recyclable.
Bought this back early Dec’20. It was a present for when the family could meet and it was used non-stop!
Having used a cafeteria for years, this seemed a little noisy but you get used to that..
It takes time to get familiar with the flashing buttons but you get to know after a while. Sometimes the clean button flashes when there are only a few grounds to empty. This is simple to do and then unusable again.
I clean this container with small paint brush as the grounds are slightly damp and stick a little. Not a problem. Then occasionally rinse out.
I always leave a cup under the spouts to catch the rinsing water thus saving time cleaning the tray so often.
I use it on the hottest water setting.
The water tank is easy to slide in and out on the right hand side.
It is trial and error with your size of cup and dial settings. I have shown you the settings used for my mug.
As you can see, when the spouts are pulled down above the mug/cup, the coffee comes out almost creamy. No milk added to this mug yet!
The coffee smells and tastes lovely. I have tried a few but Aldi & Lidl’s own coffee bean are very affordable and just as good. The beans are easy to insert…just lift lid left side and pour in
I am very happy with my Delongue Magnifica.
Bought this back early Dec’20. It was a present for when the family could meet and it was used non-stop!
Having used a cafeteria for years, this seemed a little noisy but you get used to that..
It takes time to get familiar with the flashing buttons but you get to know after a while. Sometimes the clean button flashes when there are only a few grounds to empty. This is simple to do and then unusable again.
I clean this container with small paint brush as the grounds are slightly damp and stick a little. Not a problem. Then occasionally rinse out.
I always leave a cup under the spouts to catch the rinsing water thus saving time cleaning the tray so often.
I use it on the hottest water setting.
The water tank is easy to slide in and out on the right hand side.
It is trial and error with your size of cup and dial settings. I have shown you the settings used for my mug.
As you can see, when the spouts are pulled down above the mug/cup, the coffee comes out almost creamy. No milk added to this mug yet!
The coffee smells and tastes lovely. I have tried a few but Aldi & Lidl’s own coffee bean are very affordable and just as good. The beans are easy to insert…just lift lid left side and pour in
I am very happy with my Delongue Magnifica.
I had it for a month now and I make cappuccino every day using either grounded coffee or beans.
I really like how easy it is to clean. Daily cleaning is automatic, only have to do more thorough cleaning about once a month, but even that one is easy.
The machine, particularly the knobs and trays, looks and feels a bit cheap plasticy, but it compensates it with a very reasonable price. See the markings on the tray after just one month.
Coffee tastes nice and was easy to setup and use.
My only annoyance is that it asks me to clean the coffee ground container way too frequently, even when the bin is not even half full.
But overall, I’m very pleased with it and would 100% recommend it to others if they are looking for a professional machine under 300, which isn’t easy to find.
One caveat: this machine might not be on sale for too long as I think De’Longhi is working on a new model. So grab a deal till you can, or wait for the new model.
First thing the coffee it makes is great and easy. Added bonus…if you want a change from your regular beans you can just pop a scoop of ground coffee in the top and make a cuppa that way.
Replaced a barista style machine with bean grinder and frothing wand. Read the instructions first! The settings from the factory where it was tested are a good baseline, but if you are like me and twist every knob to make sure everything turns and works you better remember roughly where they were. For a standard coffee you just turn on wait 30 seconds for warm up and press the button. Hey presto smooth rich coffee within 30 seconds.
There are lots of clunks and whirs inside the machine at startup as it does it’s cleaning cycle (and when it shuts down), but not as loud as using an external grinder.
The really good thing: awesome steam power on the milk frother quickly gives you really quick hot frothy milk.
The niggly thing: the grounds collector needs a bit of jiggling to be in correctly.
The annoying thing: After you’ve used the steam wand it can take up to 10 minutes before you can get another coffee. This is waiting for things to cool down. The hack is to run hot water through the steamer until the coffee cup symbols stop flashing (about 10-15 seconds).
First thing the coffee it makes is great and easy. Added bonus…if you want a change from your regular beans you can just pop a scoop of ground coffee in the top and make a cuppa that way.
Replaced a barista style machine with bean grinder and frothing wand. Read the instructions first! The settings from the factory where it was tested are a good baseline, but if you are like me and twist every knob to make sure everything turns and works you better remember roughly where they were. For a standard coffee you just turn on wait 30 seconds for warm up and press the button. Hey presto smooth rich coffee within 30 seconds.
There are lots of clunks and whirs inside the machine at startup as it does it’s cleaning cycle (and when it shuts down), but not as loud as using an external grinder.
The really good thing: awesome steam power on the milk frother quickly gives you really quick hot frothy milk.
The niggly thing: the grounds collector needs a bit of jiggling to be in correctly.
The annoying thing: After you’ve used the steam wand it can take up to 10 minutes before you can get another coffee. This is waiting for things to cool down. The hack is to run hot water through the steamer until the coffee cup symbols stop flashing (about 10-15 seconds).
First thing the coffee it makes is great and easy. Added bonus…if you want a change from your regular beans you can just pop a scoop of ground coffee in the top and make a cuppa that way.
Replaced a barista style machine with bean grinder and frothing wand. Read the instructions first! The settings from the factory where it was tested are a good baseline, but if you are like me and twist every knob to make sure everything turns and works you better remember roughly where they were. For a standard coffee you just turn on wait 30 seconds for warm up and press the button. Hey presto smooth rich coffee within 30 seconds.
There are lots of clunks and whirs inside the machine at startup as it does it’s cleaning cycle (and when it shuts down), but not as loud as using an external grinder.
The really good thing: awesome steam power on the milk frother quickly gives you really quick hot frothy milk.
The niggly thing: the grounds collector needs a bit of jiggling to be in correctly.
The annoying thing: After you’ve used the steam wand it can take up to 10 minutes before you can get another coffee. This is waiting for things to cool down. The hack is to run hot water through the steamer until the coffee cup symbols stop flashing (about 10-15 seconds).
First thing the coffee it makes is great and easy. Added bonus…if you want a change from your regular beans you can just pop a scoop of ground coffee in the top and make a cuppa that way.
Replaced a barista style machine with bean grinder and frothing wand. Read the instructions first! The settings from the factory where it was tested are a good baseline, but if you are like me and twist every knob to make sure everything turns and works you better remember roughly where they were. For a standard coffee you just turn on wait 30 seconds for warm up and press the button. Hey presto smooth rich coffee within 30 seconds.
There are lots of clunks and whirs inside the machine at startup as it does it’s cleaning cycle (and when it shuts down), but not as loud as using an external grinder.
The really good thing: awesome steam power on the milk frother quickly gives you really quick hot frothy milk.
The niggly thing: the grounds collector needs a bit of jiggling to be in correctly.
The annoying thing: After you’ve used the steam wand it can take up to 10 minutes before you can get another coffee. This is waiting for things to cool down. The hack is to run hot water through the steamer until the coffee cup symbols stop flashing (about 10-15 seconds).
I have had this for one year and two months now and it has had no problems. I really enjoy the coffee from it and it is easy to use one you get used to it. When we first started using it I occasionally pushed the off button rather than the button to deliver coffee. The nice thing is that it seems to know it was switched off and on quickly and doesn’t repeat the rinse cycle, so this really helped reduce any frustration. I have occasionally run it without beans and it would be handy if there was a low bean light, but would I really want to pay more for that? I love the fact that it does NOT use capsules and is so environmentally friendly. My family use to have one of those capsule machines and I hated seeing all of the rubbish it created and the cost of the capsules. I felt guilty and I get very frustrated when I still see capsule machines being sold. This machine must have paid for itself in terms of being able to use much cheaper bagged coffee rather than capsules and it tastes better. I put the waste grounds on my garden and get a great sense of satisfaction from doing so. Two spouts means it can make two cups at a time. One improvement would be to have slightly more clearance for taller cups. I have a different machine that heats just enough water for a cup of tea and that would be a feature I would pay for to avoid having two machines on the side and it would be efficient and many of the components already exist in the device, although a slightly larger water holder may be a good idea for such a machine. If only I could say “Alexa, make me a coffee” and it checked there was a cup and made the coffee while I was walking to the machine :).
I bought this on here in Nov 2017. So it has been happily chugging away for over 3 years. I use it a ton for the bean to cup function (never actually used the ground coffee function, as I have a feeling it would mess up the insides for no real value).
Anyway. It really is great. No hesitation at all in recommending it.
There are three areas they could improve:
1/ The ‘Heating Pad’ at the top is utterly pointless. They would be better off to remove it entirely as it takes up space on the top right side for no reason (has anyone in the history of this machine ever used this function? I really doubt it.)
It would be much better if they put a second container for whole beans where that is. Then you could either have twice as many beans of your favourite coffee. Or else try two entirely different ones.
For me it would be nice to have my ‘normal’ blend of caffeinated beans in one, and a de-caffeinated bean in the other one (assuming they had a second bean holder section!) so that I could easily drink one type during the day and swap to using the other one at night. (Or maybe for a husband and wife, one for her, one for him, possibly with different grinding settings?)
Currently I end up just using instant de-caffeinated if I have a cup at night, and it definitely doesn’t taste as nice as a bean to cup would.
I do think this could be a big improvement to an already great machine.
2/ The grinding settings are a bit one-dimensional (by that I mean that they don’t feel very inviting to change more than the couple of experiments you do when you first get the machine) – There are ones on the front and one in the actual bean holder itself.
Because they are dials it is ok. But it does tend to mean that you set it to one setting for both that you like and never touch them again (in case you forget where you had them in my case).
