KRUPS XP9000 Super-Automatic Espresso Machine and Coffee Center, Charcoal Review

For a machine the size of this one larger reservoirs, water, bean, and drip tray / puck bin might have been considered. The Saeco spoiled us with its onboard water connection. Both the Saeco and the Juro which preceded it had larger bean hoppers and while I do not know for sure, I think they both had larger drip trays as well. Either way it seems that we spend a fair amount of time dinking around with some machine demand for dumping or filling in order to get a cup. A related misery is that it is not smart enough to know ahead of time that it is out out whatever it about to notify you that it is out of. So, you request say a cappucino and it froths the milk and then the grinder starts but there are not enough beans to complete the cycle. Grinder goes through it’s cycle empty, the “Fill beans” message pops up, and since there are no ground beans to process the machine goes into it’s dump cycle and you are left with a cup of froth and another 30 seconds of your life unrecoverable. Both of our previous machines were able to deliver product and then alert us that we had a chore to perform, or let us know that we had a chore and not make a halfhearted attempt to deliver a product that they were unable to.

The grinder has its own shortcomings. It has 4 settings which limits experimentation. That’s not a showstopper and I knew that going in. On the other hand cleaning a burr grinder should not require any significant level of machine disassembly, not the case for the Krups. That’s one concession to minimalist design the I wouldn’t have made and didn’t anticipate. Yes, removing the little tophat improves bean flow, yes, using non-oily beans helps keep the burrs from gumming up, but as with any machine sooner or later it requires maintenance. That maintenance should be able to be performed by people who do not as a rule keep hex key wrenches in their kitchen drawers.

The flip side is that this is a great little machine. It has grunted out over 3000 coffee products in the last year and we are quite happy with the beast. The queen hates techno for techno sake but she is comfortable using the Krup for both her regular caffiene fix and frothing fancies. I can tailor espressos adequately to reflect what I’m trying to accomplish with homeroasts. This thing does not replace our manual machines or stand alone grinders but (with the exception of “fill beans”, “empty drip tray”, and “fill water” messages) it spits forth whatever we request pretty much at the push of a button. Color and taste are adjustable, layering of milk drinks is adequate, temp of product is better than other super autos we have had, owners manual is readable if not very informative (it’s nice that the manual is stored onboard although an easily serviced grinder would have been nicer), unit is minimalist and the exterior cleans up easily. Frothing is easy albeit kind of a Rube Goldberg affair. It is quite comparable to my best efforts at manually frothing except there is no opportunity for adding smiley faces and swirly patterns in the froth. I am not bothered that I am not spending 4 or 5 bucks a shot at Starjunks for that artistic bonus. Oh yeah, frothing cleanup. Keep a small glass of water nearby when frothing and leave the frother tip submerged when between shots. The frother will give you years (well, year anyway) of service at as good a quality as the day it came from the factory… or whine about it not frothing, whatever floats your boat. I have yet to deal with Krups for anything so have no opinion about customer service.

I got mine for real short money, less than 400 US, from a closeout website and I see now that it is discontinued here and elsewhere. Pity. A sub 1000 super auto is rare and one less than half that is a unicorn.

Last bit. These super autos have had a 5 year lifetime in our house give or take. To sum up, machinewise my last 3300 cups cost 11 cents a shot. This time next year that cost could shrink by half. If this thing makes it 2 years for what it cost, I’m a happy guy.