Espresso Machine Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
Gaggia
Well, I have to add my 2cents about WholeLatteLove. Not customer service oriented AT ALL. Still waiting for a call-back from two days ago. Not holding my breath.

4.0 out of 5 stars
The First cup’s the best
I read the reviews and the only concern I had (other than the price tag) was that I would get the dreaded “Ventilate” message.
I didn’t.

Believe me, I thought long and hard for paying over a $1,000 for a coffee maker. The very idea struck me as a bit outrageous, since I’ve never paid more than $50 for a coffee maker before, but now I’m glad I did. I looked at several espresso makers, ranging from the simplest (and cheapest) to the mid-range machines on up to this beast, the Gaggia Titanium. I finally decided to take the coffee plunge and figured that I could always return it if my wife (”the decider”, as I like to call her) vetoed the purchase.

I ordered the Titanium during my Amazon Prime trial, so it was shipped overnight for just a few dollars and arrived on a Monday. We had house guests at the time and while one didn’t drink coffee, the other considered himself a hard-core coffee purist (he even has a roaster at home and buys his beans green). I noticed right away that the machine was packed well, which is always a good sign. I had the machine out of the box, read through the directions, and started brewing coffee in about 15 minutes. Wow. This was easily the best coffee I had ever tasted, with none of the bitterness I usually associate with espresso (at least with espresso I’ve made).

The machine produces four different beverages: espresso, “regular” coffee, caffe lungo, and hot water. (Caffe lungo, as it turns out, is literally “coffee long” and is similar to espresso, but with more water passed through for a longer brew time. While I’d never heard of it, it’s now my wife’s new morning beverage.) There’s also the frothing wand and the cappuccinatore, which is an attachment that replaces the frothing wand specifically for cappuccino. While others have mentioned never using the cappuccinatore, it’s all I’ve used so far and I’ve converted at least two strict coffee drinkers to cappuccino lovers.

My second (after the cost) biggest concern was that I’d been told that super automatics are a pain to clean and that it would be more hassle than it’s worth. As it turns out, the Titanium’s not the hard to clean. The dregdrawer (which holds the “hockey pucks” as my friend calls them) sits inside the drip tray, which easily slides out after you unlatch the door. The Titanium’s blue display will let you know when it’s time to empty the drip drawer. (It’s not clever enough to know if you empty the dregdrawer in between these warnings, but if you empty it on your own schedule, you simply pull out the drawer for 5 seconds and slide it back in.) For the drip tray, there’s a red plastic float that rises up as the tray fills to let you know that it’s time to empty the tray.

The most difficult part to clean, which isn’t all that hard, is the brewunit, which processes the coffee as it comes out of the grinder (or from the ground coffee slot, if you choose to use your own ground coffee). You have to unscrew a couple stainless steel plates and brush the unit (with an included brush). In short, cleaning a super automatic is no more of a chore than cleaning the separate appliances (coffee grinder and drip/espresso maker). One minor annoyance is mentioned on an orange sheet packed in the box that says that “oily” beans can clog the grinder and there’s an 800 number to call for suggestions.

The only problem that I’ve had is that the beans (Starbuck’s Caffe Verona) don’t fall into the grinder properly and so every few cups the Titanium reports that the beans are empty even when there are beans in the hopper. Reaching into the hopper and pushing the beans around fixes that problem, but the rep at the 800 number reports that the oily beans will cause a buildup in the grinder and offered to send instructions on how to clean the grinder, should that become a problem. (It hasn’t been for me yet, but I’ve only had the Titanium for a week and a half.) The suggestion I got from the 800 number was to let the beans sit on a baking sheet for an hour or so before adding them to the hopper and while this hasn’t eliminated the problem of the non-empty hopper, it has reduced it.

One more tip: if you don’t have a grinder, consider buying one (I bought the KitchenAid KPCG100NP Pro Line Burr Coffee Grinder, Nickel Pearl from Amazon and have been very happy with it). Sometimes (especially in the evenings, I’ve had requests for decaf and I’d rather not try to empty the bean hopper and grinder. Instead, you can add a scoop of ground coffee and press the “pre-ground coffee” button to tell the Titanium to use your ground coffee rather than grinding it fresh. (I suppose you could also buy already ground coffee, but if you’re already spending over $1,000 on a coffee maker, what’s a grinder?)

