Customer Reviews

Jura 13531 Impressa C5 Fully Automatic Coffee Center, Piano Black

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Purchased this machine about three months ago and have been totally pleased with it. Owned a C 1000 and upgraded with the frothXpress PLUS as well.... Easy to program, easy to use and easy to clean. I have been through two cycles of cleaning with the tablets and the cleaning took about half the time the C 1000 took... It uses special Cearly Blue filters.. no discounts on these. They are a standard price and you replace them with every cleaning so there is a little expense with this.

The frothXpress is great and I use it only when I am making a few cappucinos. It comes completely apart and cleans easily.

All in all, I could not be happier. The only thing that coul be better are the initial directions on how to use the machine. Having owned the other one, this one was easier to maneuver. The directions for the frothXpress PLUS are almost non-existent but I found some directions online which helped.

It is a hefty price for a machine but I value good coffee. You will not be disappointed.

Jura is absolutely the best home automatic cafe machine. I have been drinking coffee made with European coffee machines since the 80's. Because of heavy use my espresso machines lasted about a year. Then while I was living in Europe I found Jura. I had a Jura fully automatic machine for three years in Europe. It was in perfect condition when I left. The lucky recipient of that machine, came back to the USA a year later.... and right away they bought a Jura for their home.

My FIRST purchase for my home after I re- patriated. > I bought the C5, I just love it. It ALWAYS works with zero problems. I stagger downstairs every morning... push button and Wa-La... a perfect cup off coffee for which the beans have just been solely ground for pours forth....

I have owned every brand out there and I am SOLD on JURA! DEPENDABILITY!!!

I have purchase the new Jura-Capresso Impressa C5 before it had been released. So I had to wait for several weeks for its delivery. Once it arrived it took a good couple of hours to read through the manual, (the machine operation is not intuitive). It had all kinds of warnings for grinding: no oily beans, no flavored beans, and so on. (You could grind such beans in separate grinder and use it in the grinded beans compartment. I have not tried this yet). So, I have followed the instructions closely, and for about 5 to 7 days it worked fine. However, one morning, after the first cup of coffee I made, I could not make a second one. (There was no coffee coming out of the spouts). I try different approaches to solve the issue myself, however eventually called the company. The representative had walked me through some steps, basically squandering more and more of my good beans, but was not able to solve the problem. To his credit, once he realized he can not resolve the issue he offered to replace the body of the machine. The way it worked; the company has sent the new body and a label to send the old one back. (I had to remove all the removable parts: water tank, spout for cappuccino, and such) It took about a week for a new one to arrive. On arrival, I have noticed that the spout on the new one did not feet as well as on the old one, but I did tried to froth the milk yet. (I hope it works)

As far as quality of the coffee it makes, it is not bad; it is still not a commercial quality, but the machine makes a creama that is somewhat resembling of a good European café coffee. I have tried several different kinds of beans and came to the conclusion that quality of beans make a bigger difference than the machine itself. (I tried the good beans in the cheap espresso machine and the coffee was almost as good). The best beans I found were at the "Whole Foods" store.

Overall, I think it is way overpriced, and I would not purchase it again.

Easy to use and brews a great cup of coffee. Espresso is even better. I mistakenly thought I needed a fine grind for my bold coffee, which produced a fairly mild cup, but after reading the instructions I changed the grinder to less fine and the end result is fantastic.

I've been thinking about getting the Jura for close to a year now but always hesitated because of the price. I love espresso but don't have the time or patience to grind/tamp/brew myself as some people do. Some die hard espresso lovers will laugh at this machine but for me it's perfect. It's easy to use and looks beautiful on the countertop.

This machine can grind your beans to the desired consistency and deliver a great cup of coffee. It also allows you the flexibility to use pre-ground coffee if you please...which is nice if you want decaf. It steams and froths your milk in an instant. Now I can have a cappuccino in the morning that only takes 2 minutes and minimal clean-up!

I almost bought the Ena but compared thru the Capresso site and found this machine was much more compatible and almost the same size. Do the research and you won't be dissapointed!

Edit**** 5-3-11

I ended up returning this machine. I purchased a Rancilio Silvia and Baratza Vario grinder. There's nothing wrong with the Jura but I wanted to control the quality of my espresso (temperature, tamp, overall technique)....yea, i know what I said before but we all make mistakes- right? I'm using my new setup everyday with ease. It does take longer to grind, tamp, brew and clean up but it's so good! Overall, my new setup was a couple hundred dollars more but well worth it.

Thanks Amazon for a great return policy!

I've owned a few super-automatic coffee machines including Saeco and also a Jura-Capresso F9. I loved the F9, though I had to return it for service three times in about five years. We do use very dark roast, oily, Starbucks beans so maybe that had something to do with it.

Anyway I've moved my F9 to my office and purchased a new C5 for my home. The coffee is exactly the same as the much-more-expensive F9, in the same form factor. The difference is that this C5 does not offer as many bells and whistles as the F9 -- which is fine for me, because all I ever drink is regular coffee. And the coffee is outstanding, always with a wonderful crema on top.

I have a few complaints (consider it's a thousand-dollar coffee maker):

1. The coffee dispenser is not high enough above the tray to fit a travel mug. A 16-ounce coffee cup is about the tallest that will fit. So to fill a travel mug, you have to hold it tilted while the coffee is dispensed.

