Buy Super Automatic Coffee Machines

Review by J. Allen:

I lived in Switzerland for four years and while there my standards for coffee changed quite dramatically. Hence on my return to the US my first purchase was this machine. While I was living in Switzerland I went through two Nespresso machines which were a pain in the patootie to keep descaled and operational. Both were hosed by the time I left. I was impressed with the Jura machines owned by Swiss friends and neighbors. I have had this machine for 8 months now and have never regretted my decision to purchase it. It is smart enough to tell you when it needs cleaning and the instructions (unlike the Nespresso machinges I have owned) were very clear. Cleaning is automated and a snap to accomplish. Just initiate the program and it will be through by the time you finish doing the breakfast dishes. The one downside is that it is quite large so you will have to devote quite a bit of counter space to it and if you are big coffee drinkers you will also have to fill the rather small water reservoir quite often but other than that the machine is a dream and if you buy the right beans (hint: buy Lavazza beans here on Amazon on auto order – VERY economical) you will have lovely coffee moments. No need for ‘bucks unless you want WiFi.

Review by Michael Miller:

After weeks of research we ended up selecting the Jura-Capresso ENA 4.

I was a bit skeptical that this small little super automatic could really replace our larger manual and brew quality espresso. I went to a local retailer and was fortunate enough to be able to use a demo unit. I was amazed by how simple and intuitive the ENA 4 is to use; while at the same time provides a level of flexibility and control well beyond my expectations.

The Jura-Capresso site has some great video demos as well as other info that is worth checking out.

[...]

If you’re looking for a super automatic, I highly recommend you take a look at the ENA. Our unit has exceeded our expectations. Great espresso and lattes!

Review by Katrina728:

I received this machine as a gift (thankfully, ‘cuz I wouldn’t have been able to afford it for myself). Before this I had a Capresso CoffeeTEC machine. The Magnifica is so easy to use and to clean, it’s great not to have to deal with filters, grinders, frothers, etc. My husband is a stickler for using freshly ground coffee beans for his coffee. It’s such a joy not to have to sweep up the coffee grinds from the floor now! Anyway, here are some things I like about it:

- Amazing tasting coffee; freshly ground at the touch of a button. Several people have told me that it tastes better than Starbucks coffee

- Machine rinses itself after turn on and before turn off

- Tells you when to clean the coffee grind container (makes ‘em into little hockey pucks)

- Wide range of coffee strengths from which to choose: extra mild, mild, regular, strong, extra-strong

- 3 cup sizes from which to choose. You can change the settings so the cup sizes are customized for you. I use the “Long” setting. If you press it twice quickly, it will make 2 ‘long’ coffees for you

- Love the frothing pitcher. Just attach it, press the cappuccino button, sit back and watch it make you a steaming hot cappuccino with thick froth. Frother puts frothed milk directly into your cup and then makes the espresso and puts it in the cup.

- There’s a pre-ground “bypass” button. I use it when I want to have decaf. I add ground decaf beans and use the frother to add frothed milk.

- Machine tells you everything that it “needs.” “Fill Beans container, descale, add water…etc.”

- You can use the water spout for instantaneous hot water for tea, hot chocolate, etc.

- Starbucks will sell you bottles of their flavored syrups, so I bought several of my favorite flavors for my little “at home cafe”

Update Sep 2008: About a month ago I opened the front door of the machine and it was empty. I thought to myself “who would’ve broken into my house and only stolen the infuser to the coffee machine?” I examined the machine and was able to see that the infuser was stuck in the housing at the top of the machine. An internet search showed that other people had had the same problem but no solutions were posted. I called DeLonghi and went through a few troubleshooting steps with a friendly customer service lady. Finally we gave up and she said I had to send it in to get it fixed. They sent me the boxes, labels and packing materials, which was nice. I sent it to an appliance place in NY. After 3 weeks I called to check the status and they said, “It’s on the shelf; we’ll get to it.” Within a day or two the machine was delivered and working again. It was a bummer to have to ship it out to get it fixed (took a month) and my other gripe is that it came back dirtier than when I sent it (coffee grounds everywhere, etc.). Would’ve been nice if they wiped it down. Anyway, DeLonghi customer service handled it well.

Review by Ute Roesner:

Let me express my extreme unhappiness with the handling of a replacement part order by DeLonghi itself, not Amazon.

