DeLonghi Magnifica ESAM3500/3400

Love this machine – I have had this machine for over 14 years, made in excess of 40,000 cups. Has been serviced and repaired once, still making amazing coffee every time. Show details

Easy to use- good crema – Super easy to use but a little bit painful to clean, coffee gets in to the littlest spaces inside! I'd suggest getting a soft paintbrush to help get all the grounds out. Coffee tastes great (when you find the beans that you want) with good crema. I've had this machine for about 12 years and its been back for repairs a couple times but it owes… Read more

us no favours and keeps going. I like a bit of a denser froth with the milk but having an automatic milk frother makes up for my personal preference, so handy especially if you have to make a couple of cups.

Worst coffee machine – I received this coffee machine as a gift from my parents who bought it from Harvey Norman. The coffee machine looks beautiful but certainly not on the inside. The coffee is inconsistent one minute it’s strong and one minute it’s weak despite changing the settings. The milk is also cold despite changing the setting to make the milk hot. My idea of… Read more

a coffee is that it should be consistent, hot and strong. I returned it to Harvey Norman and they sent it to repairs. The manager said she couldn’t return the coffee machine but would only send it to repairs. Upon receiving it from repairs, the machine was still the same crappy and delivers a cold weak coffee despite changing the coffee, settings and everything enshrined in the manual.

Harvey Norman is the worst with return policies so beware of this machine and also the misleading sales people who just want to make a sale and take peoples money without understanding what a coffee machine can and cannot do. It’s absolutely pathetic that my beautiful parents had to waste their money on a machine that doesn’t do what manufacturers say it can. Horrible service from Harvey Norman in Auburn and they don’t even budge or bother listening to the customer and their needs, with one sole interest- making quick sales.

A great older Machine if you can find one to purchase – This machine has been going strong for years and years now, with local service people able to easily get parts and service/repair at reasonable costs. The grinder is a little noisy, and maintenance/cleaning is a little more internal than newer models, but if you are looking for a study 'fully automatic' machine that can handle throughput of a small office, this is a good buy.  Show details

The love of my life – I have never been in more love with a product than this machine. Our coffee tastes amazing, it’s easy to use and easy to clean. What could be easier than pressing a button. We have had it for a few years and it still works as good as the first day.  Show details

Awsome coffee – This machine has been the hero of everymorning at my house. Makes great coffee and so easy to set and change preferences. Very easy to clean and operate. Looks very nice, the only thing is having to clean all the little seals and tubes especially the milk jug. Very simple to use !  Show details

Not the best option – Did not work properly straight from the box. Was sent for service and still within 2 weeks was doing strange things, very erratic pump and grinder. Sometimes worked, others not. We ended up returning it and upgrading. The upgraded version has worked fine. Both Harvey Norman and DeLonghi were very good about it  Show details

The machine is average – The taste of the coffee was good. However, the volume of the coffee extraction is not consistent as some glasses might have more than the other. Coffee I'd not particularly hot as expected. The stream wand don't move 360 and froth consistency is not always the same. Cleaning is fairly easy.  Show details

Good Features But Poor Coffee – I bought this machine seven years ago for my very ill mother who couldn't make coffee for her friends anymore, and I inherited it back after she passed away. For the last seven years I've been trying to get good coffee out of it, and after extensive testing, I gave up yesterday. Let me set a baseline as to what I rate as good coffee. The… Read more

coffees I get from the stronger Nespresso pods, from the Aldi's pods and from a manual DeLonghi Espresso machine I rate as very good to excellent. This machine fails to achieve anything remotely like them, as far as I am concerned.

The good points -

a. It makes nice frothy cappuccinos very quickly, and

b. Most Australians prefer weak coffee and think those cappucinos are good or great, and

c. If you have a lot of people over, it is great for quickly making them all coffees and cappuccinos (but don't offer straight coffee from it to non-Australians).

From the start, it made coffees and cappuccinos which I thought were on the warm side of luke-warm. It did this despite setting it to the highest coffee temperature and warming the cups. I'd often have to microwave mine after just making them. Curiously, about two or three years after buying it, I reset the milk and coffee quantities for the automatic cappuccino setting after we bought new cups, and mysteriously the coffee started coming out hotter since then.

Just after I bought this machine for my mother I also bought a cheap automatic Krups FNF2 machine for my wife. It had no problem achieving my baseline fo good coffee, and did so using mid range coffee intensity/strength settings, be it for 50ml cups or 110ml cups. So for years I mucked around with the settings on the Magnifica, including the coffee bean grind settings, figuring that it should be able to achieve something like the Krups machine does so easily. I was unable to do it.

