Saeco Syntia

Great Machine Until It's Not – Let me start by saying that I have had this machine for 4 years and we really love the end product. It is easy to use, the coffee tastes great and the frother works perfectly. We experienced little problems early on though. Within a few months, the stainless steel panel on the grounds container came off. My husband bonded it back on with super… Read more

glue, no problem after that. Then about a year or so later the water was leaking from somewhere. We made sure the overflow container on the bottom was always emptied and we didn't overfill the water tank but somehow we still had leaks. No problem, we kept a towel underneath to absorb. Well, this morning I turned on the machine and the screen was blank. End of story. Luckily we bought it at Costco and can return it but definitely not worth fixing. After reading comments on this site I learned our problems are common with other folks. I'm going to buy another Saeco because they make great espresso for the price but I will make sure it is returnable when it stops working.

It's a good espresso machine with a too small water tank – I bought this machine on the 14th of April 2015. Setting up the machine was easy with help from YouTube.The machine makes very nice coffee. Coming from a 2002 Saeco Royal, I know that Saeco makes nice espresso machines. I do agree that the tanks are very small. You have also to understand that the machine is only counting how many cups you made… Read more ·  1

already to show the "coffee grounds drawer" FULL sign. If you empty out the drawer every time after use, you will see the Full sign maybe with only one cup made next time. I do know that from my Royal too. That is no fault of the machine. The machine did have from the beginning also the leaking water tank and I thought first, I installed the water filter wrong. Filling the tank in the evening, the drip tray underneath filled up faster then it should be because I always caught the rinsing water in a cup. I checked the valve a couple times. Still leaking. Called Philips Canada and they send out a replacement tank right away.

Use the small water tank as a reminder. When the tank is empty, clean the the coffee grounds drawer and flush the brew group under water. Check also out on YouTube how to use this Saeco espresso machine and to make full use of this nice espresso machine. I know I am spoiled from Saeco because it changed my coffee experience completely. Our friends always enjoyed our old Saeco Royal. When it broke we got asked right away if we are getting a new one. I could only stay away from my good coffee for 3 days then I bought the Intelia for a very good price.

A great home use machine – I have had my machine for 3 months and love it more everyday. I did get my machine new at a bargain price, not sure if it is worth $1000.00 I have no problem with my milk frother it is excellent with thick dense foam. I love that it has a steam milk only selection so I can do hot chais.Great hot choclates too. I think it makes an excellent… Read more ·  1

express also. Third option is long coffee I am personally not crazy about them. Cappuccino's is why I bought it does fine with that but like other reviewers the coffee is just not hot enough. The milk on my is hot but i like my coffee steaming hot. Like the auto clean function. You do need to rinse the milk tubing regularly and even though I love the milk storage container I never store it in the fridge with the lid/ tubing as it clogs.

The cons with this are 1) keep it near your sink because it uses water from its small reservoir very quickly--not just in the coffee but also to make steam and to clean. 2) drinks arent hot enough 3) the lid of the drip tray doesnt come all the way off so you cant clean the nooks, its a waste tray but I run clorox through it one a month. 4)on my machine the door is hard to close after cleaning and installing the brew unit.

For my money and usage its a 5 star machine

Coffee Machine – It is a very good machine, but need to have service can you please let me know where there nearest service centre are. I am going down to Vic for X-mas, if there aren't any in Northern Territory I can bring it down with me. I will be in N/E VIC. I am not sure when I purchased the Machine  Show details ·  1

But first - coffee! – The taste of the coffee is so awesome this is almost like professional coffee at home. It is so easy to use only 2/ 3 buttons for a great coffee and frothed milk. Needs regular de scale but it's not bad as the cleaner you keep the machine the longer it hopefully lasts. Would highly recommend this syntia saeco machine.  Show details ·  1

Love our coffee machine! – We've had our coffee machine for 5+ years now and it's stil going great, we love it and use it every day. It's really easy to clean and keep running. It would be good if the water tank was a bit bigger so we didn't have to refill it as often, and the part that catches the grinds is a bit small too, often needs to be empty and is hard to… Read more ·  1

clean, the grind gets very sticky. We did find we could resolve this buy putting a small plastic bag inside to catch the grinds though.

