De'Longhi ESAM3300 Magnifica Super Automatic Espresso & Coffee Machine, Silver

Why did we buy it? Our purchase was based on wanting to improve our morning coffee without the mess of a dirty coffee pot and often wasted coffee, using harmful plastic capsules, or committing the time and effort needed to use a manual expresso machine. What do we love about it? We love everything about it. You simply set your grind preferences, turn it on and after its ready (maybe a minute?) you hit one button and your hot amazing expresso comes out! That's it! And it's very easy to clean and maintain as well. But we don't drink Expresso? Keep in mind, we are traditional coffee drinkers, but this makes wonderful coffee by simply adding your frothed milk to the expresso, and we enjoy adding a little sweetness too. I was surprised to find I'm using less sugar now because the coffee has no bitter taste. We were not even aware our old coffee was bitter until we got this new De'Longhi, and my husband has completely stopped adding sugar all together. What kinds of beans do we use? We use Lavazza Espresso Italiano Whole Bean Coffee Blend as several reviews suggested. The coffee that comes out of this machine with these beans is simply delicious, but sure you can use any quality coffee or expresso beans of preference. We also enjoy using this same brand of expresso beans too, both are excellent. What features are helpful? This automatic machine has smart and helpful light indicators to let you know when it needs water, beans or dumping of grinds so your coffee will never again stop pouring mid-stream. It's well designed and takes us only a few minutes to maintain each week. There are controls for grind preferences and strength. They made everything super easy, which is great because to put it kindly, I'm not technically inclined. Is frothing difficult? Since we are not baristas, and both drink regular coffee with creamer, we were happy that the steam spout is powerful and needs no fancy maneuvers to pile up a quick cup of hot creamy froth. Any Negatives? There is nothing hard or difficult about this machine, with the exception of leaving home, as it will be very 'hard' to pay for a pricey cup of Starbucks as you will find it 'difficult' to go without your wonderful morning coffee! How long do we expect this machine to last? Lastly, we researched different manufactures and discovered Delongi has been around over 200 years and they have shops all over the US that will help maintain your machine to last a lifetime. My sister has same Magnifico De'Longhi machine but a manual model she bought over 20 years ago and it's still going strong! Doubting new automatic machines will last as long as the manual ones (which I think with proper care will last a lifetime) but for the convenience of automation we will be happy to replace it after a decade or so. Imagine by then they will have "touchless" where you just talk to it and tell it what you want, and it will automatically put your cup under the spout and pour it out for you. Then in the not-too-distant future, a robot will bring it to you! (How lazy can we get?) Do I think it's worth the price? We purchased this machine used 'LIKE NEW', which we guessed was an unused return, and we saved half the retail price! When it came, you could tell it was Brand new/ never used, and it worked perfectly! If you'd like to save a small fortune like we did, I suggest you wait for Black Friday or search now for a similar 'like new' return. We knew Amazon would take it back if there were any issue in 30 days at no cost to us as prime members, so it was a 'low risk' for an inconvenience, to save over $600. Would I pay full price for it? Not if I could save a bundle like I did, but if I couldn't and if I could afford it retail, yes, in a heartbeat.

This is becoming a nice machine, but i had a very frustrating start with it. First I’d like to say, the difference in taste between good espresso machines and cheap ones is tremendous. I learned that when I bought my other delonghi, which was a manual one. It worked great, but obviously much less expensive and restricted to ground espresso only, I yearned for one with a grinder for each pour. I finally decided on this one. I will add though, that this machine is a MONSTER! It is nice, but much bigger than I expected it to be. It’s easy to learn your way around it. PROS: This machine is SO EASY to clean, use, and take care of! I love that about it. The front opens up and you pull out a little bin to empty every so many pours. It auto ejects the used grinds into this bin. The main device (idk what it’s called) also has little buttons u can push and pull the whole piece out to clean, and just pop it right back in. The convenience is amazing. Not only does it do whole beans(which is ideal) it can also use pre ground. The grinder works great. You can adjust it however, but only move the dial while the grinder is running. It heats up super quick and only requires the press of two buttons to brew. The cup warmer on top also works well, it’s does get pretty hot, but not enough to burn you. Borderline though lol It’s brews a great espresso. I personally use ILLY INTENSO which is the only brand I’ll buy, fabulous. I can taste the difference between my 200$ machine and this one. Definitely better. CONS: I have one gripe with this machine. I tried out different dial settings for the quantity of liquid and coffee. I found for me the notch right before halfway brews the ideal amount. However, the dial that adjusts how much coffee(potency) is used for the pour is lacking. I started off around halfway, and went up a couple notches each time. Ultimately I had to set it to max. EDIT: 1/1/2024 I have had this machine for a full year and a half now, I purchased July 2022, and I have used this machine every single day since I’ve purchased it. Typically it gets used 1-4 times a day, with the average daily use being 2-3 times. This machine to this day still works excellent, better than ever even. Once you find the ideal settings for how you like it, it works great. I haven’t changed the settings in a year. I have not had one issues with this machine, knock wood, but I have also descaled it on a routine basis whenever the light would appear. If you are diligent with the maintenance and cleanliness of this machine it will last. This has been such a quality purchase for me. I have to strongly recommend this machine unless you are looking for a more advanced one with a higher price tag. EDIT 6/23/2025: This machine is still going strong. Still functions just as well as it did brand new out of the box. It gets used every single day, usually several times a day. I’ve had it for about 3 years now with daily use. It’s been a fantastic machine. Honestly I’ve low-key been waiting for it to stop working so I have an excuse to buy a new one 🤣 this was wel worth the investment. If you take care of it, clean it regularly (i wipe it down after every use and clean it more thoroughly everytime the tray gets full of coffee grinds). I also descale it everytime the light comes on which is probably about once a month. Don’t neglect descaling. It will ruin your machine. Take care of it and it will take care of you. Will update again next year !

