Jura 67083 Cool Control Milk Cooler

Works well, but works better with constant cleaning of the tube. If you are making a bunch of lattes at once, this is your machine. For just one person it might be overkill. I would give it 5 stars but after the power goes out it doesn't turn itself back on, so if you are not home you will have bad milk.

A colleague had ordered this and we both have nearly identical Jura automatic espresso machines. We both work from home, so I wanted something that would make my machine a little more automated.

I've purchased wine coolers and other machines which use the same type of induction technology, and I've been 'burned' by them all breaking down early, not keeping the right temperature, etc.

I've had this device for six months now and I'm still just as pleased with it as the day I unboxed it. Milk is truly kept cold consistently and it's incredibly quiet.

Cons: If you're a Skim milk drinker, and you wait a couple days before using it, I've noticed that the milk can sometimes freeze up or develop ice crystals. I've been able to mitigate this by filling the outer tank with barely just enough water for it to reach the brim when the container is inside of it.

Also, the tube can be a hassle to clean. Sometimes the suction power pulls milk through and lets it sit there in the tube. You have to be conscientious to clean it thoroughly after each use or each day.

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I do some work from my home so the Jura Z5 is on most of the day. Milk used for froth of my cappuccino gets warm in the standard containers but this cooler takes care of the problem. It will keep milk in the low 30 degree area and runs quiet. It may seem a bit eccentric but I love it. The Amazon price is great, about $80.00 cheaper than buying it from Jura. Keep up the good work.

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Overall, terrific and works as advertised. The minor complaint: the stainless tube attaches to the lid by means of a silicone "washer" it's not quite snug enough to keep the tube from falling into the milk container reliably. A seemingly minor fix if they would just make the silicone washer slightly larger. Not a deal-breaker, but worth noting. Also, you need to wash this container no less than once a week otherwise milk solids tends to collect in the lid which will impart an off taste to the fresh milk that comes through it.

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I had always wanted something like this for my Jura S7 automatic espresso machine. It is much more convenient that steaming individual containers of milk, even though I am the only user each morning. I have only had it several days but have been satisfied thus far in its ability to keep the milk cold. One liter seems a lot, but once you have the dispensing convenience, it is surprising how quickly you can go through milk. It integrates nicely with the coffee maker and does not take up too much counter space. I tend to use the milk steamer and not the frother as the froth quantity is too much for my taste.

Pros: Finally I am able to make use of the Froth Express Plus feature; Convenience, especially for multiple single cups. I do not hear the fan that others complain about.

Cons: Condensation; Wish the cap was more like a thermos and clamped down on the entire device-this would stop condensation and keep the milk colder; matte finish is prone to spotting from liquid splashes-should be like the coffee maker finish which is easy to wipe; Large transformer block plug takes up plug space-beware.

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Sensio 90017 Bella Professional 12-Cup Coffeemaker

In a Nut Shell Has12 cups capacity, 24 hour clock/timer, brew pause, programmable shut off, gold tone filter, heavy, and die-cast aluminum.

Comment Even tho I have a pretty collection of coffee makers, I wanted to try 'something different', so I opted for Sensio's Bella Professional line.

READ the latest Update below.

* The Good -

1. Brews an Excellent pot of your favorite Java (kirkland's colombian supreme).

2. Brewing Time initially was Very Good compared to others, I have used before like the all-time favorite Krups line.

It's a Top Loader for both your Java and H2O and has the much sought after Radial Spray Head, which ensures an even coffee extraction. I strongly recommend using Filtered H2O

for all of your Brewing needs and using Reverse osmosis seems to be the best Option in "Hard-Waters" country, like here.

3. 1 year later, it's still working but the Tropics cause much deterioration and is taking it's toll.

* The Bad -

1. Expensive: Over 100 hundred Bucks + S/H Charges add up quickly.

2. Clock is very SMALL, totally worthless, as it does not have any Numerical Characters, like a regular clock, just 'subdued' lines, nice Blue glow though.

A much larger Round or rectangular 'clock & Coffee Function' window would have greatly improve it.

3. Using the Decanter to fill a Cup, results in Dripping coffee all over the counter, unless you Hold the decanter at a Perfect 20 to 25 degree Angle & Axis, which is difficult when it's Full.

