Are bean to coffee machines worth it?

[damekindness]

I’m a big coffee fan - we currently have a bog standard cheapo filter coffee machine. I’ve been looking at bean to coffee machines and wondering if they’re reliable, whether the set up and use is complicated and any recommendations. I don’t want to spend several hundred quid to find they’re a bit ‘meh’

I’m not super bothered about fancy milk frother thingys - ideally I want to bung a big mug underneath, press a button and walk away with a delicious coffee.

I mean Bean to Cup machine !

Yes, we've had a Delonghi Smart for about 6 months- it involves 2 presses of the same button for our perfect coffee, but it's cleaner than cafetieres because the grounds gather in a plastic compartment that you can empty into the bin (versus sludge you have to wash away and can block sinks eventually).

Ps there is a milk frother but we microwave milk and add so no fiddly cleaning of steam spout!

Not IMO. We have one, DH uses it. I don’t. It needed a service not that long ago. ££££ and surface clutter. I like my cafetière and feed my grounds to the garden.

Yes, couldn’t live without ours! The range of beans is brilliant. We actually stopped using Costa/Starbucks for the train etc

We buy the kit for ours it’s around £20, machine does itself in around 30 min

@BellaPommefritioIve been looking at that model - is it complicated to set up/use?

No, just use Youtube if you're unsure like we did, there are good guides on there - we got it second hand and use it during the week then revert to the cafetiere at the top of the garden at the weekend for endless top-ups!

I don’t know how much they cost as I was gifted one by DP.

I use it every day Monday-Friday and it saves me around $30/week less the cost of coffee beans and milk.

Highly recommend.

Yes. I’m sorry to be a kitchen gadget pusher but I’ve got a Sage Express Impress and I bloody love it. I’ve stopped buying mediocre coffees ‘out’ because it actually annoys me how poorly they measure up to what I can make at home.

I would highly recommend searching on 'delonghi refurbished' on eBay. That is where Delonghi sell returns or items with very minor cosmetic damage. Much cheaper! Love mine.

This!it's kicked my habit of regular coffees out now. Once you throw frozen pastries into the mix,you're sorted!

I have a burr grinder and a one cup filter machine. What puts me off the machines is the size.

Lakeland do a small one which looks perfect but has mixed reviews.

So still on the fence!

Yes!!! Delonghi fan here. Ours is 5 years old this month and is used at least x10 time a day. Marvellous!!!

Yes the depth of the machines can be off-putting,you would think they would bear in mind normal worktop depth.

Yep. I got my DH one for Xmas two yea ago and it's used multiple times a day every day!

We wouldn't be without ours now (it's a Jura).

I have the Lakeland one, only issue is the faff to clean it.
The cleanest easiest way to make coffee is either a pod machine or a ceramic coffee dripper with paper filter.

Yes, we love ours and use it every day.

We’ve got a Jura. It’s fab.

Yes, we've had a delonghi magnifica for years. It was bought as a present for my husband and I started drinking it over covid. We use it every day and I use the frother for mine - easy to clean. We've had to replace a knob a couple of times but that's it. Highly recommend.

I have one of those too - and bought a refurbished one for just over £300.
I worked that in one year it would pay for itself in comparison to a Tassimo machine.
It’s fab! 😊

I’m still on the fence with whether it’s worth it mainly due to the amount of space they take up. We have an entry model Jura that they no longer make. I like the coffee but it takes up a LOT of space and recently (5 years since we bought it) it needed to be repaired. We managed to find an affordable place locally for this as juras quote was almost what the machine itself cost, if they no longer exist next time I think we will get rid. While it was being repaired the kitchen felt so much more spacious, but I did find that it was a bit of pain to take time to make a pour over or aero press in the mornings (my husband was less bothered by this than me as likes doing the coffee making more)

We have a Philips one and it's amazing. It's got the milk container on the side and has many choices of coffee. Once you get used to how they work it's so easy and saves a fortune on coffees out, we can't justify the cost now.
I couldn't sleep the other night so was working out in my head a rough amount we are saving having our machine V coffee at a conservative £3 a cup...and to make it easier to work out...and it was roughly between £160-£200 a month, yes, we drink a lot of coffee. We are also lucky to have 2 amazing coffee roasters near us for beans too.
Get one, you won't regret it

I have a deLonghi autentica, and it has a very small footprint, and fits underneath the upper cabinets as well, including room to get the water carafe in and out. So smaller machines do exist.

I like it, with the automatic frother that has a separate milk carafe that you can put in the fridge in between. I am not sure I have found quite the right beans yet, or adjusted the grinding the best way. I need to try more beans.

I've had it a few years and it's saved a ton of money on take-away coffees. It is very needy though, and always something needs refilling, emptying, cleaning, replacing, changing, descaling, etc. it's not a huge faff to do any of it, but it's not just something you forget about once you've bought it like a filter coffee machine. I got mine from Amazon on a good sale. It was slightly out of date I think compared to the latest fanciest versions, but it does everythingn I need.