I have had two of these espresso machines. The first lasted over nine years. This is an Italian-designed, manufactured in China, super-automatic espresso machine. When it comes to espresso machines, “super-automatic” means that at one push of a button, it grinds whole beans, tamps the grind, and sends pressurized near-boiling water through the grind to make the espresso coffee. <b>Dimensions – “Will it fit on my kitchen counter?”</b> Unfortunately, there’s some contradictory dimension info in this listing. Product Description states “17 by 13 by 18 inches.” The listing’s Comparison section and Product Information section both state 15.3 x 11 x 14.4 inches. None of these matches my own careful measurements of my two machines: Width 11” (27.94 cm) Depth 14.75” (37.47 cm). This is from the center of the bow-front drip tray to the rear of the machine. For spacing, recommend adding 1-2 inches (2.54 cm – 5.08 cm) to give space for the power cord, which protrudes from the right-rear part of the machine. Height 14” (35.56 cm). Here are some additional things to think about on height spacing: Opening Bean Reservoir Lid (left-top of machine). You need another 4.25 to 4.5 inches (10.795 cm to 11.43 cm) of height clearance beneath your cabinets if you want to be able to fully open the bean compartment lid without rotating/moving the machine. I don’t have such additional clearance above my machine, but it’s not been a big deal for me to pull it out and rotate when adding beans. BTW, the bean reservoir lid will not stay up without holding it up. <b>Using the Cup Warmer.</b> On the right-top side, there’s a heated chromed rectangle for a couple of espresso cups, so if you want to make use of that you will need about 4 additional inches of height clearance. <b>Using the Ground Coffee Chute.</b> The top has a narrow door in the middle that you can use to put in already-ground coffee. The lid only sticks up a couple of inches when open, but you will want at least 4 inches of additional space to use it. Otherwise just pull the machine out/rotate from under the counter when you want to use this feature. I tend to just use whole beans so I hardly ever use it. I suppose if you had a friend or family member that wanted to put flavored coffee (ick 😊) in the machine they could use this. <b>What’s in the box?</b> Well, there’s a coffee machine. 😊 And a one-use bottle of cleaning solution. My previous machine had an instruction DVD in the box, but the latest one did not. <b>Construction</b> Body of machine and drip tray are silver-grey plastic. The slotted cover on the drip tray is polished stainless steel. The polished metal scratches easily from the bottoms of ceramic/porcelain cups and over time can show signs of wear. Wish they had an optional non-scratchable titanium tray (for only an additional $400 😊). <b>Noise</b> It’s loud when grinding the beans, making the coffee, and when using the steam wand to froth milk. No stealth cups of coffee here – everyone in the house is going to know you are making a cup and come around asking for some! But this is normal for this type of machine IMO. <b>Water</b> Best to use bottled water (unless you are fortunate to have good soft water). I used tap water with my first machine and mineral scale caused problems. I did descale each time the indicator light machine told me to. For my new machine, I buy a few $0.99/gallon jugs of drinking water at the grocery each week and that works well. <b>Water Reservoir</b> You can’t hook the machine to a water line or incorporate a filter unless you are into serious coffee machine modding. The one-liter water container is on the right side of the machine and pulls out from the front. The container is smoky-transparent only on the side. If your machine will be situated against a wall on the right side, you will not be able to view the water level without pulling the reservoir out (unless you are completely out of water, in which case there will be an indicator light, and most tellingly, your coffee cup will be dry 😊). Unfortunately, because the machine will not show a water-level alert until completely out, it is possible to push the two-cup button and end up with half a cup of (very strong) coffee. <b>Coffee Bean Reservoir</b> There is a lid on the top left of the machine that you open to add whole coffee beans. It is not airtight. I tend to put in a smaller amount of beans from a separate airtight container rather than fill the bean reservoir to the max and have the beans exposed to air for a long time. If you are a heavy user maybe this strategy is not for you, as you would go through beans quickly enough for it not to matter. There is an adjust knob for the coffee grain size inside the bean reservoir. Best not to touch this if you don’t have to; it’s been set by the manufacturer. If you need to adjust, please refer to manufacturer’s guidance. You can’t easily get beans out of the machine once you have put them in. If you want caffeinated espresso coffee in the morning and decaf in the evening, you could perhaps grind some decaf beans and put a scoop in the ground-coffee-compartment in the top. If you want a half-caf espresso, the only ways are to blend the beans to be 50-50, or to separately make a “bean” espresso and a ground coffee espresso and then mix them. <b>“Does it make normal Coffee?”</b> It’s espresso and IMO that’s normal coffee, dontcha know. 