Gaggia 1003380 Accademia Espresso Machine,0.5 Liters, Silver

I got this on Christmas day so I can't complain about the price. Funny though, to justify it, I ran some numbers like: I still come out 100's of dollars ahead were I to buy 2 coffees at Starbucks every day for a year vs. making them myself on the Gaggia Accademia. I'll give you those numbers if you ask. I now am taking my coffee to work in my newly purchased Zojirushi SJ-SHE10 Stainless Steel Tuff Sports Bottle, 32-Ounce also purchased here on Amazon.comAs for how hot the coffee and the latte (milk) are: All those who complain about temperature are not drinking their milk coffee after making them but holding off for what reason I certainly do not know other than to delay drinking. When I make a coffee it is because I want to drink coffee, not make it only to let it sit for a time then say "Oh I forgot I made that coffee, guess I'll drink it finally". Want a coffee that is tooooo hot to drink when you want to drink it? For heavens sake I'm sure there is a McDonalds close to you right? And you must be related to that woman that sued them for her spilling her own coffee in her lap and it burning her legs because it was toooo hot to drink. I guess she didn't have a cup holder in her car. Who's fault is that? I don't make a coffee to let it sit around for 20 minutes, I make a coffee to enjoy NOW! and not later.The Accademia allows you to set the temperature as well as the amount of water for each and every drink type. Same as for the milk. And believe me, it is hot, no...it is the perfect temperature for drinking coffee or tea, with or without milk. So unless you have insulated cups and cup covers, do not make your coffee ahead of time. Why would you do that? Or if you do, use a thermos to contain it. I bought my Gaggia Accademia for it's reputation and because I wanted a super automatic machine (no intention of being a barista) for my home to enjoy a real, quality cup of coffee or coffee with hot milk (latte).As for those few who think they are empty-ing the spent coffee grounds too often. What? You live in a dump? You like to use oxidized coffee pucks to season your pot luck end-of-the-week meal? You only empty as much as you make in a coffee making run. If you only make a coffee or two a day, you'll empty that at least by the following day. Or you'll empty it after making six to eight coffees. And doing so only takes a moment of time. It is all about keeping your machine clean so that you'll have fresh coffee and a clean working environment day in and day out. If you don't want a machine that needs cleaning, go to Starbucks each day for your fix. Otherwise you'll appreciate a machine that helps you keep it in top notch working order. One that will provide many years of enjoyment.The Gaggia Accademia super automatic looks great on my counter and there are those who will beg to come over your place for a "real coffee" like coffee is meant to be rather than our Americanized version of watered down dirt (as some would call it). The machine extracts the true essence of the bean so don't buy one of these unless you've tried and like what real coffee tastes like. Use quality beans and if you don't want to buy those little filters that this and most others need, use a ZeroWater filter to provide your water as it will give you the cleanest, freshest tasting counter-top filtered water available. Don't believe me? See http://labs.naturalnews.com/Water-Filter-Test-Results.html and the ZeroWater filter can be purchased...you guessed it...on Amazon.comLastly don't forget to descale the unit when it tells you. Not doing so will shorten the life of the boiler unit. This is true of any machine over time. Use Durgol Universal Express Multipurpose Decalcifier, 16.9 Fluid Ounce Bottle which can be purchased here on Amazon.comUpdate & Tips: Dec 12, 2015Just cleaned my brew group which I have decided to do once per week to keep things freshest. Long since ran out of the tablets that came with the machine but am now using Cafiza E16 tablets qty: 100 1.2g which is the best bang for the buck. But I do recommend running the brew group cleaning cycle w/o tablet another 2 - 3 times to make sure the unit is totally rinsed with clean water, or you can take the brew group out and carefully rinse with cold water around all affected parts where your grounds would come in contact.I am so happy to have purchased this machine and being able to clean it where it counts is a big plus. Other machines must be sent back in for yearly maintenance but you can maintain the Accademia on a weekly (brew-group using Cafiza tablets) monthly (de-calcification using Durgol Universal) and have great tasting coffee through and through using ZeroWater filter (to save over replacement Mavia filters) for the best filtered water including removing most fluoride and all totally dissolved solids.The machined continues to produce pleasantly hot drinks, I believe due to proper programming and maintenance of the heating units with Durgol decalcifier on a monthly basis or as called for by the machine's display screen.Want hotter? Pre-warm your cup with hot tap water so it doesn't zap down the temperature on already hot water so quickly (use your head people!).I will also confirm that when using fresh beans, you get that real coffee "Crema" cup after cup if you drink it black. And when having any of the latte' drinks, it is better to use whole milk (not reduced fat) for creamy/frothy latte'. If you haven't already read by now, whole milk has more nutrients (in the milk fat) than the reduced fat milks sold today which benefits the producers more than you or your body.As noted in my first comment above, I got this machine at a great price on Christmas day and am so glad I got it. Sorry if now you want my figures about the savings over going to the coffee shop. I've since lost that paper but it was my justification for spending my hard earned money even while receiving a great price on Christmas, but I'm sure you could do the same yourself. If you don't get yours at such a great savings, it just means that your purchase will take a few more months before positive return than I had at the get-go. And the funny thing is that they just built a Starbucks drive-through just outside my building! For a holiday treat I purchased from New York Coffee, 1lb of ground Candy Cane flavored coffee to use in the pre-ground front hopper.I'm still psyched over my purchase nearly a year later and this great quality unit. The Gaggia Accademia is like a member of the family!

