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 thoroughly enjoy my coffee making now. It adds to the pleasure of drinking the coffee.

Coffee flavour and milk frother perfect, design excellent, reliability excellent. Owned mine 5 months as of April 2019. Used everyday, never a hitch, easy and simple to use. More than halved my coffee costs compared to my coffee pod machines and the flavour / texture is better. What’s not to love.

Tracked the price over a 12 months before purchase, found price was regularly 179.99, often 249.99 and occasionally 349.99. If you want the cheaper price, just wait a few weeks. Noticed Argos mirror the price almost to the hour.

Great product, makes awesome coffee. Easy and quick to use. Makes a perfect coffee to take on my journey to work every morning. You can use coffee beans or freshly ground coffee.

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!

I like good coffee. I don’t know much about making it though so when I looked around for a machine I wanted something simple to use but with consistent ratings. And cheap. No 1000 all singing all dancing knobs and levers chrome thing. I also didn’t want a pod machine as that seems a very poor environmental choice. Having dug around on internet awhile I noted this machine consistently hit the top ten machine to buy lists. So I took the plunge and bought it.

It does exactly what it says. Put the beans in the top, decide how strong you want your coffee and how much of it and press a button. Click, grind, snap, whirr etc, out comes very nice coffee. Is is noisy like some of the reviews say? Not having had a machine before I have nothing to compare it to but it hasn’t unduly disturbed anyone in the household. In a small kitchen in a small flat with neighbours all round, maybe it would be more intrusive.

Is it slow to use? Not really. It takes a minute or two to come to life, does an auto flush with hot water and then it’s ready for your coffee order.

You can also adjust the grind from fine to coarse, as you wish. And the water temp can be adjusted, ditto you can adjust for water softness/hardness. Read the instructions before you start using it so you get the set up right. If you don’t have a user manual in the box it is easily available online.

Depending on how much you use it you will be topping up coffee beans and water and emptying grounds every day/every other day. Keep a mug under the outlet when not in use so it catches the water from the auto flush through and saves the drip tray constantly filling.

The water reservoir will need a proper wash out once a week, ditto the grounds container and the drip tray.

It hasn’t asked for a descale yet, or any other maintenance.

I haven’t tried the steam wand yet.

Full marks it is the best machine that I have bought . It even warms up by itself.

I love, love love this machine. It’s the second one I’ve bought. First one only lasted just under three years but still worth it, saved me a fortune in takeaway lattes and cappuccinos!

Great bean to cup machine. Very happy and no longer have plastic waste from my morning coffee.

Turned me into a coffee freak. Even removing the internals for the monthly clean is easy. Uses a lot of water though as it cycles pre and post coffee making. Once you’ve set the grinder to suit your taste it’s magic!

I bought my Delonghi ESAM4200 in November 2012 and at the time of writing this review it is still working really well.

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 love this coffee machine, restaurant quality coffee every time, I managed to get it under two hundred during Black Friday too so got a bargain, I’m a little wired on caffeine lately as it’s so nice I just end up having a few too many! Simple to use sand as I live In Cornwall with soft water I never really have to de-scale it unlike the northern water I grew up with, it’s a case of reading the instructions, i personally don’t like doing it, but there’s a little bit of setting up and a few buttons you need to learn, the machine does tell you when the water is empty or the coffee collector is full etc so it’s very clever, we use beans but you can use ground coffee, it also streams milk but I use cold most the time

I love this coffee machine, restaurant quality coffee every time, I managed to get it under two hundred during Black Friday too so got a bargain, I’m a little wired on caffeine lately as it’s so nice I just end up having a few too many! Simple to use sand as I live In Cornwall with soft water I never really have to de-scale it unlike the northern water I grew up with, it’s a case of reading the instructions, i personally don’t like doing it, but there’s a little bit of setting up and a few buttons you need to learn, the machine does tell you when the water is empty or the coffee collector is full etc so it’s very clever, we use beans but you can use ground coffee, it also streams milk but I use cold most the time

Fabulous machine. Takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it’s great. Easy to clean and maintain. Use some good quality coffee beans and you’re in for a great cup of coffee. Highly recommended.