😊 This makes espresso-style coffee, meaning that it uses steam that passes through finely ground and packed (tamped) coffee beans. It makes one or two cups at a time (not randomly – you can choose!). Some have inquired whether this makes “regular” or “normal” coffee; presumably asking about brewed or drip coffee. Drip coffee uses hot water (less hot than espresso) that drips through a coarser grind of coffee bean than espresso. <b>Making Coffee</b> A push of the one-cup button gets you a 6-ounce (about 180 ml) cup of coffee. For more coffee, you have two choices. Push the two-cup button, or push the single-cup button and then quickly right after the machine stops, push-and-hold the single-cup button. The machine will continue to make coffee until you let go. There are two knobs you need to know about. The “beverage size” dial on the far left varies the amount of water that goes through the grounds. If you want a traditional small, strong shot of espresso, put the dial at about the nine o’clock position (thinking of analog clocks here). Less water through the same amount of coffee makes for an intensely flavored shot. The other knob is the “beverage strength” dial, which determines how much bean it will grind for the shot. Honestly, I just turn mine all the way up and leave it there. <b>Can you make two shots at a time?</b> Sure. I almost never do this because I am greedy and want all the coffee. 😊 But if you are the sharing type, there are two nozzles. Just position a cup under each. The nozzles can be raised or lowered a couple of inches to accommodate different cups. Note that coffee always comes out of both nozzles even if you select a single cup. You may want to experiment with the one or two-cup buttons as well as the “volume” knob to get the size and strength of coffee desired. <b>Can it make a Caffe Americano?</b> Yes. A caffe americano is one or two shots of espresso diluted with hot water to make it like the size and taste of a brewed cup of coffee. There are a couple of ways to go at this. One is to use the steam attachment (and hit the hot water button) to fill the cup 3/4 full of hot water, then set the beverage size dial pointer to about the 11 o’clock position to make a shot of espresso directly into the cup. Adjust beverage size pointer up or down according to desired strength. You could also try simply turning the size and strength dials to maximum, and push the single cup button – but hang around while it is working because when it just gets to the end of making a cup, quickly push and hold the single-cup button. The machine will continue to run hot water through the ground-coffee-puck, making a larger cup of more dilute espresso coffee. <b>Can it make a Caffe Crema?</b> Oh yes. For most people when they refer to a caffe crema or crema espresso, they are talking about a really long shot of espresso. Crema is that flavorful tan froth that sits on top of a freshly -made cup of espresso. The amount of crema will vary depending on your choice of beans. <b>Type of Beans</b> I’ve used many types of beans in this machine over the years. You don’t need beans labelled “Espresso Beans” to make espresso! Remember, espresso is about the way you make the coffee, not about the type of beans. I really like medium-roast beans from Guatemala, as they have good balance. But this is a place where individual tastes vary. OK. On the oily-bean question. I have used oily and non-oily beans and have had no issues with the machine. Others indicate that oily beans have caused them problems, presumably with gumming up the grinder. <b>Built-in Frothing Wand for Making Cappuccinos, etc.</b> The frothing wand swings out to the right of the machine. As with the comment on viewing the level in the water reservoir, if you intend to put the machine flush against something on the right side, you are going to have issues using the frothing wand. Where does the milk go? Is there a reservoir for milk? Use a flat-bottom container; there is no reservoir for milk. I use a Pyrex glass measuring cup but you can buy frothing pitchers made for this purpose. BTW, use cold cow’s milk (cold milk – the cow is hopefully at a comfortable temperature). For some reason best milk to use is 2%, not whole milk, but it all works. Does it come with a frothing container? No, but I use a glass measuring cup and it works fine. How does it make the frothed milk? When you swing the wand out and turn the lever, steam comes out of the wand. However, I have observed that the first 10-15 seconds there is just water coming out, until it builds up enough temperature to be solid steam. So, it’s better if you wait and pour that initial water off and not let it run into your milk; when it turns to steam, stick the wand into your cold milk and froth away. I’ve not yet been able to make the cool designs in the cups that I see on TV, but by accident one time mine looked just like Kramer on Seinfeld. <b>Can it make hot water for tea?</b> Yes, but it is not optimal. It comes out as mostly steam from the frothing wand. Extend the frothing wand, put a cup underneath and turn the dial on the far right until steam/hot water hisses out. <b>Some Maintenance is Advisable</b> There are things that you must do to keep things working tip-top. It requires more maintenance than a drip coffee machine. Coffee pucks. Each time you make a cup, the machine will push the used coffee grounds “puck” into an internal reservoir on the left side of the machine. When the container fills up, a light comes on and you can’t make more coffee until you dump them out. A word of caution here – the machine “counts” the number of pucks from the last time that you opened the front door of the machine. It assumes that when the door is opened, that the grounds are emptied and resets the count. So, don’t open the door without emptying the puck-reservoir. Otherwise, it will overflow and cause grounds to spill out into the floor