During the last week I decided to test it using store bought ground coffee, which took away the variability of the bean grinding settings. At the highest strength level, I could make a strong 50ml cup of coffee (which didn't taste all that nice), but the 110ml cup with the same amount of ground coffee was still watery and lacking in body. However, the Krups machine made excellent tasting coffee at each of those cup sizes with the exact same coffee and coffee quantity. At all the other strength levels, the Magnifica made watery coffee.

I keep pondering what goes on with the DeLonghi Magnifica. Is it set for Australian conditions and the lovers of weak coffee? There is no way it could sell well in Italy, where everyone's stove-top Moka machine makes more intense and full bodied coffee than my Magnifica does.

At the time, its retail price was $2000, and I got it on sale for $1800. My opinion is that it definitely was nowhere near worth that money. On the other hand, the Krups FNF2 which cost me $540 was superb value.

Regards.

P.S. Perseverance and experimentation finally paid off. After eight years I found that if I blended Aldi's Lazzio Dark Roast beans with Vittoria Espresso beans in equal parts, I finally got a decent tasting coffee with some body out of this machine. I hadn't liked either of the two used by themselves. So if you aren't happy with the coffee this machine produces, don't give up. Try my blend and then perhaps keep trying different beans and different blends. Good for when there are a lot of guests wanting cappuccinos. Coffee is very sub-average.

Love this – Once settings perfected I love this machine. I use Aldi coffee beans and makes a great cup of coffee I find it’s not hot enough for my liking tho so I must take the chill of the milk first . All in all a great machine for anyone beer model or older delonghi all the way  Show details

Unbeatable machine – I have owned MANY coffee machines across the entire quality/price spectrum in my adult life, and this one for the last six months and it is definitely the very best of them all...irrevocably!! It is fully automated and, once set up to your personal preferences, all the functions are extremely easy to use. These machines also allow for storing… Read more

individual customisation as to how each of several users like their coffee. I have also had to run the descaling program when required on the display, and found that to be very easy to do too.

If, for any reason, I should ever replace this unit in the future, it will be with one of the same or later model without any doubt.

Great coffee and just keeps going – ive had this machine for around 7 years and it has performed well the whole time. there have been minor cosmetic issues which are of no concern, and only a single visit to the repairer which cost only $100 to fix. having beans and milk to coffee is simple and no waste unlike pod machines.  Show details

Great Coffee Machine – Have had the coffee machine for 10 years, apart from changing seals has not missed a beat. It makes 2 coffees everyday so approx 750 a year. Would recommend great product. I am not sure on the new units but hopefully are better again as this model is discontinued. The Delonghi Magnifica is a great unit.  Show details

has been great – i have a delonghi esam3500,its been repaired a couple of times before and now the defuser has gone to top of machine , its stuck very fimly. its about 6 years old and been great, is it fixable or is it worth fixing as its not under warranty any more  Show details

Good Machine when it works! – We have had the ESAM 3400 now for some 7 to 8 years ( not entirely sure to be honest), anyway within 2 to 3 years we had to replace the boiler (like a few others on these reviews). First $100 to check what was wrong and then another $400 to fix it, no coffee for 3 weeks! We paid $1100 for this Machine. Today there is a general alarm and the… Read more

Infuser is stuck in the top position, just before that the motor appeared to be groaning a bit (could be as simple as carbon brushes, not sure....), but no DeLonghi coffees anymore. To have it repaired and looking at a possible $500 for repairs is not attractive, a new model DeLonghi Magnifica costs $699 but is it as good? We may just go for a cheaper option as its quite a bit of money. At the moment we are using an $80 ALDI machine with capsules and its not BAD! Pretty good actually, I am surprised! I guess over time the DeLonghi pays less for a cuppa, so it has value....a bit of a dilemma to be honest whether we should get it repaired and then have something else failing next year! Who knows!

