I work from home and drink about 3 cups a day. Over the years I’ve gone from French press to pour over to all sorts of different kinds of coffee. This is great because I get the fresh ground beans, rich, coffee, and froth with the push of a button – which is really nice when I’m in a hurry or about to jump on a conference call. No coffee ground mess. No cleanup. I also like the steam feature, it’s very easy to just pop the steamer off and rinse it off. Personally, I think this is the way to go versus the steamer cup which would be a nightmare to clean. All in all, I’m very pleased with this purchase. Some of the other reviews are critical of the operational aspect of the machine, and if you’re having challenges with that, just use AI and it will tell you how to use the machine and what the different lights and buttons mean. Beyond that, it’s very easy to set up, fill with both coffee and water, and maintain. I find it’s easiest not to fill the coffee beans all the way to the top, and the water filter that comes with it annoys me, so I don’t use it – I use filtered water instead. That’s my only complaint. It’s just a really poor design. In terms of operation, though it grinds the beans and the little pucks that go into the center of the machine and the bottom tray slides out with a container that holds those little pucks for disposal. When you turn it on, it runs a quick flush cycle and that water drains into a tray that is very easy to remove and drain and it also runs a flush cycle when it auto powers off after a few minutes. Again, very easy to use and I highly recommend it. The coffee itself is very flavorful and taste great and I actually use less coffee than I did in a traditional pour over so I’ll save a nominal amount of money over time too. Read more
I had been shopping for an automatic espresso machine for a while but was not sure which to choose. I had narrowed down to three based on price and features and this model by Phillips made the cut. When I saw it on sale I jumped on it and was glad I did. There was one fairly aggravating element though that I will share but first the good aspects of this machine. It is well built and performs flawlessly making espresso, steaming milk and even makes regular coffee. The hopper to hold the beans is large enough that I only have to fill it once every ten days or so. The espresso tastes magnificent, like a high end coffee shop. Making a latte's is more involved but still easy. The water resevoir is easily accesible from the front of the unit - something important if you place the machine under a cabinet as I did. Cleaning is equally low effort with the used coffee "pucks" being deposited in a tray in the front which can be slid out and disposed of as you wish. Now for the negative...This coffee maker came with NO INSTRUCTIONS. No quick start guide, no detailed instructions - nada. Phillips wants you to go to their website via QR code to get them. Which is no problem except their QR codes are wrong and lead you instead to 404 code empty pages. OK, no big deal right? Just use the full internet address on the box to access the instructions. Doing so leads you through a myriad of special offers for filters, coffee deals and other Phillips acccesories and extended warranties. All in multiple languages. So, after receiving my much anticipated coffee maker I spent an hour searching for instructions on the features and how to operate it. In the end I gave up. I started pressing buttons and in a day or so I had everything sorted out. Needless to say, however, this was very aggravating to not simply have a quick start guide in the box or written manual. Don't force me to go to your website and assault me with buying more stuff at least until I start using the thing I just bought. The effect, for me, is that I am reluctant to buy another Phillips product despite the fact that I love this one, simply because I don't want to waste my time trying to figure out how to use it. Put written instructions in your product packaging people! It's cheap and easy. Plus sometimes we don't want to pull out our phones or walk back and forth to a computer. Think about the user experience next time! Read more
This is the third time I have ordered this model (order close enough since the prior one had a couple extra buttons). It is the second time I have received it DOA. I know it I know it makes great espresso, because the second order, the machine worked. It worked great , for about four years. So I reordered to replace it, because it had developed an internal leakage issue. I think this might be common, because the first one I got had an internal leakage issue, resulting in its return and replacement with #2. I had high hopes that #3 would be as #2 was, until its unfortunate demise. No Luck! It arrived and I set it up, and pressed the button. There was no coffee, or anything else, in my cup. There was no coffee puck in the "used" bin (a few grounds), and there was some water under the machine and in the "used" bid. I trouble-shot it up the wazoo. Took out the aqua-clean device to see if that was blocking the water. moved the beans around in the hopper, to see if there was a blockage. That changed nothing. I called for support until I determined that I knew more about the devise than the script-reading support staff. So I set it up for a return, and it is gone. Disappointedly, Amazon is not giving an upfront refund like they usually do. Frustrating, but I guess needed if I am returning a high value item. I have ordered another version of this. pared down to the espresso making part of the machine. Hope Spring eternal. Note that my first Phillips espresso machine was the Vienna. It worked very well for about 10 years, before it died. That was perfectly acceptable. I would have bought it again, but the model had changed. Even the most recent machine that died right before I got this one, lasted a good five years before it sprung a leak. Read more