Frother problems – I also found the frother to work better when angled and I'm sure is is because of the seal between the milk jug and the plastic connection. If you look inside, you can see a rubber seal which does not look like it's a serviceable part. I am trying to find a replacement part but I'm having no success.  Show details

Digital display has stopped working rendering the machine useless – The coffee machine's digital display has stopped working and I have been quoted by the Broome WA service agent $400 to repair. The machine is only three years old and in our opinion the display should last the life of the machine which cost around $1500 in the first place. I also understand from the local service agent this is a common problem. Philips Saeco if this is the case the machine digital display should be replaced free of charge.

Problems since month 3 – Very disappointed to say the least. Thought long and hard about spending this kind of money but really enjoy my Americanos so decided to splurge. Bought it Dec./13 and in March/14 a sensor went in it. I'm the only coffee drinker in the house so it has light use. Had to send it to Edmonton (at my own cost) to get it repaired. Was told I could… Read more

not grind dark beans in this machine (my favourite!) because it gums up the grinder. Now this morning I come out to water all over my counter so I assume a hose has maybe gone! Seven months old and headin in for repair for the 2nd time! Would give it away at this point but who would want the headache. Will definitely not buy another Saeco. the coffee tastes great when the machine works too many to mention, not impressed with having to pay to send it for warranty

Great machine, great coffee! – Great machine. My partner and I use it with beans from the local coffee shop and it's as good as any cafe creation. Easy to use and clean, highly recommend! Show details

Cant live without it – Without question this is the greatest coffee machine I have had the pleasure in using. It is very user friendly, the coffee that comes out of it is always on point, and it looks fantastic in the kitchen. I have had this machine for a while now, and will always use Saeco machines in the future.  Show details ·  1

Great coffee machine – We bought the machine over 5 years ago. I you clean and carry out all the maint tasks, this machine will last forever. A couple of plastic items have broken, but replaced easily enough. All in all a Very good machine, easy to use and great tasting coffee from it.  Show reply

Milk quality? – I am a little bit worried with the quality of the frothed milk...it looks like the milk container is never connected the right way since it always put way too much air in the milk and does not really create a foamt

2nd time had to send it for repair – Our machine is 5 years old, we had it repaired the first time 2 years ago, it cost us $250 and now it is spoilt again. We got a quote $350. Honestly how can one justify $600 for repairs in 5 years. We only have one person in our home that drinks coffee, it is not like a commercial coffee machine. If your product is so lousy then you ought to take… Read more

responsibility of repairing it at least. Why should I have to fork out so much money in repairs. Sorry but you have a lousy product and lousy service as well. If you stand by your product then repair it for free.

The Ducati of Coffee Machines – We have had our Syntia for about 5 years and have had problems with it from day 1. When it's working it makes good coffee, but it breaks down too often, and these issues combined with the inherent design issues make it a marginal decision. Design issues: 1. Water and waste containers too small 2. Chrome plated plastic steam wand - chrome… Read more

peels off

3. Requires constant attention to keep it going

Other problems:

1. The biggest single issue is the fact that the firmware or software or board design are not up to snuff. The result is regular dropped shots because the water/steam pump gets out of synch with the brew group and after having made a coffee and frothed the milk, the next coffee is almost guaranteed to cause a dropped shot becaus when the bean grinding starts, the water pump also starts and it is obvious that the machine doesn't know where it is, or should be, in the cycle. The workaround for this is to force the machine to run through a fake coffee cycle before attempting a real coffee cycle. I do this by pressing the Grinds button, but not putting any grinds in the hopper, then pressing the Memo button to start the coffee cycle. The result is that it runs water through the system and resets ready for the next coffee. It still drops shots even with this technique, but I have greatly reduced the number of times my very expensive coffee gets wasted.

2. General breakdowns. We have had the steam wand replaced with a metal one, a new mother board and a new water tank.each time, we are without our coffee machine for a period of time.

All in all, I would not recommend this coffee machine. We have managed to keep it going for all this time be regularly servicing it and having it repaired when needed, and working out ourselves, how to overcome issues, but this is not how it should be!

Very dissappointed in this machine - Philips Saeco Customer Service is very poor – Philips Saece Syntia Cappuccino Coffee Machine HD8838. Returned this machine yesterday to Myer - just a week left on the 2year warranty and was given a full refund. Thank you Myer. The hours I spent over 2 years on the phone to the Call Centre and driving the machine from one side of Brisbane to the other to be repaired was on the verge of… Read more

ridiculous. Within a week of purchase I was on the phone to Philips as the milk was cold. Have had this problem for 2 years. Major repairs done on the machine 4 times. Under consumer law I thought that 3 repairs meant a lemon and machine should have been replaced. Not so with Philips Saeco. Lets try and drive the buyer mad.

