Saeco Syntia HD8833/13 (Focus Black)

I love this machine! – I would marry this machine if I could. I wake up early mornings and with a few presses of the buttons I have hot coffee without blinking an eyelid. The machine is sleek and stylish and unlike most bulky coffee machines it fits snuggle in the corner and comes out when needed. Nothing beats the fresh smell and taste of coffee in the morning. The… Read more

only proble I have with his machine is maintaining it. Other than that I love it! Quick and easy to use, reasonable price, great compact size Cleaning machine is a bit of a pain.

OK – My wife and I purchased this machine as a Christmas present for ourselves. So far no issues. After months of research through this site and watching web videos we decided to take the punt and we are glad that we settled with the Syntia Focus. The one push buttons are easy to use. Making a nice fresh hot cup of coffee before and after work is… Read more

actually easier and quicker than boiling the kettle.

The preprogrammed aroma strength buttons mean no fussing around manually adjusting grinders. This has been fantastic as I like my coffee strong and my wife prefers hers a little weaker. cheap expensive

Simple smart and good looking – This is a compact size, very smart looking, and very easy to operate, fill, clean, care for. This replaced my Sunbeam Intuitive and I cannot believe they do the same thing, dinosaur versus sophistication. I adore the Saeco. I like the coffee hopper, water tank and bin being compact, it keeps things fresh. I wish I had bought a Saeco first up and… Read more

saved myself all the drama of the Sunbeam. The Saeco performs properly every brew. Love the option of programming the dispensed brew ml's too! Had a fabulous sales person who knew the product, has one himself, and believed in this machine.

The steam wand - going to follow the advice found here in other reviews

Easy to use, easy to clean and easy to drink – My wife and I purchased this machine as a Christmas present for ourselves. So far no issues. After months of research through this site and watching web videos we decided to take the punt and we are glad that we settled with the Syntia Focus. The one push buttons are easy to use. Making a nice fresh hot cup of coffee before and after work is… Read more

actually easier and quicker than boiling the kettle.

The preprogrammed aroma strength buttons mean no fussing around manually adjusting grinders. This has been fantastic as I like my coffee strong and my wife prefers hers a little weaker.

The kids also like the fact that I can make them fancy hot chocolates and baby chinos.

The other good thing is that the coffee is hot after brewing.

Cleaning is easy and done best with a small soft paint brush. The easy pull out rinse of the brewer group is simple.

The only minor problem is that the milk frothing wand should be cleaned each time after use to prevent clogging. Even this is relatively simple.

A great machine for under $1000. Able to produce great coffee cup after cup . Great when you drink as much as we do.

Very impressed with my new purchase – I was looking to upgrade from a Manual Sunbeam Coffee Machine that I'd had for years (and was starting to play up a little). I had been looking at many options and after months of researching I walked in to Harvey Norman with the intention of purchasing a fully automatic Delonghi to make the process really easy. At our local Harvey Norman… Read more ·  1

store a representative from Saeco was in store so I thought I'd pick her brain. Of course working for Saeco I suspected she'd be a little biased towards Saeco. To some degree this may be true but she was quite insightful and seemed to have a good understanding on many of the available options including Delonghi options.

I was a little nervous about a fully automatic as I had quite perfected making good coffee with my manual machine. Plus I'd heard many people comment on many fully automatic machines not frothing milk too well. When in store I noticed Saeco had a number of options that allowed fully automatic (coffee grind, brew, pour and milk frothing all at the touch of a button) plus an option to froth your own milk manual - This was looking quite an apealing option.

I was suggested to consider the Saeco Syntia Focus which is an automatic machine but requires manual milk frothing. It was on special (for a Farther's day special) in the black coloue for $899. This made it very appealing as I was not overly keen to spend over $1,000. Let me say I am very glad I went this way.

I've only had my new machine for about 5 days. Has taken a bit of fiddling including reprograming the brew time, grind size and aroma strength, plus a bit of practice with the steam wand for milk frothing. The instruction manual is helpful with all of this - quite easy to follow. The bigger challenge is understanding based on your beans what settings you should have - I found google helped with this plus my own experience. I found my coffee a little bitter at first. After googling bitter coffee in google I found lots of comments about how to correct - This was really helpful for me.

I'm convinced now this was a great buy (almost a steal for the price) and I'm feeling much better about having a swish looking machine for under $1,000.

Like many other people that have written reviews on Saeco machines I find the Pannerello (meant to help with frothing milk) makes the milk too bubbly and not nice and dense which is how I like it. Easy solution - Take it off and froth without it - really easy and compared with my old machine the milk heats fairly quick (at least quicker than my old machine, which was probably slow in comparison to most).

Also I find you do need to treat it a little like a baby - That is you are constantly putting water in it and emptying the waste - But given it is a nice compact unit on the benchtop I can live with this.

Overall I'm very impressed and happy with my purchase - I'd recommend this machine, but it might be better suited to someone who is familiar with espressso and coffee making.

Great buy at Harvey Norman's Special price of $899. User Manual easy to follow and seems to have most information required to help make changes. With good beans and the right settings it makes a great espresso shot at the press of a button. Small water and waste capacity - I don't really like the Pannarello, (and as mentioned above froth without it) but for thos that like bubbly and frothy milk you will probably like it - I prefer mine dense and find it easy without the Pannarello attachment on.

Just try and get replacement parts!! – Had mine 5 months the silver paint is coming off the elbow and steam wand. There are no parts to replace it after 4 calls to and fro the Saeco customer service centre. TVSN have agreed to take the applicance back for a full refund. Small water capacity and flushes lots of water before starting and when switching off. on the plus side good coffee Good coffee Just try and get replacement parts!!

love it – great coffee. easy to use. Good design. making coffee at home each morning is a must and I'm happy with this machine. reliable

Great Coffee – Purchased this for the canteen at school and swear by it. Best coffee machine by far an very efficient. Great for everyday use Fantastic, Great Coffee and extremely reliable It stays at the school and not here at home with me :(

Perfect :) – Just bought my Syntia Focus yesterday. Bare in mind it's my first coffee machine. But I did used to work in a coffee shop making coffee manually. The espresso produced was very good. I haven't needed to adjust any settings at all so far. (ie grinding). Cleaned it after making a few coffees. pretty easy. took the milk heating bit off… Read more

easily and cleaned both the extra frothing bit and the attached metal tube. note: best to wipe it with damp cloth immediately after frothing milk. as it's easier to clean when hot. I haven't tried cleaning the coffing making compartment yet. apparently u just take it out and rinse it under water and put it back it. recommended once a week.

It only takes a minute or two to start up when u push the power button on.

I just applied online for the Christmas gift pack :) Energy efficient, inexpensive, looks pretty Doesn't come with frothing milk jug, coffee bean compartment not very big