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Product Description
Rise through the ranks with the Gaggia Accademia, a smartly appointed super automatic espresso machine, whose charming good looks and responsive performance are sure to earn it place at the top of its class. With a contemporary stainless-steel front panel, durable metal frame, and a bright display, the Accademia embodies refined design aesthetics. Anchored by one-touch, programmable push-button controls for espresso, hot water and milk outputs, the Accademia dispenses perfect beverages on demand. Just select your desired beverage from one of seven dedicated buttons capable of delivering the following drinks: espresso, caffe, caffe lungo, cappuccino, latte, Latte macchiato and hot water.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
I have been using super-automatic espresso machines since 2001. This is my 6th machine and by far my favorite. Having owned one Capresso C1500, three Jura-Capressos, one Saeco and now the Gaggia Academia, I've found this machine to outperform the rest by far. I loved the quality of the Capresso and Jura-Capresso machines, but having to send them in once a year for service at a cost of over $300 was excessive. There is no way to service the inside of these machines. Plus, I could never get the milk hot enough with the built-in frothing system on the S9 One-Touch or the Z5 and these machines lacked an external frothing wand so it was impossible to heat the milk any hotter than it came out of the machine. Next I purchased Saeco Primea Touch Plus and that was a complete mistake. The milk system is internal and constantly clogged and refused to function. This machine was returned shortly after purchase. I began looking for a machine that was as well-constructed as the Jura-Capresso, but had the ease of maintenance like the Saeco. I learned that Philips had recently purchased the Saeco/Gaggia company, so I decided to take a chance on a Gaggia machine after seeing a demo in-store.
What I Like:
- The machine is fully adjustable by coffee strength, milk amount, water amount, etc. You can even adjust these settings on the fly via the color screen.
- The machine is bomb-proof. Another reviewer noted that there is still a lot of plastic and yes this is true (although much less so than in Jura machines), but the machine is all metal where it counts. In the in-store demo, the demonstrator lifted the machine by its hinges to show how well it is constructed. This machine will undoubtedly hold up to years of use.
- The machine has a "sealed" bean container that keeps the beans fresher that other brands of super-automatics that lack this feature.
- The automatic frothing container could not be any easier to use. You snap it in a press a button. It automatically cleans itself after use and any leftover milk can be left in the container and refrigerated for next use eliminating waste.
- Machine rinses itself before and after every use, so there is no "old" coffee taste when you brew your next cup.
- The quality of coffee is amazing! This machine produces coffee very close the the Pasquini semi-automatic at my office. The quality is much better than my Jura machines.
- The Mavea water filter removes the chlorine taste from tap water and lessens the amount of maintenance you must perform on the machine.
- The adjustable coffee "spout". One of my biggest complaints with the Jura machines is that you aren't able to fit a proper sized cup under the automatic spout. You're limited to cups about 4" in height. Because of the nearly infinite adjustments available on this machine, my 16 oz to-go mug fits no problem.
- The built-in frothing wand. Most of the milk that comes out of super-automatic machines is not hot enough if the latte or cappuccino is not going to be consumed immediately. This is not a problem with this machine. If the milk is not hot enough simply activate the built in steaming wand and heat it up a few more degrees. This is one of the few fully automatic machines that has this feature.
- The ease of maintenance - my favorite feature by FAR. The brew-group is removable. Simply remove it from the machine and rinse it out. No expensive trips back to the manufacturer for cleaning.
What I don't:
- The price. This machine is very expensive. If you have couple-of-times-a-day trip to S'bux like I did, then the machine will pay for itself in about a year. However, it still in the same ball park as a lot of nice used cars.
- The pickiness with coffee beans. With super-automatics you can not use beans that are oily AT ALL. This limits my bean choice and I am unable to use the beans of some of my favorite artisan coffee roasters.
- The frequency of emptying the internal and external drip trays as well as spent coffee pucks. The machine has two trays and an internal coffee grounds drawer and they have to be emptied at least every other day or about after every five coffees. The Jura-Capressos had very large drip trays and dump bins that only had to be emptied about once a week. This can be annoying if you're in a hurry in the morning and the machine flashes this message before you can brew a coffee.