It would be nice if you could have a choice of a couple of settings more easily, so you could compare grinding settings and strength on a more linear, daily basis, if you wanted (or just leave it).
It feels like its possible to do it, but I would have to make it an actual ‘project’ to test, rather then just a normal part of making a cup of coffee.
I sort of feel like their should be more thought gone in to how to change the blend more easily at the moment a person is making the coffee, without having to become a professional Barista!
At the moment you have the grind setting in the bean to cup chamber for example, which is one setting. It would be nice if there was some kind of ‘test’ function where the machine would automatically make you cups in a row at different grinding settings, and then you could just pick the one you liked.
I know! I know! I can do this. But just thinking out loud as to what would be nice. And this strikes me as doable with some thought and design work.
3/ As I said I haven’t used the ‘ground coffee’ part in the middle top of the machine, as instinctively I feel like the coffee grounds would get everywhere inside the internals of the machine. Maybe they need to show some videos on how to use this more from a creative coffee person perspective? Not sure. It just feels like the ground thing in the middle is an afterthought somehow?
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Ok. All that said. I love this machine! I think it is really good value for a bean to cup coffee maker.
If you like coffee, then honestly, buying this is a no-brainer.
I’d like some extras. But honestly at this price point, they are really only niggles. You shove good beans in. It spits out lovely coffee with a nice creamy head.
I don’t really want to pay more than about 250. So it may well be that others do more. But as this has been the number 1 machine on here for years they are doing something right.
You will like it 🙂
I’ve been a Nespresso/Starbucks pod user for many years until my Nespresso machine began leaking for the second time, so I decided to try something different. I didn’t want to go too mad price wise initially and, looked at the De’Longhi Magnifica bean to cup machine reviews and decided to buy one. Probably the best 252 I’ve ever spent. I’ve been using Starbucks coffee beans at 15 kg which works out at about 11p per cup. That’s a third of the price of Starbucks pods by the way, and more like a quarter the price of Nespresso ones. Not only that, it makes a great coffee exactly to your liking with your preferred coffee bean. Personally, I like Starbucks Dark Roast.
I’ve been a Nespresso/Starbucks pod user for many years until my Nespresso machine began leaking for the second time, so I decided to try something different. I didn’t want to go too mad price wise initially and, looked at the De’Longhi Magnifica bean to cup machine reviews and decided to buy one. Probably the best 252 I’ve ever spent. I’ve been using Starbucks coffee beans at 15 kg which works out at about 11p per cup. That’s a third of the price of Starbucks pods by the way, and more like a quarter the price of Nespresso ones. Not only that, it makes a great coffee exactly to your liking with your preferred coffee bean. Personally, I like Starbucks Dark Roast.
I’ve been a Nespresso/Starbucks pod user for many years until my Nespresso machine began leaking for the second time, so I decided to try something different. I didn’t want to go too mad price wise initially and, looked at the De’Longhi Magnifica bean to cup machine reviews and decided to buy one. Probably the best 252 I’ve ever spent. I’ve been using Starbucks coffee beans at 15 kg which works out at about 11p per cup. That’s a third of the price of Starbucks pods by the way, and more like a quarter the price of Nespresso ones. Not only that, it makes a great coffee exactly to your liking with your preferred coffee bean. Personally, I like Starbucks Dark Roast.
I’ve been a Nespresso/Starbucks pod user for many years until my Nespresso machine began leaking for the second time, so I decided to try something different. I didn’t want to go too mad price wise initially and, looked at the De’Longhi Magnifica bean to cup machine reviews and decided to buy one. Probably the best 252 I’ve ever spent. I’ve been using Starbucks coffee beans at 15 kg which works out at about 11p per cup. That’s a third of the price of Starbucks pods by the way, and more like a quarter the price of Nespresso ones. Not only that, it makes a great coffee exactly to your liking with your preferred coffee bean. Personally, I like Starbucks Dark Roast.
Excellent machine. Make sure you read the instructions well; it’s not a toy and is a complex piece of kit. That said, after familiarising yourself with the basics, it’s pretty straightforward. Just check you have water in it, and check the bin isn’t full of used powder. If you use coffee that’s pre ground, just turn the strength knob anti clockwise and use the central hopper. Don’t do this if the machine isn’t turned on. And make sure you use the single cup button. Also note that you should only change the grind setting as the grinder is operating. If you do those things you shouldn’t have any problems. I live in a hard water area, so I use bottled water from a soft water area, like Buxton or highland spring. That means you can set the machine to soft water use which will mean less frequent descaling. Lots of control over grind coarseness, flavour strength and coffee amount, so you can tailor it to your taste. Cappuccino frother works well, gives mixture of hot milk and froth. Always clean the frother tube after use, wipe it and remove it, run it under a tap and then run a shot of steam through it before putting it back. Just get into the habit and it’s very quick and straightforward. I love it. (I’ve gone into some detail about how to use it since I know a couple of idiots who haven’t read the instructions properly and blame the machine…)
Excellent machine. Make sure you read the instructions well; it’s not a toy and is a complex piece of kit. That said, after familiarising yourself with the basics, it’s pretty straightforward. Just check you have water in it, and check the bin isn’t full of used powder. If you use coffee that’s pre ground, just turn the strength knob anti clockwise and use the central hopper. Don’t do this if the machine isn’t turned on. And make sure you use the single cup button. Also note that you should only change the grind setting as the grinder is operating. If you do those things you shouldn’t have any problems. I live in a hard water area, so I use bottled water from a soft water area, like Buxton or highland spring. That means you can set the machine to soft water use which will mean less frequent descaling. Lots of control over grind coarseness, flavour strength and coffee amount, so you can tailor it to your taste. Cappuccino frother works well, gives mixture of hot milk and froth. Always clean the frother tube after use, wipe it and remove it, run it under a tap and then run a shot of steam through it before putting it back. Just get into the habit and it’s very quick and straightforward. I love it. (I’ve gone into some detail about how to use it since I know a couple of idiots who haven’t read the instructions properly and blame the machine…)
Excellent machine. Make sure you read the instructions well; it’s not a toy and is a complex piece of kit. That said, after familiarising yourself with the basics, it’s pretty straightforward. Just check you have water in it, and check the bin isn’t full of used powder. If you use coffee that’s pre ground, just turn the strength knob anti clockwise and use the central hopper. Don’t do this if the machine isn’t turned on. And make sure you use the single cup button. Also note that you should only change the grind setting as the grinder is operating. If you do those things you shouldn’t have any problems. I live in a hard water area, so I use bottled water from a soft water area, like Buxton or highland spring. That means you can set the machine to soft water use which will mean less frequent descaling. Lots of control over grind coarseness, flavour strength and coffee amount, so you can tailor it to your taste. Cappuccino frother works well, gives mixture of hot milk and froth. Always clean the frother tube after use, wipe it and remove it, run it under a tap and then run a shot of steam through it before putting it back. Just get into the habit and it’s very quick and straightforward. I love it. (I’ve gone into some detail about how to use it since I know a couple of idiots who haven’t read the instructions properly and blame the machine…)
Excellent machine. Make sure you read the instructions well; it’s not a toy and is a complex piece of kit. That said, after familiarising yourself with the basics, it’s pretty straightforward. Just check you have water in it, and check the bin isn’t full of used powder. If you use coffee that’s pre ground, just turn the strength knob anti clockwise and use the central hopper. Don’t do this if the machine isn’t turned on. And make sure you use the single cup button. Also note that you should only change the grind setting as the grinder is operating. If you do those things you shouldn’t have any problems. I live in a hard water area, so I use bottled water from a soft water area, like Buxton or highland spring. That means you can set the machine to soft water use which will mean less frequent descaling. Lots of control over grind coarseness, flavour strength and coffee amount, so you can tailor it to your taste. Cappuccino frother works well, gives mixture of hot milk and froth. Always clean the frother tube after use, wipe it and remove it, run it under a tap and then run a shot of steam through it before putting it back. Just get into the habit and it’s very quick and straightforward. I love it. (I’ve gone into some detail about how to use it since I know a couple of idiots who haven’t read the instructions properly and blame the machine…)
Had this just over a month now. Wanted to give it a good test.
This makes a long cup of coffee quicker than it takes our Bosch kettle to boil. Frothing milk is easy once you get the hang of it. Remember to clean steamer every time Take nozzle off & flush.
Might want to adjust some of the settings such as water temp (way too low for me) same with water hardness. Good u-tube videos on doing all the settings.
Cleaning is simple, water container out, unclip cover and pull mixer out. Wash and return. Takes about 5 mins tops.
I got this as I spent far to much at Coffee shops & 2nd lockdown meant takeaways again. Just does not taste the same.
Bank balance is already looking better despite having on average 5 cups a day from this machine. 1 Milk based, rest just straight coffee.
Finding a coffee bean you like is the fun bit.
It’s honestly one of the best purchases I’ve made in recent times and I can’t stop telling people about it.
It’s very quick, not too noisy and makes a glorious cup of coffee.
It is very easy to clean and the large water container means you’re not changing the water every few cups.
I’ve had it for 6 months now, it’s used multiple times a day and I only had to descale it once so far, which was a few weeks ago.
Life changing purchase
Setup took about 10 minutes including testing/setting the water hardness (I have a softener but tested anyway), filling the water, beans and running a few test cups through.
The final result is simply perfect. Maybe I just fluked it but I got a perfect cup of coffee first time which puts the Nespresso to shame.
Very happy.
