De'Longhi Magnifica, Automatic Bean to Cup Coffee Machine, Espresso, Cappuccino, ESAM 4200.S, Silver

Machine was originally bought in the Cyber Monday promotion with an arranged delivery date of Saturday 2nd December, alas the consignment was mysteriously lost leaving the depot in Surrey on its way to my local depot, so after repeated calls to Customer Service and Complaints on the scheduled delivery date, a replacement was ordered at no cost.The replacement item was scheduled for an arranged delivery on Wednesday 6th December, but for some reason it arrived at my depot a day early and was put out for delivery when I was not home to receive it, so I was carded and then it was rescheduled to be delivered on the date I originally requested! - What a shambles!Finally having got my machine, I set this up as per the instruction book, firstly you must do the initial set up instructions which will ensure the machine is configured for the correct water hardness using the "supplied" litmus paper, the instructions on this are easy to follow, additionally you will need to follow the initial milk frothing steam cappuccino first time use instructions to clean the pipes and prepare for use.As a new person to bean to coffee machines, I found I needed to refer to the manual a lot until I was familiar with the features and options both using and adjusting any settings to personalise your taste and configuration..The machine comes with a bottle of water descaler, and also inside the top middle section there is a measuring spoon you can use to load it with ground coffee or beans, although for ground coffee you will need to ensure the machine has powered up and run through its rinse cycle and is ready for operation first. If you try and put the ground coffee in before this has completed it will circulate the ground coffee round the parts and you will need to clean it thoroughly plus it can cause problems.Using the machine is simplicity itself, the bean grinder should not need adjusting unless the coffee drips out very slowly, so it is already configured at its best settings, although the instruction book shows you how to adjust this if needed.So now to make a coffee using the beans, first load the bean hopper part of the machine with the coffee beans required, fill water tank with water to Max level then switch on machine, wait for it to run through the clean cycle until the lights stop flashing, it will expel a small amount of water so best to use a small cup to catch this.Once this has completed, ensure coffee strength dial is set to the setting you want (low or max), and also the cup setting is small medium or large. Place cup on the drip tray and press 1 or 2 cup button, then wait for the grinding of the beans followed by the coffee to be dispensed. - That is all there is too it.The machine will by default power down to standby after 30mins (default) but using the buttons on the front can be configured to power down after 15mins, 30mins, 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours, it is easy to do and the manual explains this in detail.Additionally (and I noticed some people have complained about this in reviews already posted) you can also configure the temperature of the water dispensed, by default it is on setting 2, it has 5 heat settings.For making cappuccino you need to use Whole or Skimmed milk for the best "froth" (according to the manual) and cleaning the milk spout is easy as a simple anti-clockwise twist of the bottom part allows it to be removed and washed. The drip tray has a small red water level that rises as it fills and pushes a red piece through where the cup would be placed.The waste hopper with the old ground coffee is stored on the left hand side behind the drip tray, when the relevant indicator lights up, it is time to empty this and wash the hopper of all the old "used ground coffee". Additionally the water tank is large and should suffice for a fair few double cup coffees. I am still learning how to use my machine so will update here more as things progress,Important things you need to know:1. I strongly suggest taking out the 3 year (36 months) warranty Amazon recommend when buying, this does run on top of De'Longhi warranty (2 years) so they do overlap. Should you experience any issues on parts or problems, you can use Amazon's warranty scheme to get it fixed, and they will collect, repair and re-deliver back after. It also covers you on accidental damage. If your machine does break down, they will replace free, or if the machine is not available refund the cost you paid in Amazon Gift Vouchers, however will always attempt to repair it first.2. Follow and read the manual thoroughly, especially on how to adjust water temp, standby power settings etc, they are easy to do and maybe not all users from reviews have picked up on the fact you can make it hotter on temperature from the default setting.3. The machine will auto-clean on power up/power down, when this occurs it will push some water through. I would suggest a small cup placed on the drip tray for this, otherwise the displaced water will end up in the drip tray.4. The machine will need to be "descaled" every 4 weeks/once a month, so ensure you use the provided bottle supplied, De'Longhi do a maintenance kit (which has all sorts of useful bits: Kit Includes: 1 Water Softner, 2 x 100ml Descaler, 1 x 250ml Milk Dispenser Cleaning Solution,1 Microfiber Cloth, 1 Cleaning Brush, 1 Water Hardness Testing Paper, Cleaning & Maintenance Guide.)5. Ensure you register your machine with the web site under the current promotion for November / December 2017, the link to this is on the main machine page on Amazon, it will qualify you for 3 bags of coffee and 2 descaler packs.I think the reason my first machine was lost was due to the packaging, I was expecting it to arrive in an "Amazon" box so it was not obvious what is was, I admit I was very surprised by box it was shipped in - photo attached.A great machine - highly recommended for the price.Update: 08/12/2017Noticed on the Amazon site today that they do state it will arrive in the manufacturers box which will show the item enclosed, you can pick Amazon box when doing check out, and if I had known this I might have used that as I suspect this might be why my first one disappeared.

