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Phillips is a super automattic.
This is a semi automatic.
The main difference is that it will auto froth the milk for you.
The breville does but you technically need to fill the cup each time. Also breville allows you to manually froth if you wish.
I have the breville, and we had a saeco Incanto (which is a super auto similar to the phillips) before.
I believe our saeco actually broke after about a year. Theres definitely more parts obviously.
My big take away was that you constantly had to clean out the milk container which easily got pretty nasty, you can put the container in the fridge but still.
Also we drink large coffees, yeti cups etc the milk container often had to be refilled every morning.
The super required more cleaning cycles and such naturally. I dont recall exactly, but it just wasnt nearly as convenient as youd hope for. Not to mention it broke.
The breville requires a little trial and error to set up.
As someone else stated, i bought an extension for the portafilter, dosing funnel its called. To help keep the grinds in.
I also bought a better tamper, bc im a noob and it helps me get the pressure right.
The breville is close to fully auto,
Cleaning and such is far less common and pretty easy.
Its been pretty reliable and makes some great coffee.
Philips 5400 is super automatic and highly reliable. I've had mine for over 2 years. My wife and I have over a few thousands of shots counted because family likes it to so much we would always have to bring coffee for gatherings. All we've had to do is run the cleaning cycles as required for new filters, and descaling. It's super easy to maintain. The milk frother does need to be maintained daily if you use it but there's a cleaning button you hit and it takes 10 seconds to clear out the milk. I would say buying a separate frother is better. Even shops do this.
Yea i wanted a super, hence why i bought a saeco. I def looked at phillips but they were hard to find during the pandemic.
I would love to have something like this but the effort to grind + make + clean will require me to wake up a lot earlier than I already do.
But birthday is coming up, now I can hunt my wife and family about this. Maybe "Thanks op" is in order if I do get it.
Btw this price is at every retailer. Macys, and target has the same price.
It really doesn't, my wife and I have had one for 3 years and cranking out cappuccino is pretty quick. You can grind/froth at the same time. Frothing takes a few seconds longer than the grind, which gives you time to tamp, insert the portafilter, and add sugar if you that's how you take it. The frother finishes and you slide the cup in and press brew. With damp paper towel in hand, pull out the steamed milk, wipe wand and espresso should be finishing up. Lower stem wand and it purges to clean. All of this is about 1-1.5 min for a cup.
I have a real question not a troll. I had my first cappuccino back in March on board an MSC ship. When I got home I was craving it so I ordered a $40 unit that was posted on here. Like I said I'm new to this and so far I've been enjoying a cup or 2 daily. I know why I paid $3500 for my camera I also know why I wanna get a $6,000 body. My question is there a noticeable difference in taste, the ones who upgraded from a cheaper to a more expensive unit was it really worth it?
I wouldn't agree that it takes a lot of time to get used to this machine.
If you get it. You absolutely need a dosing funnel designed for it from Amazon and a good tamper. Get an open porta filter. Don't get the fancy insert until you've learned espresso. The ones that come with are fine. You absolutely need a microgram scale. I think it's a calibrated science scale? I don't know. Look for the ones rated by users of illicit substances. It needs to be accurate to the tenth of a gram.
Ignore their setup instructions.
I dialed mine down to grind size 4. Mines from late 2021.
What I did to get my current dial in is the following.
I calibrated for 18 grams of beans in. I would measure and dump in. I adjusted my grind until was getting about 1:2. I usually get out about 42g of espresso.
Get a small glass espresso cup with scales on it. So you visualize the oz. It helps when using the same cup for syrups. And once you get the hang of it. You can quickly see if you're off by where the lines out. Like I said. I'm right around 2oz per shot.
Once I got my grind set, I worked on seeing the exact time it would take to grind without measuring. I did this until I got the timer outputting +/- .5 grams.
In the end. It's now dial and forget. I don't really care about the frother since I use 1% milk. You aren't getting a good product unless you use a whole fat milk.
1% ain't it.
Wife and I recently bought, received, and unboxed the Delonghi Dinamica plus from Williams Sonoma for $1195. I know that machine is a super auto, and this one isn't, so they're not apples to apples, but is there any reason to consider this machine over the Delonghi? I definitely like the idea of less involvement. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wouldn't find being involved in the drink crafting process enjoyable. But still, there are likely advantages to a non-super auto, right? Does this make better tasting drinks?
I have had this machine for a few years, love it. This is the only expensive coffee machine I have had so cannot compare to others. Recommend to get the stainless steal version because I bought the black one and the paint chips at several areas.
I have a real question not a troll. I had my first cappuccino back in March on board an MSC ship. When I got home I was craving it so I ordered a $40 unit that was posted on here. Like I said I'm new to this and so far I've been enjoying a cup or 2 daily. I know why I paid $3500 for my camera I also know why I wanna get a $6,000 body. My question is there a noticeable difference in taste, the ones who upgraded from a cheaper to a more expensive unit was it really worth it?
