Sunbeam Cafe Espresso EM3800

Still going strong after 10 years – Had it for over 10 years, still going strong. Used once a day. Only replaced the seals but super easy. Steam wand not great pressure now but gets the milk frothed eventually. Best investment! Show details ·  1

Sad day – It must be the year for the seals to go. I have had my machine for 10 years too and the seal has broken. It has been used nearly every day, twice a day for all those years. Best machine ever. Will definitely look for another Sunbeam. Thank you. Highly recommended.  Show details ·  1

Nearly perfect - but not quite! – I got my missus this coffee machine for her birthday. It didn’t go down too well at first ‘cos I drink more coffee than her but she reckons she can’t live without it now – which is good ‘cos I am not in the doghouse anymore for getting her a present I wanted. Little does she know she’s getting a coffee grinder for mother’s day. Anyway, we do… Read more

two coffees at once each morning and they are just like at the café. We have worked out how to froth the milk just right. Might get a job as a barista now!

We have had a minor problem which has been annoying - when we have had guests and have had to make lots of coffees a couple of times the batches after the first one have turned out watery. We have no idea why as we do everything exactly the same each time. I am sure some of our guests haven’t been impressed with our coffee which is a pity. It is only 2-3 times that this has happened but would prefer it didn’t happen at all. I think my wife is going to write to them to try to work out why.

Having said that 99% of the time we are happy and would recommend. Good price, looks good Second batch of coffee has been watery for some reason

Fantastic machine for the price – I have owned this machine for 3 years now, and make an average of 3-4 lattes a day. The machine has been a great little workhorse, and I'm only now experiencing a problem with it (the seal on the steaming wand is going). The only time it has made a bad cup of coffee is when I've tried to make another espresso after texturing milk - once I… Read more ·  1

realised that you need to purge the steam through the group head until it was running water instead, prior to putting the filter basket back on, I solved that problem.

Only downside is that I like to make mugs of latte, and the jug is not really big enough for 2 mugs' worth of textured milk.

(I mostly use freshly ground coffee from my burr grinder, but even when using supermarket ground coffee, the result hasn't been too disgusting for my coffee snob sister to drink!) Great price for a reliable workhorse machine. Removable water reservoir meaning filling doesn't require a separate water jug to get water from tap to reservoir - just take the reservoir to the tap! Small milk jug; no indicator on drip tray to tell you when it's getting full (unlike the similar level Breville machine).

---- – The extractor doesn’t work well for finely ground coffee. If it is too fine the water will sit in the filter basket and generally doesn’t filter out well. We always have sludge to clean out at the end. The front dial knob is very hard to turn. We have found this to be the case with sunbeam’s other model too. The water storage in the back is only… Read more

enough to give you about 2-3 cups (not the little mugs). You can’t put large mugs under the machine. They won’t fit. The coffee tamper is flimsy plastic and doesn’t compound the coffee well. It also doesn’t fit the filter basket properly so when you tamp the coffee, loose grounds go up around the sides. The milk frother is a bit noisier than I thought it would be and it doesn’t give us the best silky milk froth.

We are quite disappointed with this machine especially with the coffee extractor. The machine’s okay for 2 people and cheap (around $160). If you are entertaining more guests, it’s probably not a good machine to buy. I havent been too impressed with Sunbeam products this year. Turns on/heats in a reasonable amount of time (you can tell I am scratching my head to find something good about this machine).

Excellent machine – We have had this machine for 10 years, making coffee every weekend and most weekdays, it has worked perfectly. I never bothered with the milk frothing though. Only recently our seal has gone, we replaced it but it still is leaking, after 10 years though, can't complain. I would recommend it to anyone.  Show details ·  1

One of the sturdiest machines I've ever used – I had a red one for about 3 years in a sharehouse where it was used to death, then bought another one second hand which lasted another 3 years (or more, it was still working when I upgraded). They're loud and take a while to heat up but they definitely have staying power...  Show details ·  1

Makes a good cup of coffee for the price – I'm a picky coffee drinker, having access to nespressos and commercial machines at work. EM3800 makes a decent cup of coffee, obviously no where near the top end in terms of flavor extraction but quite acceptable for a weekend morning. Easy to use and clean. The seal could be better though, requiring replacing on a few occasions.  Show details