- The small water tank. This tank is very well designed, but it must be refilled after about 6 coffees. My Jura machines would brew about 20.
My complaints are very few and after using this machine for over 6 months, I couldn't be happier. Even with the high price, I believe I got exactly what I paid for - a well-built machine that easily brews quality coffee and coffee drinks with ease of use and little maintenance. I would highly recommend this machine to anyone l who loves coffee, but doesn't want to grind, tamp, brew espresso, and froth milk manually. Within 30 seconds, you can have a coffee drink that rivals that of all but the best baristas.
What I Like:
- The machine is fully adjustable by coffee strength, milk amount, water amount, etc. You can even adjust these settings on the fly via the color screen.
- The machine is bomb-proof. Another reviewer noted that there is still a lot of plastic and yes this is true (although much less so than in Jura machines), but the machine is all metal where it counts. In the in-store demo, the demonstrator lifted the machine by its hinges to show how well it is constructed. This machine will undoubtedly hold up to years of use.
- The machine has a "sealed" bean container that keeps the beans fresher that other brands of super-automatics that lack this feature.
- The automatic frothing container could not be any easier to use. You snap it in a press a button. It automatically cleans itself after use and any leftover milk can be left in the container and refrigerated for next use eliminating waste.
- Machine rinses itself before and after every use, so there is no "old" coffee taste when you brew your next cup.
- The quality of coffee is amazing! This machine produces coffee very close the the Pasquini semi-automatic at my office. The quality is much better than my Jura machines.
- The Mavea water filter removes the chlorine taste from tap water and lessens the amount of maintenance you must perform on the machine.
- The adjustable coffee "spout". One of my biggest complaints with the Jura machines is that you aren't able to fit a proper sized cup under the automatic spout. You're limited to cups about 4" in height. Because of the nearly infinite adjustments available on this machine, my 16 oz to-go mug fits no problem.
- The built-in frothing wand. Most of the milk that comes out of super-automatic machines is not hot enough if the latte or cappuccino is not going to be consumed immediately. This is not a problem with this machine. If the milk is not hot enough simply activate the built in steaming wand and heat it up a few more degrees. This is one of the few fully automatic machines that has this feature.
- The ease of maintenance - my favorite feature by FAR. The brew-group is removable. Simply remove it from the machine and rinse it out. No expensive trips back to the manufacturer for cleaning.
What I don't:
- The price. This machine is very expensive. If you have couple-of-times-a-day trip to S'bux like I did, then the machine will pay for itself in about a year. However, it still in the same ball park as a lot of nice used cars.
- The pickiness with coffee beans. With super-automatics you can not use beans that are oily AT ALL. This limits my bean choice and I am unable to use the beans of some of my favorite artisan coffee roasters.
- The frequency of emptying the internal and external drip trays as well as spent coffee pucks. The machine has two trays and an internal coffee grounds drawer and they have to be emptied at least every other day or about after every five coffees. The Jura-Capressos had very large drip trays and dump bins that only had to be emptied about once a week. This can be annoying if you're in a hurry in the morning and the machine flashes this message before you can brew a coffee.
- The small water tank. This tank is very well designed, but it must be refilled after about 6 coffees. My Jura machines would brew about 20.
My complaints are very few and after using this machine for over 6 months, I couldn't be happier. Even with the high price, I believe I got exactly what I paid for - a well-built machine that easily brews quality coffee and coffee drinks with ease of use and little maintenance. I would highly recommend this machine to anyone l who loves coffee, but doesn't want to grind, tamp, brew espresso, and froth milk manually. Within 30 seconds, you can have a coffee drink that rivals that of all but the best baristas.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I just purchased this machine from Amazon and have been incredibly impressed with the build quality, features, and quality of the coffee produced. You can't beat this machine in terms of the product design, multitudes of modes of operation, and elimination of cleaning chores often associated with fully automatic home machines.