2. The machine can't "remember" your preferred strength of coffee. There is a dial that resets to "weak" every cup, so every cup you make, you press the button to start the process and then you have to turn the dial to the right to either "medium" or "strong." It's silly, but why should you have to do this every cup you make, day after day, year after year, when it could have so easily been addressed (other settings can be saved.)

3. Customer service is very spotty. I called once and was given incorrect information, then followed up two more times and had to leave voicemails because nobody was available, and my calls were never returned.

So the coffee is wonderful, but my recommendation is subject to the caveats above.

This machine was on my wishlist for a long time, but I couldn't bring myself to drop close to a $1000 on a coffee machine. One day we realized we had alot of AMEX points and could convert them to use on Amazon... voila! 3 days later the machine was sitting on our kitchen counter. It did take a bit of time to setup and get the hang of how to use the frother but once you do - the coffee gods will smile down on you.

I held back posting a review until now. Last week the filter needed to be replaced and I ordered the wrong one (it's not the white filter that shows up as a bundled item with the tablets btw) so we've not been able to use the machine for the past week. We went back to using our old Tassimo single cup maker which I used to think brewed a pretty good cup of coffee. After drinking espressos, lattes and regular coffee from the Jura for the past 3 months I'm afraid I've been completely spoiled for anything else. This machine has now become an integral part of our daily routine...need to make sure I don't run out of the filters again!

If you're thinking about purchasing this machine all I can say is "do it, just do it".

I bought this machine before I became a "coffee geek", thinking it would make great shots very conveniently. The fact of the matter is that, unfortunately, with superautomatics you tend to get the worst of all possible worlds. Note while this review is specific to this Impressa C5, I've found similar problems on other machines (relatives moved into a house that had a miele superautomatic already installed and it suffered pretty much all the same issues).

1. The main problem is the shots are just not that great. They tend to be thin with not enough crema, and are consistently sour. They're not horrible, but after spending close to a thousand dollars I expected much better quality in the taste.

2. Superautomatics are notably unreliable. My Impressa C5 broke about 2 months after the warranty ran out, and if you search around on coffee forums you'll see this is fairly common. Again, I don't fault Jura for this, it just seems to be a factor of how superautomatics work. There are a lot of moving, electronically controlled parts that have to deal with the fine dust of coffee grinds gumming up the works. Since the cost of getting the machine fixed would have been about 2/3 the cost of a new machine, it just didn't seem worth it.

My suggestions if you are considering this machine:

1. If convenience is very important to you, buy a Nespresso machine instead. You can get a good Nespresso machine for around $200, and while the shots won't be as good as that from a high quality coffee shop, the Ristretto capsules still produce a pretty tasty (and very consistent) shot - certainly much better than I ever got at Starbucks. Plus, I've found my Nespresso machine to be MUCH more reliable. I'm guessing this is mainly due to the fact that there are a lot fewer moving parts, and since the coffee grounds never leave the capsule there is less potential for coffee ground to hurt the more sensitive parts of the machine. I bought my Nespresso machine a couple years ago and couldn't be happier.

2. If you are looking to get an excellent quality shot, you can get a good grinder with a good espresso machine for around $600. If you like to make lattes or cappuccinos, if you have the cash you should splurge on a heat exchanger espresso machine with an E61 brew group and a quality grinder, which can be had for about $1300 total - do research in online coffee forums to find a machine to buy, and a good distributor should be able to explain the pluses/minuses of different machines and grinders. With this setup, if you have fresh, quality beans and the time to hone your barista skills you should be able to make espresso drinks as good as (and usually much better than) any top-notch coffee shop out there.

Easy to set up. Works flawlessly. Makes great coffee. Easy to clean. Looks great.

If you love good coffee and looking for that morning convenience, thinking you'll just press a button and in a matter of seconds your super espresso/latte is ready, well, THINK AGAIN!

I tried several super-automatics from Saeco and Jura recently after having a semi-automatic for years.

First let me say this, this machine requires you to activate a quick water flushing procedure before it is ready for use, why wouldnt it do it automatically???

The espresso coming out of this machine, even if you set the grinder to Fine, would be consistently WEAK! if you wish to use ground coffee (like lets say Lavazza) it just won't work. why? because its too fine!!! the machine would just cancel the brewing cycle if it senses a slow espresso flow.

Overall, comparing to other machines, it is pretty, and it is reliable (for the 14 days I used it) but either the grinder or the tamper or a combination of both produce a very weak coffee, even a double shot with minimal amount of water.

Now the FrothExpress nozzle is a huge disappointment, very meidocre foam with huge bubbles no matter how you approach it.

Overall, I think its great in a small office environment for the average drip coffee drinkers. for serious coffee lovers, don't even think super-automatics if you want a good cup of coffee.

My advice, just get the Gaggia Classic or the Rancilio Silvia, buy ground coffee cans or invest in a good grinder (Baratza/Rancilio) and make real high-quality espressos/capuccino/lates. the mess is just part of the ritual!

If you really insist on conveninece, the Nespresso/Lavazza capsule based systems would do the trick.

Enjoy