1200 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine, Classic Milk Frother, 2 Coffee Varieties, Intuitive Touch Display, 100% Ceramic Grinder, AquaClean Filter, Aroma Seal, Black (EP1220/04)

I LOVE this machine!! If I thought I was addicted to coffee before I had this thing, now it's out of control. Espresso at the touch of a button. It did take some tweaking in the beginning to get the grind size correct for the beans I use. I find that a dark Italian espresso with a little bit of Colombian blended in gives the perfect flavor. The water in Central Texas is way too hard so I've been using bottled spring water to fill it up. I still have to decalcify it from time to time when it gives the alert. I don't use the Philips tablets for decalcification though, I just used two tablespoons of citric acid mixed with distilled water up to the decalcification fill line and follow the instructions on their YouTube channel. I've also used a degreasing tablet once and will continue to use those every few months, again following the YouTube channel instructions. Cleaning it is pretty simple, I don't use soap and just run underwater and use paper towels to remove whatever gunk is on there and let it air dry. Just rely on the occasional degreasing procedure and the daily wage rpurge to keep the lines clean. This this is crazy simple to use, and requires just a little "getting to know it" to get perfect coffee and keep the machine maintained. The convenience of getting freshly ground coffee in 60 seconds from turning it on (and maybe 20-30 seconds if it's already on and purged it's line) is a huge luxury. I like making a double espresso shot into two ice cubes, then add 36grams store bought carmal macchiato creamer. Blend for a perfect morning carmal macchiato. I have 2-3 of those every day 😅

I’ve had many different espresso machines. This one is by far the best I’ve had. Makes great espressos and coffees. I like that you can use grounds and beans. Easy to clean. Easy to use. Makes the espressos/coffees pretty quickly. I have had no problems thus far

In writing this review I was conflicted in whether to give a one or five star rating. In the end, unfortunately, I must give it a one star. First, some of the nice things about the machine. If you have a Keurig, and drink coffee from that, you are going to LOVE the Philips machine. On its worst day, the Philips makes way better coffee than you will ever get out of your Keurig. Also, since this machine usus whole beans your cost per cup will be way less. With this, the machine will pay for itself over a Keurig in no times, since those little coffee pods are so expensive. For me, this is my fifth super-automatic coffee maker. Day in and day out, I use a traditional Rocket Espresso machine to make my morning cappuccino. A machine like the rocket produces the ultimate drinks, and so I like to start my day out with one of those. However, it takes a little effort to use the machine, so I got the Philips to get quick easy coffees throughout the day. When the machine arrived, I was pretty impressed. It was fairly compact, easy to add beans, water, dump the pucks and clean the drip tray. The first serious issue with this machine was I simply could not dial in a proper espresso. When the machine makes a coffee, it is very weak and watery. In watching it press the coffee out, almost immediately the stream turns clear, and almost no rich golden color. It appears to use a very small volume of coffee to make a cup, leading to a very weak coffee. Compounding the problem, it never forms a proper puck. When i look in the drip tray, I do not see anything resembling a puck, but just see a pile of coffee ground sludge. The instructions and online forums says this is an issue to start with, but be patient as it will dial itself in. So, I decided to go ahead and make lots of coffee and just pour it out to let the machine calibrate. I made 30 cups, and yet the machine could not produce a proper puck, and still made weak coffee. Made 15 more cups, and still same thing. Also I should note at some point in the process I adjusted the bean grind to finer and finer levels, trying to get a good puck and a good strong coffee. I did not find success. What I observed is, that even setting my grinder on the finest setting, it produced grounds about like grocery store drip coffee. It did not produce fine powder like you expect from an espresso grind. For a machine like this, if you are not producing a powder like coffee, you simply will not get a strong cup of coffee. To try and get at least a drinkable coffee what I found is I needed to set grinder on finest grind setting possible. Set the coffee bean amount on the largest setting possible, set the water amount on the smallest possible, and then follow the instructions to set the temperature to the maximum brew temperature. At this point I could sort of get a drinkable coffee. At about the time that I got a drinkable coffee setting dialed in, the machine malfunctioned. In pressing the go button, the machine would malfunction and the three error lights would come on. In looking at the troubleshooting manual, I tried the suggestions, but did not work. It said if the suggestions did not work to contact Philips. The malfunction appeared to be that a bean had become jammed in the grinder, and the motor did not have enough power to begin grinding due to the stuck bean. I could tell because when the machine malfunctioned you could hear the motor hum, and the machine immediately shut down. I live in East Africa, so simply no possible way to ship the machine back to Philips for repairs, so I decided to try and repair myself. In looking in the coffee hopper, I found that Philips had used though odd star shaped screws, meaning it was going to be next to impossible to remove the cover to get to the jammed grinder. I finally had to modify a philips head screw driver with a grinder, and I was able to get into the machine. By clearing the beans out of the grinder, putting it back together, it worked again. Unfortunately, I anticipate this will happen again, since the motor appears to be underpowered to have enough start up torque to hand the situation of a stuck bean. To be honest, it was so hard to take the machine apart, I will not undertake that effort again. Next time the machine jams, I will simply have to toss the machine out. So, the issue with this machine, fundamentally is, the grinder motor is not powerful enough to dislodge a stuck bean. Secondly, the grinder is not able to provide the fine coffee grind needed for a proper espresso. Thirdly, even on hottest setting, the brew termperature provides coffee that is not piping hot. Really wanted to love the machine, but unfortunately it appears to have some fundamental design errors.

