The machine makes great coffee. I expected it to be very good, but it exceeds expectations. It is better than "that big chain shop" and I am a big fan of their coffee. (I am sure someone will jump in and say that the coffee at XYZ local coffee house is going to be much better than the big chain, and I agree with that; I am just providing a point of reference everyone will likely know). And yes, this machine's coffee compares favorably with the local house.
Hook-up of the plumbed-in water supply was a breeze, but I have done a lot of plumbing work. You will either needs skills with running copper pipe or PEX tubing if you want to install it yourself. Or hire a plumber.
Miele makes a couple of non-plumbed versions if you don't want a permanent installation. However, these types of machines are meant to be built-in to cabinetry so my advice is to buy the plumbed in version to eliminate the hassle of having to remove the water tank and manually fill it every day or so. If you are spending about $3,000 for one of these, spend the extra few dollars for the plumbing.
In terms of electrical, it does not draw so much current that you must have a dedicated circuit for it. If your existing circuit is almost fully loaded, you may need a new circuit. I just plugged it into an existing outlet, and so far (4 5 months of operation) no popped breakers so it should be fine on the circuit it is on. Consult an electrician for your situation.
I installed this as part of a kitchen remodel in my home, and so could build a custom cabinet for this to go into. One thing to note is that it requires a 24" deep cabinet. Standard wall (upper) cabinets are 12" deep, so this will not fit there. It needs to go into the same type of cabinet (depth-wise) as an oven or built-in refrigerator. I dedicated a 24" wide, 24" deep, and 96" high cabinet for this, with a wine cooler underneath and a regular cabinet above. That resulted in a mounting height that is about perfect. Much lower, and you would have to stoop over to get to it. Much higher and it would be dangerous, i.e.very hot liquids and/or steam at eye-level. You would not want to mount this in a standard wall cabinet since it would be too high. Standard wall cabinets are mounted about 18" above counter height, at close to eye level. You want this in the rough vicinity of counter top height. You could install it into a wider cabinet, as long as it was 24" deep. I spent a paragraph on that since you will really need to think through how you are going to install it since it is meant to be built in in a fairly standard way (narrow range of options), and not all existing kitchens may accommodate that design.
The seller (evVive Home) was very helpful, and I am pleased with purchasing from them.
In terms of daily operation, it is a little more work than I was expecting. It has a waste container into which the used grounds are deposited after each cup of coffee. The machine seems to have a timer that requests that you empty the container every other day. If you have this machine installed in a small office, that makes sense as the container would fill up pretty fast. But for the homeowner, it probably needs emptied once a week or less, and even then it would not be full.
The machine has a milk flask (like a thermos) for cappuccino, etc. This seemed like a good idea, and it works great. The problem comes in cleaning the tubes, which needs to be done at LEAST daily. Spoiled milk will make a person very ill, so this is critical cleaning step. The machine has a special rinse cycle for accomplishing this. It just takes a while, has to be done frequently, and requires a person to be present while it is going on. It is not like the regular automatic rinse cycle that requires no human involvement. It is enough of a hassle that I might only have a latte on the weekend when I can devote the time to the cleaning. During the week, I just dump a couple of espresso shots into microwaved milk.
The machine also has to have a weekly cleaning done too. I will admit I am lazy and only do this every few weeks, but it is also a little work. There are a few parts that have to be removed, but the mostly just slide out, no tools required. But you do have to get in there and clean a lot of small spaces.
All-in-all, it is a bit more work than expected, but I may have had unrealistic expectations. It isn't THAT much work, really.
In summary, I am very pleased with the machine and would highly recommend it.
the product ordered took a while to arrive, longer than expected. It arrived the day I left town . the delivery company supplier used was professional on the surface with email shipment notices and such but the delivery appointment took some time to schedule. They also delivered in afternoon instead of morning driver could not handle machine alone, i had to help unload and put in my car to get to the door (long drivewaY) , they would not deliver to door.
