1200 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine, Classic Milk Frother, 2 Coffee Varieties, Intuitive Touch Display, 100% Ceramic Grinder, AquaClean Filter, Aroma Seal, Black (EP1220/04)

We had an Saeco Intellia for over about 12 years, which we loved, before it started being less reliable, throwing errors, wasting ground coffee, and just weaker coffee overall. I didn't want to spend another $800 or so on another superautomatic and decided to get this after watching/reading several reviews. It's only my wife and I who use this in the house. She prefers her morning double strength americano while I like a morning shot of espresso so we don't need a lot of the extra features of a more expensive superautomatic. We've been using the Carina for a month now and I gotta say this machine is excellent for what it cost. The espressed coffee is way better than what the Intellia ever made.. stronger and more robust. The creme is about the same tho and still not nearly as much as I used to get with a manual espresso I had a long time ago (I think it was a cheap $80 delonghi but an excellent espresso maker nonetheless and WAY WAY WAY better than a Kureg or Nespresso which we've had before as well). The ground pucks are tighter too meaning there's more coffee grounds being packed in. What I also love about the Carina is that if you run out of water during the brew, it will wait until you refill the reservoir and let you continue the brew instead of dumping the grounds and forcing you to start over again like the Intellia did. Other things I like about the Carinia.. The waste ground collection is within the waste liquid reservoir and the grounds fill up a bit faster than the liquid.. which means it kinda forces us to dump both the grounds and the liquid whenever the grounds collection is filled up. This prevents the liquid from overfilling and spilling out which used to happen quite a lot with the Intellia that had the ground collection separate from the liquid. I am using the AquaClean filter for the moment to measure how effective it will be and the maintenance cost of replacing them every so often. We'll see if I want to keep using them or go back to the manual decalcification process. Anyways.. the Carina makes great coffee and is a bit easier to clean. Highly recommend it. Also, to anyone using a Kureg or Nespresso machines and looking to upgrade.. I strongly recommend getting a superautomatic.. they make a MUCH better cup of coffee and the Carina is probably the best one you'll find at this price range and not to mention you'll be saving money in the long run and create less waste for the landfill.

I LOVE this machine!! If I thought I was addicted to coffee before I had this thing, now it's out of control. Espresso at the touch of a button. It did take some tweaking in the beginning to get the grind size correct for the beans I use. I find that a dark Italian espresso with a little bit of Colombian blended in gives the perfect flavor. The water in Central Texas is way too hard so I've been using bottled spring water to fill it up. I still have to decalcify it from time to time when it gives the alert. I don't use the Philips tablets for decalcification though, I just used two tablespoons of citric acid mixed with distilled water up to the decalcification fill line and follow the instructions on their YouTube channel. I've also used a degreasing tablet once and will continue to use those every few months, again following the YouTube channel instructions. Cleaning it is pretty simple, I don't use soap and just run underwater and use paper towels to remove whatever gunk is on there and let it air dry. Just rely on the occasional degreasing procedure and the daily wage rpurge to keep the lines clean. This this is crazy simple to use, and requires just a little "getting to know it" to get perfect coffee and keep the machine maintained. The convenience of getting freshly ground coffee in 60 seconds from turning it on (and maybe 20-30 seconds if it's already on and purged it's line) is a huge luxury. I like making a double espresso shot into two ice cubes, then add 36grams store bought carmal macchiato creamer. Blend for a perfect morning carmal macchiato. I have 2-3 of those every day 😅