of the machine. Cleaning the Infuser. You should periodically clean the infuser (this is what pushes the steam through the puck of ground coffee). I do mine every Sunday. Don’t try this with the machine powered on – it simply won’t work because the infuser moves to a place where it cannot be removed. With the machine powered off, open the front door and pull the drip tray out. Remember to always empty the pucks and water from the drip tray anytime you open the door. To clean the infuser, look for the red buttons in the middle. Using your thumb and forefinger, squeeze the buttons and pull. The infuser should come out in your hand. It will probably have coffee grounds and other shmuckus on it. Just rinse it off and use a paper towel to clean and dry it off. This is good opportunity to clean out any other coffee grinds that might have accumulated in the bottom of the machine. Then push the infuser back into place. The red buttons will click when it is fully seated. I believe you can find a video on the internet on cleaning the infuser. Descaling. The minerals in your water will build up over time and can cause issues if not removed. The machine will indicate with a blinking light that it must be descaled. This light comes on after a manufacturer-determined number of cycles. I recommend using bottled water if you have hard water. I used hard water on my first machine and while it lasted nine years, I battled mineral scale. Please use the descaling sequence described in the owner’s manual. The machine comes with a one-use bottle of descaling solution. I find it more economical to buy the four-use bottles of EcoDecalk on Amazon, which are currently about $15 per bottle. <b>Not Really Intended for Business Use</b> This is intended for residential use, so it is not built for the kind of duty cycle that commercial machines undergo. As far as I know, the machine does not have a National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) rating. Commercial espresso machines are typically in the thousands of dollars. <b>Programmable to turn on in the morning?</b> Not an option. But it makes your coffee on demand, so it is nice and fresh.

I like the DeLonghi Magnifica line of superauto espresso machines. I have one on my boat, one at my GF house, and now yet another one, on my ship, just received day before yesterday, the ESAM3300. This model seems to not be built quite as sturdy as the ECAM and older ESAM machines. Took a lot longer to prime the machine with water, too. I don't like the grate over the bean hopper, which is kinda small. I wish these machines would accept a taller mug, too. Don't they know that Americans like a nice tall mug? It is REALLY hard to find a mug of decent size that is under 4.5" tall. Especially a clear one so I can see the layers. I can't vouch for durability yet of course, though I have now owned four DeLonghi superautos and none of them have let me down yet. The one on my boat is over 4 years old and still going strong with not a single failure. I hope this one lasts as long but I am not overly confident. On the plus side, the grinder is much improved. The grinder is WAY quieter than any of my other DeLonghis. On my ship this is important. I am the Bosun and I get up at 0430 every morning and want my cappuccino. A noisy grinder would wake up my next door neighbor. Also this grinder grinds finer. My other machines have to be set on finest or next to finest setting. With this one I set it there on the first use. The machine wouldn't work, said it was out of water. I knocked it down to about 2/3 fineness and it performed beautifully. On fine, the pucks weren't pucks, just watery black paste or goop. Now the pucks look healthy and cylindrical. Nice and neat. Good crema from my usual bean, great cappuccinos. Seemed to run out of steam for me a couple of times. Hopefully was just due to air trapped in the system. Made a bunch of coffees yesterday getting the settings right. Should be ready to rock in the morning cause the last few were delicious as reported by others and as tasted by me. For the money, this is a fantastic machine. But I only got it because I am on a ship, and if I get off and don't go back again, it will get left behind. If I were getting another one for my boat or my GF's house, I would spring for one a bit more upscale than the ESAM3300. GREAT option for a newbie entry level superauto, IMHO. Looking for your first machine but intimidated by the prices for a full blown pushabutton espresso machine? This is a good one for you. I was tempted to give it 5 stars but then how could I then give the same five stars to a markedly superior machine? So four. I was buying cheap but didn't want to mess with a Saeco. I like it, but I like their other machines better. UPDATE I got to take ALL the stars away. Already this thing is broke down and will not make a DROP of coffeee. Here I am on a ship and no way to send it back or know where to have it sent back to me, so over $500 down the drain. It appears that the mechanism that pushes the infuser up and down is cocked sideways and not vertical. It is about 4deg out of vertical. Wasted money. Shoddy construction. I am so totally pissed and in retrospect it was stupid to buy this thing with no way to send it back in event of malfunction. This isn't just a malfunction. It DOES NOT FUNCTION AT ALL. Well Amazon won't let me take away the last star. So they get one star but they do not deserve it. Go ahead, roll the dice. If you are at a fixed address where you can easily send it back and have the repaired machine resent to you, then go for it. For me, it is a couple days wages totally wasted wasted wasted.

