DeLonghi Magnifica - Questions

[Ogre]

My friend picked one of these up as a christmas present for his GF. Been lurking and doing some readin in the past and I know its probably not the best esspresso maker for the money, but will it make decent enough espresso especially for the ease of use? He picked it up for right at $600, but I was curious of it was a quality machine for the type. I would say that type of machine would get used more often due to the ease of use.

Thoughts suggestions etc...

Thanks.

 

[shadow745]

I think the autos and super autos are an OK deal for those that want decent and consistent results without all the manual labor. Even the high end autos that grind, dose, tamp, brew, steam and even clean themselves won't give the fine tuning that a semi-auto and nice grinder can, but sometimes the latter setup is just too overwhelming for some people. I think it'll be fine for most people out there and I think that's a good price as well. Later!

 

[Ogre]

What about the brand Delonghi? Saeco makes some super automatics that are right around the same price and some are cheaper.

 

[shadow745]

DeLonghi is OK. I wouldn't say they are any better or worse than Saeco. From what I've read the Jura-Capresso super autos are the top dog home machines in that area, but of course they're much more expensive.

Another thing that pops to mind is a Francis Francis machine I spotted the other day at a Linens N Things store for around $499. I'm pretty sure it was the X1 Trio model and supposedly is an outstanding POD only machine. That could be another route to go for convenience.

 

[3ternal]

DeLonghi blows with customer service. But for $600 I'd pick the machine up, I've used it and the fact that you can control shot strength was really cool. Steam wand sucks in my opinion though. Starbucks was selling them for over a grand just a little while ago, and Macy's still is I believe, so go for it if it's for that price.