This is mostly due to the way that the decanter's Flip-top is finished-cut at an angle. They should have looked at a mr coffee, Cuisinart or Krups.

4. The Pause n' Serve function is limited to 2 Quick cups only, otherwise, it will start to 'overflow' at the filter/basket, which can be a mess!

5. The Heating Decanter area gets grungy quickly from the spilled coffee and needs constant cleaning, as opposed to the Krups.

6. The Front Face Stainless has developed a 'smudged' appearance, not the Highly Polished finish that I expected, while this in itself does not affect the Function,

aesthetics are an important factor, for me.

7. It's sold and labeled as a 'Professional' coffeemaker, which it isn't and it's definitely NOT 'bella (beautiful) either!

* Update June 2010 I have downgraded this coffee maker to barely 1 Star. Here's why, the Decanter Warming plate has now degenerated to a Rusted, Crackled, Paint-less, Ugly Mess!

It also started to SLOW DOWN in it's percolating phase to the point where I have just replaced with a new mr coffee maker.

I expected more out of a 100+ dollar coffee maker.

This is the first time I have ever written a review about any small appliance purchased online. I am a long-time gourmet coffee nut, and have purchased many high-end coffeemaker brands over the years, including Krups, Braun, DeLonghi, and others. They all made great coffee and lasted a very long time. I purchased this Sensio 90017 Bella 'Professional' Coffeemaker in mid-2010 to replace a Krups that finally died after years of great service.

I suppose I was seduced by the great looks and supposed high-end features. But after this 'professional' coffeemaker broke down completely 7 months later, I contacted the Sensio 'Customer Service' department, located in Montreal, Canada. My unit simply would not brew at all, it just beeped continually. Be forewarned upfront that there is no service department anywhere to ship the coffeemaker to for repairs, so you are out of luck if it breaks down. And Sensio refuses to replace their coffeemakers should they break down during the one-year warranty period. This was very surprising.

I was also shocked to learn that the stated one-year warranty on this expensive coffee maker was not honored. Consumers beware: the company 'pro-rates' your warranty and will not repair or replace your coffeemaker if it dies within one year. Instead, they will refund you the pro-rated value left on the unit. For example, if you paid $100 for this coffeemaker and it broke down in 9 months time, you would receive 3 months (out of 12 months total warranty time) worth of the original value. Which equates to 25 percent, or $25 money back. I have never heard of such a policy in my life.

When I asked if I could have it repaired or replaced, they refused, as did the manager I spoke with. And here is what you have to do to get your pro-rated money amount back: cut the cord off the coffeemaker, type up a letter, attach a copy of your sales receipt, and SHIP IT ALL TO CANADA AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE!! Needless to say, for those of us who live in the USA it is not cheap to ship a package to Montreal. Do you think it is worth it for me to receive about $30 back when it costs a lot to ship the package and go through all this hassle?

Not only were the customer 'service' representatives very rude, it was obvious they did not care about their products or how consumers feel. I tried my best to get them to be reasonable, but they really don't seem to care about honoring the warranty. I was told there is absolutely nowhere to get the unit repaired, and that they no longer replace defective ones. Absurd.

While the unit worked, it made great coffee. And I would concur with other reviewers on the uselessness of the clock (it only illuminates while brewing and you can't make out the time). The other major annoyance for me was that the lid could not be removed from the glass carafe, making placing it in the dishwasher impossible. So much for the claim that the parts were dishwasher safe. And the carafe drips when pouring water into the unit or brewed coffee out into a cup.

If you want a coffeemaker at this price to last at least one year, and to buy from a company that actually cares about service, the warranty, and customers, then avoid Sensio at all costs. Also beware that this same model is now being sold under other brand names, such as the Food Network and a few famous chefs. You will recognize it by the looks and round blue clock with the nearly invisible hands. Sorry to have to complain, which I despise, but this company really does not care about its products.

Thankfully Amazon listened and refunded me my money. I was told they would contact Sensio about their warranty policy. Anyone have a recommendation on a sub-$100 coffeemaker that makes great tasting coffee and lasts?

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Thought after our wedding to get some of the most expensive appliances for our kitchen as we are just starting out. The coffee machine power quit after 12 months. I took it apart, have to literally damage the stainless face to access the switch. I heard they have a terrible warranty, so I thought try myself. No good. Into the landfill it goes. We had a junky coffee machine with an actual clock before and it was indestructable. What the hell? Pretty disappointed and out $120.

