Saeco Syntia HD8838/02 (Cappucino)

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.

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

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.

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

Bad choice – I purchased this machine and had it for three days before returning it to the store. The milk froth is terrible, it comes out basically as a flat white when you want a cappuccino and if you do manage to get froth it has hundreds of air bubbles instead of a smooth even texture. Cleaning was a pain and you continually have to empty and refill the… Read more

machine. I called Saeco about the milk frothing issue hoping to fix it with no luck. I ended up purchasing another brand and wished I had never wasted my time on this purchase. Makes a hot drink Plastic internally, bad froth, constant emptying and refilling.

Great Concept Poorly Executed – We owned this machine for about 2 months before finally returning it to the retailer for a full refund. It was a 2 month Love/Hate relationship based on loving the aesthetics of the machine, compactness and build quality as well as making a good hot and strong cup of coffee however on many other accounts it fails to make the grade. Starting… Read more

with the biggest problem. Despite the machine being branded a "Syntia Cappuccino", the automatic milk jug attachment does not work. Its basically a design fault. The machine we got only produced flat, tepid milk. Even after consulting Saeco customer support, talking to the retailer and finally taking the machine to the authorized Saeco repairer, we discovered that the problem was not limited to our machine. Saeco admitted that they knew about the problem with the machine. In order to work correctly, a tiny slot on the nozzle protruding from the milk jug needs to be precisely sized to allow just the right amount of air into the milk to create the froth. If even the most minute particle obstructs the passage, you will not get any frothing effect. Even if the parts are all spotlessly clean, you have a better than even chance that it will not work.

Second problem with the machine stems from its compactness. All the containers on the machine are so small that they need frequent emptying/refilling. We found that after 2-3 cups of coffee, we would need to undertake the ritual of filling the water tank, empty the grounds and dregs draws and top up the beans.

Eventually, we learned from experience that it was best to just fill/empty all the containers before trying to make a cup of coffee. If you run out of either water or beans during the coffee making process, the machine either dumps perfectly good coffee or just gives you a very very small black coffee for your trouble. The dregs draw needs to be frequently emptied or it will overflow. The frequency of maintenance is partly caused by the rinse cycle which occurs every startup and shutdown which uses up a lot of the water in the preciously small water tank that you need to make coffee.

On one particular occassion it took me three separate attempts to get cup of coffee from the machine. At first attempt, it just run out of beans during the grinding cycle. Rather than wait for the beans to be topped up, the machine simply dumps the ground/unused coffee into the grounds container and throws up an error. Even my 10 year old Saeco automatic would pause, wait for the hopper to be refilled and then continue where it left off without wasitng expensive coffee.

On the second attempt, the water level alarm stopped the machine only a few water droplets into the brewing cycle. Again, the machine dumped the partly extracted coffee puck and threw up an error.

Finally, with the Water tank full and the bean hopper refilled I managed to get a coffee, at which point the machine threw up another warning to empty the grounds container.

You will spend a lot of time re-filling / emptying this machine....get used to it.

On the upside, the machine does make a reasonable coffee. The coffee produced is slightly blonde and the crema produced is not as thick as I would like but it is not too bad. Temperature of the coffee can be adjusted but by default it is nice and hot.

Ultimately, the machine did not perform to expectations and the failure of the automatic milk frother was a show stopper for us. Particularly as this version of the Syntia commands a premium price for this feature.

The milk jug looks a lot like a design afterthought. It does not fit smoothly into the machine. I didn't like how much effort was need to force the milk jug nozzle into the dispensing spout and snapping the base into place requires the plastic components to be slightly pryed apart.

The machine went back to the retailer who accepted our claim that it did not perform as advertised, particularly as they had also received some less than encouraging feedback from Saeco on the problem

Incidentally, the retailer mentioned that his salespeople had been advised to with future sales, not to make any claim that the machine can make Cappucino!!

Saeco (Phillips) needs to have a good look at itself. This is a great concept, but poorly executed. Try again Saeco! Excellent build quality. Compact. Stainless Steel housing. Very well priced. Automatic Milk Frothing Does Not Work. Needs too much maintenance!

Very good machine – After reading some reviews I was worried the frothier might not be good, but was pleasantly surprised it made an excellent cappuccino. The machine is very quiet and the machine is solidly built with good quality materials. I for one am extremely happy. The only problem is the graphics on the screen take a bit of getting used to. Cappuccino, build quality, quiet. Graphics

It's very good product..I like make cappuccino, latte coffee and short black many times on day – I like use this machine...because is very quickly make different kind of coffee...no mess ...people which come my home like drink cappuccino and late...I have old one and thinking about new one..will be very happy when will be received this machines for free...for Christmas.. Have a nice day and Marry Christmas...