Unboxing the product is your first clue to the level of detail the manufacturer paid to the product experience. As is custom with Gaggia products, this machine was designed and built at the Milan factory -- something that will not escape you from the early moments of opening the box. Once the shipping box is opened, you simply remove the outer box to reveal the inside box, which has two convenient long handles to make it easy for you to lift the machine out of the shipping box. Inside, the sealed inner box contains your unit, with prominent serial number markings on the inner box and the "Made in Milan, Italy" (naturally in Italian) stamped proudly.
You'll be surprised with the highly durable construction, in particular, the stainless steel finish which seems to be impervious to finger prints in my usage so far -- and the high quality hinges that reveal the inner workings of the machine: the brew group, drip tray, and grounds drawer. One unique feature of this machine is that the brew group is fully removable for easy maintenance and cleaning. Given that o-rings over time will break down and are a common service issue on home machines from other manufacturers, the ability to self maintain in your kitchen without needing to pull the machine out or remove it to another location is a plus. Maintenance kits for the o-rings can be found for as little as $9.99.
The manuals are well written and the menu system is intuitive and easy to use. Brew strength can be varied with a simple dial on the front of the machine, and individual settings for each beverage, including coffee quantity, volume, temperature, and milk froth settings, if applicable, can be specified. There's also a coffee chute for pre-ground coffee should you chose to use some for a particular beverage instead of the beans. This gets to the main strength of this machine: it's completely configurable. Many people gravitate to manual machines due to the lack of control over the Espresso pull; this machine not only lets you program it, you can change it easily before every cup without needing to descend into tons of on-screen menus.
The milk carafe is a fabulous feature -- and it's zero mess. You simply pop it in, move the arm over the cup, and select the beverage you want. When you're done making milk beverages, you return the arm to the middle position which activates a steam rinse feature that flushes the milk circuit with steam for cleanliness. Simply remove the carafe to the fridge for safe keeping until your next cleaning!
Another feature of the adjustable brew center is that it can be removed for exceptionally tall cups. Nice for those tall cups in the morning on the way to work!
Since energy consumption is on everybody's mind these days, the unit features a double boiler (one for the brew group, and one for the milk circuit.) There's an optional ECO mode which will automatically power down the milk circuit when not in use -- simply call-up the machine's settings to activate the feature. Furthermore, the unit features an adjustable auto-standby feature which will put the unit into standby mode drawing less than a watt of power.
I couldn't be happier with my unit. The coffee taste, strength, and temperature are perfect. The adjustments are virtually unlimited and you can achieve precisely the results you want consistently. A great appliance for any coffee lover's kitchen!
Unboxing the product is your first clue to the level of detail the manufacturer paid to the product experience. As is custom with Gaggia products, this machine was designed and built at the Milan factory -- something that will not escape you from the early moments of opening the box. Once the shipping box is opened, you simply remove the outer box to reveal the inside box, which has two convenient long handles to make it easy for you to lift the machine out of the shipping box. Inside, the sealed inner box contains your unit, with prominent serial number markings on the inner box and the "Made in Milan, Italy" (naturally in Italian) stamped proudly.
You'll be surprised with the highly durable construction, in particular, the stainless steel finish which seems to be impervious to finger prints in my usage so far -- and the high quality hinges that reveal the inner workings of the machine: the brew group, drip tray, and grounds drawer. One unique feature of this machine is that the brew group is fully removable for easy maintenance and cleaning. Given that o-rings over time will break down and are a common service issue on home machines from other manufacturers, the ability to self maintain in your kitchen without needing to pull the machine out or remove it to another location is a plus. Maintenance kits for the o-rings can be found for as little as $9.99.