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We were looking for a new coffee maker that wouldn't dribble water condensation all over the counter top every time we opened the lid. Well, this one solved that problem, but the host of other issues does not make it worth the money. It is a handsome color for our kitchen and makes a very good cup of coffee. Other than that, it gets very low marks.

1. The first problem is the single entry/opening for adding both water and coffee grounds. I have seen this in other coffee makers and it is bad news. You always end up with coffee grounds in the water reservoir, and with this model it's virtually impossible to clean them out.

2. There is no water level window. You have to actually look into the reservoir and watch the water fill pretty awkward if you're a little short. Also, it has "steps" for the even numbers of cups for your water level. If, however, you want to make something in between, like 3 or 5 cups of coffee, it is total guesswork as to how much water to add. Most coffee makers have the same even-number set up, but since they have a window you can tell when you've hit the half-way point between two evens. Not so easy when you are peering in from above.

3. The coffee grounds basket has to be seated exactly right. I don't just mean line up the little notch on the rim of the basket; you also have to hold the handle of the basket up and while doing so, push the basket down into it's precise spot, and then drop the little handle. If you make an error with this step, the drip-stop function will be engaged, even though the carafe is in it's place. So the basket fills with water, but has no way to escape and you soon have an explosion of coffee and grounds all over your counter top. Once again, coffee grounds end up in the water reservoir, with no good way to clean them out. Even after we figured out this issue, and learned to properly seat the basket, we still miss once in a while and have a coffee catastrophe all over the kitchen.

4. The heating element is another problem. We've only had this maker a few months, and already the heating element looks 10 years old. You have to be sure to clean the heating element between each pot of coffee, and be sure to DRY your clean carafe before you place it on the heating element. Otherwise, any coffee or water seems to react with the heating element and the heat itself to ruin the finish on the element.

5. The programmable part is kind of a joke. It is indeed a programmable coffeemaker, and with much trial and error we have managed to get it to autostart coffee in the morning. The manual is rather vague about how to set the autostart do you put the left-side dial on BREW or ON? I called and asked a rep, who knew nothing about coffeemakers, and he determined that you put the right side dial on AUTO ON and the left side dial on BREW. This of course was wrong. Put the left side dial on ON. To just make coffee without programming it, you of course put the right side dial on PROGRAM and the left side dial on BREW. Yeah, that makes sense. NOT.

6. Another irritating feature of this maker is its auto-off which is not programmable. My old maker allowed me to program how long it could stay on, and since I like to putter around in the morning and sort of sip slowly through my cup, I usually set it for 4 hours. If I turned it off and wanted to heat it up later, I could just turn the maker back on and the heating element would do its job. But not the Bella. It automatically turns the heating element off after 2 hours. No ifs, ands or buts. If you still have a little coffee in the carafe you'd like to heat up, you are out of luck. If you turn the machine back on, it will sense whether there is water in the reservoir. If no water in the reservoir, it turns itself back off. And voila, cold coffee remains cold.

So, while the description calls it fully-programmable, it is not.

I would give this product only one star but it does make excellent coffee, so I gave it 2. There are surely other coffee makers out there that also make excellent coffee without all the hassle, and for less than $100.

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I didn't make coffee in this product, so I can't attest to that function. I expected it to be a little more substantial, but it looked and felt a little cheapish. I don't think it was horrible, just not what I was looking for. Actually, I was getting so sick of these kind of coffee makers, cold coffee, short life,etc, that on a whim I purshased a Farberware stainless steel percolater. It makes fabulous coffee and it is really hot and so flavorful. Everyone that comes over raves over the coffee. Best part. It was only about $48 on Amazon! You will have to grind your own coffee to the percolator grind in the store.

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Black & Decker DCM100B 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Glass Carafe

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.

Special-fit carafe MUST sit in place to disengage the "brew stop" feature,

or you will be cleaning up your coffee as it overflows on the counter.

PAPER THIN carafe (I have no idea where it is from, but lemme guess, China?)

A small tap on the water faucet: time for a new carafe.

DO NOT buy a "compatible" carafe, even if you can find one. If it doesn't

fit EXACTLY as the original, you again get to clean up the coffee from the

counter.

