DeLonghi Compact ECAM23210

Been going strong for a year without disappointment – This machine replaced an older one that died. It's a little complex to set up initially (the coffee strength, water volume etc) but once done its a breeze to make your favourite coffee with a single press of a button. It has a large built in coffee hopper on top that typically needs refilling once every few weeks (based on about 3 cups of coffee… Read more

a day). The water reservoir slides out from the side of the machine and holds enough water for about 10 cups of coffee.

The machine autocleans a few times a day byu purging a small amount of water through the dispenser. Every few months you need to descale the machine by running cleaning solution through the water reservoir.

The grinder is quite efficient and not too noisy.

I rarely use the milk frother but on the few occasions I have it worked OK without being great.

Beautiful looking machine – I bought this machine as I was after a white one to match my DeLonghi Kettle and Toaster. It looks beautiful and is a very clever machine. More complicated to use than my previous Saeco one but I think the coffee tastes better. The only negative so far is that the steam frother seems quite slow to heat the milk, so you wouldn't be able to make too many coffees at once if you have visitors.  Show details

Love it! – We bought this from 2nds World. Never had, or used a coffee machine before, (but we knew what a good coffee tasted like!) so it took a bit of practice and studying of instructions to find our legs and how to use correctly. As with any of these type of machines, we knew that it needed to have proper good quality coffee beans, so bought some nice… Read more ·  1

Vittoria beans. Actually very simple to use which is exactly what we wanted. Single button operation. Easy to clean up.

Wasn't too happy that after only 2 days,the "descale" light came on, but it was a "refurbished model" in excellent condition, and as we only paid close to 1/3 of the RRP, we thought it not that much of a drama.

I'd say this would probably pay for itself after around 6 months of use, given that we have maybe 2 cups each every day, and make junior a "Milo-chino" everyday.

All in all, extremely happy with the machine and would happily recommend. Thanks DeLonghi.

Excellent – Only 2 weeks ago we purchased this machine. I upgraded from a manual breville which had a good run but wanted something automatic so it made less mess. The breville was on its last legs as well. I had my concerns that I would have less influence over the coffee and I might end up with a Machine that makes 'hospital waiting room' style coffee. … Read more

Firstly, I read the instructions thoroughly and this is my set up for good cafe style latte.

- good beans

- finest grind possible

- press small shot once approx 30ml of espresso comes out

- press small shot again, machine will grind again and deliver another shot

- turn on steam wand and submerge completely and angle to create a whirlpool in your stainless jug until milk reaches 60 to 65 degrees

- bang and swirl the milk jug to break big air bubbles if any

- pour milk over 2 shots of espresso and voila.

The reason I use 2 small shots is the coffee grinds are quite small so if you did a larger shot of coffee you'd just be making a weaker shot. The reason I fully submerge the steam wand straight away is because of the design, it puts a lot of air into the milk so no need to break the surface like I would with the manual machine.

I bought the machine for $1009 from Harvey Norman with an extra 4 years warranty, there was a bonus offer from delonghi to register for $150 worth of coffee stuff, beans, glasses, descaler etc. thus still has t arrived yet but the fine print says up to 14 weeks for delivery, I'm sure it won't take that long but can't complain until after then.

Early Days, but very good so far – Very easy to use. Milk Container makes things easier, and this is very easy to keep clean. Holds enough beans, water, milk and dregs so that you aren't constantly filling / emptying one or the other. Does milk froth by itself. Easy to interrupt / stop / add more. Loving it after 2 painful years with a jura ena micro 9. Haven't done a full on descale and clean yet, but the daily care is easy. At this stage I would recommend to my friends.  Show 2 replies

What the! Massive let down – I received one of these machines for my birthday ( you beauty i thought ) after my wife did extensive research of her own kind which i really do appreciate because it ain't easy trying to decide which one to get for the amount of money involved. We previously had a little brevelle that was brilliant but it died so we thought we'd go semi auto… Read more

although the Delonghi as stated was complete surprise to me.

After the usual getting to know one another period it made a great creme and a really nice cuppa. We didn't bother with the milk frother cause they just don't cut it really. We heat milk in mike in one of those coffee type plungers and then froth with plunger, it works fine. The machine lasted probs 2 months then started making al these horrible crunching noises after brewing and ended up with small bits plastic in tray.

Took back to pop (point of purchase) and were told it would have to be sent to repairers for assessment or repairs. I wanted our money back at this stage but not properly knowing our rights went along with this process. The repair shop had it a week and couldn't fault it, said it worked fine :-/ , said plastic was foreign to machine..... Picked it up, started using it again and low and behold more plastic in tray after sounding like it was going to tear itself apart. Back to pop, they sent it to major repair shop in Brisvegas and it was gone for 6 weeks. Very rude service from reception and people at repair shop so rang Delonghi direct and got some action. This repair shop could not place where plastic bits had come from ???? reckoned it was working fine... got it back first cuppa I made failed, the used coffee wasn't being cleared from infuser. Back to pop demanded money back but Delonghi agreed to replace machine with same type but it was slightly different so not sure whether old stock or new stock,,,, happy at this stage but what a bun fight,,

This machine lasted six months an guess what ...... exactly the same problem. This time though checked out office fair trading website made phone call to them as well printed out relevant material dropped it on Dj's counter an said money back please :-) and guess what ..... oh we'll have to send it away to get assessed to which i replied if you'd like to do that fine but after I get my money back well it worked money was refunded and even received a call from some bigwig to find out what was wrong. All in all a very disappointing experience as it does do a good creme and is pretty easy to use & clean and so on.

So we are on the hunt for new machine..... will we buy another Delonghi well i don't think so I feel we'll go back to infuser type machine with less moving parts Easy to use Poor build quality on internals

De Longhi Coffee Machine – Deciding on whether to buy a cheaper machine over a fully automatic machine we took the plunge and bought this one, first investment equals best investment, frothy coffee coming out my ears, will never get tired of Cappuccino's with this fabulous machine, Never used a coffee machine in my life before we bought this one Fully automated, ability to… Read more

change size of cup, intensity of coffee, definitely the brand and the price, compactness of the machine, fits nicely in the corner of my kitchen bench,

Great machine – This machine makes great creamy coffee and perfect milk foam, easy to clean and maintain, compared to my old Gaggia Titanium. Looks great too and takes up less space. I love the way you can program the taste and cup size easily. For the price, it is good value for money. Easy to clean and maintain Would be good if you could push the coffee button twice as I could with the previous machine

Bad – We had this machine for about a week before returning it. The problem was that it was impossible to make any sort of latte or cappucino without ending up with half a cup of froth. No matter what we tried, there was no way to get any sort of microfoam when frothing milk. The end result each time was the milk container mostly full of froth to… Read more

overflowing! The steam function turns off after 3 minutes and this wasn't long enough to heat the milk to the optimum temperature. If you took less time, the milk wouldn't be hot enough and you still end up with heaps of froth. We are no beginners when it comes to these types of coffee machines and know how to make a good microfoam. We even rang the company to ask for advice but still no joy. We now have a Saeco Syntia which froths the milk to perfection in half the time. Compact size, large water capacity Too much froth!

I like it – I have had it now for about a month. I find that when frothing milk you need to have the nozzle touching the bottom of the milk container so it does not froth. I also had to reset the grinder to suit different beans and I would recommend that you go finer than the original setting. Dont be scared to play around with the water/bean settings as it makes a much nicer coffee I can have a nice tasting coffee within 2 minutes of turning it on