Leaked Water from New – The Sunbeam Cafe Espresso EM3800 leaked water from new. It leaks about 50 ml of water when you first turn it on, and 20 ml each cup you make. The water leaks down the back into the bottom catch tray. Accordingly I do not recommend buying the Sunbeam Cafe Espresso product

only last 13 months – I bought this machine last year in June. But it finally stopped working last week. The milk frother has not been working properly for several month actually. When i bought this, i expected this machine would work for two years. Sadly, it did not last that long. Though I am satisfied the quality of coffee it produced, as always u get what u paid for. Still, it should work longer than just one year. milk-frother pump out water instead of steam.

Decent machine for the price – We got this machine as a present and found it makes a decent cup of coffee for home brewers. Nothing like a barista quality coffee but pretty good. However a few negatives, the crema wasn't very creamy, but more frothy and while the frother worked OK the milk was the same (frothy not creamy/marshmallow like). The machine can overheat but on the… Read more

other hand it took a while to heat to a good temperature - the temperature doesn't seem to be regulated well. We had to replace the whole machine twice in 2 years - each time it was only under 12 month warranty. Now after 3 years of use it's blown, the pc board was faulty. Disappointed. I would have expected it to last a bit longer at least! Easy to use, decent coffee Faulty (had to be replaced twice and completely gone after 3 years), a little noisy, overheats

Great Machine – Weve had one of these EM3800 for approx 4 years and it has been great.Gets used everyday. Never missed a beat. Has just started to leak at brew head. Seal to replace it was $6.50 from appliances r us. Highly reccomend it.Never had anyone complain about the quality of the coffee.  Show details ·  1

Great flavoured coffee – Absolutely wrapped with this machine. Have only had it a short while, so still learning the art of coffee making. But so fatal very happy with the coffees I've made from it. It runs quieter than I expected from a machine, pretty straightforward to use, my only quibble with it is that you can't see the water level from the front. Not so much of a… Read more ·  1

problem if you have clear bench space at either side of it.

For the price, this machine cannot be beat, imo.

It Was Good For 6 Months (EM3820) MODEL – But now it has started leaking water. When you turn the machine dial to 'coffee' it just makes a noise & leaks; if you turn the machine to 'STEAM' it just shoots out loads of water & doesn't steam. It also leaks all of its water. I have to have my 3-4 coffees of a morning. I have a slight disability with my legs that makes it difficult to walk;… Read more

therefore it's hard for me to get out & about sourcing good coffee shops. This is why my daughter bought me this one in May 2015. It is now December 2015. So it lasted just over 6 months. We found it extremely easy to use and it produced really good coffees. I want my coffee machine replaced or fixed and I want it now. I have gone without coffee for a week now.

Great Coffee – I bought this machine about 8 months ago and it makes anywhere between 2 -8 cups per day. It took me awhile to find a coffee I liked but the machine has been faultless (touch wood). I don't use the milk frother mechanism as I have an automatic one, but all in all I find it to be an excellent machine. Quick, easy to use and most of all, easy to clean.

Great machine – We have had this machine at work for the past 6 years and makes 10-15 cups a day. Other than a new seal it still works great. We actually recently upgraded to a EM4820 but it only lasted 6 months! So out came the old Em3800 still working great as usual! Reliable  Show reply

So far so good... lets hope it lasts!!! – I was given a second hand Sunbeam which lasted for 3 years and my mates have had one for a few years too and still going strong. For the price, you cant do better. I had a Breville for ony 2 months, it was terrible, but luckily it died so I could come back to Sunbeam. I dont get the continous whining about the machines noise from the other… Read more ·  1

reviewers, I mean who gives a toss.. Other mini-espresso machines are noisy too from experience. Hopefully the people who have had seals busting are just unlucky. Otherwise this machine is a really great buy. Rich smooth brew with crema, fast heat up time, clever usage of machine heat to warm up cups. Small bench footprint. A swivel on the steamer nozzle would be great to avoid the pre-steam jet squirting on the bench.. I have to use a mini-cup. Maybe a compartment to keep the cleaning tools would be an idea.