Machine installed one week ago instructions were a little vague in how to start up, called technical service who helped to walk me through setup. After descaling machine (did not say i had to do that, about 10 minutes) proceeded to coffee setup/hot water.
At first a couple drops of water came out. Coffee grounds were dispensed but no coffee. Tried 3 times. Nothing. Then tried hot water, Nothing Remove machine from cabinet and found that the machine had internal leak and was leaking water internally all over the floor, kitchen flooded. Turned machine off and Miehle representative called for a service tech to come repair. Glad they have company employees instead of service agents which was a big plus. their local dispatch called on Monday (installation occurred on a Saturday) and setup appt for Wednesday .
Tech arrived promptly, found a hose had disconnected internally during the first descaling process (miehle rep had said that was probably the problem) and sure enough he was right. I guess it happened before. Tech was very professional, wore booties over his shoes into house which was appreciated! he had all the proper equipment to service and find the loose hose.
He proceeded also to help setup machine for all specifics like coffee amounts, grind type, lighting, timer and so on. He was GREAT!
Also he told me about a 5 year service plan fully covers everything $249.00 which I think is a good investment of for a complex machine like this. I plan to use it. Had DACOR machine previous to this one and it was nothing but headaches. It looked good, built out of all metal but went through 3 under warranty and after warranty continuos service calls . That machine should be delegated to junk pile out of the box!
Miehle was much more plastic inside, not as attractive due to black plastic and a somewhat fake stainless steel look but after having it work for one day seems to offer all the features i need, the automatic milk cleaning / dispenser for capuccino is much easier to use and would like to offer an update in a month to let you know further details
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We re-did our kitchen and created a cabinet expressly (no pun intended) for the a Miele system (old version 220 V). It lasted about 6 years and required repairs about every two years, usually for something that required it to be yanked out of the wall and carted to the shop for a week or two. The final straw was the failure of the grinder. Repairs would have cost nearly as much as a new machine.
Since we already had a device-specific cabinet, we searched around and found a demo machine for about half the price of a new machine. It has lasted 4 years and has required repairs on the same schedule as the original. Yesterday we were greeted with a clunking sound when we asked for a cup of coffee...the gearbox had failed. The machine is a goner.
We drink a lot of coffee, at least 20 cups a day between the two of us. While that's a lot, I would expect better at this price range.
We are going to have the former Miele-specific cabinet refitted so we can move on to something else. The Miele produced good coffee, but not coffee good enough to justify the costs, both initial and on-going.
Dave
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When we started using this appliance in 2009 we were more than thrilled to think of the money we would save. BUT, in 2013 the milk frother failed. Our high end appliance repair company could not get it to work, and then they called the Miele regional repair technician who is refusing to repair it because he can't. The engineering is simply too complicated. Neither our appliance repair company or Miele will repair it so it is an expensive machine, sitting in the cabinetry, and we've had to go back to conventional coffee. Furthermore, the routine maintenance is time consuming and difficult.
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Aside from the cost of the machine itself, we paid a lot of money to customize our solid cherry cabinets in order to accommodate a Miele machine. It's one of the reasons we keep paying to fix the thing when it regularly breaks. Nothing will fit in the hole and it's why I'm even on this site. I have to consider if I can find a replacement that will fill the spot. However, I've about decided it's simply not worth throwing good money after bad.
If you get one of these machines, you've got to be committed to constant financial outlays. Proportionately, it's worse than a luxury car when it comes to maintenance and repair. The supposed "best cup of coffee" you keep reading about in comments are nothing more than a classic case of trying to rationalize away the cognitive dissonance of buying it at all. Go get a $300 counter-top unit. Same exact thing, without the ostentatiousness.
About 10 months after I bought one of these, it started randomly shutting off during the brew cycle. The plastic rim around the hot plate cracked one day while brewing. Applica (the manufacturer) replaced it for a $7.50 fee under the warranty. Now, less than a month after getting the replacement, this one is doing the same thing, stopping in the middle of a brew cycle, and this morning the rim around the hot plate cracked while brewing a pot. Had a Braun for years before this piece of junk and it never gave me any trouble.
