Customer Reviews

Saeco 641 Odea Go Super Automatic Espresso Machine

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

But then again, I guess I wouldn't know how good it really is.

Four stars because a) I haven't had it long enough to give it a 5 and b) I'm taking off one star for the price.

I really like this machine, I was hesitant to get a super automatic because I like the process of making espresso. However, when I need multiple shots each morning for 2 drinks, this is far more practical. I was not interested in the sales associates' push for Nespresso because I can't see being tied down to one brand of pod forever, so I went with this. I've had it a few weeks, so I will update if I run into any snags, but so far so good.

Prior to this I had a Krups (great while it lasted, actually), and a DeLonghi, and a Breville Ikon that I returned. I was looking at this, a Capresso, and a Gaggia, but the store where I returned the Ikon only had this so I gave it a shot.

Pros:
Delicious espresso, nice crema, but it does take some experimenting with grinds, etc. I am still working on getting it just how I want it, but still, the worst cup out of this machine is better than good cups in others. I use it for lattes almost exclusively, but my husband has had shots and likes them a lot. It is incredibly fast shot to shot, something I was hesitant about in leaving my beloved filling and tamping behind, but now I will never look back! The frother is very powerful and fast, the best I've had on any machine.

Cons:
As another reviewer mentioned, this machine has quite a personality! It is like C3PO (or is it R2D2) in my kitchen each day, Flashing, blinking, making sounds. It always wants something: Fill water, empty grounds, release hot water. If I didn't like the coffee and ease of use so much it might be annoying but for now I find it entertaining. I feel like it's letting me know what it needs, so that's ok I guess.

I don't like how plasticky it is, it feels like a $100 Krups, but it looks nice and the coffee is what matters. Nearly everything comes apart for easy and thorough cleaning, so I always know it's clean through and through, unlike some other machines I've had.

Machine is kinda big. I have a lot of counter space (for once in my life!) and I have it angled in a corner. It looks great and blends in, but if space is an issue for you, note that the size is a bit deep. The curve of it makes it look a little smaller than it is, and it definitely looks stylish.

Other comments:
Some online reviews I saw noted it's finicky about beans. I've tried two kinds now and haven't had any trouble with the taste or grinder getting stuck.

I hope this review is helpful. The espresso machine purchase process is overwhelming, and it seems like there are shortcomings to all of them. I am really glad I took two back wound up with this one, even if the process of finding it was maddening. I was about to give up and not even own a machine at home any longer. I gave it one last whirl with this one. As I was walking out of the dept. store, a stately European couple saw me walking with the giant orange box and stopped me to tell me "What a great machine! We bought it a few months ago, you're going to love it." I grilled them about 4-5 concerns, they raved, and I felt like I was at least off to a better start with this machine than with the others that were mediocre or bad.

FYI: Many Bed, Bath and Beyonds sell these and honor the 20% mailers they send out, should you choose to buy it in person. (I would, in case anything goes wrong. I am done with getting electronics >$100 online and messing with shipping.)

I recently upgraded to this model from a Krups steam espresso maker and it was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. I can't believe I did upgrade sooner.

The espresso comes out perfect, just like those at places like Starbucks. My favorite part about this model is the minimum work required for cleaning. It has a bin that collects the used grounds so you don't have to empty and clean after every cup.

The steam for the milk frother comes out super fast and super hot. It takes less than 30 seconds for me to froth milk. And when you're done, just rinse the plastic nozzle and you're set for the next cup.

Now the only downside about this model: it doesn't store too much water. If you have 2 or more people using this thing every morning, there's a good chance someone will always have to refill the water in the tank after the machine pumps out a half cup of coffee and blinks its red light. Even then, for the price, it is well worth it and provides great value.

Update 4/7/2010 - Still turning out great coffee/espresso with ease after 3 years of service. Must've saved me $1000 from morning trips to Starbucks annually.

This is my second Saeco Espresso machine that I have bought in the last year. I first bought the Taleo Giro for $1000 from Costco, which worked beautifully for about 4 months, but then a clogged grinder prevented me from brewing any more coffee--only the hot water worked. I called Saeco on multiple occasions and even though every one was friendly, the only resolution was sending me one instruction booklet after another. Some instructions did not match my model, some where from a previous version of the same model and some were so complicated that I did not know how to follow them (it was basically taking apart the entire grinder--and that was recommended to be done every two weeks). I spend less time maintaining my car then it looks like the Saeco machine requires.
Then I bought the Saeco Odea upon reading the instruction manual and feeling assured that I did not need to disassemble the machine every other week. Again, it stopped working after 6 months. Again, I get brochures from their customer service, but no trouble shooting assistance--and this model apparently also requires complete disassembly of the grinder every other week. When asked why the original manual does not let you know that, I received an "I don't know".
I am going back to my basic Krups model that requires no maintenance--if you are looking for a hobby and love to take things apart, the Saeco might be a great fit--otherwise: Stay clear.

