For the past 7-8 years we had been avid coffee drinkers thru various Nespresso machines, but if the Nespresso machines are usually available in promo offers for almost nothing (except for the 1st one we purchased on sales with the milk froth for about 250$ at Christmas), almost every next machine we purchased thru special offers were you would get a huge rebate by buying 200-300$ worth of coffee capsules. At some point when Nespresso decided to remove some of our favorite flavors from their offer, I decided to make the math and realized that during the time we owned several machines (in both original and vertuo sizes) we had spent over 18k$ worth of coffee... the least to say is that the TCO of such a system is huge.
That was the starting point of searching for an Espresso machine that would on the long run cost much less in consumable and provide still a very satisfying coffee beverage. After reviewing dozens of different models and brands, I put my choice on the Saeco brand which was acquired by Philips a few years ago, but can't deny it's Italian origin. The machine is not small and you'll have to dedicate some space on the counter top, but it's very conveniently designed with the water & puck container accessible from the front. The right side door needs to remain full accessible as it swings out to access the brewing unit to clean-up once in a while. The bottom water receptacle is easy to pull and put back, but remember to empty it every 3-4 coffees as water quickly fills it up from the rinse cycle between each coffee preparation. The water tank says that it should hold 1.3Lt or so, but in reality it's rarely more than 1Lt that you can effectively use, since when using the clear-water filter from Saeco, it reduces by about 2dl the usable capacity, but worse, with the filter in place, you cannot drain the water lower than about 2-3 cm from the bottom, because otherwise the clear-water filter would not be able to pump the water.. I've not tried without the filter installed, so it's fully possible that the water tank could be run down almost to the bottom without a filter set in place.
Our water quality we tested with the strip during setup has no minerals and is very soft, so I'm not worried about decal cycles. I changed filter twice so far and it's straightforward, just following the guidance on the LCD display. BTW, that display is very responsive and gorgeous. My main decision point was the fact that on this model you can setup up to 6 user profiles for different users. As our household has 3 adults and frequent visitors from the family, having the personal settings stored allows for quickly pouring a coffee with the preferred settings.
The milk froth system is easy to use as well. At the beginning we'd use the milk container that came shipped with the machine, but quickly realize that we could draw the milk straight from the bag in the pot and have once less thing to clean up. The built-in HygieSteam process cleans up the milk system quickly after each use, but from time to time you'd be advised to use a brush to clean the metal tube.
The main reason for not giving 5-stars to the Saeco Xelsis is the less-than-stelar way on how the brewing unit is placed in the machine from the right side. Though easy to remove and place back in, it's cumbersome to rinse and clean under water, but that's OK, not so much for the lot of left-over blended coffee that falls in the back of the brewing unit. How come that Jura can build maintenance free Expresso machines, but no one else can ?? It puzzles me that every 2 weeks, when pulling the brewing unit to rinse it, there is a lot of coffee around the unit at the bottom of the machine. We always make sure the unit is set back correctly in place and sits well. We also rarely use the pre-ground coffee opening, which is very convenient to get some extra flavors or some Decaffeinate brew once in a while, so there is no reason why ground coffee should spill outside of the unit.. This to me is an indicator that the loading of coffee once ground into the brewing unit not always works in sync.
Another annoyance is that if you don't watch the bean holder in check to not let it run out of beans, the machine may start the grinding process for a coffee, but then runs out of beans before the full dose is loaded (about 12-13gr of coffee). Instead it will show on the display to fill more beans, but when you do so and press the start button to continue, it just ditches the unused ground coffee into the puck container and starts the whole process again... waste of coffee. Once you got caught 1-2 times, you keep an eye on the bean holder and make sure there is always enough in it before starting the process of a new cup.
It also happened for no reason that when using the bypass for pre-ground coffee, even using the provided measure to put the exact quantity of coffee, the brewing unit would start taking the ground and then just stop and ditch it into the puck waste container.. for no reason.
Other than that, it's a wonderful Expresso machine that has been used daily since the last 6 months and serves every day around 4-6 cups of coffee. The number of options and settings might look overwhelming at first, but once you got your marks, and thanks to the profiles, it's a no-brainer. The same goes for the ground settings, which we find our sweet spot around 5 (on a scale of 1-12) to be just fine.
Saeco says you can the water drip tray, the brewing unit and various washable parts into the dishwasher, but we always just rinse them under warm to hot water and it does the job. Every once in a while (2-3months) you need to put some grease on the brewing unit in specific sliding location (Saeco has plenty of short videos on YT for that). Overall, we calculated that even with the upfront investment which is about 10 times this of a Nespresso system, on the long run we get away with a TCO much lower. On average a cup of coffee would be around 35cts with the Expresso machine, whereas the N would cost anywhere between 90cts to 1,30$ per cup. About 3-4 times the price per cup... make your math!
| Brand | Philips Kitchen Appliances |
|---|---|
| Model Number | SM7684/04 |
| Colour | Titanium |
| Product Dimensions | 48.9 x 28.3 x 39.3 cm; 11.72 Kilograms |
| Capacity | 1.7 liters |
| Volume Capacity | 1.7 liters |
| Power/Wattage | 1400 watts |
| Voltage | 120 Volts |
| Material | Titanium |
| Auto shut-off | Yes |
| Special Features | Manual |
| Item Weight | 11.7 kg |