Let me start by saying that I had a super automatic Saeco Sirius Incanto machine for 10 years that worked flawlessly and I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from an espresso machine. I got fooled by the overall 4 star reviews for this machine and made the huge mistake of buying it, just to confirm that everything said in the previous 1-star reviews is true and there are even more issues that I discovered that are not mentioned. Before going to the main issue with the drip tray, let me summarize the smaller issues:1) Coffee dispensing unit: It has a very cheap and flimsy plastic coffee spout that often got misaligned when you slide it up and down and coffee ended up leaking all around the "black box" with some coffee amount actually coming thru the 2 holes at the bottom of that box.2) I kept on seeing an excessive amount of coffee grounds all over the brew unit - note that the machine was brand new, and has the same (or very, very similar) brew group as my good old Saeco and never for 10 years I saw so much coffee grounds all over the unit in my old machine. All with same Lavazza Beans I have been using for over 10 years.3) As mentioned in other negative reviews - the water tank and bean hopper are way too small for such a big heavy machine and need constant refilling.4) As mentioned in other negative reviews - drinks are lukewarm even on max temperature settings.5) As I now own a Delonghi machine with LatteCrema system - its milk carafe was an eye opener for me regarding how bad the Gaggia milk carafe was - every time you try to rotate the milk spout, you had the feeling you are going to break it; it is much more cumbersome to assemble and clean compared to the Delonghi Lattecrema, and oh, yes - once the milk level starts to get low it starts spitting milk all around presenting you with a nice mess to clean - something my new carafe never does!And now, if you can live with the above 5, keeping in mind the price of this machine, here is the main issue:THE DRIP TRAY: Compared to other machines that have only that one drip tray under the coffee spout, this machine has an additional internal very small (10oz) drip tray that sits in the same drawer with coffee grounds container. So, this drip tray gets full after 2 double espresso shots! Or - if you turn off the rinsing of the machine (which of course is not recommended) you can make up to 3-4 drinks without the "Empty the drip tray and coffee grounds container" message is displayed. One good thing I can say about this machine - it has a beautiful, large color display, but you begin hating it when you start waking up every morning to "Empty the drip tray and coffee grounds container" message displayed in red on its big screen, this after making only 2 double espressos since you last saw this message!!! Followed up by "Fill Water Tank" message every other day - and the memories that it was not like that with your old Saeco are still fresh!So, with all the issues above I truly believed that my machine is defective and spent enormous amount of time on the phone with Importika Gaggia USA support and exchanging long emails with them (as their support hours are only Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, which is very inconvenient for many working people). Initially, they were sort of helpful. I spent a lot of time following their recommendations to find the "leak" in the machine, one of them being going to buy red food color and have the tank fill with colored water over white paper towel overnight...So, after none of their suggested fixes worked, I sent them an email regarding the machine being in warranty and asking for a replacement. Again, I truly and naively believed the machine had defects. With no response after a few days, I finally called them during my lunch hour repeating the request to exchange the machine. They acted like they had troubles finding me in the system and promised to call me back promptly. In the end of the day, I received a pretty rude (per my perception borderline arrogant) email from them stating that my machine should be considered working as normal.EXCUSE ME, IF THIS IS A NORMAL MODE OF OPERATION, THEN THERE IS A HUGE FLAW IN THE DESIGN OF THIS MACHINE, IT IS A VERY BAD, VERY POOR DESIGN THAT CALLS FOR OVERALL REDESIGN!!!So, I called Amazon right away and thanks to their wonderful customer service I was able to return this terrible Gaggia Accademia the very next day.In the next couple of days I bought the stainless steel (compact, half weight of the Gaggia Accademia) DeLonghi America ECAM28465M Prima Donna Fully Automatic Espresso Machine with Lattecrema System from the Amazon Seller Flowmar for pretty much the same price I had paid for the Gaggia Accademia.So far, I am fully enjoying my new DeLonghi and it has not displayed any of the above mentioned Gaggia Accademia issues. It has been better in each and every aspect so far!I TOOK THE TIME TO WRITE THIS EXTENSIVE AND DETAILED REVIEW TO GIVE A WARNING TO ANY POTENTIAL CUSTOMER WHO CONSIDERS BUYING THIS POOR AND EXPENSIVE PRODUCT.