EDIT: After 1 year of ownership, I would still rate this as 5*. A few minor points however. The plastic door is a bit flimsy (but no issue with it even though it gets used daily). The tray that captures the used coffee does not capture all the used / ground coffee, but a monthly thorough clean out solves for that.
I have a water softener so have not had to descale the machine, but did so after 6 months in any case.
Otherwise, all still perfect – perfect coffee around 4-5 times a day every day without fail. And cost to run versus pod machines works out at around 30-40p a day for this versus around 150p per day for more and infinitely better coffee. So the machine has paid for itself already nearly twice over.
It can do pre-ground as well as bean to cup. (We are using it for pre-ground Decaf & real beans)
However
The instructions are poor.
I have yet to get into the water temperature menu – (9.4 in manual) the instructions say hold the single espresso button till it goes to the menu, but it just produces large espresso
UPDATE
The video on the support site is different to the manual. To change water temp
1 make sure power switch at back is on, and DO NOT press the front power button (it must be no lights on)
2. Press Espresso one cup till panel lights then tap same button till required temp is indicated. Then tap the Americano 1 cup button (As shown in the video but not as per the naration which calls it one cup espresso)
I am now verry happy 🙂
I suspect getting into water temp conflicts with setting the cup size (See 9.2)
Also Factory reset seems to be missing from the menu!
It can do pre-ground as well as bean to cup. (We are using it for pre-ground Decaf & real beans)
However
The instructions are poor.
I have yet to get into the water temperature menu – (9.4 in manual) the instructions say hold the single espresso button till it goes to the menu, but it just produces large espresso
UPDATE
The video on the support site is different to the manual. To change water temp
1 make sure power switch at back is on, and DO NOT press the front power button (it must be no lights on)
2. Press Espresso one cup till panel lights then tap same button till required temp is indicated. Then tap the Americano 1 cup button (As shown in the video but not as per the naration which calls it one cup espresso)
I am now verry happy 🙂
I suspect getting into water temp conflicts with setting the cup size (See 9.2)
Also Factory reset seems to be missing from the menu!
When I first bought this machine I wrote a one star review because They sent the wrong manual & I found it really difficult to get customer service by any means. However, when I did finally get to a personin customer servive, Becky was very helpfulin getting me the correct manual &getting me a water hardness tester:so, Becky, thanks for that. As to the machine itself, we have now had it for two weeks & made over 50 cups of coffee. The results are excellent, as we have been able to modify the taste, following the instructions in the book. We are very pleased with the results as the coffee compares favourably with the coffee shop product.
As for the machine, it’s fairly big but still fit’s nicely on my worktop under my kitchen cabinets. It’s a little noisy but not that much more than the Tassimo I’d been using previously. Noisiest part is the bean grinding but only last a few seconds so it’s no big deal.
Using it is easy enough once you get the dials set how you like it. As the headline says my two year old won’t let anyone make their own coffee, he has to do it (Just need to get him to keep that up when he’s a teenager ). Cleaning is easy enough too just rinse the trays under the tap and every week or 2 pull out the infuser and let it soak in some warm water for a few minutes then rinse it off as well.
The important part however is the coffee.
If I’d written this a few weeks ago I’d have said it’s on par with my previous Tassimo, that is until i actually had a Tassimo coffee again at my mother-in-law’s. Seems this machine has spoiled me somewhat as the Tassimo coffee tasted bitter and very burnt in comparison. So, considering I’ve not exactly been using super expensive premium beans, the coffee is very good. Perhaps not quite on par with Starbucks or Costa, but more than close enough for the price.
Simple tips.
Turn up as hot as possible, the second cup will be a bit hotter.
Put quantity dial to 12 o’clock (mid way)
Put strength to max.
Only adjust bean grind when it is grinding or you may damage the machine
Turn off at panel not plug as you could turn it off in the middle of an operation.
If it wont make coffee it is likely the used grounds bin needs emptying (use as fertiliser) or the water is empty.
Keep your beans sealed in the fridge for storage.
The drip tray and coffee ground bin can go in the dishwasher.
A+++++
I tend to avoid the more oily beans as I don’t think they work great in this. I would also recommend keeping the water level in the dial closer to the espresso level and topping up with water from the kettle as it gets to a higher temp. You can get a nice strong coffee if you tune the dials correctly.
I don’t make many lattes/cappuccinos but when I have they’ve turned out decent but you’ll struggle to get that dense foam you need.
My only slight negative is that over time the used puck/waste container has become more sensitive so it now shows as full after only 3 or 4 cups.
I got this on a used warehouse deal for 150 but would have paid double, I’ve seen this machine in pubs and small hotels so I have no doubt that it’s built to last. I would not hesitate to buy again if it broke as although the coffee isn’t a 10/10 it’s a two button push for a solid 7 every morning.
I tend to avoid the more oily beans as I don’t think they work great in this. I would also recommend keeping the water level in the dial closer to the espresso level and topping up with water from the kettle as it gets to a higher temp. You can get a nice strong coffee if you tune the dials correctly.
I don’t make many lattes/cappuccinos but when I have they’ve turned out decent but you’ll struggle to get that dense foam you need.
My only slight negative is that over time the used puck/waste container has become more sensitive so it now shows as full after only 3 or 4 cups.
I got this on a used warehouse deal for 150 but would have paid double, I’ve seen this machine in pubs and small hotels so I have no doubt that it’s built to last. I would not hesitate to buy again if it broke as although the coffee isn’t a 10/10 it’s a two button push for a solid 7 every morning.
I tend to avoid the more oily beans as I don’t think they work great in this. I would also recommend keeping the water level in the dial closer to the espresso level and topping up with water from the kettle as it gets to a higher temp. You can get a nice strong coffee if you tune the dials correctly.
I don’t make many lattes/cappuccinos but when I have they’ve turned out decent but you’ll struggle to get that dense foam you need.
My only slight negative is that over time the used puck/waste container has become more sensitive so it now shows as full after only 3 or 4 cups.
I got this on a used warehouse deal for 150 but would have paid double, I’ve seen this machine in pubs and small hotels so I have no doubt that it’s built to last. I would not hesitate to buy again if it broke as although the coffee isn’t a 10/10 it’s a two button push for a solid 7 every morning.
Bit of along term test, as we bought this machine a couple of years ago and just never got around to putting my thoughts down on here. All in all, this coffee machine was a worth while, sound investment. I am an inveterate coffee drinker and although my wife enjoys her tassimo pod machine, I prefer to shop around for beans and grind my own.
The machine has worked flawlessly since we owned it and is used daily, it requires the normal de-scaling procedure every moth or so, but this is normal and should not be considered a fault. My only minor niggle is the size of the fresh water container which needs regularly filling or topping up. A slighly larger container would be better but by default would probably make the machine wider or taller. Other than this minor gripe, the machine produces a decent cup of coffee from beans or pre-ground. A happy buyer as the price was competitive when compared with some other machines.
Bit of along term test, as we bought this machine a couple of years ago and just never got around to putting my thoughts down on here. All in all, this coffee machine was a worth while, sound investment. I am an inveterate coffee drinker and although my wife enjoys her tassimo pod machine, I prefer to shop around for beans and grind my own.
The machine has worked flawlessly since we owned it and is used daily, it requires the normal de-scaling procedure every moth or so, but this is normal and should not be considered a fault. My only minor niggle is the size of the fresh water container which needs regularly filling or topping up. A slighly larger container would be better but by default would probably make the machine wider or taller. Other than this minor gripe, the machine produces a decent cup of coffee from beans or pre-ground. A happy buyer as the price was competitive when compared with some other machines.
Bit of along term test, as we bought this machine a couple of years ago and just never got around to putting my thoughts down on here. All in all, this coffee machine was a worth while, sound investment. I am an inveterate coffee drinker and although my wife enjoys her tassimo pod machine, I prefer to shop around for beans and grind my own.
The machine has worked flawlessly since we owned it and is used daily, it requires the normal de-scaling procedure every moth or so, but this is normal and should not be considered a fault. My only minor niggle is the size of the fresh water container which needs regularly filling or topping up. A slighly larger container would be better but by default would probably make the machine wider or taller. Other than this minor gripe, the machine produces a decent cup of coffee from beans or pre-ground. A happy buyer as the price was competitive when compared with some other machines.
We have had this machine 4 years in November, never had a problem, we have between 4 and 6 coffees a day from it and maybe upto 20 a day when we have visitors. We have always used a filter jug for the water and set to soft water and descaled every second warning and its never missed a beat, took some time to find the settings for strength etc that suited us, and a coffee bean we liked. Now we can make coffee thats the same taste and strength that we like, we use the frother every time and take the milk to 65 degrees, we have a kitchen temp probe, but we could just use our ears as you will find the noise changes at about the right temp, we use skimmed milk too, semi skimmed does make a better froth. Only adjust the grind size while the grinders running, once we found the desirable speed of flow and strength we have not adjusted in 3 years. Yes it took us maybe 50 cups of coffee over a couple of weeks to fine tune and understand the machine, everyone we make coffee for loves it, we now realise a good strong Arabica bean covers most tastes, occasionally we try different coffees, the Lidl French ground coffee is nice, yes you can put ground coffee in the machine, Its been easy to keep clean, run etc and the grinds are great for your garden, I would have another no hesitation.
Good item, although it couldn’t feel cheaper if it tried. The dials in particular feel like a child’s toy. It’s also super loud.
Ordered this from Amazon warehouse deals.. described as being in original packaging.. it’s not. No mention of missing parts.. water tank lid is missing, descaler is missing, water hardness test strip is missing. No mention of damage.. top cover for preground coffee is snapped off.