In writing this review I was conflicted in whether to give a one or five star rating. In the end, unfortunately, I must give it a one star. First, some of the nice things about the machine. If you have a Keurig, and drink coffee from that, you are going to LOVE the Philips machine. On its worst day, the Philips makes way better coffee than you will ever get out of your Keurig. Also, since this machine usus whole beans your cost per cup will be way less. With this, the machine will pay for itself over a Keurig in no times, since those little coffee pods are so expensive. For me, this is my fifth super-automatic coffee maker. Day in and day out, I use a traditional Rocket Espresso machine to make my morning cappuccino. A machine like the rocket produces the ultimate drinks, and so I like to start my day out with one of those. However, it takes a little effort to use the machine, so I got the Philips to get quick easy coffees throughout the day. When the machine arrived, I was pretty impressed. It was fairly compact, easy to add beans, water, dump the pucks and clean the drip tray. The first serious issue with this machine was I simply could not dial in a proper espresso. When the machine makes a coffee, it is very weak and watery. In watching it press the coffee out, almost immediately the stream turns clear, and almost no rich golden color. It appears to use a very small volume of coffee to make a cup, leading to a very weak coffee. Compounding the problem, it never forms a proper puck. When i look in the drip tray, I do not see anything resembling a puck, but just see a pile of coffee ground sludge. The instructions and online forums says this is an issue to start with, but be patient as it will dial itself in. So, I decided to go ahead and make lots of coffee and just pour it out to let the machine calibrate. I made 30 cups, and yet the machine could not produce a proper puck, and still made weak coffee. Made 15 more cups, and still same thing. Also I should note at some point in the process I adjusted the bean grind to finer and finer levels, trying to get a good puck and a good strong coffee. I did not find success. What I observed is, that even setting my grinder on the finest setting, it produced grounds about like grocery store drip coffee. It did not produce fine powder like you expect from an espresso grind. For a machine like this, if you are not producing a powder like coffee, you simply will not get a strong cup of coffee. To try and get at least a drinkable coffee what I found is I needed to set grinder on finest grind setting possible. Set the coffee bean amount on the largest setting possible, set the water amount on the smallest possible, and then follow the instructions to set the temperature to the maximum brew temperature. At this point I could sort of get a drinkable coffee. At about the time that I got a drinkable coffee setting dialed in, the machine malfunctioned. In pressing the go button, the machine would malfunction and the three error lights would come on. In looking at the troubleshooting manual, I tried the suggestions, but did not work. It said if the suggestions did not work to contact Philips. The malfunction appeared to be that a bean had become jammed in the grinder, and the motor did not have enough power to begin grinding due to the stuck bean. I could tell because when the machine malfunctioned you could hear the motor hum, and the machine immediately shut down. I live in East Africa, so simply no possible way to ship the machine back to Philips for repairs, so I decided to try and repair myself. In looking in the coffee hopper, I found that Philips had used though odd star shaped screws, meaning it was going to be next to impossible to remove the cover to get to the jammed grinder. I finally had to modify a philips head screw driver with a grinder, and I was able to get into the machine. By clearing the beans out of the grinder, putting it back together, it worked again. Unfortunately, I anticipate this will happen again, since the motor appears to be underpowered to have enough start up torque to hand the situation of a stuck bean. To be honest, it was so hard to take the machine apart, I will not undertake that effort again. Next time the machine jams, I will simply have to toss the machine out. So, the issue with this machine, fundamentally is, the grinder motor is not powerful enough to dislodge a stuck bean. Secondly, the grinder is not able to provide the fine coffee grind needed for a proper espresso. Thirdly, even on hottest setting, the brew termperature provides coffee that is not piping hot. Really wanted to love the machine, but unfortunately it appears to have some fundamental design errors.

"We should get an espresso machine" said my wife. "I like espresso." "Me too!" I replied. "Let's buy one!" This seemed like an easy proposition. But down the rabbit hole I went, and I soon realized that I was on the verge of becoming a "coffee guy" - one of those people who has Very Strong Opinions about pressurized portafilters and very expensive and clever conical burr grinders. The kind of guy who speaks in hushed tones about steam pressure and cream and uses the word "extraction" a lot. Since no one in my family want to spend every morning waiting an hour for me to tweak grind settings or calibrate the pre-infusion temperatures, and everyone agreed that I do not need another obsessive hobby, we started looking at automatic machines. We quickly decided that pod-based machines were right out for a variety of reasons, and similarly decided that one of those touch-screen possibly-self-aware machines were just going to be way way way out of our price range, we settled on the 1200. I checked reviews and videos and so forth, and we decided it was a good place to land. We couldn't be happier. Okay, okay, it probably doesn't make the absolute *best* espresso in the world. I'm sure somewhere, some geriatric italian barista is crossing himself and spitting every time I press a button on this thing. And it's loud. When it grinds, boy howdy you hear it grinding, and when it steams, you hear steaming and clunking and all manner of mechanical noises. I expected that, but it's still loud. The buttons lack a bit in terms of haptic feedback - until something actually happens I'm never entirely sure I've pressed one, so I always have that half second of "oh no, did I break it?" until i hear a pump spring to life. And it's big - this isn't a "stick it on the shelf and hide it away" kind of machine. It dwarfs my pressure cooker. And while the grinder does a fine job, you don't get access to it independently - you have only limited options for dosing (the 3-setting "aroma" control) or grind size (there's a knob inside the grinder itself) and the only time you see the grounds is in the "spent grounds" bin. I understand there's a way to fiddle with the temperature that involves opening panels and flipping switches; I have not tried it and I probably will not. But those minor quibbles aside, it pulls a very respectable shot of espresso; I've already had a better flat white after a day of randomly poking at buttons than I have at my local mermaid-themed coffee shop, and even a straight shot of espresso was pleasant, well-flavored, and full-bodied. The milk steamer is acceptable - nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done and I've even managed to make some incredibly rudimentary latte art. It's easy to clean, and the AquaClean filter makes that part even nicer. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use too - shove a cup underneath and press play and you're basically 80% of the way there. It's easy enough that everyone in my family can stumble into the kitchen and spit out a cuppa without thinking about it. It even makes plain coffee, which is great for the family members who just wants a cup of something hot and black and none of this continental nonsense. (I suspect the "coffee" is more akin to an americano, but I haven't been able to verify that.) Time will tell if this thing holds up, but I have high hopes and good experience so far. It works better than the bargain espresso machines I see everywhere, seems to have a pretty good grind dialed in at the factory, and while it's a bit on the pricy side it's still a lot cheaper than the others in its category (and only marginally more expensive than a plain machine) and you don't need to buy a fancy grinder to go with it. And shipping was ludicrously fast.

