DeLonghi Magnifica Start ECAM22021BG

After 3 months the grinder stopped working bad experience at Good guys customer Belmont shop in Perth – Today I had such a bad experience today after only 3 months the grinder stopped working, heard such a metal noise at the time of gridding. I took it back where I purchased from Good guys Belmont in Perth. The manager told me they don’t have same model any longer and could only replace for a lower model because of I paid $500 sales price … Read more

anything over I would have to pay for the difference. I was shocked and suggested to get a similar model only difference is silver ending with 31SB, However they said would have to pay $750 with their discount or refund back of amount I’ve paid. They didn’t care about myself and did not make any effort to sort out my situation as a customer for a long time and got my refund back. Now I’m seeking for another coffee machine and won’t buy anything else from Good guys any longer. That’s not the way to treat a customer :(

It's Italian – yes it is, and it's as flaky as hell. This is the replacement for my Dinamica ECAM350.55.SB As such it shares many parts , in particular the infuser unit is the same so it has to share some parts. What you pay for in the more expensive machines is more functions and possibly a more accurate processor unit. This unit comes in a number of flavours… Read more

one with an extra function which you will pay more for accept for some strange reason its the same price as this unit on the official site, but then again who buys from the official site at double the price?. Lord knows why you would use the Americano mode which many reviewers rave about............."as found on more expensive machines " so he said ,it's just extra watery coffee so it beats me. However, for the Australian market this machine gives the 3 main pre-sets that most Australian drinkers would use, Espresso, Coffee and doppia+ .

Now I have done the measurements for you.

The coffee provided in all 3 modes is the same, except at some point it decided to nearly double the quantity and no, its not the double shot function. The double shot function merely doubles the water quantity so you end up with 2 under strength watered down espresso's, which made me think why did they install this button, it makes no sense, but, then again, it's Italian. Now basically you are limited to 2 adjustments in each mode, intensity, and water . The amount of coffee is maybe adjusted through the intensity button, I don't know because I haven't measured the puck weight at these setting except to say that at number 3 its 29 grams.

Now, one of my pet bugs, let me say, I have never had a machine that delivers cold coffee or luke warm coffee , I must be the only person on the planet with over 20 years experience and numerous machines that ever only gets a hot cup of coffee. This is no exception, I even took the temperature and it is a mouth and throat burning 75 degrees , now, I tested this in all 3 temperature modes and there was very little difference in temperature, maybe one or 2 degrees if that, so why the 3 settings ?

What does the coffee taste like ? Well, I found using a 5/10 ORO it was weak, stepping up to an espresso at 6/10 and more roasted , it was strong but just shy of the edge of bitterness. I guess this will vary from brand to brand , I use Lavazza 9 times out of 10 ,so don't blame the machine if it's not to your taste, just try a different coffee. Setting up the machine turned out to be a jigsaw puzzle, 750grams of coffee later I got as close to what I prefer and that meant many litres down the sink. At first the machine would not even pump coffee , it dribbled out taking 3 minutes to deliver 60ml. Something was wrong here, I thought it was too fine a grind, but no, it made no difference when i changed the grind I got on the phone , to the retailer who requested photos and a short video to give to Delonghi.............I went back to the machine, and for some miracle reason it cleared and began delivering coffee. But, then I realised heck , I have been making a lot of coffee, and never received a warning or a stall that the hopper was full. I pulled it out, what a mess, coffee every where , so the warning did not work, but being me I will give it one last try to come good, if not it's back to the video and photos . I am happy to report that the warning now works. Okay, so what do I think of this machine ? It is built to a price and oh, the tray at the base is actually stainless steel and not plastic as reported by some reviewers, maybe it's because of where you live ? it's an OK machine that will deliver good hot coffee, not to hot to sip but to hot to swallow. A bit on the noisy side when grinding ,standing noise is 42 dB ,when grinding it's 76 dB, that's like a phone ringing or busy traffic. One thing that I did find though, was more water in the tray then my last machine, I catch the water in a jug, so it's coming from somewhere else in the machine, maybe the seals aren't so great or maybe it's meant to be. In the end it's just pushing water through coffee grounds at 15 bar pressure , and that is more than what you need to produce coffee, most Baristas will tell you that 6 bar is all you need so don't fall into the more bars is better argument, it's not.