This was my first espresso machine that I have owned, but have used many manual machines. The most common use I have for it, is making espresso/cappuccino for family dinners; I do make single batches for myself on weekends. I have found it superb for single doses and a tad more complicated for multi-batch sessions. I agree that more stainless vs. plastic would have been nice, but the plastic is easy to clean, and does blend nicely into a stainless kitchen. The wand should have been either all metal or "rubber" (some heat resistant pliable stuff) as hard plastic is the worst of both worlds, but that being said I have had zero problems with it. It is very easy to clean. On the other hand, it is impossible to foam and not get foam on the handle and up into the joint between the tip and the pipe of the wand (remember to clean it too). I would be gentle with the wand.

Making Coffee
1. First off finding the sweet spot on the coffee strength meter, will take you a few batches. On my machine just about 2.5 dots makes a perfect 2 cup espresso.

2. Be careful on first startup of the day, put a mug underneath the machine, as the cleaning/priming cycle can spurt a fair amount of boiling coffee stained water. I keep a spare mug next to the machine just for startup.

3. Eventually after the entertaining light show (really? before I've had my coffee??) the machine is ready for brewing. Press the big coffee cup button, and after loud grinding, magically coffee comes forth! Depending on your dial setting you get anything from concentrated espresso through cafe-americano.

4. Now onto milk steaming (for cappuccino/latte). First off press the steam button and wait until the thermometer stops blinking. Now using your spare cup open the steam valve and let the boiling water spew out until steam only is coming. Now insert into your milk pitcher and foam until you get to 140-150 degrees (yes you need a foaming thermometer) which depending on how cold your milk is, a minute or two. Make your cappuccino as desired.

5. Cleaning: well remember that hockey puck of beans it made, well it's sitting in the container to the right, along with overflow of the steaming cycle. This machine has a bizarrely low tolerance for stuff in the right container. I have had it complain with 2 batches of espresso (sometimes due to too much water and if the grounds land standing on edge, it gets unhappy too). When making lots of batches in a row, you will be filling water and emptying the waste side frequently. Some people are more annoyed than others. I agree, slightly larger would have been useful, but I wouldn't want the machine to be larger. I also after removing the wand tip and cleaning it in the sink, then take my spare mug filled with hot water and clean the handle and end of the wand (it undoubtable has milk on the o-rings, etc.

Other lessons:
1. I found larger beans makes it unhappy, I switched to the Illy whole beans, which have smaller beans, and works perfectly.

2. Not sure why the water filter is not included: buy them, as it tastes better and more importantly reduces scale buildup.

3. Read the manual on maintenance (there is a Saeco kit that includes everything) and perform it regularly. To remove the guts (the brew group) it's behind the door on the right, press the "push" button and pull the whole thing out. Carefully follow the directions in applying the silicone lubricant as instructed. It's a little tricky getting it all back in.

Sum up: I really like it, and it cranks through repeat brewing fairly quickly (albeit with the delay of refilling/emptying) without complaint. Occasionally it becomes "de-primed" which is solved by opening the steam valve and dispensing hot water until it stops blinking red. Not sure what de-primes it, but it is infrequent. I would purchase this again.

As another reviewer stated, this coffee machine is great when it works. I purchased this Saeco as a gift for my mother because I had been so satisfied with my own Saeco Charisma I had purchased a year and a half prior. Unlike the Charisma, the Odea Go has been a huge disappointment. Out of the box, it did not function and had to be returned to Saeco for repair. That return went fairly smoothly. Now less than 5 months later, it is not working again (it appears to be a problem with the bean grinder - which they had replaced the first time around). Upon calling Saeco, my mother was told she would have to pay for any repairs this time, even though it comes with a 1-year warranty. I am counfounded by this.

In sum: Extremely poor product backed by very poor customer service.

Also, don't buy this from Kitchen Gadetry, as they have a terrible return policy. If they weren't going to charge me a $150 return fee the first time around, I would have returned this machine and purchased something different. Now it appears with are stuck with a $550 lemon.

I agree with the reviewer who says the Odea leaks (mine started day one) and the customer service is non-existent. I purchased my Odea a year ago. I decided I could live with the leaking issue as it brewed a descent cup of java. However when the unit ceased to function altogether, I contacted the customer service email listed in the unit. After a week they responded and told me to contact the warranty vendor (Saeco, it turns out, does not offer any warranty on their product!).

I called the number they gave me and got a recording. I left phone number and email contact info. They have not responded.