I would recommend this to Bernie Madoff and would require he hold it in

his lap, making coffee with an ill-fitting replacement cafe, while

in his underwear. Other than that, stay away.

Great gag gift for people who think dribble cups are funny.

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The coffee pot sits on the plate incorrectly thus causing drippage all over the counter! I do not reccommend this to a friend.

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I've owned this coffee maker for a year and it has made a reliable cup of Joe every time. I have not experienced the brewing issues posted by other reviewers, just good coffee. My only complaint is that the lip of the carafe is poorly design. Whenever I pour coffee to my cup, a few drops drip to the floor...no mater the tilt or speed of the pour. This design flaw could have easily been caught by the design team and for that, it losing a full star.

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I had been looking for a new coffeemaker for awhile and couldn't find one that I liked both the looks and features in stores. I received a coupon for Amazon.com & decided to see what coffeemakers they had. I saw this one & with the discount coupon only paid $9.99, so I thought I'd try it. I really like the look & design of the coffeemaker & it is very easy to use.

Single Serve Coffee Maker

This is the perfect solution for anyone who enjoys an occasional cup or who has no counter space for a larger unit. We already owned a 12-cup, much more elaborate electric coffee maker when I started searching for a Father's Day gift for my husband. He really likes coffee but not every day. And, he's the only one in our home who drinks it. Everything comes in a sturdy box suitable for gift wrapping. I gave it to him with various bags of gourmet ground coffee. Had I thought about it, I might have added a personalized cup, just to make the gift more special.

The coffee brews in just a few minutes to the perfect temperature; no waiting for cool down. The white ceramic mug is a nice value-add; now my husband has a mug "just for him." He likes the size of the mug handle lots of room for man-sized fingers. The mug has no markings or label. You can add the amount of water for brew strength and the serving size you prefer. There are level marks inside the water reservoir 8, 10, 12 and 14 ounces. The basket filter is generously sized as well. There is more than enough room for extra grounds.

Even though it comes with a mug, the drip area is spacious; any mug will easily fit. The unit is short enough to store on a shelf inside our kitchen cabinet. There are three rubber feet, each about the size of a pencil eraser. These keep the coffee maker up off the counter a little bit and also deter skidding around. The entire unit is on the light side. The removable drip tray and grate survived our dishwasher. The mug survived our dishwasher and microwave. The coffee maker is black and grey plastic. The black electric cord is 27.5 inches long, including the plug. There is no cord keeper. This unit does not turn itself off. Everything is made in China.

I purchased this particular one for my son. After researching several single cup coffee makers, we chose this one because you can use any coffee you chose -not premeasured, expensive containers. You can make it as weak or strong as you like and use your favorite brand of coffee. It is noisy, but the unit is compact, looks good and clean-up is minimal. Now, he can have his coffee fresh when he wants it and not from a pot sitting around for hours! Perfect!

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I don't know what problem the previous reviewer is having. I have this unit and it is wonderful. It makes a single cup or mug of coffee just perfectly. I love it! Also works great if you want just hot water for tea or instant something. Just make sure you turn it off when you're done, does not have automatic turn-off. Great product for the money though!

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Wish I would have purchased this sooner! No more wasting coffee with the big machines for just one cup for yourself. Perfect for the single coffee drinker in the house. Takes less than 5 minutes to brew (I timed it). I also have used it for teas and hot chocolate. I love that I don't have to buy filters anymore and the cleanup (if any) is super easy. I also like that there aren't pods that you have to buy either. You can use your regular grounds you are used to. You won't miss your auto-shut off feature. You just get into the habit of flipping the switch to off when you take your cup to drink. It's not any louder than any other coffee maker. The only thing I would recommend is to pour the water into the reservoir using a measuring cup with a spout otherwise you spill water on your counter if you just use the cup. Also, I was having a problem with the machine not brewing all the water I would pour in but I quickly remedied that by running the cleaning cycle that you are supposed to do once a month which is easy to do with vinegar. Problem solved.

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3 and 1/2 minutes. From flip of the switch to the last gurgling slurp!

Cup-o-Soup, Hot Tea, Hot Coffee . . . whatever I've needed Hot water for . . . and Piping HOT every time!

The largest "Cup" on the market; I could find at 12 oz. but could probably do 14 if you had a cup to hold it.