Received my ESAM 3300 at the end of Dec 2012. I was very pleased with the coffee it produced. The machine worked as it was supposed to with no problems. We probably made at least 4-5 cups per day over a period of almost 2.5 months. Then came the problem. It started by not producing a full cup of coffee and the low water indicator would flash. The manual says to turn on the steam wand for a short time to prime the system if this happens. This worked at first, but soon it did not. The flashing light would go off, but if you tried to make another cup, it would do the same thing. Now it only produces about a teaspoon of coffee with the double cup setting. Very disappointing after spending so much. Had to revert to my backup Keurig. Phone call to customer service was not fruitful. It is never good to hear the customer rep say "that is weird!". After a bunch of procedures that were supposed to fix it, nothing worked. Now I wait for the "white-glove return service" (aka "cardboard box to send unit to repair facility for who knows how long"). Two months of use before it fails does not bode well for the long term reliability of this product. I can only hope this is a rare and unprecedented premature failure of some component that will not repeat once it is replaced. We shall see. I'm rating at 3 stars but will adjust accordingly based on the outcome of this repair. UPDATE ****** Got it back from repair. The repair shop could never replicate the issue (strange), but replaced a part based on my description of the problem. When it arrived, it again worked like it did when I first got it. Well now it has been about 3 months since it returned and it has just started malfunctioning the same way it did before. It makes a partial cup of coffee, stops and the low water light blinks. For now it can be reset by running hot water through the steam wand, but this is how it started last time and I expect it to stop all together soon. I'm sure I will again have to send it for repair. My advice, DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! It will not hold up. There is an obvious design flaw or quality issue with its components. Now another month or so of no coffee from this machine while it gets shipped for repair. I expect this cycle to repeat itself until the warranty runs out in Dec. UPDATE 11/20/13 ****** Finally figured out what was responsible for the problems I was having. Must keep the inside very clean especially the top of the infuser and bottom of the generator including the filter and generator gasket. Coffee grounds can stick to these parts and if it builds up the machine will stop making complete cups of coffee. If I wipe these off about every other time I empty the coffee grounds, it works fine. Oily beans are especially sticky on these parts. Changed the rating back to 4 stars now that I know how to maintain. Wish the manual was a bit more complete in this regard.

Let me state this up front: We're coffee snobs. We buy our our own fair-trade green coffee beans and roast them in a Hottop coffee roaster. That's largely because we prefer a "city roast" rather than what we perceive to be "burnt" (which is why you won't find me at a Starbucks). So it's no surprise that we have gone through several coffee and espresso machines; and travel with a small brewing setup. We even bought a Bonavita BV1900TS 8-Cup Carafe Coffee Brewer for the occasions when the "real" machine is on the fritz. So yeah... kind of obsessive, maybe. So when Amazon Vine offered me the Saeco HD8911/47 Saeco Incanto Classic Milk Frother Super Automatic Espresso Machine , I said Yes with alacrity. For the last several weeks, it's been sitting next to the DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica Super-Automatic Espresso/Coffee Machine , which we've owned for two years. That's given us an opportunity to do true side-by-side testing. Or, to put it another way, it gives us an excuse to drink twice as much coffee. Let me set a context, first. Although these are both espresso machines, in point of fact we rarely make espresso and even more rarely use the milk steamer. Our goal is one-touch "give me a cup of coffee to drink NOW," because making a whole pot means either (a) you don't finish the pot, which means you're wasting good coffee or (b) you run out when you want another cup but don't want to invest the time for just a single cup. While we have an Aeropress and another independent Kickstart-provided unit for travel, that's still far more fussing, particularly when the aim is to grab another cup before yet another online meeting, not to wait around in the kitchen for water to boil. In any case, I have had the opportunity to use both these machines, which are in the same general price range, and I like to think my opinion can help you make a better decision. And thus a two-for-one review, with a bit more attention to the newer unit and to comparisons rather than standalone feature descriptions. Let me start out with the most important point: These are both excellent units, and each deserves a 5-star rating. You won't be sorry if you choose either one of these machines. Both fulfill their god-given (or at least manufacturer-given) role, which is to make good coffee appear at the touch of a button, and for that I am grateful. Rather, what follows is an intentionally nit-picking analysis. Because I know that when _I_ spend several hundred bucks on a kitchen item, I want to choose equipment that matches my needs. Let's see if yours match mine. The DeLonghi is a solid piece of equipment. As most other reviewers have written, it does an excellent job of grinding and brewing. It holds most of a bag of coffee (should you eschew the hipness or time-consuming process of roasting). It does require a bit of daily maintenance, and we've found the machine to be a bit fussy. It already went back to the shop once under warrantee (thus the backup coffee machine, when I realized I'd be stuck for weeks); since then it objected to a failed de-scaling, and now we have a red light stuck on. This has made me just an eensy bit cranky. Another dumb-but-real annoyance: A regular coffee mug fits fine under the spout of the DeLonghi; however, you're out of luck if you have an extra-tall mug (I've a favorite that says "Troublemaker" OH SURE ACT SURPRISED). Those quibbles aside, it takes 42 seconds to emit a cup of steaming "keep me awake juice," and I had no thought of replacing it. The Saeco Incanto is narrower than the DeLonghi, which means it