I have had this machine just a few days but have to say it is producing excellent coffee. The instructions for setting it up are very clear and easy to understand.as for the noise well I doubt any bean to cup machine is silent and I do not find the noise level offensive. If I have one small issue it would be the small size of the water container but it is easy to refill being on the side of the machine and it does mean that fresh water is usually therein. So it’s plastic that’s no problem it is quite heavy and if it was steel many would struggle to lift it it’s whats in the machine that matters. I have set my machine to auto off after 30 minutes but that’s easy to change for shorter or longer periods. I have not had it on long enough to feel a result from the cup warmer but here is a tip. When the machine is turned on and it goes through it’s checks it dispenses a quantity of hot water, so I have my cup under the dispensing heads instead of allowing the water to go into the drip tray. Result hot cup tip water down sink back under dispenser make coffee. After making coffee I put another cup under the dispenser as when the machine shuts down it dumps a small amount of water when it cleans itself. I am working on the principal it’s easier to wash a cup than keep removing the drip tray. I watched this machine come down in price to a few pounds over 200 then bought I had forgotten I had a 50 voucher in my account from Christmas so it cost me even less. All in all yes there is some maitainece to be down from time to time but the result is well worth it. Just a small edit having read very many reviews where people criticise what they refer to as a ” cup warmer” they should read the instruction because it is merely a cup stand with no warming function. A week of ownership and still very impressed.

Bought this coffee machine for my wife and she loves it. Makes good coffee, isn’t too noisy and is easy to use.

I don’t think I could live without this coffee machine anymore. THe usually messy process of grinding, loading the machine, disposing of spent beans and rinsing the stuff out has been replaced by two buttons!!! I love it, especially in the morning when I’m half asleep.
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 now own this Machine for 15 months so now I believe its time to write a review on this product. I have been pouring about 8 cups of coffee a day from this machine for my wife and I. Its easy to use and its easy to clean. To be fair you need to put your coffee in a microwave for 30 seconds if you want it really hot. But I own a restaurant and recently I had to change a 5k euro machine to a 7k euro machine to get coffee as hot as I wanted. Basically in all coffee machine heating the water to almost boiling is the most expensive and most difficult requiring a seperate back boiler. And even if it has a back boiler to ensure consistent hot water in multiple cups at a time requires a bigger boiler and hence more money. The temperature is comparable to any machine in this category ie sub 1k. Its disappointing to read negative comments on cleaning this machine and coffee coming out cold. It only takes about 2 minutes every couple of weeks to keep the machine in a clean state, beside empting out the drip tray and grounds container. The grounds container holds about 10 cups before emptying.
Setting it up takes about 15 minutes. Instead of trying to learn all the warning lights just have the manual handy and as time goes buy you will know about the few times these come on. ie machine warning lights come on when water runs out or grounds container needs emptying. It does stop working every 3 months when descalling. This takes about 20 minutes but very little work as all you have to do is add the cleaning solution to the water tank and let it do its own thing. Milk products from the machine are great but it does take a bit of time to froth up the milk the old fashioned way. Overall at the price you will not get a better product out there for the money. I have had several commercial coffee machines over the years and the quality of coffee coming from this machine is as good if not better and you will not have to spend the extra 5k. On a final note the cost per cup for a large Americano ii about 1/3 of the cost of a nespresso machine. When you use 8 cups a day this equates to 2 euros a day approx. which is approx. 700 per year not to mention the fact you have the chance to try all different types of beans..

Absolutely delighted with my first bean to cup. Have until now had Gaggia, but too many problems. So easy to use and empty, switch on first thing in the morning, and then it is just one button to a delicious cup of coffee with excellent cream. Highly recommended

