Are you impressed?

Less than half price in the sale (all gone now but might be able to still get one), Which 5 star rated. But are they any good?

I don’t have that model but do have the Primadonna. It knockjs the socks off the Gaggia I had before. If its anything as good as mine go for it.

I have a Magnifica, several versions but mine has the digi display and steam wand – no milk reservoir.

Seems pretty good as long as you set it to strong or extra strong. Milk frother on cappuccino mode is nothing to shout about, textures milk better if you leave it in hot milk mode and keep it just under the surface of the milk so it can draw in air, capucino setting creates too much foam and bubbles.

Sounds promising ……

Irritatingly got the normal magnifica with the dial from Amazon on their flash sales before Christmas as a Christmas present for me from the OH. I am amazed just how cheap they have done the S and S plus after Christmas, I think Currys caught amazon and JL out as they seemed to discount it first and I could have had the S with display for £10 more. Wasn’t really interested in the milk carafe version as it’s just more to clean out, although it would make for a better cup from the OH who never gets the milk warm enough!

I am coming from years of using a press so it was a revelation. Since moving out of the city we don’t visit coffee shops anymore so Waitrose was about as good as it got for me but the Delonghi is excellent and I now have tea at Waitrose as I realised the coffee is not good!

In all honestly I quite like the model I have as it has a strength dial which is nice and quick to check and adjust. The steam wand is more basic than the S but works really well and is quick and easy to clean.

Only problem is I have been drinking FAR too much coffee since I got it. I had at least 6 cups on Christmas morning experimenting with the grind and strength settings!

Dial may not be so bad (don’t know the difference!) as I turn my machine off at the wall so each time I have to increase the strength each time I turn it on (only two button presses but if I forget I get weak coffee!)

I got a cheap thermometer for the milk as I found it hard to judge the temperature even in a steel milk jug.

I got an Esam 5500 for £250 (used for a week by a family member). As above, tons better than the Gaggia it replaced.

Excellent stuff

Cheers

yeah I do like the dial. I have absolutely no hesitation to recommend it. True I wanted a nice stainless steel unit not silver plastic but in place it looks pretty smart and I can’t fault it. I’ve no idea about the model the OP mentions but the wand on the dial version is also quite nice being simple as it’s easy to clean being two parts that just pull off easily. IIRC you just leave the outer part off if you don’t want froth as that is the bit that lets air mix.

My housemate has an aeroprress and uses A LOT of coffee in it or a press to make coffee to his taste so with the dial you can just crank it round to a higher setting for him and then back down to my setting.

We’ll just see if an in-stock phone call materialises next week 😀

They had loads of the milk carafe version in Currys at Bristol Cribs during the week if you are down this way?

Thanks but that’s another £80 odd, plus I think it will be a faff having to keep on cleaning the milk holder if you don’t use it all the time esp. In summer

We’ve had a Magnifica for donkey’s years – it’s been very good and does a fine cup of coffee. It’s been reliable – needed to replace a gasket thing on the reservoir a while back but that was only a few quid. Other than that it’s been spot on. We purposely chose it because it doesn’t have milk going through it – that’d be such a pain to clean out. As it is, it’s very simple to keep clean and the maintenance on it is straightforward and not too time consuming.