doesn't take up as much room in your kitchen (though they're essentially the same height). I can use my tall mugs. It's faster to turn the unit on, and it doesn't insist that you clean things up quite so often. It has a visual display screen rather than buttons, which implies that it's easier to understand status messages (though in point of fact it isn't any more helpful). The Saeco's water tank is slightly larger. You can pour water into it rather than having to pull out the container for refills, which is a nice convenience. It's a good thing, too, since it's awkward to pull out the container. The Saeco also shuts off the grinding process when you open the lid on the coffee side ("Oh hey was I out of beans?"); it's a good safety feature, even if I've never been drawn to poke my fingers in the mechanism. The Saeco's default coffee setting uses less coffee than the DeLonghi. By eye, the coffee puck (biscuit? what do YOU call those things?) is about 10% smaller. The result is coffee with a bit less intense mouth feel, by which I mean, "I like the coffee from the DeLonghi a little better" and by which my husband means that the DeLonghi's cup is slightly less acidic. But I think that's only noticeable side-by-side, in the way that you'd never see the differences in two TVs unless you're looking at both of them in a big showroom. You can adjust the Saeco settings from its default (probably 5 oz) up to an 8 ounce cup of coffee but then it tastes over-brewed. It's probably better to adjust for a 4 ounce shot and do a double shot. When you do so it makes a pretty good cup of coffee! Initially, the Saeco seems a lot less fussy. But in reality it's just spreading out the fuss. For example, by default the unit turns itself off really fast. Even if you adjust the setting to the maximum, it shuts off in an hour. We often wander into the kitchen a few times in a morning to get a cup of coffee before a meeting starts, and it's annoying to wait for the Saeco to start up again when it's 8:58 and I've a 9am meeting. Worse, on each startup it shoots water to clean itself up, so it wastes more than the DeLonghi. Plus, removing the tray underneath the Saeco (to clean out water and pucks) is a bit of a pain. You have to push buttons on both sides of the unit and pull out the tray for cleaning, which (depending on your counter arrangements) can be inconvenient. There's a bit more jiggling-things-around than I like, and that's when the unit is new. On a slick countertop I'd be concerned about the whole thing sliding off. And it's necessary more often. The Saeco is touchy, displaying a message that the waste bin is full very early; sometimes it complains after two biscuits. That may be a failure of user interface, as we think it's saying, "Open me up!" rather than giving an explicit indicator. The DeLonghi accomplishes that with DasBlinkenLights, with which we've already become familiar. I read through this and conclude, "She must hate the Saeco." Honestly, I don't. I like both these machines quite a bit. I'm used to the DeLonghi, and I might have had more criticism of it when it was new (and likely did, because it replaced another espresso machine I'd liked and which no longer was made). But given an opportunity to compare-and-contrast, I find myself analyzing the merits of each one. Again, both of these are quite good and deserve 5 stars because they deliver what they promise. But if I was forced to keep only one, I'd hold onto the DeLonghi.

UPDATE: As noted below, steam valve had become so hard to turn that I ended up breaking knob. Solved the balky steam valve by disassembling to get to steam valve, took valve apart, and lubricated with high temperature, food grade grease. (Google high temperature food grade grease - a few bucks got me a lifetime supply.) Changed the o rings at the same time (find at any real hardware store). Been working fine for six months now. This is only an issue, I suspect, for those who use the steam wand a lot. Bought this machine after heavy and satisfactory use of a Solis Palazzo over the last 4 years. The DeLonghi Magnifica performs as advertised, providing convenience with, given sufficient patience and understanding, the prospect of also making quality drinks. The machine is a bit more complicated for a novice to use, compared to the Solis, and takes more tinkering to get a consistent drink. With that territory, though, also comes the possibility of making a better shot than I could with the Solis. I will explain. We all pursue that shot with perfect extraction and aromatic crema delicately gracing the surface. Nothing is more fundamental. How does the DeLonghi do? For a shot of set volume, this machine gives us the typical two variables to play with: fineness of grind and quantity of grounds. I found it took a great deal of tinkering with those two settings to get the flow at that point of perfect extraction: not gushing, not dripping. Can be done, just takes patience. Further, get the settings right for the one cup setting, push the two-cup button, and the results will be worthless. That such a button cannot be found on most comparable machines has a reason. Two shots means a thicker puck, throwing off all your careful adjustments of grind and quantity. Forget about that two-shot button, set things for a single shot and hit that button as many times as required by the lateness of your prior evening. The settings are sensitive enough - something I have not seen in the Solis - that I find I must vary them from roast to roast. What works for a darker roast leaves a lighter roast mostly dripping out the delivery spouts. Perhaps a liability for those interested in convenience over quality. For others, another opportunity to get it right instead of settling for the lowest common denominator. Quantity of grounds wheel is conveniently located on front so such adjustments are easy to make. Some other initial observations: * After a half-dozen cups, my machine locked up. Blinking lights and manual told be something was binding in the grinder and to contact manufacturer. My examination showed that the chute immediately below the grinder was packed up. Bent little bristle brush and some awkward maneuvering cleared up the problem which, so far, has not reoccurred. * Specs say bean capacity is about 7 ounces. Anticipated this being an inconvenience as I roast in 12 oz lots. The bean hopper will actually take 11 or 12 ounces with no problem. * Buried in the instructions is the observation that, if