We had to heat our coffee in the microwave to get a decent cup of coffee. The brew unit is fine but the milk frothing mechanism in these machines is obviously faulty. We would get flat milk - cold of course. Other times the correct temperature. Other times the milk appeared to be drawn straight through without heating. Considering the RRP of these machines is $1699.00 Philips / Saece should be ashamed of this product and should have recalled all of them. Over the past 3 months the entire inside of our machine was replace. Worked okay for about 2 weeks and back to cold coffee. Machine was kept very clean. Repair man even told me it was the cleanest coffee machine he had ever seen. Didn't make it work any better though.

Terrible – I purchased the Syntia for my parents as a gift thinking I was giving them the best. After bits of shard like foil was found in the milk I ended up giving them my tried and trusted Saeco talea touch which has a solid stainless steel steam wand (not flimsy foil that will eventually peel away). Not happy with this cheap looking flimsy wand - its a… Read more

shame because I was very happy with my Saeco first purchase. Think too much emphasis has been placed on the asthetics of the machine and not in the quality and durabilty of parts. Give this machine a miss... not all Saecos are like this Looks beautiful Easy to use esp for older folk Bigtime letdown is the steam wand. Within a few months the flimsy foil covering the steam wand started to peel off revealing plastic underneath. After using the wand and discovering bits of foil in the milk we stopped using it altogether

Trouble from day 1 – This is my 4th saeco Machine and with and had trouble from day 1 you only get 1 cup of coffee in every 3 It aborts the rest it thinks its got no beans but its full. Lots of waste. Had trouble with previous machines from boiler splitting to grinders failing .They were repaired under warranty but takes over 2 months to get repaired. Good size aese of use

Make sure appliance repair store is in your area – I previously owned a saeco machine - it didn't skip a beat. This new one however is a disappointment to say the least. The water and drip tray capacity are painfully small requiring attention every 2 cups made. Prob my fault for not checking that out. Most disappointing of all he machine $1200 worth no longer works after 8 months. I have spent… Read more

many hrs on the phone and emails to sort and trouble shoot with no result, I have no service place here ( I thought warranty was warranty clearly it's last resort.) So the plan is now have to send it away to have it looked at! and who pays the freight for that and now I have paid $1200 and have no machine, been accused of misuse, and a they will let me know if its a warranty issue or not once they have looked at it. Look elsewhere seems to be many issues with this machine .........

8 months old and doesn't work. No one services them in my area.

Not a Good Purchase – I've owned this machine for about a year. I only drink espresso so will not comment on the milk frother which is the subject of some criticism on this page. I have not been satisfied with the depth of flavour of the coffee which it produces and changing beans and settings has not really made any difference. It has now broken down and I have sent… Read more

it away for repair. If the repair cost more than $100 I am not going to bother getting it back. Appearance Coffee flavour and temperature

Milk frother useless – Like others have said, the milk frother is basically useless. If you are lucky you will end up with a flat white but never a cappucino. Worse than this is the after sales support from Saeco who simply deny that there is an issue with this feature of this machine. Behind the scenes I can imagine things are very different as this model pretty… Read more

quickly became obsolete after a short period of time.

The coffee from this machine is actually very good as is the overall build quality. The unit also looks the part however everything that needs emptying or refilling is small and requires constant filling or emptying. I have since purchased a manual machine (not a Saeco) that makes excellent coffee and froth. A shame such a well regarded brand has produced such a poor machine. Build quality and coffee produced Milk frother and Saeco after sales support (or lack there of)

Cold milk with hot coffee – The milk frother is really bad it,s just like having hot coffee and cold milk which makes for a warm coffee i would never buy another one and wouldn,t recommend it to anyone it was very dissapointing.The amount of money you pay for it you should get a better product

Very good makes nice coffee – I have had this unit for over 18months. we make 2 coffees very day sometimes more, thats well over 1000cups, yes the shiny crome looking wand peeled off nother stays new for ever, the unit looks great takes up little space. it can make a baristar out of anyone, you can make flat white in less time it takes to make an instant. very easy to use the… Read more