We had a Jura brand machine before this one. $900 for the entry level version. I had to buy a special key to take it apart to clean the working parts. Took about 2 hours start to finish. This Philips machine has more functions, and costs about half of what we paid for the Jura. To clean the working parts I just open a door and pull them out, easy peezy. We have had our Philips for about 2 years now and we really like it. This machine is completely functional. There is an annoyance that I want to mention though. I have family members that are coffee fiends like us they have $3600 Jura machines . What we all have noticed with our different machines is when you are using oily beans, they don’t slide down the bean shoot easily. You have to be vigilant and swish them towards the grinder, or you might get a very weak cup of coffee

"We should get an espresso machine" said my wife. "I like espresso." "Me too!" I replied. "Let's buy one!" This seemed like an easy proposition. But down the rabbit hole I went, and I soon realized that I was on the verge of becoming a "coffee guy" - one of those people who has Very Strong Opinions about pressurized portafilters and very expensive and clever conical burr grinders. The kind of guy who speaks in hushed tones about steam pressure and cream and uses the word "extraction" a lot. Since no one in my family want to spend every morning waiting an hour for me to tweak grind settings or calibrate the pre-infusion temperatures, and everyone agreed that I do not need another obsessive hobby, we started looking at automatic machines. We quickly decided that pod-based machines were right out for a variety of reasons, and similarly decided that one of those touch-screen possibly-self-aware machines were just going to be way way way out of our price range, we settled on the 1200. I checked reviews and videos and so forth, and we decided it was a good place to land. We couldn't be happier. Okay, okay, it probably doesn't make the absolute *best* espresso in the world. I'm sure somewhere, some geriatric italian barista is crossing himself and spitting every time I press a button on this thing. And it's loud. When it grinds, boy howdy you hear it grinding, and when it steams, you hear steaming and clunking and all manner of mechanical noises. I expected that, but it's still loud. The buttons lack a bit in terms of haptic feedback - until something actually happens I'm never entirely sure I've pressed one, so I always have that half second of "oh no, did I break it?" until i hear a pump spring to life. And it's big - this isn't a "stick it on the shelf and hide it away" kind of machine. It dwarfs my pressure cooker. And while the grinder does a fine job, you don't get access to it independently - you have only limited options for dosing (the 3-setting "aroma" control) or grind size (there's a knob inside the grinder itself) and the only time you see the grounds is in the "spent grounds" bin. I understand there's a way to fiddle with the temperature that involves opening panels and flipping switches; I have not tried it and I probably will not. But those minor quibbles aside, it pulls a very respectable shot of espresso; I've already had a better flat white after a day of randomly poking at buttons than I have at my local mermaid-themed coffee shop, and even a straight shot of espresso was pleasant, well-flavored, and full-bodied. The milk steamer is acceptable - nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done and I've even managed to make some incredibly rudimentary latte art. It's easy to clean, and the AquaClean filter makes that part even nicer. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use too - shove a cup underneath and press play and you're basically 80% of the way there. It's easy enough that everyone in my family can stumble into the kitchen and spit out a cuppa without thinking about it. It even makes plain coffee, which is great for the family members who just wants a cup of something hot and black and none of this continental nonsense. (I suspect the "coffee" is more akin to an americano, but I haven't been able to verify that.) Time will tell if this thing holds up, but I have high hopes and good experience so far. It works better than the bargain espresso machines I see everywhere, seems to have a pretty good grind dialed in at the factory, and while it's a bit on the pricy side it's still a lot cheaper than the others in its category (and only marginally more expensive than a plain machine) and you don't need to buy a fancy grinder to go with it. And shipping was ludicrously fast.