it has been 2 or 3 minutes between brews, then one should do a quick flush, hitting the descaling button, to assure optimal water temperature. Easy to do but not something I have seen on other machines. I see this as a positive. Yes, another step but one that improves quality. * Specs suggest this will fit under a cabinet 14 inches above the counter. True, but if you want to be able to open the bean bin and fill, 18 ¼" clearance is necessary. * The grounds you now grind are not those you next brew. There's a 1- or 2-shot lag. So, that first shot in the morning has been sitting for, say, 20 hours, ground and letting the volatiles vanish. There go the qualities you sought by carefully selecting a particular bean and then finding the perfect and perfectly fresh roast for it. Discard that first morning shot. Or use it for the family member who likes to add flavorings. Finally, foam. Two boilers meant, I hoped, extra oomph for the steam. And, that is the case. Makes great foam for those afternoon cappuccinos, wet or dry. But, what about those morning lattes? Need that perfect micro-foam, nary a single visible bubble, to pour through the surface and float the delicate crema to the surface. Pull the outer aerating sleeve off the foam nozzle and, with practice, can get micro-foam. As the nozzle swings out and not, like most machines, out and up, it remains perpendicular so cannot get the spinning in the pitcher that experts recommend for those of us unable to get perfect micro-foam in the first stages; amazing what steaming sins the swirling milk will bury. That's not the real problem, though. Inner nozzle, when aerating outer sleeve is removed, is held on only by the friction of an o-ring, unlike others I have used where there is some kind of firm lock. Now and then, the inner nozzle, when used solo, fires itself into the cream pitcher. So, lattes are not easy. Options I am considering: keep aerating sleeve in place and hold back the foam as I pour, making a 100% "wet" cappuccino; plug up the air intake hole in the aerating sleeve; or, hacksaw off the lower 2/3rd's of that outer sleeve, keeping the portion that holds everything together. But, then, no cappuccino's. Update: Ended up taking a hack saw to the outer nozzle to kill the frother function, keeping just enough of the outer piece to hold the inner nozzle in place. Has worked very well. Can get microfoam good enough even to make my feeble attempts at latte art. Summary: These machines are designed for convenience. The DeLonghi does deliver: want a fast, effortless beverage, you will get it after some initial tinkering. The complications that arise open the door for those who want to pursue a bit more but are not ready for all the hassles (and expense) of a full bore machine, requiring attention to several other variables. As to the latte foam issue, I chose 5 stars because the machine does perform well as advertised, including claiming to only provide foam for cappuccinos. Update: Oct, 2010 - Has worked just fine until now - average of 5 or 6 double shot drinks/day day in, day out - over half include steaming milk. Steam system has now failed and so am in the market for a new machine. Steam nozzle always dripped a bit, became worse, eventually control would rotate only with great force. Then, control knob broke. Vice grips applied to knob are my temporary solution while deciding on next machine.

I bought my first ESAM3300 in 2010 -- from a reputable non-Amazon retailer -- after doing a bunch of research and reading. For a bit over 3 years, it delivered an average of 6-10 shots per day. Some days my wife and I need about 20 shots. Other days we're not home. :) Around November 2013, that machine went insane (see below). I did a bit of math, figured that getting 6000-10000 shots of espresso out of a $700 machine was a pretty good deal, and ordered a replacement. Frankly, I'd like to rate this machine a 4.5, but given a choice between 4 and 5, I think 5 more accurately represents the fact that (a) I'm pretty darn picky, and (b) this machine has satisfied me. GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: The machine works well. It makes solid espresso with a minimum of effort, requires relatively little cleaning, and foams milk pretty well. I've used $20K commercial machines at my workplace, and this machine provides 90-95% of the functionality and quality. I only see two significant weaknesses: (1) The espresso leans toward Americano. If you want a ristretto, you're gonna have to crank the adjustment knobs virtually all the way toward "more coffee grounds" and "less water". Middle of the range will provide about 3.5 oz of strong coffee. (2) It *is* rather noisy. Not industrially so, but enough to overpower cross-kitchen conversation and wake up the person for whom you're trying to make breakfast in bed. At the end of the day, what matters to me is that with a push of a button I get espresso that's better than I can get at most coffee shops out there (though not as good as a top-flight shop). RELIABILITY: I do feel that a good espresso machine should last longer than 3 years. That said, even if my second one fails after 3 years, it's still good value for the money. My first one failed because a gasket in a water supply line eroded, water leaked out, and eventually scrambled some of the internal electronics. (I disassembled the machine, found the leak, fixed it, but couldn't fix the electronics). It was leaking water for a week before it went insane, and if I'd realized what the leak meant, I could have forestalled it. So, my conclusion is that it should last at least 3 years without major maintenance, but if you tinker and take extra good care, it will probably last longer. WHY TO BUY FROM AMAZON: When I received my new machine from Amazon, it sort of worked. About 2/3 of the shots were fine... the other 1/3 were brownish water. And it was barfing grounds all over the inside. Clearly something was misaligned. If I hadn't ordered from Amazon, I'd have been fairly traumatized (given that my old machine had just failed). As it was, I called Amazon (on a Sunday, mind you), and within about 3 minutes I had another one scheduled for overnight delivery, and an appointment for UPS to pick up the defective one the next day. Which is about as painless as it gets. Note, in particular, that I got to continue using the mostly-defective one to feed my caffeine addiction until after the replacement arrived. So Amazon gets five stars for the return process.