12 year old makes a great capacino great looks, compact, reliable, easy to use wand could be more flexable and made of stainless steal

I love this machine! – I would marry this machine if I could. I wake up early mornings and with a few presses of the buttons I have hot coffee without blinking an eyelid. The machine is sleek and stylish and unlike most bulky coffee machines it fits snuggle in the corner and comes out when needed. Nothing beats the fresh smell and taste of coffee in the morning. The… Read more

only proble I have with his machine is maintaining it. Other than that I love it! Quick and easy to use, reasonable price, great compact size Cleaning machine is a bit of a pain.

OK – My wife and I purchased this machine as a Christmas present for ourselves. So far no issues. After months of research through this site and watching web videos we decided to take the punt and we are glad that we settled with the Syntia Focus. The one push buttons are easy to use. Making a nice fresh hot cup of coffee before and after work is… Read more

actually easier and quicker than boiling the kettle.

The preprogrammed aroma strength buttons mean no fussing around manually adjusting grinders. This has been fantastic as I like my coffee strong and my wife prefers hers a little weaker. cheap expensive

Simple smart and good looking – This is a compact size, very smart looking, and very easy to operate, fill, clean, care for. This replaced my Sunbeam Intuitive and I cannot believe they do the same thing, dinosaur versus sophistication. I adore the Saeco. I like the coffee hopper, water tank and bin being compact, it keeps things fresh. I wish I had bought a Saeco first up and… Read more

saved myself all the drama of the Sunbeam. The Saeco performs properly every brew. Love the option of programming the dispensed brew ml's too! Had a fabulous sales person who knew the product, has one himself, and believed in this machine.

The steam wand - going to follow the advice found here in other reviews

Easy to use, easy to clean and easy to drink – My wife and I purchased this machine as a Christmas present for ourselves. So far no issues. After months of research through this site and watching web videos we decided to take the punt and we are glad that we settled with the Syntia Focus. The one push buttons are easy to use. Making a nice fresh hot cup of coffee before and after work is… Read more

actually easier and quicker than boiling the kettle.

The preprogrammed aroma strength buttons mean no fussing around manually adjusting grinders. This has been fantastic as I like my coffee strong and my wife prefers hers a little weaker.

The kids also like the fact that I can make them fancy hot chocolates and baby chinos.

The other good thing is that the coffee is hot after brewing.

Cleaning is easy and done best with a small soft paint brush. The easy pull out rinse of the brewer group is simple.

The only minor problem is that the milk frothing wand should be cleaned each time after use to prevent clogging. Even this is relatively simple.

A great machine for under $1000. Able to produce great coffee cup after cup . Great when you drink as much as we do.

Disapointed – I had to take it for a repair as the tank was leaking and the wand peeling after a months use,The water tank is too small and still seems to leak into drip tray. It often gives false message to empty dreg tray after 2 coffees .I live 1 hour away from service centre so not easy to get fixed. Very disapointed I like the coffee and the sleek look of the machine Trouble after only a month-service centre 1 hour away

Be carefull, this is not THE MACHINE it seem's to be – Syntia was my 8th expresso machine. The most expensive, the worst one. Wat I've read about disapointing performance concernning cappucinos, too small beens and water compartments is true. And the pre-milled decafeinated cofee? Don't try, most of times send the powder away without brewing. But the worst thing is the brewing unit: There is a moving… Read more

botom of the powder receptacle who is supposed to go down before powder droping from the mill. It often fails to go down and the resoult is an expresso who looks more like tee than a brown collor cofee, and a lot of powder spreads around the unit who has to be constantly cleaned. A mass.

I do not recomend this machine, not at all. Thank God I send it away.

(Sorry for my poor english but I believe you will understand) The nice looking design Bad performance for a too high price

Very impressed with my new purchase – I was looking to upgrade from a Manual Sunbeam Coffee Machine that I'd had for years (and was starting to play up a little). I had been looking at many options and after months of researching I walked in to Harvey Norman with the intention of purchasing a fully automatic Delonghi to make the process really easy. At our local Harvey Norman… Read more ·  1

store a representative from Saeco was in store so I thought I'd pick her brain. Of course working for Saeco I suspected she'd be a little biased towards Saeco. To some degree this may be true but she was quite insightful and seemed to have a good understanding on many of the available options including Delonghi options.