Two weeks after we received the coffee maker, one of the three O-rings broke which means that the frothed/steamed milk feature is deactivated ever since.

I ordered three replacement O-rings three weeks ago from their web page, get a link that tells me that I can always “find out the current status”, which is total bogus because the status never appeared on the web page.

I sent an email to this same address 1 week after the order (Dec 11) to inquire what the status is. On the web page and in the phone message under the service number DeLonghi prides itself that any email would be answered within 1 business day. I have not received any reaction to my email.

I called the DeLonghi customer service number on 12/15 to inquire the status of the order. I was told that there are not 3 O-rings available at this point and this caused my order to be blocked. I was told that 1 or 2 O-ring are in stock and that I would get at least 1 O-ring shipped that same day.

I called the DeLonghi customer service number again on 12/20 to inquire the status of the partial shipment. The person on the phone was unable to find out about the real status, was unable to find the supervisor but promised me that she would personally ask the supervisor for help with an expedited shipment when (s)he becomes available again.

Another phone call today, 12/27, resulted in more of the same, more postponing, no explanations.

The DeLonghi web page trumpets the following:

White Glove Service Guarantee (Available in U.S. Only)

“Your choice of the Magnifica super automatic espresso machine reveals that you have the highest standards, and we at DeLonghi strive to always exceed those expectations. Our specially trained DeLonghi espresso experts are here to serve your needs in any way we can.”

Given the history of my order of 3 little O-rings, this sounds like an extremely bad joke.

We are happy with the machine (even though we did not expect its first flaw of a broken O-ring to happen so soon) but extremely unsatisfied with the worst customer support we have experienced in a long time. A real shame given that we paid 00 for a coffee machine “with the highest standards” and I shudder at the thought that I would ever have to ask for more significant customer service than a little black O-ring.

We will never again buy another DeLonghi product!

Review by garzascreek:

After purchasing increasingly more expensive (and increasingly more disappointing) Saecos in search of a machine that is not more annoying than useful, I stumbled upon the XP9000 during my last research journey. First thing I noticed is a user manual readable by a speaker of English (could be more detailed though). Download it from Krups website and see what I mean. All the features needed for real-world use and none of the unnecessary ones.

This Krups speced, Jura designed and manufactured Swiss-made machine has ended my search. It has good programmability so you can tweak the settings to your liking. I actually found most of the default settings not to my liking so it was nice I could configure personal settings. Nice! It has the most original and useful steaming/frothing system of any machine and thankfully avoids the idiotic internal milk container fad common with its peers. You also don’t need to use a frothing pitcher unless you want to since the frothing wand is on an extension that goes all the way into your cup. So, if you are only making one cappuccino, for example, just fill cup half full of milk and hit the Automatic Cappuccino button and lower the frother. Those with other machines know well the annoyance of getting out the pitcher for just one drink and having to stand there holding it and then end up with too much.

Yes, it is true if you have the correct technique you can get a better froth doing it manually but most of the time I am willing to trade for speed and convenience and end up with “good enough.” I also like that it prompts for a frother cleaning if idle for something like 10 minutes. Particularly useful if you are making many drinks over a period of time for guests. Never again a dried milk skin clogging the frother. I have recently just resorted to using the steam button into a cup of water for a few seconds followed by a wipedown instead of opening the control panel and paging to the steamer cleaning menu (which just does the same thing).

It has a few idiosyncracies (takes 10 seconds for steam to preheat, for example, and is not the most powerful steamer out there but is more than good enough) but I am hard pressed to find any serious negatives since it has all the features I have longed for. The only thing that caught me by surprise is the size. When you see the picture of the unit you might not realize it is twice as deep as it is wide. So, measure your proposed location.

Some things I did to improve performance: If you receive excessive out of beans warnings, unscrew and remove the unneeded grinder “umbrella” designed to help people to overcome their uncontrollable urge to jamb their finger into the grinder while it is operating. But this is really a standard mod required on all espresso machines made in this litigious era.

The default middle position on the grinder control resulted in weak brews and soupy pucks. Moving the grinder control just one size larger resulted in a perfect espresso and dry grounds. This probably varies with the beans one uses so experiment.

As mentioned, I did not like any of the automatic settings so created my own (strength, time to steam, etc). You may not need to but be willing to go through several shots experimenting.