(The brim of the cup it comes with is at 12 oz.)

I love it!

I switch it off AS SOON AS it is done.

i remove the permanent filter and basin immediately, rinse thoroughly and allow to air dry.

I remove the permanent filter except for making coffee.

I love how I can make the cup of coffee as STRONG or weak as I want depending . . .

As well made if not better than any other 'Plastic' small kitchen gadget I've used.

I did pick my unit up locally for $12.00 and after a month sought out

Amazon Review to help shed some light! Good Luck!

Amendment!: 12-7-2012

It has been a little over a year since I purchased this unit. I still follow my aforementioned regimen.

I've made roughly a thousand cups of coffee cups in this span of time.

It now takes a whole 4 minutes to brew a cup. I know; I know . . . I manage though.

Seriously, I wanted to let you guys hear of one which continually performs with no issues.

Happy Holidays!

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Saeco S-TG-ST Talea Giro Super Automatic Espresso Machine

I have purchased this coffee maker because I tasted the coffee it makes at a friends party. It was awesome. My friend had his machine for a few weeks and was very excited about it. This is a good looking machine, easy to fall in love with. I immediately went to purchase one. That's when my problems started. and by the way, so did my friend's. If you don't want to read any further, the summary is DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY ON THIS MACHINE!!!

Pros: When it works, it makes wonderful coffee

Cons: you need about 10 minutes to read this and let it sink

1. Usability after a few weeks of use it stopped working. The first problem with this machine is its usability specifically, feedback to problems. It has a very capricious operation and the feedback it provides whenever a problem occurs is illegible. It is capricious because, it complains when (a) the water tank is half empty. When it complains you cannot make a decision to override it in other words, when the red light goes on because your water tank is half empty, you cannot continue making coffee until you fill it up again. It takes 2-3 lattes to empty half the water tank in other words, if you have several people for coffee, you can keep yourself busy filling the water tank, forget about polite conversations; (b) after 2-3 lattes you are also forced to dispose off of the used coffee, as it doesn't let you make your own decision, even though the disposal container takes a third of the volume of the machine and has plenty capacity to store 30 times more.

2. Reliability I have this coffee maker for less than three months. It has been in repair 2 times, for a total of over a month. The first time I had to send it for repair after only three weeks of use, when the red light stayed on, no matter what I did. Customer service determined that the machine was faulty and asked me to send it for repair. It came back after 14 days with a note that they found nothing wrong with it! Miraculously it now worked, yet, while the red light problem went away, there was another, new problem. Now when I made espresso, the steam hose was dripping concurrently and profusely, emptying the water tank even faster then it already did under normal conditions. Called customer service again. They diagnosed it as a potential problem with an O-ring and asked me to send the machine for repair again, this time to their center in Ohio. I sent the machine for the second repair on November 14th, and I still don't have it back as of this writing (Dec 9, 2009) you do the math!!! AND YES, THEY HAD TO REPLACE ALL THE O-RINGS IN THE MACHINE, SO PLEASE TAKE A PITY ON YOUR MACHINE AND TRY NOT TO USE YOURS EXCESSIVELY, MAYBE A CUP A WEEK OR SO...

3. Customer Service this is the worst customer service money can buy. It is not that the reps are not nice they are very nice and courteous. However, they are completely ineffective, dis-empowered to make any decisions (everything goes to a supervisor, her manager, and so on). When you're on the phone with the customer service rep, (which they have one of, judging by the wait time of 30 minutes on the average, and the fact that you get the same one every time) it may take 3-4 "waiting in between" times for him to go ask the supervisor how to answer my question or what to do with my request. And it goes on and on. By the way don't call during lunch as you will get a voice prompt politely asking you to call back as the company is out to lunch literally! And yes, if you thought you can get a status of repair on your coffee machine you paid so much for, forget about it. They have no ability to tell you anything except that "its on the workbench" or its not on the workbench... If they promise to call you back to let you know what's going on, because now it has been three weeks and you have called them multiple times, sent them multiple mail messages, etc., don't hold your breath they won't get back to you, guaranteed. And guess what, having gone through all this, they won't send your machine overnight. If you have an issue with this, here is the reply you will get (I got this earlier today):

"I'm sorry that you feel that way. You should have been told that our turnaround right now is roughly 2 weeks. As I stated before, we are the main warranty center for THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES. THIS IS THE HOLIDAY SEASON. WE ASK OUR CUSTOMER TO BE PATIENT WITH US DURING THIS EXTREMELY BUSY SEASON. We ship standard ground. Anything other than standard ground must be paid for by the customer." It reminds me of the movie "My Cousin Vinny", when the whole store got the flu... The "roughly 2 weeks" she quotes has been 4 weeks now, so "roughly" goes a long way with Saeco. It also shows you how busy they are with repair the more they sell, the more they are swamped with faulty coffee machines.