This is a great machine for easy lattes and coffee. I bought this machine with the hopes to make lattes, and it has exceeded my expectation. The grinder is really solid and makes a very good tasting espresso. It was easy to set up using the videos from Philips. I was pleased it fits under my upper cabinets with room to place a milk pitcher or cup on top of the machine. It’s very convenient that the water carafe is accessed through the front of the machine (not the top). The machine is not too loud either. I was concerned about waking up family in the morning but it hasn’t seemed to disturb anyone. The settings are very easy to adjust and it notifies you when it’s out of water. I have had issues with the milk frother. It’s a bit of a defect on the manufacturing. If the silver part of the frother is pushed on too tightly it will block the small air hole. It has to be loosely attached for it to get good airflow for the milk. I thought I had a defective machine, but then after messing around with it I figured out the problem. Be sure to rinse the milk frother after every use to prevent milk blockage (I also run hot water through after using the steam wand to make sure it is clear). It’s very easy to clean out the water tray and old grounds. I will add you must have the machine on when you dump the grounds or the machine will not recognize you’ve emptied it. It is recommended to rinse the inside of the machine weekly. The first time I did it I had some issue getting it back together, but I think with time it will get easier. I would 100% recommend this machine to anyone wanting an easy latte or coffee at home. I’ve found that it tastes better than going to a cafe as I can make it according to my liking. There are many videos on YouTube to help with milk frothing and making specialty drinks.

This machine makes great espresso! And it's pretty easy to use, particularly since it grinds the beans and makes espresso shots at the push of a button. Unfortunately, the coffee it makes is undrinkable. For regular coffee, we've had to revert back to a $20 five-cup drip coffee maker, which is very good. Since it makes great espresso, it's a mystery why it is incapable of making good coffee. A few other nits to note: (1) The buttons are strange. Instead of just touching each button, you have to press and hold each button for a half second or so before it activates. Very strange in the year 2024 and feels low-tech. (2) The marketing stickers on the front and top of the machine that are clearly intended just to help retailers market the product are impossible to get off. We tried peeling them off, and they leave a sticky white goo. We've decided just to leave them on to avoid scratching up the plastic, which looks tacky on your countertop. It was a very poor product design/marketing choice.

We were replacing a KRUPS machine that was making great coffee until it finally died, so some of this review will reference the KRUPS. When you first get this machine the first 5-10 cups are going to be very weak but eventually the machine will calibrate and you’ll figure out your favorite options, grind density. The good: - easily removable water tank (easier than krups) it slides out forward so don’t have to move the machine ever - makes a variety of coffee sizes and grind types. There is a knob inside the coffee bean area with 12 grind settings. - aroma seal top for the coffee beans holder plus it works with ground coffee too if you get those on accident. - milk steamer is very strong and easy to clean - this design is better than Krups. The steamer can be stopped when you want to so milk doesn’t overflow. - the coffee is really good once you get used to the settings - though not as good as Krups… The OK - startup is a bit lengthy - the first part of the video - the machine shuts down after about 10-15 minutes fully. - it cleans every time so that small amount of water after startup always gets dumped, don’t put your cup there and leave cause you might forget to dump it :) Overall it’s a very good mid range full service machine, easy to clean and maintain and the water tank doesn’t have small areas that will grow mold - this was a problem on the Krups. Hope this helps! Overall I probably would have gotten a Krups because I was used to it but since it’s not sold in the US anymore this one is a very good replacement.