There are several reviews on the Internet complaining about frothing stopping after a couple months. Don’t believe them. The manual tells you how to easily remove the steamer and clean it. You should do this once just so you can see how the mechanism works, with the separate steaming and frothing modes. Remember, when a problem arises, R.T.F.M. See also my comment on cleaning the frother on the very first review below.

For a grand, this is the best one out there. A true real-world home espresso machine that allows enough tweaking to make it right for anyone.

Review by Addie M:

I bought the Krups XP9000 Fully automatic Espresso Machine and it is my favorite all time kitchen purchase, here’s why.

* Machine is fully automatic- which means I can place my coffee cup under the dispenser and just press a button if I want a coffee, espresso

* If I want to make a latte or cappuccino, I don’t need to have a separate milk container. I can froth the milk right in my mug then pull the espresso. ( I thought the frothing attachment was super easy to use and after 4 months of making vanilla lattes have not had any issues)

* I can use whole beans or ground coffee- I prefer fresh, whole beans ground right before I make my coffee.

* Excellent foam (crema) on the espresso.

* The digital display on the machine informs me when I need to empty any receivers, add water or beans.

* If we need to set the program for a longer shot of espresso for my husband, the machines will recognize his setting and program that just for him.

* This is as close to going out and buying a latte or coffee at a coffee house,

It is definitely worth the investment if you want a really good coffee experience at home.

Review by I. Peters:

The Bosch Benvenuto B30 is an exceptional coffee maker. We used to have a fully automatic Saeco model for the past 9 years, but it recently started leaking and so we decided to get a new machine.

Before buying the Benvenuto B30, we researched quite a few machines: The Saeco models we saw on store display didn’t strike us as too well-made. Our old one was largely metal but we found the new models to be made of relatively flimsy-feeling plastic. We then looked at the Jura machines but ultimately decided against them due to their high prices, reviews we read that the coffee isn’t made hot enough, and also because Jura machines only allow for three different coffee strength settings – weak, medium, and strong. We wanted more choices.

Having had experience with these types of machines for almost 10 years, we knew what we wanted: a height-adjustable spout, the possibility to use both beans and ground coffee, a relatively quiet operation, and an intelligent design which would tell us when to refill water, beans, when to clean, descale, etc. The B30 does all that and more. Moreover, it offers stylish design and is very well made.

The machine does not take long to reach its required operating temperature and the electronic display informs you when it is ready. The coffee strength can be adjusted from mild to extra-strong. Furthermore, the amount of water can be adjusted to accomodate small Espresso cups, XXL coffee mugs and pretty much everything in-between.

Undoubtedly the best feature is the height-adjustable spout, or rather spouts (the B30 has 2) which let you brew 2 cups of coffee simultaneously – a huge time-saver in the morning! We found that although the height can only be adjusted by little over 4 inches, there is no problem to use cups higher than that. This is due to the clever design that gives ample and easy access to the spouts from the side as well as from the front – we just move the cups under the spouts holding them at a slight angle. With our old Saeco machine, we always had to remove the grille and tray to be able to accomodate larger mugs.

Another very nice feature is that the water temperature can be adjusted. At the Maximum setting, the coffee is piping hot – very useful when adding cold frothed milk to it because with other machines, this makes the coffee too cold to be enjoyable. The B30 even has a heated top grille for pre-heating your coffee mugs!

And if all of that weren’t enough, the machine even has an automatic timer function to automatically turn itself on at a pre-set time, and turn itself off again after a set number of hours.

In summary, this machine is incredibly easy to operate, fast and makes excellent coffee in all kinds of strengths and sizes. An integrated steamer to froth milk, etc. is of course standard.

The only other thing I would like to mention is that if you are a larger family of coffee lovers, you may find the water tank to be a bit on the small side. In our house we’re just two people and find that we have to refill the tank every day after just 2 – 3 cups of XXL-size coffee. Then again: This also ensures that the water is always fresh and not stale from sitting in the tank for too long. So you be the judge whether this is a negative or not.

I whole-heartedly recommend this machine which in my opinion offers a lot more than the overpriced Jura machines, especially when it comes to flexibility!

Review by M. Zukerman:

The Bosch is a great machine – I owned a Jura F7 for about 18 months and finally returned it to Sur La Table (great return policy at Sur La Table by the way). The Jura was absolutely acceptable when it worked, but I think we killed it when my wife switched to decaf and started using the bypass chute every day. It started showing error messages and would refuse to work from time to time. I finally got fed up when some beans got stuck in the grinder chute and would not budge! So back it went.

