The following comments are for the Gaggia Cadorna Barista Plus and Importika's customer service, 2 month after initial purchase. My opinion of both is very positive. The Barista Plus, delievers a great cup of coffee with what seems to be an infinate number of coffee strengths within the five coffee drink types (expresso, espresso lungo, ristretto, coffee, and Americano). Compared to drip, k-cup, and French press, there is no comparision, the cup of coffee from the Barista Plus is far superior (even when using cheap beans). The machine worked flawlessly for ca. 1.5 months until a power outage. After the outage, the Barista Plus no longer turned on. I called Gaggia's importer, Importika, customer service to see what could be done to get the machine to turn on. After describing the problem and the characteristics, neither customer service or technical support at Importika had seen the symptoms before. Solution - send the Barista Plus back to Importika, who will send a replacement. Simple easy solution! Excellent customer service! This is when we realized that within the 1.5 months of using the origianl Barista Plus, we had become hooked on the coffee delievered from the Barista Plus! Now we would have to switch back to the old options, the horror! If you are wondering if the Barista Plus is worth the amount? We wondered this too. For us, no question, the investment in a great cup of coffee was money well spent. One word of caution. Having lived in Europe, All-In-One coffee makers and espresso machines are very common there. These machines with the grinder and high pressure are complex. Expect break downs with any all-in-one or expresso machines, even with the high end, $10,000 machines. For the Barista Plus, it appears that later in the life, it will be fairly easy to fix as the major componets are independant. Thus, components, such as the grinders, can be removed as a unique unit and replaced. Read more
I bought a Gaggia Cardona Plus Machine last month, on Amazon from the Whole Latte Love seller, I already received my machine 1 week ago in my country and it brought a split internal plastic part that does not allow the machine to work anymore that spills the hot water below. I need please go to the use of the guarantee of this new equipment. Because it is seen that the part that is broken must be damaged from the factory Read more
The machine makes fine espresso BUT Setup was painful. Only pictures were available: Language was invented for a reason! And a clearly described "Here is what you do first?" was not available. BUT the water container sticks. It is impossible to remove it without splahing water everywhere. No one in our family can find a way to remove it smoothly. For this kind of money, we should not have to slop water around and clean it up every day or so. If the machine were smaller, or locally bought, I would have returned it. As is, we will live with the problem. FINALLY, the instructions about the grinder are terrifying and would convince cautious users like me to never touch it! They say that the grinder can only be adjusted while grinding is going on, AND it must be changed only one click at a time. The instruction threaten that moving more than one click will break the grinder!!! Read more
Great machine. Makes espresso, the milk frother works very will, better than competing brands. We have had 4 Gaggia machines in our immediate family. I think is the best brand out there in the price range. Read more
Great product. Reliable. Consistent. Easy to use and maintain. Definitely have to brew on more intense settings as it tends to be on the weaker side. Overall, definitely recommend if what you want is a machine that gives you great espresso with minimal fuss. We drink espressos and americanos almost exclusively, so haven’t used the steam wand much. Read more
I have had this machine for a month. I use it daily. Really enjoy the coffee and espresso. It can be challenging to remove the pieces to properly clean. But it is nice that it comes apart. The drip tray could provide a warning when the water level is high. I would not buy this again. There are a lot (all) of plastic parts and pieces. I can't detect any metal. My concern is that it won't last for many years. Read more
I was quite excited to purchase this machine. My Nespresso machine is dying after many years of faithful service and I wanted something that could compare to it - fast and easy to use. This machine is easy to use, but does seem to take some tuning. No one really talks about how you need to pull at least 12-20 shots to "tune the machine" (not sure what they even mean by that). But I never got anything but watery, tea-like shots out of it. I did talk to the support team and, to be fair, their support team are great. I do believe that if the machine is working well, you may get great results. I seem to just have been unlucky and did not, so the machine is going back. Read more
I would never buy this again. This is my third Espresso machine and the other two lasted many years. I have owned this one for over a year and a half now. The water constantly leaks and the panel on the front of the water reservoir broke off. Very low quality. Read more