DeLonghi Magnifica – I have this machine its wonderful but now I have a light flashing and iv tried every thing to stop it iv cleaned and cleaned my machine did every thing the book says and still cant stop it in fig 13 its the little red light but it still makes my wonderful coffee so wondering if any one else has this problem please cheers

Excellent of ease, wanting on quality – We have had this machine for just on a year now. It makes approximately 3-5 coffees per day. The build of the machine is entirely plastic, so it does feel and look very cheap. It is not too intricate in the design so it is easy enough to keep clean and tidy. Making a coffee is very easy, and once you read the manual and understand how to actually… Read more

use the machine it is very easy to make a decent variety of coffees. The ease at which a coffee can be made is a considerable asset to this machine and has saved it from a lesser rating. The milk jug is very good and makes using and storing considerably convenient. As far as the coffee is concerned there is little to say. Unfortunately while it does grind and filter the whole bean quite well, and I have used a variety of beans that it manages to maintain the aroma and flavour of, its ability to make a hot coffee is very poor, as suggested by several other previews. Even with heated cups and having sit for a good hour to warm up it is impossible to make a hot coffee, particularly with cold milk from the fridge. The automatic milk steamer and foamer does not provide enough heat. This is the units biggest down fall. Considering a coffee is the final product and purpose of the machine, its quality is of utmost importance, and the coffee quality of this machine is some what wanting. I did purchase this machine for an exceptional price so I cannot be too harsh on what it is for the money. I have had other automatic espresso machines in the past and this is only on average.

The Way To Go If You Live in Brisbane – The machine has been in for maintenance and repairs a couple of times, but completely covered by the warranty and will be covered by the extended warranty in future. The convenience and quality of the fresh coffee bean coffee every day is well worth the trouble of taking the machine to the excellent Brisbane service agent occasionally. Well worth the cost of the machine to have skilled automatic Barista in your home.

Biggest piece of rubbish – Had this coffee machine for 12 months and 4 days when the milk refused to draw up any more. Prior to this the only warm coffee control was latte and even then the froth was half a cup. All the other controls resulted in cold coffee. We packaged it as advised and sent it from Adelaide to Sydney for repairs when low and behold we receive a call… Read more

saying it was damaged in transit despite our best packing and now they refuse the fix it, I would not bother buying this machine ever again. Biggest piece of rubbish that I paid too much for.

Bad service, cold coffee, no control to heat milk more.

Cheap parts, terrible service – Made fine coffee for two years and three weeks. Then three weeks after the warranty ran out, a very flimsy piece of plastic broke. It controls the steam function. It costs about two pounds fifty (5 dollars) in the UK, but $25 in Australia plus a ridiculous $10 postage. A very expensive machine rendered useless by a very cheaply made and grossly… Read more

overpriced part. The "service" agent warned that the valve behind the part might be jammed. To find out, I have to go to the one agent for the whole of Sydney, a three week delay, and $80 inspection cost, plus for me, a 70 km round trip, to be done twice.

This De Longhi is yet another expensive machine to be thrown away as so much junk. Coffee was good until it broke down. Wrecked by the flimsiest part and terrible service. Why do we put up with such things? No alternative, that's why.

Fabulous Coffee maker – I have had my Delonghi for 6 years. Still going strong. Yes it has had a new boiler and some seals, but they were all under Uncle Harvey's extended warranty and servicing was always done in a week at the Geelong service agent. I estimate it has made ten coffees a day = 3650 per year. Let's call it 10,000 cups over 6 years. Having measure the… Read more

weight of beans to make a cup, I know it requires 10cents worth of beans per cup.

However, 10,000 cups at your trending coffee joint would cost you c. $30,000.

So the cost of the machine is so cheap over its life as to be irrelevant.

When it fails I shall give it a farewell kiss (it owes me nothing) and buy another. Keeps on chugging.

Great Unit - easy to use – Decided to get a bean-to-cup machine as opposed to a Nespresso as I did not want to be restricted. Unit is great, easy to use - put beans in top compartment, tweak the levels and press 1 or 2 coffees. Easy. Frother is easy to use, prefer the wand to fully auto as u have full control of level of froth (fun to do, easy once you know how). … Read more

Easy to clean, still tweaking for various results (coffee noob), but great to have descent coffee in morning without too much effort, reckon easier than nespresso, with all the pluses of your choice of beans.

Found using finer grind settings better for my coffee Easy to use, reliable, bean-to-cup, good value, manual frother great and fun to use Need to get the wife to make the coffee now.

Fantastic, can't live without it !! – We bought our Delonghi Magnifica a few years ago. It has been fantastic and never missed a beat. I make between 6 - 10 coffee's a day and lots more when we have visitors. It is fully automatic, easy to program and adjust. I purchased this particular model after reading reviews and saw different options were available. This model can adjust for the… Read more

height of the cup if needed. Can have different temperatures, different strengths and short, medium or long coffee. Also comes with milk jug for cappuccino. I leave cups on top of machine so they are warm and this helps with the overall temperature of the coffee. I tried a few different brands of coffee beans until I found a brand we liked and it couldn't be easier. It cost approx $1800 but it has been worth every cent. I've had some shocking coffee in cafes and can't wait to come home and make my own. Once you get a coffee bean you like, adjust the settings to suit your taste and adjust how much water/milk you like ... it's fantastic. Just push the button and drink. Easy to work, easy to clean, heats up quickly, good compact size, makes great coffee ..