Good quality for its price – I've had mine for a year, the first coffee machine I bought. So far so good. Makes great coffee once it's been used a few times. The instructions that came with it were a bit hit and miss so I had to experiment a little bit. Once I did this and was able to work out how to get the frothing just right, almost every coffee I have made from the machine has been perfect! Makes good coffee for a good price A little noisy and does leak a little. Show reply

Not Happy- At all – Brought it today, and already planning to send it back to the store. It's noisy, leaks water everywhere, makes very burnt and bitter espresso, and the steam wand doesn't do anything except give a little burst of steam every few seconds. I was hoping for the cafe style machine it was advertised as, as I wanted a good machine at home (I'm a barista by trade), but it's definitely not what I got with this machine

Not Happy – Our model is EM3600R (Cafe Espresso) & we have owned it for maybe 5 years. No complaints about basic build quality. We are on our third headset silicone gasket & we are happy with that, although replacemnets are not cheap & this is something Sunbeam should address. Unfortunately coffee making is not very good. We have tried a variety of coffee… Read more

sources & "grinds" & have experimented with quantity in the headset & levels of tamping.

The upshot seems "lousy coffee" that you would not accept in any coffee shop.

A call today to customer help informed me the machine is not a "cafe series" despite the manual saying otherwise. So much useful help.

BTW the machine is clean & appears to function normally, that is if you consider poor coffee normal. Nice red colour Fails to make decent coffee.

Good machine for the price – I got about 2 years out of my machine. Extremely noisy but its only for a little while and then you have a great cup of coffee. I made it redundant as it was making more and more noise and kept bursting out the top where the group is and spraying coffee every where. So I bought a brevile and this one is doing the same now not even 12 months down… Read more ·  2

the track. Anyway, I think sunbeam is a good brand for the price and 2 years out of a domestic coffee machine is alright. Good coffee, lasted 2 years Very noisy

Lasted 3 months – Very bad Quality-machine broken now we have had it just over 3 months and it is leaking boiling water all over the bench. also the cylinder head seal broke after 2 months & I rang Sunbeam & they sarcastically referred me to the disclaimer in the warrantee.the warrantee didn't cover us!! Completely disgustingly bad quality Piece of rubbish Broke after less than 3months. Avoid its a complete waste of money

You little beauty! – After 2 weeks of bad coffee from persevering with my newly bought breville cafe venezia (see review) I went & bought the sunbeam cafe expresso - a recent model of one I had a few years back & was very happy with. Watched the DVD but was a bit dissapointed with the first 6 or so coffees & was beginning to suspect that the new model wasn't as good… Read more

as the old. However I eventually got my act together & now I'm getting coffees on par with the better cafes....absolutely brilliant! I recommend grinding the beans fine & follow the DVD instructions particularly with frothing the milk. Persevere, cause once you get it down it is totally worth it. Just hope it lasts a couple of years like my old one did. good price, great coffee & crema, good DVD, easy to clean.

Best coffee machine EVER! – We've had our machine for about 6 years and absolutely CANNOT fault it! This is the best coffee machine in this price range.. we previously had another one is the same price range but took it back as the coffees were terrible. This coffee machine produces a nice hot coffee (not lukewarm ones others in this price range seem to produce), the milk… Read more

frother is the same as on expensive cafe machines and it is really easy to clean. We have never descaled it and it's still working fine even using it 5-7 times/week! We had to replace the puck insert as it wasn't letting coffee through though considering we never descaled it we can't complain.

Honestly the day this machine stops working it will feel like we've lost a member of the family! Produces a nice hot coffee (that does not taste burned) and easy to clean considering it's not automated

Good value machine – I use this machine for 3-4 coffees a day and although I've had to replace it (under warranty - just returned to the store and walked out with a new one in just a few minutes) twice in 4 years, I've been really happy with the usability and end result produced by this machine. While it struggles to produce more than 3 milk coffees at once, when… Read more ·  1

making just 2, it's quite efficient. It heats quickly, foams and heats milk well, produces great espresso and continues to function well even if I only clean and descale it every quarter or so. reliable, value for money the pressure dial is sometimes hard to turn off when using the milk/foam element