None of these are deal breakers, though I’d like to have the water tank cover so I asked Amazon if they can send me one. (They sell them).. but no can’t do that.
Ask if they can partial refund so I can buy it.. no go.
Ask if they can just replace it.. nope.. despite having around 50 in stock at the same grade.. they can’t do that either.
All they can do is give me a paid return label for me to do the work and return it, then I have to buy again. Prime service my ass.
Needless to say I’m going to buy a new one from.another retailer.
So I did a lot of research and it came down to costs and easy to use.
Many coffee machines seem to have a compulsary water filture – this one doesn’t.
Also once you get the hang on what all the buttons and knobs are for and what your tastes are it is pretty easy to use.
You can set this up for how much you want your beans ground to the amount of grounds used in the shot.
Then you can have upto 2 shots and also do 2 cups at a time.
The milk steamer keeps it heat without the need to keep reheating enough to froth up enough milk for a cappucino.
You can pretty much make any espresso based beverage with this.
I love that the milk steamer nozzel is detachable for cleaning after each use.
My only negetive at this stage is that the milk steamer arm is too close to the machine – it bends out but doesn’t clear the edge of the machine enough to allow full movement of your jug.
AFTER 6 MONTHS
I still love this machine!
I’ve had no issues with fault etc. Still makes a lovely cup of coffee.
Love I can use decaf grounds.
My few points are that if using decaf ensure you have the dial turned to scoop before you fill with grounds. It leaves an aweful mess in the machine as it falls through and you end up with a full ground tray symbol for days after. I would recommend if single cups to empty the grounds tray inside as it can be forgotten and turn nasty.
Tips for the ground tray line it with kitchen paper as the grounds stick to the inside which makes it a bugger to clean. Plus they absorb some of the moisture.
Also to get a good strong coffee you do have you have the dial turned up and i always hit the double espresso button.
Also pop your mug under the sprout as soon as you switch on to catch the water used to clean it. Saves having to keep cleaning out the drip tray. Do the same when your done as it self cleans again as it self turns off.
Apart from this I love it. Great coffee from a great machine. X
So I did a lot of research and it came down to costs and easy to use.
Many coffee machines seem to have a compulsary water filture – this one doesn’t.
Also once you get the hang on what all the buttons and knobs are for and what your tastes are it is pretty easy to use.
You can set this up for how much you want your beans ground to the amount of grounds used in the shot.
Then you can have upto 2 shots and also do 2 cups at a time.
The milk steamer keeps it heat without the need to keep reheating enough to froth up enough milk for a cappucino.
You can pretty much make any espresso based beverage with this.
I love that the milk steamer nozzel is detachable for cleaning after each use.
My only negetive at this stage is that the milk steamer arm is too close to the machine – it bends out but doesn’t clear the edge of the machine enough to allow full movement of your jug.
AFTER 6 MONTHS
I still love this machine!
I’ve had no issues with fault etc. Still makes a lovely cup of coffee.
Love I can use decaf grounds.
My few points are that if using decaf ensure you have the dial turned to scoop before you fill with grounds. It leaves an aweful mess in the machine as it falls through and you end up with a full ground tray symbol for days after. I would recommend if single cups to empty the grounds tray inside as it can be forgotten and turn nasty.
Tips for the ground tray line it with kitchen paper as the grounds stick to the inside which makes it a bugger to clean. Plus they absorb some of the moisture.
Also to get a good strong coffee you do have you have the dial turned up and i always hit the double espresso button.
Also pop your mug under the sprout as soon as you switch on to catch the water used to clean it. Saves having to keep cleaning out the drip tray. Do the same when your done as it self cleans again as it self turns off.
Apart from this I love it. Great coffee from a great machine. X
Thought I would write a review of my machine as I have owned it for 18 months now without fault. Im happy with 18 months of use.. it has been used every and I mean EVERY day so thats at least 4 times a day so working on that 4 x 547 days = 2100+ uses !! not bad for a “Cheap” machine…
Great product that works very well. Has all the features I needed from a grinder to a built in steamer.
It is most important you read the instructions as I have noticed a few people saying theirs didn’t work or had coffee residue in it!
The MAIN reason for not working is people are not setting the machine up correctly. Please follow the instructions step by step
This machine also MAY have some coffee residue in it (Mine Did) as they are tested at the factory (quality control) so there may be some bean dust inside.
That’s most peoples complaints answered!
Anyway I would also suggest that you purchase a metal milk jug and also a milk thermometer as you can then get the temperature of the milk correct. Lots of people just guess how warm the milk is and end up with a tepid coffee.
I would also suggest you make the all your coffees first then steam the milk afterwards. This way you will not be waiting ages for the machine to cool down after steaming your milk, again common sense but it seems to have escaped a few folks!
Ok… Pros and Cons
Pros..
1. Proper Coffee
2. No Nasty PODS (Environmental issues)
3. Steamer works Great
4. Holds 200g of beans – makes dozens of cups!
5. Easy to wipe clean.
6. Simple operations (Once you have read the instructions)
7. Different settings for water hardness
Cons
1. Fiddly to clean properly
2. Noisy (Grinder) but all bean to cup machines are noisy
3. No Accessories (Milk Jug, Thermometer would be nice!)
4. Descaler expensive (I have switched to 3rd party descaler much cheaper)
5. Quite Large
6. Have to descale often (in hard water area) use my machine every day and about 4 weeks between descaling)
Thats it..
Would recommend if you love coffee.. just be prepared for a little work (watch how coffee is made in the shops.. its the exact same process for this machine)
The old one had worked hard using a kilo of beans per month (6 to 8 cups per day) over its life when it finally gave up. Hot coffee was escaping from the rear of the spout unit into the water tray so I decided to replace the whole thing rather than incur the possibly high cost of repair. The price reduction since 2013 was another major factor.
Thanks to the speedy delivery service of Amamzon Prime (next day) I wasn’t without coffee at all!
The best feature for me personally is the fact that, despite the fact we take our coffees very differently (myself, more a cappucino style with the need to heat milk, previously I microwaved it!, himself straight black and as strong as possible) – it is so convenient for us to make our coffees exactly as we like them from the same machine. Added to this, I like to switch to green or white tea in the afternoon – the hot water option from the steamer spout actually makes hot enough water for this that I just use it now instead of the kettle.
Looking forward to when we can have guests over to really put it though its paces!
The best feature for me personally is the fact that, despite the fact we take our coffees very differently (myself, more a cappucino style with the need to heat milk, previously I microwaved it!, himself straight black and as strong as possible) – it is so convenient for us to make our coffees exactly as we like them from the same machine. Added to this, I like to switch to green or white tea in the afternoon – the hot water option from the steamer spout actually makes hot enough water for this that I just use it now instead of the kettle.
Looking forward to when we can have guests over to really put it though its paces!
The best feature for me personally is the fact that, despite the fact we take our coffees very differently (myself, more a cappucino style with the need to heat milk, previously I microwaved it!, himself straight black and as strong as possible) – it is so convenient for us to make our coffees exactly as we like them from the same machine. Added to this, I like to switch to green or white tea in the afternoon – the hot water option from the steamer spout actually makes hot enough water for this that I just use it now instead of the kettle.
Looking forward to when we can have guests over to really put it though its paces!
On reading the other reviews I was concerned about some comments on a long warm up time. Mine arrived and I duly plugged it in, topped up the water, added beans and turned it on. Sat there waiting for ages watching the lights flash and thought “Oh no! It’ll have to go back.”. After finally deciding to read the manual I realised there were a couple of setup steps required. Those done it warms up in <30 seconds, I find by the time you've got a cup, milk etc. ready the machine is hot and ready to go.
Making coffee is very easy, took some fine tuning for the grind, bean and water volume but now those are all set every cup is the same. It warns you in the manual to make all the coffee you need before using the steam pump as the machine needs to cool back down after steaming (manual says c. 10 minutes), seems fairly reasonable to me for a home machine.
Six months into ownership I have no issues at all with the machine, no problems etc. and for the price it works very well. Certainly a lot cheaper overall than going to [insert coffee chain here] every day.
This being my first bean to cup coffee machine I didn’t want to spend too much on one, but at the same time I didn’t want to buy something cheap that I might want to replace soon. This machine suits me down to the ground, it does what I need it to and does it well. Now, I am no coffee aficionado but I do enjoy a good cappuccino and this machine makes them to the standard I would expect from a good coffee shop.
It was relatively straight forward to set up by following the instructions which also told me how to set the water hardness and change the temperature settings.
I’ve read a few reviews that say it is messy or hard to clean, but can’t say I’ve had any problems. I clean it regularly and most of the time there is a few bits of coffee grind to clean up, but what do you expect it’s a messy business grinding all those beans.
I would recommend this machine for those folk not wanting to spend a fortune on a bean to cup coffee machine who like a decent coffee without seeking the full barista experience.
We bought a De’Longhi Magnifica EAM 3200 more than 10 years ago and it worked beautifully until a few days ago when steam and water started spewing out the side of the machine. My guess is a seal on the heating element gave up the ghost. Long story short I google’d “best bean to cup coffee machines uk” and on the first page alone this machine De’Longhi Magnifica ESAM 4200 was quoted as the best in most of the reviews.
Having now purchased it I am not disappointed. The design hasn’t changed much over the years and there are now a few extra features I don’t remember having or recall seeing in the old model, i.e. setting the water hardness and the ECO function, but by and large the mechanism is the same.