Broke down after not very long and too expensive to fix! – When we first bought this machine it was around $1800. I wasnt going to buy it as it was too expensive but my husband ended up getting it for around $1500. Still too expensive in my book. Its an extremely noisy machine but for about three years it made decent coffee. Then it just stopped working and gave us an error on the screen. $100 later… Read more

at the coffee dr (just to get a quote to fix it), they told us $300-400 MORE dollars to fix a broken pump and broken computer board. Seriously unimpressed that a $1500 machine only lasted three years before becoming seriously broken. Coffee was nice when it was configured and working. It broke!

Nice Machine – I bought this a few years ago for my wife since she is a coffeeholic and I don't drink the stuff at all. It was a bit pricey, but has not been any trouble at all until recently a 4-5 year run with no trouble is not bad! Our friends complain that the coffee itself does not pour hot enough, but to be honest the coffee itself is not supposed to be… Read more

that hot, the milk is the hottest part of the cap/latte. So the machine produces a coffee that is drinkable as soon as it is made. The milk jug is a hard hard to clean since it has some hard to reach places. Also lately it has not been sucking the milk through the jug(as mentioned before 4-5 years working isn't bad), I believe it is a "O-ring" problem but the main problem is that it is expensive to get it checked, nearly $100 for a quote! Also it can be a little noisy when making coffees, but its not to bad on average though for an automatic machine. Good coffee, relatively reliable. Expensive, hard to find a place to fix it, expensive to fix when you find a place, can be a little noisy.

Love the taste! – Had our DeLonghi for about three-four years now.I love it,but...after about three months a coffee bean got stuck in the grinder and so took it back to Harvey Norman and was told as its under warranty to take it to registered repairer in the city.That was fine and the problem was corrected n/c.Then about 6 months ago we noticed it leaking… Read more

underneath the water tank so took it back to the same guy who totally replaced the heating unit.He did a great job and I'm very pleased to have my coffee machine back but it cost me $250!I asked him what caused it and he said because it automatically turns off after like 1 hour when not in use its continually heating the water,and wore out the seals!So my advice...turn it off after you finish with it!Also same as everyone else...the coffees are not very hot. Makes great frothy cappuccino..Easy clean. We only use the same beans now everytime.Not hot coffee.Expensive.

Super reliable but has some minor faults – I have owned this for just over a year now, making on average 4-6 coffees a day. It has never let me down and proven to be super reliable. Makes great coffee, dependent upon the beans, and has no problems putting out 6 in a row when we have people over. One complaint though: 1. Always need to zap lattes/caps in the microwave for 15-20… Read more ·  1

seconds as they are only luke warm, even with the hottest setting selected for the coffee. The heat setting only affects the shot of coffee, the temperature of the frothed milk can't be increased. Reliable, makes great lattes, caps and shots Need to microwave lattess and caps as the frother can not heat the milk enough

I love this machine! – I have had other coffee machines but this one is the best by far! Easy to use and clean, makes a nice hot coffee every time. This machine tells you what it needs, eg fill water tank, clean grounds container etc. Descaling is a breeze and the machine tells you when it's needed. Good size water tank, good quality construction, takes beans or ground… Read more ·  2

coffee. The steam wand produces thick foam in 30 seconds. I was going to buy the more expensive model with the automilk feature, but was advised to buy this one as the coffee would be hotter. Have used this product for 2 years and am still in love with it. Other family members have DeLonghi's and are also very pleased with them. Everything is great.

Has broken a total of 6 times (completely replaced once) in just over 2 years – I purchased this stupid machine in 2009 brand new from Harvey Norman. Within a week of owning it, it broke. HN were good enough to completely replace it. Roll on 6 months and it broke again. it was repaired under warranty and lo and behold a month or so later, it broke again. So under warranty I got it fixed and was fine making the occasional… Read more

(not heavily used) coffee for me on a weekend or for dinner parties.

The coffee setting for latte always produced luke warm coffee, so I also use 'cappuccino' setting and get a hotter coffee. Fine. It is also very loud.

Then in Aug 2011, it broke again just under warranty and was fixed. One month after that, broke again and this time not under warranty. I waited over 1 month for it to be fixed and when it finally returned to me working (Albeit taking longer to work) it did so for only another month and its broken again!!!