Excellent for the price point – This is my first coffee machine, but I did a lot of research before I purchased it. Considering the price point I think it's an excellent product. After some practise and some good beans, you can get coffee better than 90% of coffees I have at cafes. I love my daily coffee of two but I am not a fanatic, thus maybe the real coffee aficionado won't think it's good enough.  Show reply

Great machine – Got this machine as a birthday gift and used it for almost 2 years before finally switching to a pod-based coffee machine. Really happy with the machine overall - it produces great-tasting and consistent coffee. The milk wand is handy and easy to use. Only downside was making a cup of coffee takes plenty of time, especially if you're not used to… Read more

the machine. Produces great-tasting coffee Making a cup of coffee can take too long, a bit hard to clean & maintain

Perfect for a first coffee machine – Had the EM3800 for over a month now and so far very happy with the purchase. The machine is compact and easy to use and clean, within a week and with no experience I was making a latte which I thought was better than any I had tried before. Use it everyday sometimes more than once and has not missed a beat inexpensive, compact, easy to use noisy

Not as good as the model it replaced – I had one of the first $100 Sunbeam coffee machines (Black unit) and it worked a treat for a long time. I replaced it with this model and am not happy. The center steam dial gets extremely difficult to turn off, a bit scary when you are holding a cup of hot milk and need to hands to turn the valve off. It takes forever to heat the milk up also… Read more

compared to the last model. Flavour is ok. Continuous steam pump. Nearly impossible to turn off steam valve. Slow steaming up milk.

Best little coffee machine – A friend recommended this home coffee machine to me. And then Choice magazine. And the barista at The Coffee Roaster. That was my trifecta and I've never looked back. It was just over $100 3 years ago and never had a hiccup. It makes great coffee but like all machines, can be perfected if you learn to pack the head to the right level, use the… Read more

correct grind, and heat the milk without boiling it. I loved it from day 1 and once I started experimenting, got the best coffee I'll ever make! A girlfriend gave away her $2000 Saeco Incanto de Luxe to purchase this little beauty and she agrees that it makes better coffee than her expensive mistake. light, easy to clean, consistent, never faulted me

Does everything it needs to do – Got mine for my birthday last year, gets used most weekends and occasionally during the week. Easy to clean, functional design, reasonable price. Would be nice if it timed the coffee shot to get it just right, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of practice to perfect the art of a decent coffee. Easy to clean, functional Tutorial CD wasn't a lot of help.

Does the job perfectly! – First unit I purchases (floor stock) didn't seal properly and as a result exploded the group head into my mug, the replacement unit sealed fine and has been used to make 4 caps per day for the last 8 months. It's probably a bit more usage than it was designed for and is starting to get tired with the odd leak here and there but is still performing… Read more

well. It is a cheap unit which does mean doing all the worth and cleaning after every use but the limitations lie with the user not the unit, with a little practice anyone can make the perfect Cap.

If you intend on using the unit frequently I would recommend investing in a more powerful machine with 2 pumps that has a cleaning function, purely from an economic aspect. If you're using it a few times a week, the machine is more than adequate to meet your coffee needs. Very cheap, keeps going with minimal effort, very simple to use and great replacement warranty

A Surprisingly Excellent Machine for a Surprisingly Low Price – This little espresso machine is fabulous! I had a Gaggia machine which cost well over $1500 and I had nothing but trouble with it for years. It went back to be fixed every 11 months and 32 days (always failed a day after warranty ran out). This Sunbeam cost just over $100 and came with two espresso cups and a stainless steel milk jug. It makes… Read more

a great coffee with unfailingly good creme. The milk comes out textured, thick and creamy without being too airy. It is small enough and easy enough to clean that you can put it away after use so as not to take up bench space. In short, for the price I don't think anything could beat it. Great coffee, fast heat up, great steam, easy to clean, great price

I got this for my Christmas 2007 and it's still going – For the price I don't think you can do better. It makes good coffee is simple to use and very simple to clean. Light and easy to move about and comes with all the bits and bobs you need to make a coffee. If I had any complaint it would be that the lid of the water goes back and so you cant keep it against a back wall and will with a cup.