After unpacking and setting up the machine using the same beans, obviously the water supply is the same, we are now getting a much richer, stronger and creamer coffee than we did with the previous model. My guess is that it is milling the coffee slightly finer. I might even have to adjust it to set it to make a weaker cup of coffee and hence saving myself some beans in the long run.
Yes the machine is mostly plastic but by no means does that mean this isn’t a quality machine. It is most certainly durable and I am very pleased with my purchase and can only recommend i
Can adjust for coffe grind fineness, amount of coffee per shot, and amount of water too use so can make all options. Not really adjusted grinding yet as happy with current setting. Favourite is a shorter coffee but press double cup so effectively a double expressso and then froth some milk and this gives you close to a flat white.
Don’t know why people commented on it being made of plastic? So what, it look great and feels solid.
Pretty easy to clean, open it up and give it a wipe when emptying used coffee.
In spite of some comments frothing doesn’t actually prevent making another coffee straight after as the boiler is too hot. You just flush some water through the milk frother which quickly cools the boiler and you can make coffee straight away. Simple
Like the ground coffee function so we can make the odd decaf, just make sure the machine is on before adding as otherwise the coffee just falls straight through the funnel and makes a mess on the inside. Having said that if you do forget just takes a couple of mins to wipe up so no major drama.
All in all would recommend. Hope it lasts many a yea
Makes great coffee and fluffs the milk well as long as you keep the plastic nozzles clean, I use filtered water and the machine lights up when it needs de scaling which I use there brand liquid to do so bought online, doesn’t leave the machine stinking and tasting foul like the cheap aldi style stuff you can buy which should only be used for taps sinks and so on, you need to find tune the grind size, amount dispensed and water amount per cup but the result is a dependable cup after cup once of course you have sorted your beans out, suggest you try lidl columbian supremo or m & s columbian haven’t found any locally freshly roasted beans which cost three times the price any better but we all like different things, everyone seems to likes my coffee and comments on it but it is a tad noisy on start up and shutdown and I’m operation for that matter but you get used to it, if I ever get another machine I will get one with an integrated milk dispenser but they cost a lol more, got my machine on a sale about 130, what a steal they were 600
My daughter will be 8 too later this year, so I must have bought this at the same time. It’s given me great service over that time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. I probably use it for around 10-20 cups a week, and it gets cleaned our every 4-8 weeks depending on use. The only reason I’ve come back to this today and written this review its that it’s started to make a mess of the coffee grinds inside the machine, which have now started to infiltrate the coffee. The problem is the brewing unit, as the arm at the top has worn out of alignment so it’s not cleanly sweeping the brewed coffee into the waste bin. I’ve tried to adjust the screw and spring, but no joy. I did think I’d be buying a new machine, but it turns out you can buy a replacement part for just 30, so will give that a shot first. Otherwise, this makes wonderful coffee from beans at the touch of a button, with little maintenance required. Use it to make espresso shots though and add some boiling water, and not make longer ‘lungo’ type coffee from the machine, which don’t taste anywhere near as good.
My daughter will be 8 too later this year, so I must have bought this at the same time. It’s given me great service over that time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. I probably use it for around 10-20 cups a week, and it gets cleaned our every 4-8 weeks depending on use. The only reason I’ve come back to this today and written this review its that it’s started to make a mess of the coffee grinds inside the machine, which have now started to infiltrate the coffee. The problem is the brewing unit, as the arm at the top has worn out of alignment so it’s not cleanly sweeping the brewed coffee into the waste bin. I’ve tried to adjust the screw and spring, but no joy. I did think I’d be buying a new machine, but it turns out you can buy a replacement part for just 30, so will give that a shot first. Otherwise, this makes wonderful coffee from beans at the touch of a button, with little maintenance required. Use it to make espresso shots though and add some boiling water, and not make longer ‘lungo’ type coffee from the machine, which don’t taste anywhere near as good.
My daughter will be 8 too later this year, so I must have bought this at the same time. It’s given me great service over that time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. I probably use it for around 10-20 cups a week, and it gets cleaned our every 4-8 weeks depending on use. The only reason I’ve come back to this today and written this review its that it’s started to make a mess of the coffee grinds inside the machine, which have now started to infiltrate the coffee. The problem is the brewing unit, as the arm at the top has worn out of alignment so it’s not cleanly sweeping the brewed coffee into the waste bin. I’ve tried to adjust the screw and spring, but no joy. I did think I’d be buying a new machine, but it turns out you can buy a replacement part for just 30, so will give that a shot first. Otherwise, this makes wonderful coffee from beans at the touch of a button, with little maintenance required. Use it to make espresso shots though and add some boiling water, and not make longer ‘lungo’ type coffee from the machine, which don’t taste anywhere near as good.
My daughter will be 8 too later this year, so I must have bought this at the same time. It’s given me great service over that time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. I probably use it for around 10-20 cups a week, and it gets cleaned our every 4-8 weeks depending on use. The only reason I’ve come back to this today and written this review its that it’s started to make a mess of the coffee grinds inside the machine, which have now started to infiltrate the coffee. The problem is the brewing unit, as the arm at the top has worn out of alignment so it’s not cleanly sweeping the brewed coffee into the waste bin. I’ve tried to adjust the screw and spring, but no joy. I did think I’d be buying a new machine, but it turns out you can buy a replacement part for just 30, so will give that a shot first. Otherwise, this makes wonderful coffee from beans at the touch of a button, with little maintenance required. Use it to make espresso shots though and add some boiling water, and not make longer ‘lungo’ type coffee from the machine, which don’t taste anywhere near as good.
I’ve had my coffee machine Magnifica for a week and finally found a good setting for my taste buds. I do buy the fresh beans and I also mix, just just to experiment so to find my perfect blend. So the machine itself is for me very easy to use and set up. The quality is what you should expect, for the price. It dose a job that it’s supposed to so I had no complaints until I bought some water tank filters, and unfortunately the filters are fairly big so take up water space in the tank which is noticeable when the tank needs filling more regularly, but it’s a small price to pay if you are keeping the machine internally clean and hopefully a longer life of the machine. I’m very pleased whith my decision to buy the Magnifica S and fingers crossed it will last until I get bored and want a more expensive machine.
This was my Christmas present to myself when I saw it’d been reduced on Black Friday as I’d wanted a proper coffee machine for a long time – not a pod thing – a really proper grown up coffee machine! I read a lot of reviews before choosing this model which seemed to have everything I wanted which was for it to be able to grind beans itself and from there produce a variety of coffees. And that means making the changes myself by having more or less coffee, adding milk, froth, etc. This isn’t a machine that’ll give you ready made Latte for example, you need to put in the effort yourself but it’s well worth it for a genuinely tasty and satisfying drink. It froths soya and almond milk easily for Cappuccino et al as well so if you’re a non-dairy person that’s handy. I would think it will froth most liquids to be honest although I’ve only tried the two above and cow’s milk.
It’s proving easy to clean too, it tells you when it wants water filling, grounds emptying etc but note that nothing is dishwasher safe. Not a problem for me as I’d like to take care of it rather than subject it to the ferocity of a dishwasher!
A quick rundown on making a coffee – it takes getting to know your machine. Don’t assume you’ll get something amazing from the first serving but be patient! You have to give it a few runs to get it up to spec and then you have several factors to get the drink you want:
– the strength/intensity/amount of coffee
– the amount of water you use in relation to it
– the size of the ground coffee pieces
– the coffee beans and roast you choose
… so you can see there are a lot of variations you can get from simply beans and water! And what a bonus to have those variations. It means I can cater to any taste at all rather than be limited to whatever the pod machine manufacturer thinks is the average request. Thats not for me – I’m not average!!
It’s taken me about 20 cups to find my personal favourite but now I’m there it’s pure bliss to simply switch the machine on and wait for it to do its magic each morning. From this base I can make variations to the serving for myself and others very easily.
It’s a pricey machine but you do get what you pay for and looked after properly it should last for years so could well end up being more economical than a cheaper machine. If you can get it on an offer like I did then all the better! It’s quite large but you’d expect that from a quality machine with the amount of stuff it has in it. Finally a note for DeLonghi – UK drinkers tend to drink coffee from mugs not cups (even espresso sometimes) and my one small gripe is that I can only just fit my mug under the spouts… can you make a slightly higher (.5cm) spout level in time for my next machine please?!!! 😉
This was my Christmas present to myself when I saw it’d been reduced on Black Friday as I’d wanted a proper coffee machine for a long time – not a pod thing – a really proper grown up coffee machine! I read a lot of reviews before choosing this model which seemed to have everything I wanted which was for it to be able to grind beans itself and from there produce a variety of coffees. And that means making the changes myself by having more or less coffee, adding milk, froth, etc. This isn’t a machine that’ll give you ready made Latte for example, you need to put in the effort yourself but it’s well worth it for a genuinely tasty and satisfying drink. It froths soya and almond milk easily for Cappuccino et al as well so if you’re a non-dairy person that’s handy. I would think it will froth most liquids to be honest although I’ve only tried the two above and cow’s milk.
It’s proving easy to clean too, it tells you when it wants water filling, grounds emptying etc but note that nothing is dishwasher safe. Not a problem for me as I’d like to take care of it rather than subject it to the ferocity of a dishwasher!
A quick rundown on making a coffee – it takes getting to know your machine. Don’t assume you’ll get something amazing from the first serving but be patient! You have to give it a few runs to get it up to spec and then you have several factors to get the drink you want:
– the strength/intensity/amount of coffee
– the amount of water you use in relation to it
– the size of the ground coffee pieces
– the coffee beans and roast you choose
… so you can see there are a lot of variations you can get from simply beans and water! And what a bonus to have those variations. It means I can cater to any taste at all rather than be limited to whatever the pod machine manufacturer thinks is the average request. Thats not for me – I’m not average!!