I hate this machine now and will never purchase delonghi again. I look after this damn machine and its given me nothing but trouble. Especially at the price paid.

I have other friends who have purchased other delonghi products and they always break also.

What a joke.

Do not under any circumstances, ever, buy this machine. Short black coffee, when it worked but could get the same on a $100 machine I am sure. Expensive for a machine that always breaks, loud, latte produces lukewarm milk, always breaks, did I mention never works?

Terrible – Hmm, I have read DeLonghi's consumer statement. If true and my machine is fixed under reasonable terms, then OK. But I wouldn't buy another one. The milk jug can be stored in the fridge and does not have to be cleaned after every use. I had the plug installed in the milk jug and it was still luke-warm coffee. The coffee grinder is very noisy but… Read more

worse that all of this, the boiler is leaking (not 12 months old yet) and I undertsand it is a common problem (despite claim of a double thickness stainless steel boiler)! As I bought off Grays Online it only has 6 months warranty. I am investigating my statutory rights.

Terrible – Good luck to anyone purchasing from Grays online, Mine arrived, unpacked it from the box, took 9 minutes to heat, then showed "Generic Alarm" on the screen. Contacted Delonghi, who told me to contact the service center in St-Peters, I was informed that the unit needed to be fixed as there was a fault with the unit. Have been told it will now take… Read more

3 weeks before it will be fixed. Good luck to anyone purchasing from Grays online. None really so far, except for the looks Mine didn't work."Generic Alarm"

Good – Overall I like this machine. After having two Sunbeam machines previously, both of which never made it out of warranty & constantly broke down, I have had a good run so far with no reliability issues at all after 3 1/2 years. I did however take the 5 year warranty option when I bought it. (touch wood !) Having said all that, would I buy this… Read more

machine again ? NO !!! You must learn from your experiences and when I do replace this machine I will buy an automatic machine with an inbuilt grinder, as this one does BUT I will buy a machine with a manual frother so I can control the temperature and texture of the frothed milk myself. Still, after the Sunbeams I love the reliability. Easy to use. After 3 1/2 years of constant use it has not broken down once (unlike the Sunbeam I had prior)

Easy to clean, flat whites are a breeze to make, excellent crema (with good quality beans) The coffee is VERY NICE INDEED. I don't find it too noisy, either. Love the timer function to switch it'self on & off. I agree with the other reviewers about the temperature & consistency of the frothed milk - very watery & cold. You MUST use the cleaning function of the frother first to preheat the nozzles to get even a warm froth. You must also preheat your cups.

Can take quite a few minutes to heat up.

I think you will find that milk stored in ANY clear container will go off quicker than in a carton or 2 litre frosted milk bottle so this is NOT a fault with the machine.

lukewarm froth...always – Just a warning, my folks have this product, they love the convenience of a fully automatic machine and mainly drink espresso. I like a latte but sadly this machine's milk frother always produces luke warm froth. I have heated the cups, turned the hot rinse flush thingy on to no avail. The coffee is set on extra hot. I couldn't even drink it..pity… Read more

my folks don't have a microwave but you shouldn't have to do that. I have googled and found this is a common problem but suggested to my Dad to ask the storeperson where he bought it from less than 6mths ago.

I will never ever buy any fully automatic coffee machine as I love my sunbeam cafe series (the $700 one).It makes the best coffee with silky smooth froth. I don't care if it takes slightly longer to make or the grinder is separate.

lukewarm froth..

Terrible – This machine is not worth it the money and time. I returned the machine to the store on the following day. Thank God I got my money back. I am so scared of these automated machines with milk frothers now that I am back to the manual one I had before. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS MACHINE. It is not as noisy as I thought it would be (after… Read more

reading a few reviews).

Good tasting coffee and quite hot on the right setting (see cons about this). Plastic looking silver exterior and chromed plastic parts. Cheap looking and flimsy.

Coffee frother disposes COLD milk, cooling off the coffee and making the cappuccino bland and luke warm.

Excellent – Overall, a very good Machine. The video that came with the machine could have been longer, and could have gone into more detail about making the perfect coffee, making different types of coffees etc. Machine does everything it promises to do, the "auto-cappaccino" feature is great for dinner parties! Has been in constant use for four years now… Read more

without a hitch. Produces a nice crema. I agree with the other user that milk stored in the removable resoviour goes off really quickly ( 1 - 2 days), even when stored in fridge between uses.

Temperature of the dispensed beverage is too cold, even when the highest setting is programmed. Can overcome this with a quick "zap" of the expressed coffee in the microwave oven, prior to adding any milk.