The manuals are well written and the menu system is intuitive and easy to use. Brew strength can be varied with a simple dial on the front of the machine, and individual settings for each beverage, including coffee quantity, volume, temperature, and milk froth settings, if applicable, can be specified. There's also a coffee chute for pre-ground coffee should you chose to use some for a particular beverage instead of the beans. This gets to the main strength of this machine: it's completely configurable. Many people gravitate to manual machines due to the lack of control over the Espresso pull; this machine not only lets you program it, you can change it easily before every cup without needing to descend into tons of on-screen menus.
The milk carafe is a fabulous feature -- and it's zero mess. You simply pop it in, move the arm over the cup, and select the beverage you want. When you're done making milk beverages, you return the arm to the middle position which activates a steam rinse feature that flushes the milk circuit with steam for cleanliness. Simply remove the carafe to the fridge for safe keeping until your next cleaning!
Another feature of the adjustable brew center is that it can be removed for exceptionally tall cups. Nice for those tall cups in the morning on the way to work!
Since energy consumption is on everybody's mind these days, the unit features a double boiler (one for the brew group, and one for the milk circuit.) There's an optional ECO mode which will automatically power down the milk circuit when not in use -- simply call-up the machine's settings to activate the feature. Furthermore, the unit features an adjustable auto-standby feature which will put the unit into standby mode drawing less than a watt of power.
I couldn't be happier with my unit. The coffee taste, strength, and temperature are perfect. The adjustments are virtually unlimited and you can achieve precisely the results you want consistently. A great appliance for any coffee lover's kitchen!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
The machine is built like a tank and made excellent espresso, coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, etc. Even though we paid a lot of money for this we were satisfied due to the quality of the product, until....the machine stopped working 29 days after it was purchased, looks like the thermostat went bad and the machine would just freeze trying to heat up and then give an error code telling you to restart it.
Luckily Amazon (as usual) is working with me to ensure I am a satisfied customer, however it is still pretty disappointing to have to deal with a broken machine that costs this much money, specially this quick. Maybe I just got unlucky, when we called Gaggia support they were surprised to hear of the issue we were having.
I give it 3 stars due to having a great experience with the unit while it worked...
Luckily Amazon (as usual) is working with me to ensure I am a satisfied customer, however it is still pretty disappointing to have to deal with a broken machine that costs this much money, specially this quick. Maybe I just got unlucky, when we called Gaggia support they were surprised to hear of the issue we were having.
I give it 3 stars due to having a great experience with the unit while it worked...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bought well over a year ago, still loving it!
We bought this machine after testing just about every model made at the time (about 18 months ago). We knew we wanted a machine that had a milk container that could easily be... Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Baxter
$3,000? flushed down the toilet
after 5 months of use the machine doesn't work,grinder doesn't grind,even if i put pre ground coffee its watered down and undrinkable.
hopefully amazon will refund my return. Read more
hopefully amazon will refund my return. Read more
Published 1 month ago by tex
Milk does not get hot
Machine is built well 43 lbs but the milk container does not make the milk hot. We got luke warm lattes and could not froth with the milk container. Espresso was good. Read more
Published 1 month ago by VACOWGIRL
Gaggia Accademia review
I purchased this espresso machine after seeing a working model in a store on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. I fond it on Amazon 1 day for 600. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Frank Mastronardi
Great Machine, but Some Important Caveats
Making good quality espresso and milk drinks couldn't be easier. The machine looks nice, is easy to use, and has enough customization options to get good shots from different... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Scott H Crenshaw
Love this machine, wish the milk was hotter.
I have had this machine almost 3 months now, and it has gotten twice daily use (some days 3-4) since then. I think it's likely the best super-auto out there. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Fischer
Not-So-Spectacular Machine - Review Update
>>Please see my update at the bottom<<
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I received my machine about a week ago. Read more
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I received my machine about a week ago. Read more
Published 11 months ago by G. Hearn
Wonderful
Got this unit today and totally fell in love :) Like the other reviewer said, it's great how the milk system runs seperately. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Allard
Good appliance
Just bought this and really enjoy it. Very easy to use and maintain and whats cool is that the milk runs seperately through the machine so it has a self cleaner so you dont have... Read more
Published 13 months ago by loving my coffee
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