It’s taken me about 20 cups to find my personal favourite but now I’m there it’s pure bliss to simply switch the machine on and wait for it to do its magic each morning. From this base I can make variations to the serving for myself and others very easily.
It’s a pricey machine but you do get what you pay for and looked after properly it should last for years so could well end up being more economical than a cheaper machine. If you can get it on an offer like I did then all the better! It’s quite large but you’d expect that from a quality machine with the amount of stuff it has in it. Finally a note for DeLonghi – UK drinkers tend to drink coffee from mugs not cups (even espresso sometimes) and my one small gripe is that I can only just fit my mug under the spouts… can you make a slightly higher (.5cm) spout level in time for my next machine please?!!! 😉
I don’t think I’ve had to descale the machine more that twice a year, and I give the inside a good brushing out every couple of months to remove any coffee grinds that may have escaped the collection box. Be aware that the machine is a bit large and will occupy more that half of the depth of a standard worktop. I was able to push it into a corner on my worktop (space which was otherwise rather awkward to use) and it works quite well there without getting in my way. I quite like that I can buy bags of coffee beans which make numerous cups of coffee, as it seems much more environmentally friendly that opening a single-serving plastic or foil packet for each cup as in many coffee makers currently on the market. Thankfully I haven’t had any problems with this machine at all, so I would quite happily recommend it.
Some additional info: I’ve been using Coffee Masters Triple Certified, Organic, Fairtrade, Arabica Coffee Beans for the last year or so, and I’ve been quite happy with this coffee.
I adore fresh coffee, I get a real craving for it and I get fulfillment at the press of a button. A whole sealed bean holds its flavour and freshness far better than any ready ground so beans to cup is the only way to go if you don’t want to be messing about grinding your own beans and you can guarantee the beans are ground to the right size, tamped down and water at the right temperature for a perfect result. I have followed the suggestion of other reviewers and use bottled spring water in the reservoir to reduce scaling and ensure that my espressos are not in any way tainted. I know this is a budget machine but for me it is almost perfect, looks good albeit being plastic and at the price I can easily live with that.Very easy to use and adjust water and coffee strength by just turning the appropriate knobs, setting it up to your requirements is also very straight forward. this is my first beans to cup machine so I haven’t anything to compare it with but suffice it to say I am completely satisfied with it, it does everything I want and I’m really looking forward to trying different beans. So now to the “almost perfect” bit, the steam wand is quite small so even when it is folded out it is difficult to see the milk in the jug when steaming, the nozzle is a bit too close to the body of the machine and the wand is rigid, a flexible section in the tube would help. Some criticism was made of the length of time you had to wait after steaming before the temperature dropped so you could brew your coffee, some said up to 10 minutes but if you turn off the steam generation and open the tap and let all of the residual steam out it’s seconds. Only other thing I would have liked is a leaflet telling how to make the different types of coffee, cappuccino, latte, flat white etc etc. There is some guidance information on the web site but it’s not that comprehensive. Still there’s plenty of videos on YouTube and the difference seems all to be in the preparation of the milk and you have to practice to get it right.
I adore fresh coffee, I get a real craving for it and I get fulfillment at the press of a button. A whole sealed bean holds its flavour and freshness far better than any ready ground so beans to cup is the only way to go if you don’t want to be messing about grinding your own beans and you can guarantee the beans are ground to the right size, tamped down and water at the right temperature for a perfect result. I have followed the suggestion of other reviewers and use bottled spring water in the reservoir to reduce scaling and ensure that my espressos are not in any way tainted. I know this is a budget machine but for me it is almost perfect, looks good albeit being plastic and at the price I can easily live with that.Very easy to use and adjust water and coffee strength by just turning the appropriate knobs, setting it up to your requirements is also very straight forward. this is my first beans to cup machine so I haven’t anything to compare it with but suffice it to say I am completely satisfied with it, it does everything I want and I’m really looking forward to trying different beans. So now to the “almost perfect” bit, the steam wand is quite small so even when it is folded out it is difficult to see the milk in the jug when steaming, the nozzle is a bit too close to the body of the machine and the wand is rigid, a flexible section in the tube would help. Some criticism was made of the length of time you had to wait after steaming before the temperature dropped so you could brew your coffee, some said up to 10 minutes but if you turn off the steam generation and open the tap and let all of the residual steam out it’s seconds. Only other thing I would have liked is a leaflet telling how to make the different types of coffee, cappuccino, latte, flat white etc etc. There is some guidance information on the web site but it’s not that comprehensive. Still there’s plenty of videos on YouTube and the difference seems all to be in the preparation of the milk and you have to practice to get it right.
I have had this machine for the last few months and it had been an ease and a pleasure to use. I generally use this when I’m working from home a couple times a day and have had no real problems so far.
Using this to make cappuccinos for my father has been fun. You can take off the milk pipe and rinse with water to clean. However there is quite a significant delay when trying to make another coffee after using the milk frother. I’ve heard there are hacks to speed this up, but unless you’re making many cups, it’s not that bit a deal.
It’s a bit hit and miss trying to find the perfect amount of coffee in terms of size and strength but by tweaking the dials you’ll eventually get there (do take a picture of your settings, my sister decided to mess around with mine so I had to retry).
Positives:
Easy to use
Easy to clean
Coffee grounds are easy to dispose of
Makes a damn good cup of coffee
Negatives:
Steam generator/milk frothier takes a bit of time to start and then to go back to ‘coffee mode’
All in all, this is a fantastic bean to cup machine and you’d be hard pressed to find one at this price that’s better.
Since my Nespresso machine died, I wanted to move away from the disposable pods and get a bean to cup machine. Didn’t want to spend a crazy amount so went for this. It handles beans as well as pre-ground coffee so seemed like an ideal starter machine.
Follow the instructions to setup the water hardness and grind and the rest is pretty straightforward. Takes a few attempts to dial in the settings to the way you like it but only needs to be done once assuming you use the same bean all the time and no one plays with the settings. A front loading water tank also means you can put it directly next to a fridge or cabinet without worrying about access issues, which is good for me as my kitchen is rather small and the flexibility on where it can go is useful. Especially since these machines are naturally much larger than any pod machine.
It has a cup warmer hot-plate on top that I’ve never used and takes roughly a minute to warm up before ready to make the first coffee. I turn it on when I wake up, get dressed, and it’s ready to go. The machine is quite loud with the grinding and popping of the infuser but that’s to be expected. Closing just the kitchen door is enough to avoid waking my girlfriend in the mornings.
Can make one cup or two cups simultaneously with an even amount of coffee coming out of each nozzle, which not every bean to cup machine manages to do. It does not completely fill one mug however, if you push the button again within 3 seconds of it finishing the initial pour, it will dispense more water without grinding more coffee until you release the button or you can top up with hot water from the steam lance. I just boil the kettle though as it’s faster and requires less attention.
It has multiple warning lights telling you when it’s out of water, requires cleaning, or when the used coffee needs emptied. Cleaning is simple as putting a sachet in the water tank and pressing a button. I live in a soft water area so haven’t had the cleaning light come on yet but I’ve tried it without the sachet just to test it out. Takes a while but doesn’t require any interaction once started.
The steam lance is another of those features that I don’t really use. Tried it once and it works well but a little annoying to clean. You can also get hot water for tea out the steam lance but it’s a slow stream so boiling the kettle would again be faster.
I only found two complaints after nearly a month of daily use, with only one that bothers me. First is the water tank is a little small so needs refilled weekly. This is made worse by the fact that when you turn it on, a little hot water comes out the nozzle and another squirt when you turn it off. Presumably to warm the nozzles and clean them afterwards. While this has a functional purpose, it means the tank empties a little quicker and the drip tray fills faster unless you keep a cup under it when turning on or off, which is easily done. As it serves a purpose and results in the water being always relatively fresh as you need to fill it weekly, I can live with that.
The second is that for a decent strength cup of coffee, I find it quite high on coffee consumption. One bag lasted me around 40 cups, which is higher than I expected. I’m going to play with the settings a little more and keep count of how many cups I get out the next bag to figure it out.
After much careful research I eventually ended up following numerous good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere and purchased the De’Longhi ESAM 4200S and have not been disappointed; the order was quickly fulfilled and arrived well packaged and undamaged.
As recommended, I carefully studied the owner’s manual before firing it up for the first cup of real coffee – this turned out to be a simple exercise albeit a little lengthy but definitely worthwhile. It’s also worth noting that the machine takes a little while to ‘run in’ and the initial brews can be disappointing but don’t let that put you off – it soon improves to the point where you get a deliciously authentic coffee with a lovely crema.
Cleaning and maintenance is also pretty simple; I’ve found that a 1″ paintbrush helps to remove the loose ground coffee from the deeper recesses of its’ innards otherwise a wipe around with a damp micropore cloth does the trick. I particularly like the facility to adjust the length and strength of the coffee which of course varies according to personal taste (and the beans being used). The milk steamer adds the means of making latte, cappuccino or even a cup of tea and works very well!
If you are on the lookout for a good looking bean to cup coffee maker that will neatly fit on your kitchen work surface under a cupboard and you don’t want to invest too much money – I can really recommend this product!