Updated Feb 2019… Its not often these day the same product you bought 6 years ago is still going, albeit with a bit of TLC recently.
It has given us thousands of cups of great cofffee. Over the years I have had to replace the frother knob 3 times as the middle code tends to split. No big problem there are at least 2 online companies that stock these at reasonable cost.
At Christmas though it did seem it was dying and we seriously thought of replacing it. The frother wouldn’t turn off properly and steam kept coming out – and more seriously we were getting only about 1/3 the amount of coffee that should have come.. I managed to download a parts diagram and suspected it COULD be the valve that controls the frother. Delighted to find the whole frother unit was less that 15. Not only that it is really easy to replace. I decided to replace some other parts as well (water filter, pump and a valve) All of them really easy to replace. Total cost about 68
My hunch was correct – it was the frother valve. Its working again a treat and should be good for several years yet. SO the underlying comment is that this is a coffee machine that has served really well, is relatively easy to repair, spares are readily available and reasonably priced. In our throw-away society this stands out as an exceptionally great product
Back to my original review
We have had this coffee maker since December 2012 now and it is still working great. On average we make 4 cups of coffee a day. We have to run a de-scaling operation about every 9 months (we have a water softener which helps)
Obviously everyone’s taste in coffee differers and different beans need differing settings both in the grind (fine- course), strength etc,
It takes a bit of experimenting to get it right but once it is right make a note of the settings.
Our favourite is the Kenya beans from Waitrose.
On the rare occasions when we buy coffee out my invariable question to the person offering the coffee is. “will this be as good as what I make at home?” !! Some occasions it is but often it is not.
So if you want a budget bean-coffee maker I can highly recommend this – and so far its proved reliable and more than paid for itself.

Bought one of these in early Dec 2014 and am writing this late Jan 2015 so 6 or so weeks of pretty intensive use. We have lived in Italy for the past four years so are used to proper cappucinos which are rare in the UK (and expensive out). Fair to say we have used for some years a manual expresso machine but lacked a grinder and were using pre-ground beans.
Build quality – externally this machines feels like a ink jet printer – so I imagine will benefit from being treated with some respect when opening and closing the cover, removing/replacing the water tank etc. Internally it sounds robust and the parts that need to be taken out and clean eg the filter, feel robust.
Ease of use – do read the manual. There are a number of display and warning lights which indicate what needs attending to eg coffee ground container needs emptying etc. Once mastered the machine is easy to use to make coffee, and 95% of the cappucinos we produce are far better then the ones bought out in UK coffee shops. Foaming milk is a doddle and the steamer works really well compared with other machines. Do take heed of the other reviewers who recommend googling or watching YouTube videos on frothing milk to perfect your technique. Also it does take a few attempts to get the bean grind setting correct, and it will vary if you change the beans you use and take a couple of uses after changing the grind setting for the full effects of the change to work through. All this is in the handbook. At under 300 (and when we bought it was nearer to 200) this machine leads on the price front. The next step up takes you to nearer 500 and while the casing of those machines may be better and the controls more automated, and the possibility that the machine will sort of froth the milk for you, I doubt the expresso is any better. And in my experience none of the fully automatic machine froth the milk really well as the foam is always too “open”. We would certainly buy this machine again based on experience so far, and if it stands the test of time will be highly delighted.

Since living in Italy for 3 years, I decided I had to have a way of making good quality espresso. I had a Gaggia bean to cup machine which was excellent, but sad to say it was not particularly robust and needed constant attention (how wonderfully Italian). After a little over 4 years, it gave up and would not be coaxed back into life. I spent a month on instant coffee or cafetiere coffee whilst researching an alternative. In Italy, De’Longhi had the reputation for being the poor man’s answer so I concentrated my research on Gaggia, but finding the Gaggia machines outside my budget, I had to look elsewhere. Finally I decided on the Magnifica, particularly as the pressure was 15 bar, equal to the closest Gaggia models, but also because it had an economy option. I really don’t like capuccino, so that wasn’t an important feature, but it’s a good to have for guests.

My opinion after a week of use is that it is a surprisingly good machine. If anything, the flavour, with the same beans is even better. Perhaps my old machine had been getting tired for a long time. The machine itself is sensibly and robustly built (much better than the Gaggia) and includes several really nice features, like the ground coffee spoon which is tucked neatly into the top of the machine under a coffee where the ground coffee is added (if required). The water container is really easy to remove and refill, and the drip tray and used coffee container are equally easy to remove, the used coffee container sitting inside the back of the drip tray.

It is quieter than the Gaggia, but slower. Having said that, it is worth waiting for.

In Italy, I would buy Italian blends, but the better ones are hard or impossible to find in the UK. I have shopped around in the UK to find beans in a flavour I like including expensive Italian blends that I could find, Portuguese blends (bought online and very expensive) and the ones in the UK supermarkets. My choice settled on and remains good old Sainsbury’s own continental style beans.