DeLonghi Perfecta ESAM5500

Made cappuccinos for two days, then destroyed itself! – I just purchased this coffee machine for $375 refurbished on eBay. It is very easy to clean, as you just press a button on the milk jug for 8 seconds after every use and just quickly wipe the nozzle on the machine with a wet cloth. That’s all there is to the regular cleaning of it. Occasionally it will tell you when it needs to be de-scaled and… Read more

then you just fill the water tank with water, add descaler, and the machine will pump the water through itself.

It is easy to use for such an intelligent machine, as I had it making cappuccinos the same afternoon that I received it, following the manual to set it up correctly.

The cappuccinos I have made are with freshly roasted coffee beans and they taste great. There is plenty of milk froth. However the coffee seems to lack body, and is is not strong enough for my taste. There is no limit to how much milk you can program it to make a cappuccino with, but there seems to be a limit to how much coffee you can program for the cappuccino, and I use a large mug. (But that may be something I haven’t worked out yet.) You can extract the same amount of coffee of whatever strength, or the same specified size cappuccino with the same proportions of milk froth to coffee every time at the press of a button.

It automatically grinds the coffee beans, and if the flow of coffee is not quite right you can adjust the coarseness of the grind.

You can also get hot milk (frothed, or flat, or inbetween), or hot water. it does flat white and black coffee, too.

I did some research before I purchased this model, so I already knew it was going to do what I wanted, so when it was working, as advertised, I was very pleased. I can’t say if it is going to work for years, but it probably already has done so, and it works fine for me. There is no way I would buy a new automatic coffee machine like this for the RRP of $2,295, but as a second hand refurbished item for $375 I think I got a real bargain. Automatic coffee machines are coming down in price, I think. I very recently saw them advertised on special on TV for $595, and even less, though maybe not quite as elaborate as this machine, but at a much more affordable price than the RRP of this one. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful machine. Well worth five stars!

STOP PRESS: Two days after the machine arrived it started making very strange grinding noises, and it wasn’t the coffee it was grinding but the infuser. The infuser was wedged into the machine, and there was nothing I could do to remove it. I spent hours trying to get it out and used such tools as screwdrivers, a mallet, a hammer, a knife, a knife sharpener, and a gravy spoon, all to no avail. So now I have a completely useless coffee machine. If I could in any way remove the infuser, which is now destroyed but still firmly entrenched inside the machine, then I could buy a new infuser for about $90, delivered, which I was prepared to do. But there is no way I can dislodge it. So the machine is now no good for anything (except perhaps spare parts) even though, apart from the destroyed but still embedded infuser, it is all well, and intact and alive. What a disappointment and waste of money this purchase was! No warranty either! So now I am looking for a new machine.

good when working – coffee is great when it works which was for 1 year .. it's been serviced/fixed several times under extended warranty but has never been the same the piston thing where the grounds get auto tamped down has a scored barrel and muck gets past it's O ring .. it's back in being fixed again for the last time at extended warranty place .. if this doesn't help it will get 1 more chance a a real De longi service place  Show details

Great coffee machine – Bought this machine for work, we would make minimum 30 cups a day and even more than double on a busy day. We never had a problem. Always perfect cupcake and nice and hot. Easy for cleaning and refilling. Very happy for a machine that get used really well every day.  Show details

Poor quality design – Poor quality design especially the ground coffee container's size that leaves about 1 mm of gap between the container and the tray's container's socket. The size of the ground coffee container was clearly wrong. As a consequence of this careless and poor design, the ground coffee container accidentally slipped off from the micro switch's button… Read more

which triggers the "insert ground coffee container!". Also, the service door does not seem to work properly or maybe it failed to press the micro switch button which prompted close the door error message. At first, I thought that it was a bad micro switch of both the service door and ground coffee container so I had them replaced but the issue still remained. It was such a frustration just to install new micro switches because whenever the right wires were connected to container's micro switch then "Please wait" message was stuck forever and it never heats up but when I disconnected the green wire and replaced it with brown or pink wire then it works but a new issue happened especially during empty ground coffee container error which would never go away since the green wire was disconnected and the micro switch for the container was out of its position to avoid its button being press by the container. If the button of micro switch was pressed then General alarm error would be triggered so I removed it by screwdriver from its position but at the same time, if the button was ignored or not used at all then empty ground coffee container error would never go away because since it requires the button of micro switch to be pressed first so the machine could acknowledge that the container was already emptied. The interesting thing was that when I connected the right wires to container's micro switch then the insert ground coffee container message will appear which means that it was working to detect the container but this would also create another issue like the service door micro switch would not work since there was no close the door error message but once I disconnected the green wire and replace it with brown wire for the ground coffee container's micro switch then the service door will work again except for the ground coffee container's micro switch. What an awful design and how frustrating just to install basic electronic components like micro switches. I had been building many computer rigs involving a lot of wire connections on motherboards but I had never ever seen any electronics with strange issues like this coffee machine especially when I had connected the right wires. I should have gone with Gaggia coffee machine instead. What a waste of money and even worse is that this model does not exist in Thailand since we bought it in Italy so I'm not sure if the warranty will cover it. The conclusion is that I think that maybe also the controller's main board is not working properly and might also need to be replaced so it is not just the issue of the wrong size of the container. For the size of the container issue, I was able to fix it by using silicone sealant to fill the 1 mm gap space so the container would never slip off the micro switch's button. For the micro switch wires' issue, sometimes I accidentally managed to get the machine working again by refusing to turn off the power while I used a tweazer with rubber handle to connect the green wire and brown wire to its original pin but this process is dangerous because I could get electrocuted so I don't recommend any beginners without knowledge of electronics to do it in this way. Basically, this was meant to trick the machine to start up and heat up by removing green wire and used brown wire in the green wire's pin and then reconnected both brown wire and green wire to its original pin after the machine had successfully started up but do not use your fingers to connect wires in order to avoid getting electric shock. However, I don't recommend anyone to buy this coffee machine. Sometimes, I feel like Delonghi does not want us to repair it ourselves so they created these issues on purpose and they also wanted it to stop working for maybe after 5 - 12 months so we have to pay them again later for repair. How stupid!