Exactly Remember initial setup!! I initially though my machine was faulty as the 3 top light were permanently flashing and the machine was not working…and it took me almost a full day to figure out what to do. I contacted De Longhi UK via chat and they had no idea what to do and provided me with De Remember initial setup!! support phone number. I called them and they were able to fix my machine in 2 minutes by guiding me through the initial set up: a combination of the steam know and some other things…was quite laborious and cannot remember the exact steps. When I got really excited that the machine started to work and thanked the guys so much…he appeared to be a little annoyed and it really felt like he is getting dozens of calls a day for the exact same issue…..as he was saying…I know I know, it’s just workign as designed, it says in the instructions…
Before contacting De Longhi I contacted Amazon which were aso a bit puzzled about this issue of the 3 flashing lights which are described in the De Longhi manual , but the solution to fix this issue does not work. The phone support told me that the initial setup I wrnt through appears somewhere in their manual….I didn’t bother to check after I spent almost a full day contacting amazon and De Longhi Support just to get my machine set up for the 1st time…but I was honestly about to send it back. I’m realy surprised that De Longhi does not bother to highlight this initial setup on their manual….or even by attaching a separate sheet to the box that says…before you can use your machine you need to do this ONE TIME SETUP!! It’s just ended up wasting a lot of Amazon valuable time since I contacted them and they tried everything in their power to help me with this and also a waste of De Longhi support….Plus I was really surprised that the agent in the chat was not aware of this 1st time set up procedure…but when I explained that I had 3 flashing lights I was told that they were not techincal and to call the UK support….Overall I’m still delighted with the quality of the machine and especially of the coffe and being Italian when it comes to cofee….I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!! 😉 LOL
It makes really great espresso. I tend not to use the milk frother as I prefer to use a plunger type milk frother. I use a Bodum milk frother jug. That is just my preference and I know a lot of people do use the built-in milk frother and are happy with it.
This machine produces espresso with a lovely velvety creme. The machine is easy to keep clean and easy to use. To descale I used to use the delonghi descaling solution for the first couple of years but now I just use some diluted citric acid which is a lot cheaper.
As I mentioned, I have had this machine for nearly six years. We use it to make around four espressos per day.
About a year ago the quality of the espresso had fallen and used coffee grounds started to make a bit of a mess inside the machine. I discovered online that replacing 3 O’ Rings and lubricating the piston inside the brew unit would solve this. I bought the O’ Rings with food safe lubricant on ebay for 7.50 and it took about 5 minutes to change them. It was not difficult to do. After I did that the machine started performing as new again.
This machine has worked really well for us over the years. If I was to replace it I would probably go a step up into Delonghi’s premium range with fully automatic milk frothing capabilities. However, for a budget machine I think this is probably the best around.
I totally recommend this product for the coffee lovers.
Anyway – this arrived quickly – sooner than expected actually, and was very straightforward to set up. Then it’s just a case of running it a few times to get things set up how you like them. This is all also really straightforward. We’ve now got it set to pump out coffees just right and it’s fantastic! It’s easy, so much less hassle than the traditional espresso machine. We drink lattes and the milk frother on this is great too. It helps to know how to use a milk frother to get the best results – but there’s plenty of info on youtube about that if you’re not sure. Probably the only criticism I would make is the steam wand doesn’t sit out from the body of the machine far enough. It’s manageable, but would be better with a bit more distance to work with. As others have said there is a cool down period after using the steam but if you run water/steam through the wand after switching it off that mode it cools down much quicker.
I’m now looking forward to trying out different beans to see the difference in flavours. We’ve only had this a month so far and I really hope this machine lasts – assuming it does I would highly recommend it. It makes great coffee and is really straightforward, without having to resort to single use packaging for every cup of coffee you drink.
Would advise using beans rather than ground coffee, it make more of a mess on the inside of the machine. The beans are ground well and there is an excellent crema and adjustable or your perfect strength. Steam wand is good for frothy coffees! All in all great buy, I wonder how long it will last as we drink coffee a lot in our house and there’s no going back to the old kettle now!
Some of the great points about this machine include:
You save money, and the environment, by just buying beans, as opposed to the silly little pods that many machines use and, when using beans, there’s no mess – the ground coffee is formed into little cakes inside the machine that you simply tip them, from their container, into the bin.
If you happen to run out of beans (because for some reason most shops seem to stock mostly ground) you can operate the machine with ground coffee also. With either option, you have complete control over the quantity and strength of the coffee you produce via the settings on the front. Plus, as far as domestic machines go, the steamer is pretty strong, so you don’t have to stand there waiting ages for your milk.
The inside is easy to access (just flips open) and easy to clean – the drip tray, coffee ground collector, water tank and even the main coffee machine mechanism inside all come out easy so you can keep everything clean. The machine also tells you – via a light – when the inside bits (water tray and coffee ground collector) need emptying. It also needs descaling once in a while but it has a handy light that flashes when this is due and the process is really easy and the descaler is easy to find and inexpensive.
And, as I discovered this week, spare parts for this machine are easy to find and non-expensive. Have been used, pretty much every day, for so long, the steam knob on my machine snapped on the inside and came off. Within 3 days I had replaced it with an identical new one, for less than 10, including packaging.
The first machine i purchased seemed to have the coffee grinder jammed – so it was returned – anyone can have an occasionally faulty item. New replacement machine arrived 3 days later and this time the 2 coffee indicators kept flashing and never went continuous and so the water was not heating up, Also the hot plate for cups remains cold. I will have to return this unit also and then give up on de Longhi. Previously I have had an old fashioned ground coffee de longhi espresso which is OK and a fully automatic Jura bean to cup but this proved too expensive to get serviced – they wanted about 400 to service and fix the Jura machine. I had hope the De Longhi was more economic to buy and run. They do not have quality control sorted out. The design looks look – looking at the interior it is relatively simple and well made product but 2″ dead on arrival” machines is unacceptable.
I spoke again to the manufacturer’s customer support and the guy was very helpful – he commented that even though it is not mentioned in their instructions there can be a problem “priming” the boiler. To fix this you run the frother discharge for up to half a tank of water and suddenly the boiler gets filled with water and the machine starts to warm up and the lights stop flashing. This fixed the problem on the 2nd machine and it has been working perfectly ever since. This problem is not identified in their web site Frequent Questions or in any instructions that I could find.
i am updating my review after having used it for a month – it has worked perfectly – it is efficient and produces a great cup of coffee.
It ended up being a bit of an impulse purchase but I love a well drawn cup of coffee. First impressions are that it’s well built. Yes it’s made of plastic but the plastic is solid and this machine is only 230! The manual needs proper reading through though. It has some quirks so it’s worth getting to know the machine thoroughly before drawing in a crowd to show them you barista skills!
The coffee can take a while to draw if the settings are slightly out (fine bean grind/increased coffee amount) but the crema is superb…as good as any coffee shop! My biggest gripe with it would be that you can’t froth the milk whilst the coffee is drawing. It’s not really a problem but would speed up the process.
Having read through some of the reviews and other online bits, there are a couple of tips I’d recommend:
1. warm the cups first and then turn on the machine while they are warming. The machine does a flush cycle so I use a cup to do this else you’ll have to clean the machine very regularly. Bring the coffee nozzle as low as it will go.
2. to achieve a more flat-white strength in the coffee, I tend to have the liquid amount (left knob) at about 9 o’clock and then press the 2 cup button but into one cup. It gives a nice thick crema and about the right amount of liquid.
3. having experimented with the frother, I have found it best to take the nozzle off completely. There is another review mentioning blocking the hole but I couldn’t get this at all. Taking the nozzle off and just keeping it in the top of the milk, tipping the jug to create swirl produces a nice flat white style silky foam.
4. make sure you purge the frother both before and after steaming to release any water stuck in the system.
All in all, a superb machine for the price point. Our coffee consumption has increased admittedly but it’s worth it and the ritual has become a lot of fun!
It is a sleek design that does not show dirt and matches most of my stainless steel stuff in the kitchen without actually being made of it. The drip tray is very roomy and so you can empty it at the same time as the container for spent beans, so no mess/trouble there! ALso ectremely easy to fill with water as the tank is front loading.
Beware however if you put the thing under kitchen cupboards it will be tight (although shouldn’t be impossible if they are the usual hight) to fill the bean compartment as it opens at the top.
The only future improvement that I can think of is that this machine does not alert you to lack of beans in the compartment and so it will make a nasty noise and proceed to make a watery brew rather than refuse to work until you refill. But it is an extremely small point.
I’ve had this machine now for 4 years and it’s still going strong, making fantastic coffee. Seriously, I did a barista course recently, using top of the range professional machines used in retail coffee outlets and this machine just about rivals the coffee from those, except with much less hassle, fuss and maintenance. One thing I have noticed is that the machine doesn’t produce a very thick layer of crema, but the coffee is still good nonetheless. After the course, I was keen to buy a professional machine, but after coming home and having coffee from this one, I don’t think it’s worth the extra expenditure.
I recently moved house and after moving the machine to my new kitchen, was disappointed that it had stopped working. It seemed to start up as usual, but when at the first rinse, started making a horrible noise, a prolonged high pitched electronic buzz, as if the pump was malfunctioning. I easily opened the machine by removing the screws on the casing and this revealed the mechanism. On starting the machine again, this seemed to confirm that the noise was coming from the water pump. Luckily, the model number was on the side: Ulka EP5 Vibration Pump and I was delighted to discover that Amazon supply this pump for around 15 from a third party seller.
