Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The machine makes great coffee. I expected it to be very good, but it exceeds expectations. It is better than "that big chain shop" and I am a big fan of their coffee. (I am sure someone will jump in and say that the coffee at XYZ local coffee house is going to be much better than the big chain, and I agree with that; I am just providing a point of reference everyone will likely know). And yes, this machine's coffee compares favorably with the local house.
Hook-up of the plumbed-in water supply was a breeze, but I have done a lot of plumbing work. You will either needs skills with running copper pipe or PEX tubing if you want to install it yourself. Or hire a plumber.
Miele makes a couple of non-plumbed versions if you don't want a permanent installation. However, these types of machines are meant to be built-in to cabinetry so my advice is to buy the plumbed in version to eliminate the hassle of having to remove the water tank and manually fill it every day or so. If you are spending about $3,000 for one of these, spend the extra few dollars for the plumbing.
In terms of electrical, it does not draw so much current that you must have a dedicated circuit for it. If your existing circuit is almost fully loaded, you may need a new circuit. I just plugged it into an existing outlet, and so far (4 - 5 months of operation) no popped breakers so it should be fine on the circuit it is on. Consult an electrician for your situation.
I installed this as part of a kitchen remodel in my home, and so could build a custom cabinet for this to go into. One thing to note is that it requires a 24" deep cabinet. Standard wall (upper) cabinets are 12" deep, so this will not fit there. It needs to go into the same type of cabinet (depth-wise) as an oven or built-in refrigerator. I dedicated a 24" wide, 24" deep, and 96" high cabinet for this, with a wine cooler underneath and a regular cabinet above. That resulted in a mounting height that is about perfect. Much lower, and you would have to stoop over to get to it. Much higher and it would be dangerous, i.e.- very hot liquids and/or steam at eye-level. You would not want to mount this in a standard wall cabinet since it would be too high. Standard wall cabinets are mounted about 18" above counter height, at close to eye level. You want this in the rough vicinity of counter top height. You could install it into a wider cabinet, as long as it was 24" deep. I spent a paragraph on that since you will really need to think through how you are going to install it since it is meant to be built in in a fairly standard way (narrow range of options), and not all existing kitchens may accommodate that design.
The seller (evVive Home) was very helpful, and I am pleased with purchasing from them.
In terms of daily operation, it is a little more work than I was expecting. It has a waste container into which the used grounds are deposited after each cup of coffee. The machine seems to have a timer that requests that you empty the container every other day. If you have this machine installed in a small office, that makes sense as the container would fill up pretty fast. But for the homeowner, it probably needs emptied once a week or less, and even then it would not be full.
The machine has a milk flask (like a thermos) for cappuccino, etc. This seemed like a good idea, and it works great. The problem comes in cleaning the tubes, which needs to be done at LEAST daily. Spoiled milk will make a person very ill, so this is critical cleaning step. The machine has a special rinse cycle for accomplishing this. It just takes a while, has to be done frequently, and requires a person to be present while it is going on. It is not like the regular automatic rinse cycle that requires no human involvement. It is enough of a hassle that I might only have a latte on the weekend when I can devote the time to the cleaning. During the week, I just dump a couple of espresso shots into microwaved milk.
The machine also has to have a weekly cleaning done too. I will admit I am lazy and only do this every few weeks, but it is also a little work. There are a few parts that have to be removed, but the mostly just slide out, no tools required. But you do have to get in there and clean a lot of small spaces.
All-in-all, it is a bit more work than expected, but I may have had unrealistic expectations. It isn't THAT much work, really.
In summary, I am very pleased with the machine and would highly recommend it.
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