Will update you when I get the machine back. Obviously I would have returned it to Amazon within the first 30 days, had I known what is in store for me. Now I have to keep it. But I am clearly done with Saeco no more buying their stuff. BTW if anyone knows if I have a different option, would love to learn about it.

Update 1/14/2010

And so it goes on and on. The long story from above ended up with Saeco replacing my first machine with a new one. Got back from my vacation few days ago and found a new machine awaiting to be finally enjoyed. My wife and I were very excited. Opened it up, read the documentation and watched the video and started setting it up. I won't burden you with details three days later the new machine doesn't work. Discovered that a selection knob (steam/hot water) is damaged. Sent Saeco support a couple of messages with the images of the broken part. No reply. Called Customer Service several times, waiting 20-40 minutes and ending up being disconnected. So here we are. I guess it's lawyer's time now.

We got this coffee maker for my husband, who likes to drink a lot of coffee and expend practically no effort to prepare it / clean up afterwards. He already knew drip machines were not for him clean up after every use... So he had switched to a French press and got to like the bold flavor but that ended up being too much work still. After that he was only drinking "Turkish coffee" (i.e. dump the grounds in a cup and pour water over them) that was about the right amount of effort but just didn't taste that great. Especially compared to his favorite "Americanos" at the neighborhood coffee shop.

SOO, when I saw this machine I knew we had to get it. We found it almost 50% off at an unnamed dept. store so I have absolutely no reason to justify an expensive purchase by writing a positive review :).

I would not say it's cheaply made at all. The parts where it matters most use high-quality materials. I don't care if my water tank is plastic it seems to be crack resistant all right.

The maintenance could not be easier it cleans itself by running a bit of water through the system before every use (so the coffee never tastes stale) and all you have to do is empty out the grounds drawer and rinse the "brew group" about every week. Very easy.

My husband can make his americanos just by a touch of a button the dispensing of extra water could not be easier. The switch to steam, just as easy. He loves the coffee and so did our guests all major coffee fans.

And here's my favorite part. I didn't even drink coffee before we got this thing but now I will actually make a super light latte now and then. What won me over? The high-pressured, super-effective milk frothing system and the option to reduce the amount and strength of the coffee you brew. I can't think of a better investment and I'm glad I listened to my coffee-fanatic sister about going for the proven Saeco brand.

Buy Saeco S-TG-ST Talea Giro Super Automatic Espresso Machine Now

Have been using this machine for a week now, and, most importantly, it makes outstanding coffee. I am not a coffee expert, but as a (now former) Starbucks regular, I can testify that I'd prefer coffee from this machine over Starbucks brew any day.

Other things on the good side:

easy to install and simple to operate

very fast, a great cup of coffee is always just a minute away

On the downside:

Although the design is ok, the execution is a bit on the cheap side (for what I'd expect at this price tag) with plastic body and controls not having a feel of precision mechanism

alarm indicators (too add water, add coffee, empty waste tank) are a bit cryptic and it takes an effort to figure out what this machine wants from you, maybe I'll get better at it with time.

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The Talea Giro shows a lot of functional improvements over my 1997 Saeco machine. It makes better coffee, yet I don't believe it will be nearly as reliable and it is positively loaded with clumsy, annoying misfeatures. I'm somewhat disappointed. It is a machine to be endured rather than enjoyed.

I've been fussing with it for a few days and now have it making very good coffee. There is a lot of crema, which will easily float a teaspoon of sugar for five seconds. The coffee is much hotter than it was from the old machine. I make a couple two-shot cups in the morning and espresso at night, and both kinds of coffee are as good as restaurant espresso but not as good as the best hand-pulled shots.