My Delonghi Dedica died with overheating problems and a leak.... after nearly 10 years that is!I looked at several other machines, sent them all back (even the Breville was Chinese!).I was concerned that the 'automatic' machines had too much to potentially go wrong with them but eventually settled on this Delonghi Magnifica.As expected fromDelonghi, it works superbly, does what it claims to do and the quality of manufacture and design, although largely plastic, is high.Using Lavazza coffee beans I can honestly say that in my 60 years of coffee drinking - I started when I was 10 - of all the many coffee machines I have owned, this is the first to produce the same quality and taste as I get in my local bar in France. Truly.If it keeps working - and it probably will if properly maintained - it will be the best coffee machine I have had.Yes, the grinder is noisy; the machine makes all kinds of whirring noises, lights flash and it sounds complex when it starts up but the end result is very strong, perfect espresso and cappuccino. It will also make weaker coffee of various 'American' types if you're not up to the real stuff and it cleans itself upon shutdown and has very many other features.One other thing; the instructions are incomprehensible, so watch the videos instead.A superb machine for £320.

Up until now I owned a kettle (obviously) for instant coffee and latterly a cafétiere as I wanted to drink nice coffee at home. Lately I was interested in getting some sort of coffee maker and had a look at some options (filter coffee maker, espresso maker etc). I was most interested in getting something that made great tasting coffee but was hassle free.I've used this coffee maker now a lot over the last week so here's what I like:- Super convenient - 90% it's just pushing 1 button and it grinds the beans and makes the cup of coffee (other 10% is using the steamer to froth the milk for cappuccino)- Coffee tastes really good! (of course it helps to buy nice coffee, I bought the 1 Kg bag of Lavazza beans, be interesting to see how long the £11 bag of beans lasts compared with the £16 month I usually spend on instant coffee)- It's actually really quick... I watched a few YouTube videos just to get a sense of reality but you never know until you use it yourself and I was surprised at how quickly it warms up and makes a cup of coffee- Topping up - front loading water reservoir!! When the red light comes on to indicate "low water" you just pull the reservoir out from the front, fill it up and pop it back in... Emptying the waste grinds is pretty easy as is lifting the top flap to fill it with beans- Looks good in the kitchen (although it is all plastic)- Price... I thought the price was pretty good considering I normally spend £2.50 every morning on an overpriced Americano.Any downsides? (nothing major and none of them would stop me from buying this machine)- Noise... so quite a few reviews state it's noisy so I was preparing myself for this dreadful machine noise - it's actually not that noisy. The most noise happens on a cold start up sequence when it does a self clean. Seriously its not that bad. Compare this to how noisy your kettle is and it's typically on for a minute or two. I suppose this is a subjective point overall (I like the grinding noise when friends/family are round as everyone is surprised that it makes the coffee from beans)- Plastic buttons, knobs - doesn't affect using machine but I suppose we would all like metal as it lasts longer. That said most machines with metal features start around £500 markWhat made me laugh?- The so called "cup warmer" on the top. Takes forever to heat up so absolutely pointless (read below "tips")Some helpful tips:- Read the manual... especially to make sure you do the water hardness test and it also explains how to increase the default temperature if coffee needs to be warmer- Make a few test cups to get the hang of quantities and strength of coffee to suit taste- Use the steamer nozzle to warm your cups (takes a few seconds, just turn steamer dial and it spits out hot water)- Buy some cappuccino style cups... just doesn't feel right drinking nice coffee out of a mug ;)I spent 2 weeks researching coffee makers before settling on this one. Best thing I've bought in a long time!