Philips Saeco Xelsis Super Automatic Espresso Machine - LatteDuo Milk System, 15 Coffee Varieties, 6 User Profiles, Touchscreen, Black & Titanium, (SM7684/04)

Before buying the Saeco Xelsis, I did a TON of research. Watched every review/preview/unboxing video, read every user review on the sites and looked at every shred of marketing material for not only the Xelsis but for it's main competitors as well (Miele CM6350, Jura S8). User manuals, quick start guides, sell sheets etc. I also happen to own a Delonghi Dinamica, which I've had for about 3 weeks and has only now settled into a completely perfected, dialed in state.I have now owned the Xelsis for two weeks and I think that my journey and learnings will help those who come after me, both to help with setup/troubleshooting as well as to clear up some running misconceptions. Lets begin.Warranty - a LOT of confusion about the US warranty for the Xelsis, and much of it is due to Saeco/Philips themselves. On their website and here in the Q/A, Philips insists that the warranty for their coffee machines is one year. This MAY be true a a general rule for their home appliances, but their super automatic espresso machines are different. In the box of the unit itself, the printed warranty certificate very clearly states that the warranty is for 2 years from the date of purchase. Further, if you register the unit within 90 days of purchase, the warranty is extended for an additional 3 years, for a total of 5 years. Within a few minutes of registration you'll receive an email confirmation with a warranty contract number and your units expiration date. Mine is 11/27/2024, exactly 5 years from the date of purchase. If you see or hear anything different, it is incorrect. The US warranty is 2 years/5 years, which as far as I can tell is the best in the industrySetup - Very easy setup. Takes just a few minutes actually. Two areas of potential confusion. First, installing the Aqua Clear water filter. If you follow the printed quick start guide, the steps are slightly different from the on screen instructions in the initial setup. I was a little confused as to whether I should activate the filter and install it before using the on-screen menu. or start with the on screen menu and go from there. Either works, but my advice is to just stick to the on screen menu. It is more thorough than the printed QSG (which omits a few small steps). Also, when activating the filter, make sure your container to catch water is big enough. They don't specify how much water is used, and it ended up overflowing the 8oz cup I was using. 12 or 16oz should do it. This is only an issue during the initial setup of the filterGrind Settings , General Settings and Brew Issues - 12 levels, initially set to level 7. Level 12 is the coarsest setting, level 1 is the finest. You probably want level 1, 2 or 3 for espresso depending upon bean and taste. What the manual doesn't tell you is that there is no way to adjust the setting on the fly. You have to do it either before or after you brew since the machine won't work with the bean hopper lid removed (and this is where the dial is). Also, after you install some beans, you can only adjust 1 level at at time. My advice is to move the level from 7 (default) to 3 or 4 right out of the box (before installing beans) and make the 1-step adjustments after. I've settled at level 2 currently. Now, the next part is important. Whatever level you set it at, your first 6 or so cups are going to be a disaster. Very weak, watery, plastic taste, etc. The discarded pucks won't be pucks but will be watery clumps of mess. I would avoid any milk drinks entirely at this time. All of this will change. Saeco's site says it will take 5-7 cups to adjust to each level adjustment of the grind setting before things become acceptable. 100% accurate. Don't panic, just keep at it. Also, keep in mind that the milk and hot water dispense from a different spout and ducting than the coffee (in front of the coffee spouts). What this means is that if you're just brewing espresso initially, the plastic taste will go away after a day, but if/when you start to brew milk drinks and/or hot water, the plastic taste will be there again until that section runs its course. My advice here is to brew a few cups of just hot water to flush it out. Or if you don't mind the taste and don't want to waste anything, brew hot water and add a double espresso shot to make some manual Americanos to kill 2 birds with one stone (or 3 birds if the machine is still adjusting to your grind adjustments). You'll need to do this plastic-taste flushing again with the milk carafe and tube, even after washing thoroughly. Run some hot milk cycles using just water and you'll be fine. I'm saying a lot here, but don't let it scare you, all of these teething issues are over in literally one day if you follow my advice. So, to recap:1. Grind adjustments are a process. Take your time and be patient. If you make espresso, i'd go with level 2 or so and just leave it there. After the first 10-12 shots, you'll be good and your shots will be to the level you were expecting2. Wet watery pucks will go away right around the time #1 is complete3. To remove the plastic taste from the milk section, attach the milk tube and carafe filled with just plain water. Run some Hot Water and Hot Milk cycles to flush it all out. I think around 2-3 cycles of each did it for meTake care when adjusting settings on some of these drinks. If you increase the amount of coffee in an individual drink, it doesn't seem to grind/brew for the extra coffee, it will just add water to the existing dose. For example, if you increase the volume of coffee from the default 1.4oz to say 2.7oz in an Americano, it doesn't brew 2 shots to get to the 2.7oz. It seems to just add water to the single shot. Of course you're also adding water by default to an Americano, so the result is watered down. Not sure why they did this, but if you want a 7 or 8oz Americano, you'll get FAR better results by using the default coffee amount, lowering the water and using the 2x option. It WILL then brew two completely separate shotsSaeco does a TERRIBLE job explaining what the settings actually do, which is disappointing and I think adds to some of the negative comments I've seen regarding this machine. There are 5 settings for coffee "strength" and 3 for "taste". What's the difference? Who knows! Documentation says nothing. What's worse, I think