I have owned my Espresso machine for more than a year and could not possibly be happier about the purchase (except for seeing Amazon ask me if I'd like to buy it again on sale for 33% than I paid). I use the double-espresso button in a double wall coffee mug, then add 10% half and half cream. At first, I had the "amount of water" dial at the max, to make something more like an americano coffee. Over time, I dialed it back to the default setting (straight up, in the middle of the two extremes) which makes true espresso. I went from drinking 4+ Monsters/Gurus/Red Bulls a day to making 3-4 double espressos. A 1lb bag of espresso beans that costs $10-16 will make somewhere around 50-100 double espressos. I can make coffee for a month spending what I used to on energy drinks in a day. I've used Tim Hortons Chai Tea bags and used the frothing on some 2% milk to make an AMAZING chai latte on weekends. As other reviews have stated, the machine will treat you as you treat it. Every time I empty the puck reservoir (once every 2-3 days) I quickly rinse inside it with hot water with a dab of dish soap in it, and do the same for the drip tray. If you don't use a bottle brush, cloth, or sponge on the drip tray when you wash it, it will certainly develop a 'film' on it. That being said, wiping it down only takes a few seconds, and getting inside the small corners/cracks between sections using a bottle brush only takes a few seconds more. Once every two months I have to descale the machine. I pour 1/5th a bottle of $10-20 descaler solution into the water reservoir, press the flashing button, turn the steam valve to "open", then come back 20 minutes later to turn the steam knob off and empty the bowl I put under the steam wand. I empty and rinse the water reservoir, put it in, put the bowl back, and turn the steam knob back on. Come back in another 20 minutes, turn the steam knob off, empty the bowl, fill the reservoir, and make an espresso. The only other cleaning (which I perform the lease often because of this one restriction) is for the grinding disk / inside path. You first have to ensure the machine is powered off (I guess so you can't cut your fingers?). You squeeze the red tabs, pull the centre component out of the inside of the machine, and rinse it under warm water. give it a light rub down with a damp paper towel. You pop a bottle brush in and out of the machine until all the small bits of ground beans that didn't make it into the waste container are out, then put the machine back together. That's it. If you have 3 minutes a day, and 30 minutes a week to spend on maintaining your machine, I don't see why you won't get 14 months of daily use and counting like I did. By far the best machine I have ever purchased, and one that has paid for itself in per-coffee savings several times over without even considering the time saved not having to go buy them.

Muy buena cafetera, cuando llegó no funcionaba y aparecía como si no tuviera agua cuando sí tenía. Antes de devolverla o reclamar, miren en Youtube un instructivo que muestra el porqué de este error, es solo presionar un cable blanco detrás de la cafetera y ya está. Es una excelente cafetera, muy fácil usar, fácil limpiar y hace un expreso excelente. Adicional, también sirve con café molido, que es un plus. Muy recomendada

La simplicidad de uso , el costo beneficio y la calidad del producto; compre otra máquina de otro fabricante y quede decepcionado, ya que solo funcionó 2 meses , la cambiaron por otra igual y funcionó 1 mes , terminaron por reembolsarme mi dinero, así que decidí comprar esta ya que mi hermano tiene este modelo y nunca ha tenido problemas y le da un uso constante después de más de 2 años de uso, me gusta que no tenga complejos controles digitales , esto asegura una vida más larga sin problemas

This the second D’longhi fully automatic coffeemaker that we have used. The first one we bought 12 years ago and it worked perfectly until the electronics went bad last month. We liked it so much that we decided to buy a new Magnifica model ($400.00 cheaper than 12 years ago, too) and it works exactly the same as the original model did. Simply put in coffee beans, water (we use filtered reverse osmosis water) and place your cup under the spout, press the lighted button - one or two cup button - and wait for your steaming cup of coffee complete with creama on top. One item that I cannot find in the instruction sheets is that pushing the one cup button gives you a smaller than full cup so you can add milk or cream. I like a mug so I find that you can push the two cup button and place the single cup under the spout but you’ll have to watch as the mug fills because it will overfill the one mug. So, to compensate, when the mug is as full as you want, simply press the two mug button again and the water immediately stops filling. A second thing they don’t mention is that if you want cream in your coffee simply put the cream in the mug and then put it in the microwave for one minute, full power, then make your coffee using the hot milk and your coffee will be much hotter than using cold milk. Don’t let the water in the tank get too low or you may find that water stops in your cup before you want it to stop. If the tank water is lower that 2” in the tank then fill it before making a cup of coffee because the machine will start making the coffee then stop before filling the cup. Otherwise this machine is fantastic and probably the cheapest fully automatic machine you can buy.

Muy buena máquina. El café sale con muy buena crema, el espumador muy profesional y antiadherente. El único limitante es el contenedor de agua, pero no es gran problema. Traía una muestra de granos de cafe de buena calidad y su descalicificador. Excelente compra