3 reviews
- Daily
De'Longhi = De’Best Coffee makers – where to begin? There comes a time when a capsule or pod-based coffee maker like a Nespresso is just not good enough, or you’re ready to upgrade to something more professional. That’s the position I was in, and I was quickly overwhelmed and confused by the options available. I’m not a coffee connoisseur but love a well-made latte and appreciate what it takes to make one but couldn’t justify spending over $1000 on a machine. Plus, I didn’t want to be manually grinding coffee beans or stuffing around with a stainless-steel jug trying to froth milk – what I needed was a machine that would do all that for me. So, I set about finding a machine with the following set of considerations:
Size – bench space; Convenience – time required; Complexity – ease of use/skill required; Cleaning – minimum effort; and Price – had to be under $1000.
When it comes to appliances, Breville has always been my brand of choice and is strongly represented in my home. So, my search began with Breville, then Ninja, Philips, Beko and finally De’Longhi.
The standout winner was the De'Longhi Magnifica Start. This fully automatic bean-to-cup espresso machine offers:
Fresh Grinding – an integrated stainless-steel adjustable grinder that grinds the beans to suit your individual taste and does it immediately before brewing for superior flavour.
One Touch Selection – choose from 3 one-touch preset recipes for the 3 most popular coffee drinks plus a hot water option for tea.
Milk Frothing – an integrated automatic milk frother (they call it LatteCrema Hot technology). It detaches so you can keep it in the fridge during the day and is easily disassembled for cleaning. Plus, the components are dishwasher safe.
Compact Modern Design – at just 240 mm wide, it takes up minimal benchtop space, plus it features a user-friendly interface and is available in black or white.
Easy Clean – with automatic cleaning cycles along with dishwasher-safe components, including a 1.8-litre water tank; it’s a breeze to clean.
You can adjust the temperature and drink size, select twin shots and program according to water hardness. The machine tells you when it needs descaling, and the process is quick and easy to follow. Plus, you’ll find a host of step-by-step videos on YouTube for expert instructions.
Most retailers sell it for $799, but I managed to buy mine directly from De'Longhi for $719.10, and it came with $170 worth of free bonus products.
Purchased in for $719.
I've owned this machine for a couple of months now. And I hate it, hate it with a passion. It's loud, noisy, spends all of it's time wanting to be filled with water, which it then uses every time it needs to do anything to clean itself. Then you just fill it up again. The sensor for the grounds hopper is in the wrong space, so you make 3 coffees and it moans the hopper is full. It's not, they just made a poorly designed hopper and put the sensor in the wrong place. It doesn't really make anything useful other than an espresso shot. It was cheap, it shows every trait of being cheap. I would quite happily go back to my Nespresso machine.
Purchased in at The Good Guys Online store for $475.
- Product is used: Daily
We were getting tired of our pod machine, both the taste of the coffee & the environmental waste of pods. We decided to go for a fully automatic bean to cup machine: no manual frothing of the milk for us! The DeLonghi Magnifica Start fit the bill. We pour beans into the hopper on top of the machine, fill & attach the milk container, choose our coffee: Cappuccino, Espresso or Long Black & press start. Out comes the most delicious coffee! The Cappuccino has a beautiful fine silky froth. We've never had better. We love it!
The Magnifica Start is what its name implies. It is the bottom of the range of fully automatic machines. This means it was just affordable for us at around $770 from The Good Guys. However, it is built down to a price. The only metal we can see in the machine is the cup tray & there is no Latte option.
Good points: great tasting freshly ground & brewed coffee at the touch of a button; 3 strengths of coffee; facility to use pre-ground coffee (e.g. decaf); adjustable grind size; adjustable cup size; absolutely beautiful froth; facility to use more than one milk container (e.g. one for oat, one for ordinary milk)...
Bad points: no Latte option; it's fiddly cleaning & assembling the milk container (though you get used to this); milk container holds only enough for 3 Cappuccinos; the entire process takes quite a time, so not convenient if you are making coffee for more than 3-4 people; obviously built down to a price - our machine makes a squeak every coffee we make!
Overall, we love our Magnifica Start & love having our morning coffee at the touch of a button. Oh, and our garden is benefiting from the coffee grounds!
Follow-up · Still loving our Delonghi Magnifica Start. Overall it is very easy to maintain. We keep the milk containers in the fridge and are now used to taking them apart to clean & then reassemble. We have found the coffee grinder to have become less noisy as it has "worn in". We get a consistent quality & quantity of brew. We use Aldi Lazzio Coffee Beans - Dark, & brew on the medium or strongest setting - an economical way to get beautiful coffee whenever we want.
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Hello Ryan, Thank you for your honest and detailed feedback. We are genuinely sorry to hear that your experience with the machine has been so frustrating.
From what you have described, it is clear the design and functionality have not met your expectations. Constant refilling, excessive cleaning cycles, and a poorly placed grounds hopper sensor can make what should be an enjoyable coffee routine feel like a chore. That is not the experience we want for our customers, and we understand how disappointing it must be, especially if you were hoping for a convenient, versatile machine.
We also hear your point about the machine delivering mostly espresso shots and not much beyond that in a satisfying way. While some models are designed with a more compact or entry level feature set, this should not come at the expense of practicality or basic usability, and we regret that it feels that way for you.
Your comparison to the Nespresso machine is noted, and it is understandable that you would consider switching back to something that offered more simplicity and reliability for your needs.
We truly appreciate you taking the time to share this feedback. It helps us better understand where our products are falling short and where we need to focus to improve future designs.
Kind regards, DeLonghi Customer Experience Team