I contacted Saeco again and they said, in essence, tough luck--that's when they told me that they offer no warranty service on the products they sell.

Any company that does not warranty its product is a failed company. I will never even consider purchasing another Saeco product and would recommend you do not buy any Saeco machine.

The Saeco Odea Giro makes good espresso and is quick to heat up. General speaking, it is a convenient and stylish machine.

My perspective, this machine has some drawbacks. First, the steam wand uses cheap plastic material. The position of rubber handler is misplaced. The rubber touches milk foam almost every time when I make cappuccinos. I cannot understand a $700 machine uses such cheap plastic for steam wand. Second, the drip water tray is small. If you only make coffee, you probably will be OK. If you need to make milk foam, the machine will ask you to clean up the water tray for every two cups of cappuccino. It is annoying. Third, the water tank is small. If you like hot coffee, you probably need hot water to warm up your cup. Well, you need to fill up the water tank more often than you expect. Last, you normally would like to keep coffee bean in a cool place. This machine has coffee bean grinder next to the cup warmer. Cup warmer is not practical to use, but warm the coffee bean every time when you make coffee. It is a bad idea and not so good design.

The Saeco customer support is not consistent. One gentleman was rude and put me on hold for 20 minutes till I gave up. One lady was very nice to answer my question. So if you don't get your answer, you probably need to make the second call.

I have mixed feelings about this machine so will try and keep it to the point.

PROS
Very easy to use
Makes good hot coffee
Milk frother warms up quickly and makes for hot coffee and milk
Milk wand is easy to clean as it has a plastic cover - unlike some metal ones that dry up the milk and take forever to clean
Dreg draw is easy to take out and clean

CONS
It is pretty plastic and big
Water tank is small and therefore making coffee for more than two people can become pretty time consuming and labour intensive for an automatic machine.
Drip tray is way too small
They recommend you dismantle the machine at the end of the brewing day and rinse out a removable part of the machine above the dreg draw - which I have been consistently doing. This however seems to have been my demise as it has warped over time and will now not go back in. I think the plastic construction has allowed the warping to occur.

MIXED - It is forever flashing a light at you - once you get to know what they mean it is quite helpful to manage the machine but is initially pretty frustrating when all you want is a cup of coffee!

Long and short of it all - we have had the machine for 18 months max, and use it for four cups of coffee per day max and it has died on us.
Saeco customer service has been non existent. I cant even find a local service agent.
I don't think we have been hard on it at all and expect more for the money so I am moving on to another machine!

We've had our Odea Go for 4 months now. We love it. It is so easy, even my husband can make a latte. ;) We find the drinks to be just as good as the chain coffee shops we used to frequent.
I do caution, there may be some mechanical issues. After 3 months of making 6 shots/day, the machine began experiencing problems (red light came on suggesting it needed to be "primed" all the time). Eventually, it did not work. I called Saeco for service. It took quite some time on hold, but the service rep was helpful. He immediately sent out a new brew group; I was so grateful I didn't have to send anything to Saeco for repair! The new brew group works great, we are back to saving
$.
I really hope the machine lasts beyond the 1-year warranty. Even if it doesn't, we'll have saved more than enough to pay for itself.

Update: Machine is not working again. This time, it appears to be the grinder. We make 6 espresso shots/day, so it has been nice. But, we will likely be returning it before the warranty expires. Disappointing, as we really liked the machine.

Update #2: Tried customer service on three occassions. Each time, waited for 15+ minutes before being disconnected! Thank goodness we were able to unload this machine. We picked up a DeLonghi Esclusivo and are happy to date.

I agree this coffee maker does an excellent job when it works; Unfortunately about 2 months after purchasing, it clogged itself. After numberous calls to Saeco (and getting hung up/transfered to vmail) I finally got a very helpful live person. She sent me some instructions to clean/modify the coffee maker that *might* solve the problem. I will try this out when I get home. The instructions are simple and clear, but not expected for a product in this price range.

I'm a strong believer high quality, and willing to pay a premium for such quality. I am disappointed with any device that fails this quickly (perhaps 100 coffees over a 2month time). That is why I will only give a 1 star rating.

After 3 phone calls to Saeco customer support (everybody was very friendly, but never actually solved anything) I was told I need to return the coffee maker to Saeco (I pay to pack and ship to Saeco). I was then told it will take 4-6 weeks for the repair. It's sad to say that if my $400 laptop breaks, LaptopCompany will send me a box, and pay shipping both ways... but my $600 coffee maker doesn't have near the customer service.

Simply because of the hassle factor, I have just purchased another expresso maker from a different Italian company. I will return my coffee maker to the large warehouse store with a very generous return policy.