ANyway, I found this machine and it has a very similar style to the Jura-Capressos (internal mechanism, same steam wand, etc.), but it makes WAY better espresso than the Juras. It is consistently stronger and richer than the Jura. SOmetimes in the Jura I would feel the need for two shots just to taste the coffee through the milk in my capuccinos. In the Bosch, one shot’ll do you. I never knew what I was missing with the Jura.

I also tried the Saeco Incanto Sirius which I really liked as well, except that it made crappy soap bubble foam (why do people put up with that? have you never had good dense microfoam??). Unlike the Jura (and now the Bosch) the Steam Wand on the Saeco was not at all modifiable. See my Jura F7 review for the modification to the Jura and the Bosch to create a traditional single hole steam wand. No big deal – basically it involves screwing a Krups tip on the existing wand. Righty tighty, lefty loosey is all you need to know. Learn to use a traditional steam wand and you will NEVER be satisfied again with the crap foam that is created by any of these so called “frother aids.” By the way the steam pressure on the Bosch is much stronger than the JUra – almost hard to control, but once you get the hang of it, you will be making capuccinos like an Italian barista, only without the tamper, dregs box and mess.

The only things keeping this from 5 stars are: 1) poor foam out of the box (but that applies to ALL super automatics), 2) first shot is always bad and way too cool – easily solved by running a rinse first (which is not as simple as the Jura since there is no rinse button – have to trick it into thinking you put grounds in the bypass chute), and 3) when you ask for a double, it just doubles the water – same as the Jura. Some of the Italian machines (like Saeco) actually brew two shots in succession (but as I noted above – generally one long shot is sufficient.)

By the way, bought it at Costco Online for about 50. Costco is the way to go for so many reasons.

Review by DSM Webb:

Capresso Jura-Capresso ENA5 Automatic Coffee and Espresso machine.

I bought my machine in February and followed that up with the purchase of a two stage frothing nozzle.

All was well for a couple of days, when the nozzle flew off into the milk, splashing it everywhere and blasting steam out as follow up.

This despite stripping down the nozzle after each use and cleaning it with the brushes provided.

After this happening several times, I returned the unit to the “Coffee Shop”. I was informed after a week that it was a cleaning problem. There was nothing wrong with the machine!!!

They would return the machine to me on payment of £128.

I accept that part of this charge is supplying a container since I had made the error of destroying the original (who has space for all that sort of stuff?)

They won’t budge on this and despite having a lot of customers they informed me who had experienced the same problem.

It would seem to me to be yet another design fault since the fit of the nozzle onto the machine is by a soft rubber connector.

But it seems the customer is in the wrong and all these customers had not cleaned their nozzles sufficiently well. I don’t think so!

Best not to buy this machine if you intend to use this frothing nozzle.

Review by Sir:

We switched from a Nespresso machine to the Jura ENA 5 some weeks ago, because we loved the sleek compact design, and felt that the Nespresso system was wasteful.

The Ena 5 has been a huge disappointment in terms of reliability and usability – less so the quality of the espresso.

Reliability: after only *19 days*, the machine failed on us. When set to “2 cups” it started to dump the coffee in the internal tray, instead of in the cups. The Jura hotline confirmed that the machine was faulty and should be replaced. However, after receiving the machine and confirming that it was probably a production error, they insisted rather obnoxiously on a repair rather than replacement since the machine was older than 14 days. The arrogance with which Jura treats its customers is typical of businesses that enjoy a strong market position.

Usability: due to the extremely small repositories for coffee beans and water, the machine is continuously prompting to be refilled or emptied. The position of the tap switch directly above the tap is unfortunate.

Quality of taste: In the short time that the machine was working we experimented with a number of quality beans and ground settings, but felt that the coffee was good, but didn’t quite come close to the quality of the Nespresso machine (which was still working after 4 years!). I am also not convinced that the TCO of the Nespresso system is so bad after all, and the customer service was always excellent.

I would strongly recommend anyone from purchasing the Jura machine.

**Update October 2009**

After repair the machine worked for a further 6 weeks before failing again with the same failure mode!! Jura again refused to replace the machine. We received it back again today, and are just waiting for it to break once more.

You have been warned!