Delonghi ESAM5500B Perfecta Digital Super Automatic Espresso Machine with Cappuccino Function, Black

It makes great coffee. I have no complaints about that. Taste is relative, so I can understand how some may like it less than others, but I have no complaints about the coffee. The frothed milk is perfect, the coffee tastes just like it should. We use it every day, and we all but stopped buying any coffee from espresso stands.

I updated this review to 3 stars in fairness for just how much we actually enjoy using this unit. However, I’ll leave the terrible experience we had with the customer support below for reference.

I think there should be more to a great product that it’s nominal performance. Quality is also defined by reliability and customer service. DeLonghi boasts striving for excellence, but they fail miserably.

My machine arrived in intact condition. Worked great out of the box. However, after less than six weeks of use the grinder failed. It started suddenly making this terrible rattling noise and stopped actually grinding the coffee. First, I shot them an e-mail to ask if there’s a quick fix. They replied 10 days later asking for information to process a service request. I sent them the invoice, serial numbers and all they asked for and they never replied back. After a week or so, we called the support line and they eventually sent us a box and a shipping label – it arrived after other 10 days. We shipped the machine. Here’s where it gets interesting. 4 weeks passed without any update so we contacted them again. There was some lame excuse about them moving their service center from one location to another and after further questioning they admitted they have no idea where our machine was. It’s been several weeks and they still “cannot find it”. They… lost it.

UPDATE: After several more calls, they eventually found it and shipped it to us, this time, lo and behold, priority. Still, it took about 60 days from when it broke down until we were able to use it again.

Caveat emptor! Consider this very seriously. If your product works and keeps working you’ll be fine. But know that if it breaks, there will be no easy help available and you’ll waste lots of time and you’ll gain lost of aggravation to get it fixed.

I’ve had my machine for approximately 2 weeks now, and so far I love it. It’s replacing my Keurig Rivo machine because I don’t want a pod system anymore, and I want a milk frother. This machine was easy to set up, and it’s easy to use. I haven’t changed any of the factory default settings for temperature or anything else yet, but I plan on doing so in the near future. I would like to change the water temperature, which is an available feature. I love the separate milk reservoir that cleans itself and can be kept in the fridge. The only thing it’s missing is a separate function for frothed milk only. Sometimes I like to add more frothed milk, but you can only do it while adding more coffee at the same time. But that is the only thing I’ve found so far that I don’t like. Overall great machine and I highly recommend it.