I was a little nervous about a fully automatic as I had quite perfected making good coffee with my manual machine. Plus I'd heard many people comment on many fully automatic machines not frothing milk too well. When in store I noticed Saeco had a number of options that allowed fully automatic (coffee grind, brew, pour and milk frothing all at the touch of a button) plus an option to froth your own milk manual - This was looking quite an apealing option.

I was suggested to consider the Saeco Syntia Focus which is an automatic machine but requires manual milk frothing. It was on special (for a Farther's day special) in the black coloue for $899. This made it very appealing as I was not overly keen to spend over $1,000. Let me say I am very glad I went this way.

I've only had my new machine for about 5 days. Has taken a bit of fiddling including reprograming the brew time, grind size and aroma strength, plus a bit of practice with the steam wand for milk frothing. The instruction manual is helpful with all of this - quite easy to follow. The bigger challenge is understanding based on your beans what settings you should have - I found google helped with this plus my own experience. I found my coffee a little bitter at first. After googling bitter coffee in google I found lots of comments about how to correct - This was really helpful for me.

I'm convinced now this was a great buy (almost a steal for the price) and I'm feeling much better about having a swish looking machine for under $1,000.

Like many other people that have written reviews on Saeco machines I find the Pannerello (meant to help with frothing milk) makes the milk too bubbly and not nice and dense which is how I like it. Easy solution - Take it off and froth without it - really easy and compared with my old machine the milk heats fairly quick (at least quicker than my old machine, which was probably slow in comparison to most).

Also I find you do need to treat it a little like a baby - That is you are constantly putting water in it and emptying the waste - But given it is a nice compact unit on the benchtop I can live with this.

Overall I'm very impressed and happy with my purchase - I'd recommend this machine, but it might be better suited to someone who is familiar with espressso and coffee making.

Great buy at Harvey Norman's Special price of $899. User Manual easy to follow and seems to have most information required to help make changes. With good beans and the right settings it makes a great espresso shot at the press of a button. Small water and waste capacity - I don't really like the Pannarello, (and as mentioned above froth without it) but for thos that like bubbly and frothy milk you will probably like it - I prefer mine dense and find it easy without the Pannarello attachment on.

Bad – Poor design, milk unable to be stretched to a silky consistency but rather all bubbly (unless you tape closed the hole on the wand). Drip tray poor design, water bounces off and ends up on the bench. Water and waste containers are tiny and you attend to them every 4 - 5 coffees. A beautiful looking machine, but unfortunately that's about it.… Read more

Looks fantastic on the kitchen bench! Brushed stainless steel leaves no finger marks and it's neat and a lovely size for any kitchen. The panarello style steam wand just puts heaps of bubbles in the milk without being able to make it silky and stretched as you get in a cafe. After 10 years owning coffee machines we thought this was going to be the best machine we'd ever owned, until we used it. We have spent a week looking up solutions to this panarello steam wand debacle. Online people have suggested taping the hole which sucks so much air into the wand at the top of the panarello. we did this and it has improved , but for $1499 why should we have to look for solutions to correct badly designed components? Bubbly milk, poor tasting coffee and poor design. For instance, the water and waste drawers are tiny and the light comes on to attend to them way before it's necessary (after just 5 coffees!) The drip tray is not grilled in design so the steam wand simply sprays water which bounces off this tray and makes a mess on the bench rather than going into the drip tray. So this machine is sadly just a pretty face.

Great – Only purchased yesterday but so far so good. Easy to use, coffee is great. Have had a Saeco talea ring and after 5 years it broke down so decided to buy a new one and this one is better. Although smaller in size it is more compact on our bench top. The way reservoir is smaller but sufficient for us. The chrome looks nice but hope it lasts the… Read more

distance. Purchased with a 5 year warranty at extra cost, so hope it lives up to full replacement offer if anything goes wrong with it in that time. Sleek square look, stainless bits, tray is nice, brew kit all the same Would be better if the milk frother could pull out, rather than just push to the side.

Two day screamer – i was happy for the first day of the purchase second day it broke down,throwing errors at me after contacting saeco and following their instructions the machine still did not respond the techi said it has a problem in the motherboard that it was a dud and to take it back for a new one ,i took it back alright for a refund . one day of coffee expensive dud