the industry uses different words like "aroma". What I've gathered is that generally, "aroma" refers to the amount of coffee beans that are ground for each shot. Not here. The amount of coffee ground is dictated by the "strength" setting, while "taste" is used to determine the length of "pre-infusion". So on this machine you adjust the volume of actual coffee used with "strength" and the amount of time the beans are exposed to the water with "taste". So you could max the strength setting to have a huge dose of coffee, but have it only touch the water briefly to give you what they call a "balanced" taste, or max this setting to have a "full bodied" taste. Or I could be completely wrong and everything I just said is the exact opposite lol. No way of knowing without some exhaustive testing. I'll update this as I learn more via trial and errorTemperature - I read a lot of reviews regarding the temperatures of the beverages. At the hottest temp setting, my espressos and americanos are absolutely undrinkable. FAR hotter than anything I've gotten at either a coffee shop or any other espresso machine. The normal temp setting is about on par with all the others i've tried. Not sure where this rumor started, or maybe people like their coffees to be like lava. I can tell you that there is no problem here. As far as milk drinks are concerned, the temps are on par with everything else out there. I don't have a thermometer handy, but i'd estimate the milk is at 130-140 degrees. Combine that with the lava espresso at the highest temp and the drink temperature is perfect. Move along, nothing to see here. Exact same temps as you'll find with the Miele and Jura milk drinks. If you want hotter, a super auto is not for you as you'll need a steam wandCup Warmer and Spout Light - Everything you read will tell you that this unit has a cup warmer. I would say they're not wrong, but It's definitely not a cup warmer per se. If you leave the machine on for a few hours and make some drinks, the top section will get warm from the residual heat the machine generates from usage. Is this a "cup warmer"? eh, no. Turn the unit on and set some cups on top while you brew some drinks and you will be bitterly disappointed. Bottom line is that you MAY see the top get a LITTLE warm after a few hours, but it's definitely not warming any cups for you. Storage area only. Another quirk is that there most definitely an LED light in the spout area. It is visible if you look under it and it's referenced in both the manual and online documentation. The thing is, there is no way to turn it on in the menu as the option simply does not exist. No idea what's going on with that. You can turn the LED for the water container on and off, but the spout light is a no-go for some reason. Really odd and honestly pretty annoying. If it's there, I should be able to use itMilk Froth and Maintenance - Easily, hands down the highest quality milk froth i've ever seen from a super auto. There's nothing even close to it. I'd rank the Jura S8 a distant 2nd. Whatever Saeco is doing, it's perfect. The biggest hesitation most people have with super autos (myself included) is the maintenance of the milk system. Saeco makes it foolproof. Once a day you put the milk tube into the port in the drip tray and steam clean it. Takes maybe 15 seconds. Done. That's a schedule even i can get behind. The manual says that you should disassemble the entire spout system once a week, but as I take apart the system to examine it after the 15 second steam cleaning, I think that's just a precaution. The steam rinse is VERY thorough. and I can't find any milk residue anywhere in the fully disassembled system (4 or 5 parts, 10 second assembly/disassembly). I will say that the drip tray is rather shallow. While the steam rinse thing doesn't use much water at all, there seems to always be some amount in the drip tray for some reason, and you'll need to empty it fairly regularly. Apparently during each rinse cycle it flushes some water somewhere within the machine that dumps water and a few trace grounds into the drip tray, which adds to the accumulation. It doesn't use much water during these rinse cycles since my water container doesn't need extra filling, but it's definitely using enough to fill the tray every day or so. Compared to Delonghi, Jura and Miele, the Xelsis has the shallowest drip tray I've seen. They probably would have been better served to raise the height of the unit 1/2 inch or so to make a larger tray. The lack of a need to descale the machine for literally years if using the filters is well worth the trade off though.For general maintenance you fill the water, remove spent pucks and empty the drip tray. Once a week you remove the brew unit and rinse off / air dry. I also wipe down the brew unit area with a damp towel. That's it so far. The manual mentions a monthly milk washing and brew group tablet cleaning, but I haven't gotten to that point yet. Again, I'll keep the review updated with any new observations.Espresso Shot Quality - Adjustment / break in period is huge. After the first day I wanted to return the unit. Espresso shots were weak and watery. After the first week I began thinking that Saeco is onto something special here. There is a ridiculous amount of customization that you can do to dial in and really perfect your shot. On the Delonghi, no matter what you do, the shots all pretty much taste like varying degrees of burnt. Funny thing is, when I JUST had the Delonghi, I thought that machine produced excellent shots. The Saeco is in a league of its own (for a super auto). I actually can taste these floral and fruit notes the bean makers speak of on the packaging. Pros, Cons, Verdict - Pros: outstanding milk froth, shot taste and quality, ease of maintenance, ridiculous customization options, warranty, fit/finish. Cons: long dial in process may turn off some, but it's worth it. Drip tray is too shallow for how the rinse cycle is done. Non-working LED spout light. No cup warmer. Need better explanation of options and what they do. Bottom line is that this is a pretty fantastic machine, well worth the price tag. It's a super auto in the sense that once you spend a week or so dialing it in, you'll have a set and forget monster of a drink maker. There is definitely some short-term pain in that first week though, so be patient and you'll be rewarded with what is in all probability the best super auto under $3,000 on the market...

