I am so frustrated with this very expensive machine. When it works, it works okay. It pushes through the espresso and then adds water to each level of coffee drink (espresso, coffee, long coffee). The problem is (and I have called my retailer twice) that sometimes is pushes the after-espresso water through and sometimes it takes forever to push it through. I tried the machine with both the water filter and without the filter, but that made no difference. The retailer suggested that the grind was too fine, so I set it on the coarsest grind. That did absolutely nothing. On the second phone call the retail service rep said if the filter/strainer in the brew group felt "burry" then it might be plugged with grounds and unable to pass water. I was so excited to find that was the case, and it worked great for two more cups. I have been embarrassed every time we have had company. It knows when there are guests and malfunctions every time. I have used different roasts of espresso from a medium to a darker roast and it really doesn't make any difference. To warn you, Saeco or at least the retailer, (I don't see it in the user's manual) does not recommend using a darker espresso because the oilier beans jam up the machine. In truth, whatever bean I use the machine has trouble putting water through. I have had it take so long that the coffee is cold by the time the cup is filled.
I attempted to return the machine to the retailer, but they have a 30 day return policy and I have had it for two months (the first month I was out of town so it never got tested) and the retailer will not take the machine back. I will be calling Saeco tomorrow and seeing if they will take it back or have some novel idea for repair. I do not have high hopes. I probably will try to ebay it as scrap with a bold print caveat emptor and no returns warning.
I do not recommend this machine and consider it to be a failed $1000 dollar experiment. If after calling Saeco tomorrow, there is a wonder fix, I will gladly revise my review. I want it to work. I enjoy it when it does work.
I drop 900$ on an item and I expect it to work, and work flawlessly right out of the box. There was no damage to the exterior or anything to that extent...it just straight up wouldn't work internally. I called Saeco's customer service and we decided that it wasn't user error and the machine was truly broken. Thank goodness Amazon has a no questions return policy.
Buy Philips Saeco RI9828/47 Talea Touch Plus Automatic Espresso Machine Now
I owned a Saeco Vienna digital before this, and it worked wonderfully for over 6 years. When it broke down, I figured I'd stick with Saeco but decided to move up to a more expensive model. The Talea Touch Plus had most of the features I was looking for. It's a good looking machine that produces decent espresso on a consistent basis (but not great), at least when it works properly. Therein lies the rub! It functioned fine for 3 days before the frothing & steaming unit completely broke down. Saeco service was attentive and speedy and paid for the shipping both ways. I had it back in one week. The repair facility stated that the panarello steam system was assembled incorrectly and they fixed it.
It functioned fine for another 4 weeks, until the brew system crapped out and the unit wouldn't brew any coffee. I only use the unit to make about 2 cappuccinos daily, and an occasional tall coffee. Once again, Saeco paid for shipping and I got it back in 1 week. This time the pump system had to be replaced. It now functions ok and makes the coffee and steams milk, but whatever pump they put in there is over twice as loud as the original (it's very noisy), plus the steam wand drips continuously until I brew the first coffee. There is also some dripping from the coffee dispensing spout.
I was ready to send it back for a total replacement, but figured at least this is now working, and Saeco extended my warranty for an extra year. I didn't want to chance going through this again on a new unit.
Overall, based on my machine as it is now, I can say that the coffee is decent to good on a consistent basis, and the unit is very easy to operate. However, the water tank empties fast, and steaming milk may be a tad awkward due to the steam wand unable to swivel left or right it does swing in and out though. The automatic clean cycle is a convenient feature, as is the descaling cycle. One really needs to clean this (and all automatic units) regularly.
I would not recommend this unit to others due to the apparent lack of quality control at the factory (incorrectly assembled parts and bad pump). I would recommend one consider other models and/or other brands. If I needed a replacement, I would consider going back to the Vienna model.
Read Best Reviews of Philips Saeco RI9828/47 Talea Touch Plus Automatic Espresso Machine Here
I am extremely happy with this machine! I use it often, and make cappuccinos with it daily. I am not a "coffee connoisseur", I just know what I like. When making cappuccinos, I can make them to suit me much more like the European style, and much less like the chain coffee bars in the U.S. This is the second Saeco Talea machine that I have owned, and both have worked perfectly. My sister-in-law has one as well, with no complaints.
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I thought this would be the machine of my dreams, (at this price it should be!), it is not. My machine will not "wake up" from standby mode or put itself into standby mode, so I have to wait in the morning for it to heat up. Which completely eliminates why I bought the $$$ machine rather than the $ machine. I will be returning it, but here is the lowdown on how it works.
