Saeco HD8857/47 Philips Exprellia EVO Fully Automatic Espresso Machine

I did a lot of research before deciding on this. My brother has the Xelsis for almost a year now, and he has not had any problems with it. Most of the prior reviews are exactly correct about this machine.1. Watertank is small: At first it does not seem small; after all, it's 1.5 quarts of water. However, because the machine is constantly rinsing when heating up and shutting down, there is a lot of spent water. You will end up refilling water very very often. However, it's not a big deal. Lift up the left top, pour a large cup of water in there (I have a large 32 ounce plastic up that I purchased from target).2. Drip tray is small: Same thing, every couple of days, you will be prompted to clean out either the spent coffee pucks or the drip tray. Again, no biggie. Pull out the front, take out the trays and dump it and put back. It literally takes a couple seconds.3. Milk is not hot enough: I tested it on my thermometer and it was about 125-130F degrees. It's not hot, but the coffee is hot; about 180F. Overall, when I mix my cappucinno, and measure, the initial temperature is about 145, which is plenty hot. However, if you like to sip, then after about 5 minutes, it is only warm. I don't sip my coffee for more than 5 minutes anyway, so not a problem to me. Of course I can always buy some double wall thermo cups or warm my cup first. The other option that a prior review mentioned already is to use the wand on the milk to heat it up more and even though that sounds like too much extra work, it's not to bad. Instead of touching the button for cappuccino, just push the special button for milk only. Then touch it again, but for steam. Use the wand for about 10 seconds and then push for either single or double expresso, and you are done.Of course, I only do this on special occasions, like for guests, or on weekends when I want to sip my coffee a bit longer. However, at least that is an option I have, which is not too hard to do. On work days, I just push the cappuccino button and it is still hot enough for about 5 minutes.If you just want coffee, either americano or lungo or espresso, the coffee is hot. I have not measured, but I'm guessing about 170f. This is what my wife drinks, and so has no complaints with the milk being hot . She does the opposite of a cappuccino by getting some lungo. Then she push the special button for some milk on top. Since most of the liquid is hot coffee, the less hot milk does not cool the coffee enough to taste any cooler, and she is able to sip it for 10-15 minutes without the coffee getting too cold.So, my point is if you are concerned about the milk being not hot enough, there are plenty of ways to make it super hot and it's not too much work. Also, if you are drinking mostly coffee drinks with minimal milk, then the coffee temperature will still be plenty hot.I have not owned this machine long enough to see how reliable it is.1 YEAR update: I love this machine. It has worked flawlessly, and every morning, I look forward to going into the kitchen for a couple cup of coffee or an espresso. The coffee or espresso is super hot. For some reason, the water temperature has gotten hotter than when I initially purchased it.

I bought this as a gift for my wife after returning from a trip to Paris. She loved it. I bought Lavazza Super Crema Espresso beans which were very affordable and with this machine made great espresso. Now, this machine has a very high maintenance time cost. She had to clean it weekly and run a deeper, descaling cleaning process probably around once a month (machine tells you when to do it). While the maintenance turned out to be highly time consuming, she didn't mind as we thought we had purchased a high quality machine that would last as long as we cared for it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Only 17 months after the purchase, the machine stopped working. She called Philips hoping to get assistance with resolving the issues or bare minimum an option to pay for repairs. Their response (paraphrased) was "Your warranty expired 15 months after purchase, there is nothing we can do for you. You could purchase a new one." For a coffee machine that runs $2000, I expected better. The steep price point and poor customer service make this product not worth purchasing. Do yourself a favor and find a machine made by another company. I will make sure I do for my next one.

My first thoughts after purchasing was that this is a very nice looking machine, it is quiet, makes decent coffee but not hot coffee. Than after six months of use it started dumping coffee ground everywhere inside the machine. It progressively got worse and grounds started to sift out the side vents of the machine. I talked to Saeco about this and they suggested a different bean or a different grinder setting.... I had not changed beans or grinder settings leading up to this problem but thought what the heck I will try it. I changed beans making sure it was a dry roast and played with he grinder adjustment. The problem persisted and became worse with a drier bean. Saeco than approved a warranty service of the product and directed me to send it to SCG. they had the machine for approximately 4 weeks where they said they thoroughly cleaned the machine and upgraded some firmware on it that would fix the problem? I received the machine back and the first cup i made still had grounds spilling out. I called SCG and they defended there diagnostics and attempted fix for the problem so I called Saeco and after a lengthy discussion they agreed to have it sent to another repair shop. I am not optimistic they will fix the problem either. I am very disappointed in the quality of the machine and the response from Saeco and there approved repair shops. I cannot recommend this machine based on the service and response from Saeco!