PROS: Makes very good coffee and lattes. Sleek, good-looking appliance. Works as you would expect.
CONS: (very minor) Chrome "heating" plate doesn't get warm enough to heat anything (who cares?). Beans on the "oily" side don't always feed smoothly from hopper to the grinder.
I've owned several automatic machines over the years from Saeco and DeLonghi (most recently the DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica Super-Automatic Espresso/Coffee Machine) that have acted as our go-to small office coffee makers. (I'm a latte-holic myself, 4 to 5 a day, and admitting that is the first step toward recovery I'm told...) I have a tendency to wear them out in 2 to 3 years because they get a lot of use, 5 days a week. But that is to be expected, at least by me, as these really are intended as home-use machines. That being said, this is a fine machine for it's job - which is to keep me in lattes!
It makes very good, tasty shots of espresso for those lattes, steams my 1% milk great with a nice, dense foam, and the regular coffee drinkers are very happy with their full coffees.
Tip: Best way to froth the milk?: swing the frother arm all the way to the left and stack your steamed-milk container with your cold milk in it on top of an empty coffee mug off to the side on the counter. That way your milk container is high enough to just sit there with the wand in it as it steams. You can walk away for a couple of minutes and do something useful. Just don't go too far away and "forget" it's steaming - what a mess! But the frother "froths" really well all by itself, doesn't over-bubble and spill over the side like some past machines have done. Well-designed.
Right out of the box, it made a great-tasting first latte for me. One of the best, actually. I left the grinder on the factory setting, and set the rotating knob to between 1:30 and 2:00 o'clock position (just guessing) and it made both a great double-shot of espresso AND a great-tasting regular coffee on my first two tries (I used the "double" buttons on both the espresso side and coffee side - that'll make more sense once you see the machine and read the instructions).
I've only had it about a month, but so far so really good. The only minor issue is that bean hopper "con" above. It's a bit shallow in slope, so my slightly oily beans (Costco/Kirkland espresso, roasted by Starbucks beans) get stuck sometimes during the grinding portion of the process, and I have to lift the lid and stir them a bit with a spoon to make sure they get down where they need to go - not a huge inconvenience.
I've had a couple of the DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnificas
DeLonghi ESAM3300 Magnifica Super-Automatic Espresso/Coffee Machine mentioned earlier, and they are GREAT machines! (that's the one I have at home for weekend use). I'm hoping this latest DeLonghi for the office lives up to that model's standards. By the way, the model number for replacement water filters is: SER 3017. Google "Water filter SER 3017" though, to find it online, because it doesn't show up on Amazon. And DeLonghi customer service was no help at all via an emailed question about the filter, which should be a concern to them I would imagine. Hey Amazon, how about linking to the company that sells the filter?