Philips Saeco Xelsis Super Automatic Espresso Machine - LatteDuo Milk System, 15 Coffee Varieties, 6 User Profiles, Touchscreen, Black & Titanium, (SM7684/04)

UP DATE 5 Years Later:After five years the milk pump stopped working. So I ordered a replacement machine for $600 less than I paid the first time. That I simply replaced it should say a lot. Never a problem in five years. At least 20 cups a week the entire time.( I did once try to reach their service department. So far as I can see it is just a phone in a drawer somewhere.) Otherwise I've up graded to 5 stars.If you don't already own a Porsche, this Saeco Super Automatic Coffee Maker can seem expensive. And if you want to be your own barista you can get a high quality semi automatic and a quality bur grinder for about the same price. And have the option of brewing dark and oily beans. Which you must not do with the Super Automatics as it clogs up the grinder.From what I've learned about the art of making great coffee, SAECO engineers have optimized the process for all the variables. The very simple to program choice points for heat of water, quality of milk foam, density of coffee flavor that this machine offers should mean you'll get all the rich flavor you want. But if you really must have a French roast in the morning you can put a scoop in the ground coffee feeder, press the ground coffee button and voila!I've had this machine for a couple of weeks and it has truly improved my mornings. A coffee maker is only as good as the beans you put in it. Spending serious money on a top of the line machine means I've given up pre-ground coffee and only buy freshly roasted. Enough for a week's coffee. Well worth it!The machine warms up quickly, so fresh hot coffee is ready within a couple minutes. Quicker than my boiling a kettle for a French Press. This machine rinses itself when it starts up and before it shuts off. The water filter means de-calcification is a rare. need. Monthly cleaning to remove oils is a breeze and the milk supply can be steam cleaned after each use, very, very simply. We looked into a couple of close competitors at similar price points and felt this Saeco has the edge. It seems to be very solidly made. A friend has an earlier version that's been running for four or five years without a problem. If this machine proves that dependable then the cost will have been well worth it. Especially for the enhancement to quality of life from a really first class coffee first thing in the morning. - The one possible negative is that my coffee consumption has tripled since we got this machine.A lot of money just to get perfect coffee. But for this household it has been well worth it. Best money I've spent this year!UPDATEI'm still very happy with this coffee maker, but now have had enough experience with it to refine my review. I've run the various cleaning tasks and these are not a chore. Very straight forward. I think, for the money, Seico might have included a couple of cleaning tablets, one for the coffee and one for the milk. But these items are easy enough to find on line.Small issues: The ground coffee is hit or miss. About every three or four goes the machine cancels the process and the coffee is lost. The process has to be repeated to get straight coffee. I've tried setting the sequence before and after putting in the spoon (they provide for accurate measurement) of coffee. Haven't figured out why this happens. - The "sound' button doesn't seem to do anything. On or off makes no difference. -- The drip tray is made of silver plastic which marks and scratches easily. I wonder if they couldn't have used the same material as the front of the machine, which is a very nice dark material that looks good and is easy to clean.I am impressed with the gradation of choices for exactly the kind of coffee experience you want. The better the bean the better the coffee. And then it is a matter of strength, hotness, amount of milk., or none ... And when you've found what you prefer, simply add it to your profile for consistently excellent coffee.It was worth the cost. But there is room for improvement.AND Good luck with their service and trouble shooting! After three weeks I couldn't get the pre-ground coffee to work. The machine would just dump the coffee in the grounds bin wand cancel the brew. So: How to find out what the problem is and how to fix it? Don't call Seico unless you like to be on hold for a very extended period of time. And no on line resource that isn't just what you ge in the manual. Very poor....So I knocked off one star, and I notice they knocked off $500 off the price....

I still shake my head each morning when I fire this thing up and watch it make the first of my two, double Latte Macchiatos. I mean two-grand is a lot dough for a coffee machine, no matter how cool it is—and this one *is* especially cool!I shopped around and read all the reviews, watched all the videos for about a month before deciding on this model. I went round and round on the various manufacturers, the various methods, and especially the anticipated ease of use aspect—because they all look easy when someone else is doing all the work. Believe it or not, I initially set a budget of no more than $1,000. But here’s what finally got me to this machine: first, I’m a drinker of coffee, not a Barista, and I have no interest in becoming one. Second, I honestly wasn’t familiar with all the coffee drinks this machine makes, but I didn’t want to limit my options with a machine that made fewer—and I’m certainly including those machines that don’t produce or provide for ANY milk-based drinks. No milk ever, divided by two-thousand dollars is a long time (tastes change). All of which, finally leads us to the milk thing, which is really the FROTH thing. If you want it, you need a machine provides a way to make it, or that makes it for you. If you want to do it, know how to do it, and can put those two together at four or five in the morning—forever; more power to ‘ya! Frothing is a separate skill and it takes extra time and another steam cycle on lesser machines. With this machine, froth is created as your coffee is brewed, in the same cup your coffee is brewed, and in the same position--you don’t have to know how to do it, you don’t have to get good at it—you just push the button on the screen. That’s something most of us can manage even before the sun comes up. Select drink, push button, drink coffee; no skills required, no failures, no disappointment, no shame, and maybe just a hint of guilt ;- )Okay, suppose you decide to buy this thing, what are the realities of living with it? Well it’s big, you need some space. They make noise! None of the videos I watched recorded the racket these things make—grinding beans makes noise, the froth makes noise, steam makes noise, the brew cycle makes noise, there’s plenty of noise to go around. Then there’s the care and feeding bit—it has a water tank and it needs to be filled. It has a used coffee bin, and it need to be emptied. It has an external milk container with a syphon stem and hose and they need to filled, emptied and cleaned—that’s all everyday stuff. They are picky about the beans they take (oily beans gum up the works). Beyond that, there are cleaning supplies and filters that you’ll need to purchase and use as required—I’m only a couple of months into mine, so there are things I haven’t yet had the pleasure of doing. All of these things are easy and the machine tells you when they need to be done and how to do them. Indeed, the computer inside this thing, and the cellphone quality, color touch-screen that provides the interface between you and it, were the final reasons I decided to double my budget and opt for the best, no compromise machine I could afford/rationalize. I don’t regret my choice, and I’m not the sort of person who tosses around thousand dollar bills without a care. If you can swing this machine, I guarantee you will be overjoyed with your choice and the machine.Ooh—did I mention it makes good coffee?

This machine appeared great when we first had it. Perfect espresso, cappuccino etc - but after just 3 months we got the Error 2 message. Machine was working fine, then 1 hour later - nothing. Note the manual that comes with the machine cover error 1 and then skips to error 3. Based on similar reviews I would not recommend this machine - and personally will avoid the entire brand in future (we had delonghi that lasted 10 years before this so the idea a 2k machine only works for 3 months is ridiculous)Update on this - when the machine failed after 3 months I contacted Amazon customer service. They told me that I could return it as an exception for a refund, which of course I did. However, once I had returned it they withheld "20% as a restocking fee" which they did not make clear when they offered for me to return it. When I appealed the response was that they would not give me the restocking fee back, as the machine was not working.Save yourself a lot of pain, do not buy this machine, and if you do, buy it from a retailer who is willing to stand behind the things they sell.