Have had this for a while now and use it every day once if not twice. No issues. It tells me when to add water and empty the grounds, which I like. I don't think it's messy. Some grounds inside under the tray, but nothing terrible by any means. "Expected" amount, I believe. I really do love it.

We were replacing a KRUPS machine that was making great coffee until it finally died, so some of this review will reference the KRUPS. When you first get this machine the first 5-10 cups are going to be very weak but eventually the machine will calibrate and you’ll figure out your favorite options, grind density. The good: - easily removable water tank (easier than krups) it slides out forward so don’t have to move the machine ever - makes a variety of coffee sizes and grind types. There is a knob inside the coffee bean area with 12 grind settings. - aroma seal top for the coffee beans holder plus it works with ground coffee too if you get those on accident. - milk steamer is very strong and easy to clean - this design is better than Krups. The steamer can be stopped when you want to so milk doesn’t overflow. - the coffee is really good once you get used to the settings - though not as good as Krups… The OK - startup is a bit lengthy - the first part of the video - the machine shuts down after about 10-15 minutes fully. - it cleans every time so that small amount of water after startup always gets dumped, don’t put your cup there and leave cause you might forget to dump it :) Overall it’s a very good mid range full service machine, easy to clean and maintain and the water tank doesn’t have small areas that will grow mold - this was a problem on the Krups. Hope this helps! Overall I probably would have gotten a Krups because I was used to it but since it’s not sold in the US anymore this one is a very good replacement.

1 - the espresso at max bean level and on the middle setting for amount of liquids is very week. you should be able to make it stronger. I even went to the finest grind level. if you look at the size of the puck that comes out it makes sense that you get a weak shot of espresso. 2 - lets say you bought this to get rid of a Keurig.... good job by the way keurigs are terrible for the environment and make terrible coffee. but the issue with this machine is the max amount of coffee it allows you to brew even when attempting to customize is only 8oz. they won't put this anywhere but its true and very frustrating especially considering you can program one setting per beverage. 3 - the grinder is not that great you should be able to go a little finer in my opinion. this one is at the bottom because its not that big a deal for the price of the machine I got it at which was 399 on sale. but if you are going to spend 499 or even 450 you should maybe look to another machine like the delonghi esam 3300

I have been using this for the past 2 years or so and while it has saved me a ton of money on buying expensive drinks and coffee from the local coffee shop, I can sadly say that the quality of extraction is sub par. As you can see from the video the amount of Crema is pretty much non existent. I have tried just about every grind size imaginable, I have kept the machine clean, and I have tried different digital settings. All to no avail. The taste is okay, you just miss the creamy consistency of a good espresso pull. All else works pretty well. It makes a decent cup of coffee! One other thing is the steam wand just seems to really aerate the milk more than I always want so I get too much frothing when just trying to steam and heat up milk. If you are looking for something too save you money by making quick espresso drinks at home, this may be an okay fit but I imagine there are better options out there that produce a higher quality espresso.

WOW está padrísima!! La calibré para que prepare el café justo como me gusta y solo te gi que prenderla y picar un botón 🫶👏

Si cette une bonne machine

Mejor de lo que ,me esperaba, la marca supera las expectativas, facil de usar, molido perfecto y super rapida.

Con esta cafetera automática se obtienen bebidas con muy buen sabor, pues se aprovecha la frescura de un café recién molido sin las complicaciones de hacerlo de forma manual. Una vez que entiendes el mecanismo y funcionamiento de la máquina, puedes ver la practicidad y facilidad de limpieza de la máquina. Aunque el espumador sea mecánico, es muy fácil preparar cualquier bebida que otros modelos mucho más caros hacen automáticamente, pero por la diferencia de precio, definitivamente esta es una muy buena opción. Mi pedido incluía un filtro Aquaclean de regalo, ya que el modelo adquirido no lo incluía en la descripción, así que eso quizás sea cuestión de suerte. Aún así, no he necesitado usarlo, pues solo uso agua filtrada y el nivel de dureza es prácticamente nulo. La máquina viene con una tirita para medir el nivel de dureza del agua antes de operar el aparato, pero si recomiendo usar solamente agua filtrada para evitar gastar en filtros. Adquirí esta cafetera automática aprovechando un gran descuento del sitio así que si lo están dudando, ya con una oferta así, pueden estar seguros de que obtendrán un gran valor por su dinero.

It was not cleaned or checked what so ever ! Did not work right out of the box and then it was quite an ordeal to return it . You buy something used and you have to jump through hoops to get it back to them ! NEVER AGAIN !!!