UP DATE 5 Years Later:After five years the milk pump stopped working. So I ordered a replacement machine for $600 less than I paid the first time. That I simply replaced it should say a lot. Never a problem in five years. At least 20 cups a week the entire time.( I did once try to reach their service department. So far as I can see it is just a phone in a drawer somewhere.) Otherwise I've up graded to 5 stars.If you don't already own a Porsche, this Saeco Super Automatic Coffee Maker can seem expensive. And if you want to be your own barista you can get a high quality semi automatic and a quality bur grinder for about the same price. And have the option of brewing dark and oily beans. Which you must not do with the Super Automatics as it clogs up the grinder.From what I've learned about the art of making great coffee, SAECO engineers have optimized the process for all the variables. The very simple to program choice points for heat of water, quality of milk foam, density of coffee flavor that this machine offers should mean you'll get all the rich flavor you want. But if you really must have a French roast in the morning you can put a scoop in the ground coffee feeder, press the ground coffee button and voila!I've had this machine for a couple of weeks and it has truly improved my mornings. A coffee maker is only as good as the beans you put in it. Spending serious money on a top of the line machine means I've given up pre-ground coffee and only buy freshly roasted. Enough for a week's coffee. Well worth it!The machine warms up quickly, so fresh hot coffee is ready within a couple minutes. Quicker than my boiling a kettle for a French Press. This machine rinses itself when it starts up and before it shuts off. The water filter means de-calcification is a rare. need. Monthly cleaning to remove oils is a breeze and the milk supply can be steam cleaned after each use, very, very simply. We looked into a couple of close competitors at similar price points and felt this Saeco has the edge. It seems to be very solidly made. A friend has an earlier version that's been running for four or five years without a problem. If this machine proves that dependable then the cost will have been well worth it. Especially for the enhancement to quality of life from a really first class coffee first thing in the morning. - The one possible negative is that my coffee consumption has tripled since we got this machine.A lot of money just to get perfect coffee. But for this household it has been well worth it. Best money I've spent this year!UPDATEI'm still very happy with this coffee maker, but now have had enough experience with it to refine my review. I've run the various cleaning tasks and these are not a chore. Very straight forward. I think, for the money, Seico might have included a couple of cleaning tablets, one for the coffee and one for the milk. But these items are easy enough to find on line.Small issues: The ground coffee is hit or miss. About every three or four goes the machine cancels the process and the coffee is lost. The process has to be repeated to get straight coffee. I've tried setting the sequence before and after putting in the spoon (they provide for accurate measurement) of coffee. Haven't figured out why this happens. - The "sound' button doesn't seem to do anything. On or off makes no difference. -- The drip tray is made of silver plastic which marks and scratches easily. I wonder if they couldn't have used the same material as the front of the machine, which is a very nice dark material that looks good and is easy to clean.I am impressed with the gradation of choices for exactly the kind of coffee experience you want. The better the bean the better the coffee. And then it is a matter of strength, hotness, amount of milk., or none ... And when you've found what you prefer, simply add it to your profile for consistently excellent coffee.It was worth the cost. But there is room for improvement.AND Good luck with their service and trouble shooting! After three weeks I couldn't get the pre-ground coffee to work. The machine would just dump the coffee in the grounds bin wand cancel the brew. So: How to find out what the problem is and how to fix it? Don't call Seico unless you like to be on hold for a very extended period of time. And no on line resource that isn't just what you ge in the manual. Very poor....So I knocked off one star, and I notice they knocked off $500 off the price....

This machine is attractive, easy to use, and seems to be well constructed however it fails to produce drinks even remotely hot enough. This seems to be a common complaint as there are other reviews that state the same thing. I found that nearly every drink I made was not strong enough and not even close to being hot, despite adjusting the grind, trying various coffee beans and adjusting the temperature settings in the menu. The troubleshooting guide notes that if drinks are not hot enough, the user should heat the coffee cup first. Seriously? It sort of defeats the purpose of a fully automatic machine if I have to somehow heat a coffee cup first, just to get a latte that is barely warmer than bath water. My other complaint is that the water tank is grossly undersized. I was filling it nearly every other day just to accommodate for the constant rinsing and cleaning both before and after each drink brewed. Given the relatively high price, the Xelsis delivered a very mediocre drink. I'm skeptical of these fully-automatic machines now and wonder if it's worth spending even more for a Jura or other brand.