De'Longhi Dinamica Espresso Machine, White - Automatic Bean-to-Cup Brewing, Built-In Steel Burr Grinder & Manual Frother - One-Touch Hot & Iced Coffee - Easy Cleanup

We've had (and/or used) a number of automated espresso machines for decades, including Terra Kaffe (TK-01), Saeco, Phillips and Breville. For several reasons, we like the De'Longhi Dinamica best of all after using it for over 3 months now. I like my coffee hot to stay warm in an insulated mug. Most machines can't the coffee hot enough from the get go and I have to follow-up with a microwave, which is a pain, especially if I want to use a metal (e.g., Yeti) mug, requiring switching-to/cleaning another container -- aaargh!While the Dinamica doesn't automate frothing milk like some machines, manually using its steam wand not only gets the very best froth, but makes the coffee perfectly hot! There's the trade-off. And this chrome wand is the bomb! The chrome acquires a patina in a range of bluish-gold hues like a chrome Harley Davidson motor cycle. I've always wanted a Harley!Also, everyone in our house uses different milk/creamers -- so one receptacle for milk that the fully automatic ones have doesn't work for us.The Dinamica also has a large bin for pucks and, most importantly, doesn't abort in the middle of a cup (requiring starting over) when the water is low. That was a real pain with the Terra Kaffe and Saeco.The water receptacle is easily accessible -- sliding out in the front, as does the dredge drawer. So there is no need to move the machine around for routine filling and cleaning. There are also no annoying extra parts in the dredge drawer to have to put back in place, like the Phillips.The white (very light cream color) of this model looks beautiful with our whitish kitchen. No other model we've seen would look as good. It also looks like a quality build.Taste is great once you make the right adjustments to suite your taste as you'd have to do with any automated machine.Other than needing to refer to the manual for settings changes, the only negative would be that the grinder seems just a bit louder than most. But the relatively large bean hopper makes up for that in my mind.

This is a good, lower cost, bean-to-cup machine that is a great choice if you do not make a lot of milk-based drinks (if you do, look to upgrade to a machine with integrated milk dispenser). It suffers from having counter-intuitive controls for the more complex functions and no digital read-out to provide instructions. You will need to have your manual handy to make adjustments or manage cleaning cycles.Update after SIX years! First, it is still going strong, absolutely zero problems, zero maintenance after almost six years and roughly 10,000 cups. Well deserving of a five star review. The little annoyances re the manual etc. are just no big deal. Coffee is excellent and it has proven to be a reliable friend each morning!Longer, two part review: 1) vs the k-cup machines 2) vs other superautosVs the KeurigIf you are one of those people who still use the antiquated k-cup style machines, just stop. This machine is a great alternative that will give you better coffee, save you at least $1,000 over its lifetime, and save the environment from you dumping 10,000 useless plastic containers into the trash. (See bottom for cost savings.) There is really no comparison between the coffee quality - this is VASTLY better tasting coffee. So you get better coffee for less money.Vs other SuperAutosThis is our fourth superauto machine (home and office). We have previously owned Gaggia/Saeco machines. We were looking for a simpler machine this time because we rarely make milk drinks which is the main difference between this and the more expensive models.Strengths:Simple to operate on the basic coffee making functionsVery fast warm-up timePretty good crema (not great but good)Low costLots of adjustability in temperature, grind size, coffee dosage, and drink lengthEasy clean-up with removable infuserWeaknesses:With no display screen, adjusting the settings or performing basic maintenance functions is counter-intutitive to say the least (to descale “Press and hold the [bean] icon (B8) until the [two lines with little triangles] light (B5) and the ESC and OK icons light up…” you get the idea).The manual that came with the machine was not very good – download the more complete manual from the web site (maybe ours was missing?) – to get detailed instructions on how to adjust things (be warned, the manual on the Delonghi site is missing illustrations it says it has!)If you can live with this annoyance, it makes good coffee and works well for the price.Fit & FinishOne of the reasons we went with the DeLonghi instead of the Saeco/Gaggia is that this machine fit better into the décor of the kitchen. It is maddening that nearly all other manufacturers put a white or stainless front on their machines but the rest of the appliance is gray or black. The white version that we bought is white all the way around the appliance so it does not stick out like an eyesore in our white kitchen. The machine is solidly put together and everything fits well.Cost vs K-CupsCompare the cost of 12.5 g net weight of the coffee in a k-cup which runs up to 70 cents for quality brands and 35 cents for the cheap stuff, to the cost of 12.5 g of good quality whole bean coffee at 20-25 cents (Lavazza Super Crema is our preferred daily brand). Multiply the difference by 10,000 cups which this machine should easily deliver before needing repairs (e.g. 5 cups a day for 5 years). At a 20 cents per cup savings this machine will be $2,000 cheaper over its first five years. (n.b. you will probably use less than 12.5 g per cup if you are used to K-cups because this machine is more effective at extracting the coffee.) And the coffee quality on this is MUCH better.

This machine will make a reasonable foam for one coffee, but foaming for a second cup without significant break in between is hopeless, the machine simply does not have enough pressure to do the foam. We called support and were told that this is how the machine works, we can try to turn it off and on to help build up the pressure. Yes, it kind of works, but hhmm... really? Interesting feature.After some time of using the machine we also realized that we are going thorugh a lot more coffee beans than in the past and the reason is that it brews weak coffee and we ended up compensating through using strongest setting and "2x".The temperature of the coffee is also pretty low given we pushed it to the highest setting.I'd totally return it if I could but we uncovered these issues too late. Simply disappointed and will probably end up ditching it (it is less than 1 year old) and going with a different brand.Update: the machine has been in repair for over 3 1/2 months now and it is still not fixed, and De'Longhi is not willing to reimburse me because (quoting their customer support) "the retailer you purchased the unit from was not authorized to sell our products under our warranty."