This machine will grind up to 10ish grams of coffee and dispense that into a maximum of 18ish ounces of water (you get less coffee though b/c the puck absorbs some of that water). You can set each of the three icons to dispense whatever custom combination of temperature(a,b,c), preinfusion time (a,b, off), grind volume (a,b,c, preground) and water volume (slider on 1.5" bar adjustable by roughly 1/20th of an ounce) you would like and there is a dial on the front to additionally control how long the water takes to pass through the puck which affects the "Strength" of the coffee.
Rather than using the somewhat inscrutable "coffee volume" slider you can manually do a beverage and hit the "stop" button when you want it to stop flowing, and then save that setting. So for me to get my morning thermos of 16oz of strong crema coffee I had to program "Long Coffee" to be preinfusion=strong, aroma(amount of beans ground)=strong, turn the front dial all the way to the right and I had to hit "Stop" when it filled my measuring cup with 8oz coffee and save it, which meant that when I hit "Long Coffee" twice (it will do twice in a row if you hit it twice but no more than that) it would spew out 16oz of coffee.
So theoretically (were it to wake itself up in the morning) all I would have to do is hit that button twice and put my cup (thermos is too tall) under there to catch it, it would take about 3 minutes or more to fill that cup. As it is I have to wait for it to "Rinse" (put a cup under the spout to catch the "Rinse"), and then warm up before I can have coffee. It doesn't take long, but it seems long when you are walking out the door, like more than 5 minutes for coffee, when I could just pour it out from a regular automatic grind_n_brew pot and be on my way.
I have additionally programmed the "Coffee" icon to make me a 12oz mug when pressed twice and my "Espresso" button to make me a long espresso, which when I press twice gives me a nice amount for my latte.
Ugh, my latte, the frothing on this thing is vexing. I can froth and latte art pretty well with a regular one hole steam wand, and always prided myself on my microfoam. I can barely steam milk with this thing. The steam wand on the left moves about two inches fore or aft but does not move up or down or swing out in any way. So my milk pitcher is always smacking into the spouts on the front. The rubber handle on the steam wand (so you don't get burned moving it) is so close to the bottom of the wand that once your milk starts frothing you can't push the wand back to the bottom of the milk container or it will come up over the handle. Once you are done steaming you can't just rest your milk under the steam wand (to catch the drips) because the drip tray is curved and the steam wand is over the narrow part, so your jug of milk would just fall off the tray.
The drip tray is electric which is stupid, small and flimsy. It is bound to fail and doesn't hold your full cup without bending almost enough that your cup is going to slide right onto the floor. I would just leave it at the bottom setting unless you are really pulling shots into two tiny espresso cups.
How's the coffee you ask. It's decent. You wouldn't be disappointed if you paid $2.50 for it, but it is not the best espresso you've ever had, or even close to the espresso I can make on my semi-automatic machine. But it's faster and I can do it with less effort. The grind seems fine enough and the temperature seems hot enough to do a good extraction, no sourness or bitterness (left temp on medium as it came set on). It is crema coffee, not drip, so don't expect it to taste like your coffee maker. Some of the crema is fake and white due to the dial being turned all the way to the right and creating that extra sort-of fake back pressure on the puck, so it can seem floamy, but dialing it back a notch fixes that without affecting strength.
It's prompts you to fill the water tank when it is 3/4 empty and dump the pucks when there are maybe 6 of them in there, so you might as well just make it a habit to do them both at the same time anyway b/c it will stop your coffee and prompt you to do so and if you take too long it will cancel your coffee and dump your puck even if you didn't get all the way done.
The bypass doser only accepts one scoop of preground coffee at a time so don't think you will be making anything other than decaf single small pucks and then pulling your desired quantity of water through them.
The melitta natural brown basket filters are consistently shaped and don't add anything unexpected to the coffee taste. The natural brown filter may mean that you are avoiding the bleaching chemicals of the white filters. These hold the coffee well and don't rip or overflow like some filters. The big problem at the time of the review is the price with prime shipping. At the time of this review it is listed at 8 dollars for 100 with prime shipping. you can buy it at militta for 3.99! It seems that amazon is charging you for prime service which is supposed to provide free shipping, and then dishonestly doubling the price (4 dollars more!) to cover the shipping. This is clearly unfair and violates the intent of the agreement for prime shipping! come on amazon give us a fair price and don't charge us twice for shipping on this item.