As I said, there are several controls to twiddle. There are some that weren't present on my old machine, and you have to tweak them for some time before decent coffee starts coming out. You control the grind fineness, the water volume, the dose (amount of ground coffee per shot) and the back pressure on the filter. Once you get these lined up to your satisfaction, the shots come out at a reasonable pace regardless of the amount of water that's going to go through the 'puck' of compressed coffee grounds. Once set, these controls seem to stay set.

The machine is much busier than my old one. When you start it up, it rumbles and growls for a few seconds, then there is a cheesy flashing Christmas-light display no doubt meant to assure you there is something going on. After that, it spits a couple ounces of hot water into the drip tray and hums a bit more to itself. All this activity is conducted at a low sound volume, at least. When you push the "brew" button there are all kinds of whirrings and gurgles. The grinder is fairly quiet.

The machine's design is functionally OK it makes good coffee but it has enough usability problems to reduce an industrial engineer like me to helpless laughter. The exterior is not well made. It reminds me of a Fisher-Price doll house with lots of flaps and buttons to push, all somewhat misshapen and all made of plastic that's a little too thin to be worthy of a machine this expensive.

The machine is pretty much cylindrical and it rotates on its feet so you can easily spill your coffee when you turn it to one side or the other as you must, to accord with its cryptic signals, or when you try to push the power button without making a weird Vulcan death-grip pinch on it. The water tank is hidden behind a cheap-looking panel. It should be visible so you do not have to rely on the machine turning on its ! light (its way of saying "something is wrong") to know when to do something, perhaps refill it. On top is the bean hopper. The bean hopper is supposed to hold the beans and allow them to slide into the grinder that's located at its low point. My old machine had a round bean hopper with a conical bottom leading to the grinder a straightforward, silo-like device. The Talea Giro has a wide, shallow bean hopper with a nearly flat bottom so the beans stay perched in clumps instead of sliding into the grinder. You end up herding beans toward the grinder all the time and just so you don't get carried away and try this while the grinder is operating, the cover is now interlocked. However, you can see the beans that aren't going into the grinder. The hopper cover is clear. On my old machine the cover was opaque and that is the way it should be since coffee is degraded by light.

There's another interlock on the water tank door and yet another on the "dregs drawer" where the pre-heat water and the used coffee pucks are ejected. The machine tells you to dump the "dregs drawer" every fourteen shots, no matter whether you've just done it or not, and it won't proceed until you comply.

The half-bakery continues with a feature that was good in concept but was executed with malice aforethought. The drip tray moves up and down. This is wonderful if you have a tall morning coffee cup but short espresso cups. However, the entire mechanism is made of blow-molded cheap. It wobbles to help you spill your coffee when you turn the machine. The water-containing bit of the drip tray pulls off so you can dump it and when you do, you find that it's so light and flimsy that you wonder how it manages to hold a cup up without catastrophic failure. This is going to get broken, perhaps when it's bumped by a wandering kitten, and you need it because all the coffee you have spilled while turning the machine this way and that ends up in it.

I'm extremely unimpressed by the "BMW Designworks USA" effort at building coffee makers. These designers changed a machine that could have a straightforward way of operating into an expensive treasure hunt game, re-inventing things to make them needlessly complex, less useful and more annoying in the process, very much like recent BMW cars. I'm giving the machine three stars because the coffee quality is so good, but Saeco: give the industrial design job back to your old group. They built things that work and last, like my old Saeco machine.

Want Saeco S-TG-ST Talea Giro Super Automatic Espresso Machine Discount?

Great for about 3 months.

Then the steaming wand began to drip endlessly.

I have been trying to contact their support for a week now.

My total hold time has been well into the HOURS.

And I am on hold now as I write this review.

Would I buy this again...NO WAY!

Look for another product with better support.

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Jura-Capresso 13180 Impressa S8 Super Automatic Coffee Center, Dual-Tone Platinum

I knew that an automatic espresso maker would be convienient, but wow, is it ever amazing! This unit definitely saves time in the morning as well as saves money going to a certain coffee chain (except for the beans). Jura-Capresso's customer service was really great as well as we had lost the manual and DVD, and they gladly sent replacements. The DVD was especially helpful for learning about the system.

You definitely need to customize the coffee strength and coffee/steam/milk portions, but once that's done, the unit is truly automatic. You have to clean it, but the unit tells you what to do and when.

Worth every penny.