Coffee is amazing! Have one at my business too.Taste is very popular with my clients.easy to operate – Use Custom Coffee from Bendigo and works to perfection. Purchased two machines because so impressed! Great taste not bitter and delivers hot coffee not warm as many other machines do.Not complicated to operate and easy to clean.purchased second hand 2016. My salon clients all rave about the coffee we make them.  Show details

Real coffee taste – Was given a second hand unit as a gift as original owner now uses pods. Takes a while to find what brand of beans you like best but with a bit of experimentation a good cup of coffee can be obtained. After reading reports of luke warm drinks I was concerned I may not get a hot cuppa but when set to hot it is good. Can use powder coffee if… Read more

necessary and can select 5 strengths of beans and 5 volumes of water. My unit is faulty as I cannot do Cappuchino or dispence hot water but that is not a drama. All told I am happy with this unit. Checking ststs. this machine has made over 9200 coffees.

Terrible Repair history... 2 months and still waiting – Diffuser has to be replaced again, the machine gets a lot of use, and i can understand it is not a commercial grade machine. We dropped the machine off early Feb 2015 to have the front door & diffuser replaced ($260) it is now April and I still don't have the machine back?? constant phone calls to the repairer all with the same response.. Still… Read more

waiting on the parts from Delonghi! Apparently this is a very common issue and there is nothing I can do about it. Not good enough Delonghi. After sales service is terrible!!

Terrible aftersales service, woeful repairs – Machine was solid for 13 months; then we began the repeated back to the service center cycle. Charged $400 for a replacement part when the machine was 14 months only. Back at the repair center for the same problem over and over again, completely ignored by DeLonghi when contacted. Finally off to consumer affairs... This might be a good model for… Read more

some; but good luck if anything goes wrong. When new, made nice coffee. Poor reliability, terrible customer service from DeLonghi

Absolutely love it! – Having worked as a Barista for over 4 years I was skeptical about giving this a go, as I have tried other "home" machines and been disappointed with the outcome and amount of time it takes to make a coffee. This machine will surprise you! Easy to operate, just fill it up with beans and water, plug the milk jug in and you're away. Fast start up,… Read more

rinses itself clean (easy to clean what it doesn't), displays straightforward messages (fill tank / empty grinds container etc)

Good – Certainly would purchase a Delonghi product again! We love our machine and friends and family often comment that they can't beat the 'Cafe'' type service at our house!! This is a great looking machine. We've had our maching for just on 12 months and it's still making coffee like it did when we first bought it! Delonghi service is excellent,… Read more

we've had our machine serviced once and it was picked up and returned in an acceptable time frame (without getting withdrawals from that caffine hit!! lol) As like the other reviewers we did feel the temperature of the coffee wasn't hot enough for our liking although after giving Delonghi a call they complimentary sent us a 'grommet' (inserted to the pipe of the milk jug so it sucks up less milk at a time) which heated the milk a few degrees hotter - much more to our liking without spoiling the coffee.

Bad – Not a bad machine but i was expecting a little more for $1700. Really basic to use but unfortunately the cappucino doesn't come out overly hot. It is a little plasticy but I wasn't prepared to pay more for a higher model. simple and easy to use coffee isn't great... but it isn't bad

Good – I rang up Delonghi and they are going to send out a new part that go's in the mike jug to slow down the flow of the milk to make it hot so only time will tell I don't know why they don't put it in with it when you buy it, but other than that it is a good machine. It make's coffee quick and easy and its a very nice looking macine and very easy to… Read more

program. When we first got it it took a lot of mucking around to set the grind right and another thing is if you don't use the right milk you will get a watery coffee and its true what people say about auto machines that they don't make the coffee hot enough well this is the same.

Almost Perfect, needs regular attention and awareness – I have had many coffee machines and this is the best so far, certainly convenient to have a milk jug and create a capucinno in minutes after pulling it from the fridge. We also had the ESAM4500 and the jug with that machine is much harder to clean properly. The new round design is much better; cleaning the plastic pipe is still a challenge. As… Read more ·  1

much as I like the jug there are times I would like to do a manual froth; doesn't appear any machines can support both approaches to frothing milk??? This is especially the case when the jug doesn't produce hot enough coffee to our liking.

The machine can take some time to care for; you have to be prepared to look after it and clean it often not just emptying the grounds containers; which is too small in my opinion. The inside of the machine can stay quite clean when the grind is set correctly for the bean in use but can otherwise get very messy. My favourite tip for this machine is when you need to froth separate to capucinno function you can hit the button twice and it will create froth without creating coffee, and to keep the froth going hold your finger on the capucinno button after it initially stops frothing for the programmed amount.

All in all very happy but would like the ability to manually froth milk into a stainless jug. As for hotter milk I'll try the grommet from delonghi. jh Aesthetics, the jug, taste, makes good crema, removable brewing unit for cleaning and replacement Not as consistently hot as we would like, water container too small, can't see water level from front, little noisy

Great coffee if u know what your doing! – I have worked on a commercial machine at a Cafe Shop and brought home the same coffee bean! After some simple fine tuning the 5500 DeLonghi produced a suprisingly Great Coffee! I highley recomend this unit! Easy to use function and great coffee it produced The cost is alot more than most other brands, but as they say u get what u pay for!