I bought it, in the hope that it would restore life to my valued machine. Fitting the pump was not difficult. A bit fiddly to get the old pump out of the housing, but all the electrical connections were not soldered, but little replaceable clips. After full installation, started the machine and, to my delight, it was working perfectly again. And has been producing great coffee ever since; as good as new!
(Note: please read the instructions supplied with the pump as failing to prime it properly can damage the boilers in the machine)
Update Dec 2018
I’ve now had this machine for 7 years. Still making great coffee, as good as on day 1! Couldn’t live without it.
Tip: to make cleaning even easier, I add a drop of washing up liquid to the drip tray and the bottom of the little waste bin after I empty it, before I place it back in the machine.
It’s almost silly calling it an entry level machine as it’s probably the best home coffee I’ve ever made.
Anyway, what I wanted to add was the settings for this machine. Firstly it’s very configurable so you are free to extract coffee how it pleases you. I would recommend certain settings.
You should aim for a 20 second extraction on a double shot which should give about 60ml of coffee. I use lavazza beans and I have adjusted the grind from the default of 6 to 4.5. This gives a creamier fuller flavour and you should look to achieve a 20sec flow on a double shot.
The aim is not to put too much water through the grind. Quality flavour not quantity.
The coffee amount (left knob) is set to about 30% ish and the strength (right knob) about 70%. With a grind of 4.5 this produces a lovely home made double espresso. People often make the mistake of whacking the strength up to 100% to overcompensate for a water content set too high and a watery coffee. Common for Americano drinkers.
Perfect on its own using those settings for an espresso.
If you want an Americano fill a standard cup just under half full from the steam wand but do not press the steam button. Wait for the espresso lights to stop flashing (solid light indicates the water is hot) before turning the steam/hot water knob. Then after laying the water base for the Americano add your double espresso.
Latte is super easy too. 1 shot espresso same settings, then use a stainless steel jug half full to froth the milk. For latte submerge the wand fully to bottom of the jug, gradually moving up through the milk.
Cappuccino much the same but either put 1 shot in but up the coffee strength or easier put in 2 shots but when frothing the milk don’t push the wand all the way to the bottom, vary it a bit for a bit more froth.
4 classic drinks so simple with this great machine and good beans and less mess than a convenient aero press.
Still love our machine & still going strong after 8 years of daily use.
Regularly descale & have used white vinegar mixed with water instead of delonghi descaler – worked a treat.
Only issue it has now is it sometimes says coffee collector is full & needs emptying when half full. Empty the coffee ground collector & the light stops flashing. After 8 years I think I can live with this intermittent issue!
Looked at getting a newer model, but thought why? This works perfectly. Bought it for 253 in 2012 and it’s been worth every penny!
Oct 2012 original review:
Love my coffee machine. We have used this in Indonesia when we lived there & now three years after returning to UK it’s still going strong. Good coffee beans are more expensive here, but the machine still makes a mean cup of coffee. It has never let me down, has never broken – despite our relocation & move.
The children sometimes just froth up milk for their hot chocolates – they love it too. I have large cups, small cups and even a tall Denby cappucino mug – all fit under the adjustable spout.
I regularly descale it using delonghi descaler, maybe twice a year, three times at most. But we live in a hard water area. Having said that a litmus test is included so you can guage the hardness of your water so you can set the water hardness accordingly.
Only thing to remember – make & grind all the coffee’s first before frothing the milk – otherwise you’ll have to wait for the machine to heat up in between. If you do the frothing at the end, your coffee will be made really quickly.
Also, another tip, when I turn on the machine, I pop one of the cups I’m going to use under the spout. The hot water dispersing from the spout warms the first cup, whcih I pour into the second cup before throwing away – hot water warms up the cups
Final tip, use a stainless steel milk jug & keep it in the fridge so it’s really cold when you pour the milk in. Perfect frothy milk each time
Just as an update: The smelly water I talked about was just because I hadn’t washed out the water tank properly each time because I wasn’t sure if the top came off it, I had been trying to clean it through the hole in the top! One day however I just put the tank in a bowl of washing up water and the lid came off in the water – really easily, I felt a bit silly that it was so easy, but at least I don’t get smelly water (and therefore coffee) anymore! To remove the lid of the water tank easily, just put your fingers through the hole in the top and lift off.
Update 2: See comments – you can make more than 1 frothy coffee at a time; you just press the steam button so that it is off and let some steam out of the spout and the machine is ready to make more coffee in under a minute!
We bought this coffee maker after visiting friends who had a much more expensive brand. We loved the idea of having a Bean-to-Cup coffee maker in the house but did not want to pay the 700 that our friends paid.
I came home and did my usual search on Amazon for a coffee maker and up pops this jewel. I could not believe the price and after reading all the review we thought this must be worth a try. Placed the order and unfortunately they were out of stock but we wanted it bad enough we said we would wait. Two months later the coffee maker arrived. The packaging from Amazon is always outstanding and this one was no different.
After opening the boxes and unpacking it looks really smart in the kitchen. You have adjustments for the size of coffee you want and how strong you like it. There is a steamer for heating and foaming the milk just like a coffee shop. If you have someone in the house that does not want the coffee you have you can always make a cup of instant coffee with this machine as well.
The large water container is better that others I have seen which is really good.
The inside grinder part comes out easily for cleaning and the drip tray removes for cleaning and is dishwasher safe.
We have had this maker for 3 1/2 years now with very little problems. You do have to watch the insides as the coffee grounds can build up and over flow during the grinding process and collect at the bottom of the coffee maker but this is easily cleaned.
All our friends and family love this coffee maker and say the coffee is amazing. We will definitely buy another when this one stops working (nothing last forever).
There are two annoying features. 1. Coffee initially not hot enough and the instructions only give you ‘tips’ towards making it hotter. I don’t want tips. I want settings. I found out later that there are settings by the way for increasing temperature of the hot water not disclosed in my version of the manual. WHY De’longhi!?
With the machine in standby/off mode > You press and hold the One cup button until the row of lights come on below you should see the default 2 lights show > Press the two cup button repeatedly to select your desired setting out of a possible 4 settings > Press the 1 cup button again to save your setting > machine goes back to ‘off’.
Message to De’longhi: Not the best design of temperature selection, it should be a dial.
I hope the above helps
2. Every time the machine decides to switch itself off after use it spouts water into the tray, I have to clean it out…This is fine, I like the fact that machine cleans itself. But emptying out the tray is annoying. My current solution is to leave a cup under the spout to collect the waste water. The cup is easier to drain and clean than the tray.
The milk steam frother is amazing. I make hot chocolate milk with it. Fill the mug half way with semi-skimmed milk >add desired cocoa powder> then steam until the foam reaches the top of the mug. Admittedly its not a full mug of hot chocolate, despite appearances, but it tastes really good. Make sure you clean the steamer spout thoroughly after this. It comes off so rinse under the tap and reinsert.
After three years with an 80 delonghi semi-auto machine, I fancied an upgrade.
I had discovered that pre-ground coffee is all basically stale and that to get really good espresso you should grind your beans fresh.
I also learned that my machine was creating fake crema by forcing the coffee through a tiny hole under pressure, thus frothing it up and giving the appearance of crema rather than the real thing.
So I was thinking about buying a Gaggia Classic and an Iberital grinder but two things put me off this: firstly the outlay would be over 300 which seemed a bit much to spend and secondly I couldn’t be sure I could be bothered to wait for the Gaggia to heat up and spend time and effort grinding and weighing grounds, tamping to 30lb of pressure, flushing the machine, extracting and then cleaning everything out for a second espresso – especially first thing in the morning when I’m half asleep and in a rush. Not to mention the messy coffee grounds everywhere and all the room this equipment would take up.
Anyway I bought this after reading the favourable reviews, despite being slightly put off by the people going on about liking ‘a big mug of coffie’ (sic). I am interested in good espresso and was finally tipped over the edge by the interesting blog on Londinium Espresso which was written by an espresso expert and said bean-to-cups could be nearly as successful as a barista at giving you a great espresso.
After my first few tries with this machine I was slightly disappointed, but by tweaking the controls and the grinder I’m now able to make an espresso that’s a million times better than my previous machine’s efforts and better I think than Costa, Nero etc.
I use Volvic water to keep the scale down, get freshly roasted Italian roast beans online, set the coffee strength to maximum, drink size knob to just under 9 o’clock, heat on highest setting and the grinder set to a shade under 3.
This gives me either a single espresso or a double depending on whether I select the one or two cup button.
And the espresso is out of this world with a rich, creamy crema that clings to the side of the cup and stays around to the end.
Thoroughly recommended.
This unit is smaller and more compact, which is a definite plus for a kitchen machine. This does come at a cost however – the discarded puck hopper and the water tank are both smaller than I’d like. It’s also mandatory to remove the water tank to fill it which isn’t the case with my other two automatics which could both be jug filled. I think I’ll be replacing those seals before too long.
As with a lot of automatics the coffee isn’t really hot enough for many. It does a rinse on start up and shutdown which means you’re pulling the water tank a lot to fill it. The delivery volume is a pain, as it doesn’t quite pour a long enough coffee for me. There is a useful undocumented feature that allows you to top up your coffee – you just press and hold the coffee delivery button within three seconds of the initial coffee delivery finishing. That does mean you have to stand over the machine whilst it makes your coffee though.
The case and finish of the materials and buttons is cheap, which is a real shame as it does let the product down. Still, if handsome is as handsome does then it does make great tasting coffee.
If you’ve not had an automatic before then you won’t be disappointed. If you’re migrating from a different machine then it might not be everything you expect. On the whole though, it’s an honest product that does a good job.