The bottom line: if you spend more than a few bucks a day on coffee, you can justify the cost and you’ll wind up with great coffee. I suppose it’s some measure of how much we enjoy the coffee that with three coffee drinkers, we’ve brewed just over 120 “coffees” (an espresso shot-sized measure of all three coffee products) in ten days. There’s no question that this is a 5-star product.

this is my second fully automatic espresso machine; my first was saeco magic that was retired after it began to incessantly leak. i knew that saeco and gaggia were the same company, and the saeco served me well for nearly 9 years with no service whatsoever (although it was a minor repair i found out later) but i wanted to get a newer, more attractive machine, so i spent time looking into this gaggia.

i actually didn’t purchase this machine here, but on ebay, but in the past year the price has gone done so you would do best to get it here. the machine i bought on ebay was brand new, unopened (and at the same price they sell it here) and with factory warranty. this is a beautiful piece of equipment, but if you need to save money, the gaggia titanium (without the SS suffix) is $200 cheaper and identical, just doesn’t have the stainless steel side panels.

i gave it only 4 stars as it exhibited “issues” just 3 days out of warranty; it appeared to have started leaking. after a quick search into “authorized” repair centers and reading through the nightmares of some people, i found a local repair shop that was able to fix the issue in under a week. apparently, a fitting for the steam boiler was malformed, causing it to leak. the issue was fixed quickly (and for less than $100) and since then, the machine has been making dozens of cups of espresso a day!

the espresso is rich and HOT (being able to set the temperature on this unit is a great thing that a LOT of units don’t have) and cleanup is fairly simple. i haven’t had the “ventilate” issue that i have seen others write about here. one annoying feature, is that the energy saving feature REQUIRES that you set a turn on/turn off time. and every time the unit turns on, it uses some of the water in the tank to rinse the brew group. normally, not a big issue, but since the water is drained into the pan beneath the unit, you DO have to remember to empty it. while this unit is SO smart…it doesn’t know when the pan is full (save for a pathetic little manual indicator) and if you aren’t careful, you may end up with murky coffee water all over the place! if you use your machine as often as i use mine (daily), you’ll make a note to empty the drain pain every couple of days.

occasionally, the machine will report that the dregdrawer (where the used grounds are deposited) is full, when it actually isn’t. best thing is to just empty it and replace the drawer…everything works fine.

i didn’t use the wild looking frothing accessory…the actual metal frother that you see on the front of the unit works wonderfully, is easy to clean, and best of all, since the unit has 2 boilers, there’s no waiting between brewing espresso and steaming milk…it does dispense nice HOT water as well…

and lastly…the grinder. i know that some people have had issues with it not feeding the coffee properly; this is mainly when the machine is new. once the oil from the beans have lubricated the unit, it is less of a problem. although i found a tip online that said to remove the small cap over the grinder (just try not to stick your fingers in when it’s on). i did this to my unit, and have rarely had a problem since…

all in all, a great unit. expensive, but when you weigh it out, i’ve made over 1000 cups of espresso in this machine in the past year. at starbucks, that would have been anywhere from $2500-4000…so it paid for itself in short order

addendum: a year later and 1000 cups more and still going strong! no further issues with leakage. make SURE you decalcify the unit per manual instructions…with over 2400 cups made you can only imagine the money saved at the coffee shop i highly reccommend lavazza super crema beans for this machine…

1.0 out of 5 stars
Big Disappointment; Very Poor Service
I should’ve known better. I initially purchased a Gaggia Titanium SS for myself because of Gaggia’s supposed excellence in the espresso device market.

1.0 out of 5 stars
Two machines one cup of coffee
I ordered this machine for my wife after reading dozens of reviews and and positive feedback. We followed the instructions explicitly and created one cup of coffee.