Not necessarily a help if you are enjoying what you're getting with what you have, but:
I had a 50ish dollar Krups espresso machine long ago. I never was able to get a shot of espresso out of it that I found enjoyable.
I have this machine, and... Well, I enjoy far too many cups per week now. 😅 I still buy "out" coffee drinks, but now I can make them just as good as the coffee shop in my own kitchen.
If you're happy with what you have, I'd probably advise caution with any changes. Espresso as a hobby seems to basically be a bottomless well to throw money down. But at least for me, this particular machine was the sweet spot on the scale of drink quality to ease of use, and was worth the expense. On that note, I bought it for this same price, but Seattle Coffee Gear was throwing in an extended warranty at the time. Not sure if they may be doing that this time around.
I wouldn't agree that it takes a lot of time to get used to this machine.
If you get it. You absolutely need a dosing funnel designed for it from Amazon and a good tamper. Get an open porta filter. Don't get the fancy insert until you've learned espresso. The ones that come with are fine. You absolutely need a microgram scale. I think it's a calibrated science scale? I don't know. Look for the ones rated by users of illicit substances. It needs to be accurate to the tenth of a gram.
Ignore their setup instructions.
I dialed mine down to grind size 4. Mines from late 2021.
What I did to get my current dial in is the following.
I calibrated for 18 grams of beans in. I would measure and dump in. I adjusted my grind until was getting about 1:2. I usually get out about 42g of espresso.
Get a small glass espresso cup with scales on it. So you visualize the oz. It helps when using the same cup for syrups. And once you get the hang of it. You can quickly see if you're off by where the lines out. Like I said. I'm right around 2oz per shot.
Once I got my grind set, I worked on seeing the exact time it would take to grind without measuring. I did this until I got the timer outputting +/- .5 grams.
In the end. It's now dial and forget. I don't really care about the frother since I use 1% milk. You aren't getting a good product unless you use a whole fat milk.
1% ain't it.
Phillips is a super automattic.
This is a semi automatic.
The main difference is that it will auto froth the milk for you.
The breville does but you technically need to fill the cup each time. Also breville allows you to manually froth if you wish.
I have the breville, and we had a saeco Incanto (which is a super auto similar to the phillips) before.
I believe our saeco actually broke after about a year. Theres definitely more parts obviously.
My big take away was that you constantly had to clean out the milk container which easily got pretty nasty, you can put the container in the fridge but still.
Also we drink large coffees, yeti cups etc the milk container often had to be refilled every morning.
The super required more cleaning cycles and such naturally. I dont recall exactly, but it just wasnt nearly as convenient as youd hope for. Not to mention it broke.
The breville requires a little trial and error to set up.
As someone else stated, i bought an extension for the portafilter, dosing funnel its called. To help keep the grinds in.
I also bought a better tamper, bc im a noob and it helps me get the pressure right.
The breville is close to fully auto,
Cleaning and such is far less common and pretty easy.
Its been pretty reliable and makes some great coffee.
I've had this exact machine for 3.5 years and it gets used almost everyday. The grind size is dependent on the coffee beans you use. Each coffee bean will be different. The current one I'm using requires a grind size 3. The previous one required a grind size 7. Like everyone says, you'll have to "dial it in" at first to get that perfect cup. I guess what other's have failed to mention is you have to do this for each different brand of coffee bean. I would get small bags and try different coffee beans to see what you like. This has been a reliable machine so far and requires very little maintenance. It usually will tell you when to perform the cleaning cycles. I was a skeptic when my wife purchased it, but now I'm a believer.
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I've had this exact machine for 3.5 years and it gets used almost everyday. The grind size is dependent on the coffee beans you use. Each coffee bean will be different. The current one I'm using requires a grind size 3. The previous one required a grind size 7. Like everyone says, you'll have to "dial it in" at first to get that perfect cup. I guess what other's have failed to mention is you have to do this for each different brand of coffee bean. I would get small bags and try different coffee beans to see what you like. This has been a reliable machine so far and requires very little maintenance. It usually will tell you when to perform the cleaning cycles. I was a skeptic when my wife purchased it, but now I'm a believer.
Just an FYI, you can adjust the internal burr finer so that you are more in the middle of the grinder scale for adjustability. I set my internal burr to 4. You would have to figure out the new grind level for your coffee though. Video of someone doing it on the express model if you are interested (works the same way). https://youtu.be/_XgBasLKbCc?t=302
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Top Comments
Phillips is a super automattic.
This is a semi automatic.
The main difference is that it will auto froth the milk for you.
The breville does but you technically need to fill the cup each time. Also breville allows you to manually froth if you wish.
I have the breville, and we had a saeco Incanto (which is a super auto similar to the phillips) before.
I believe our saeco actually broke after about a year. Theres definitely more parts obviously.
My big take away was that you constantly had to clean out the milk container which easily got pretty nasty, you can put the container in the fridge but still.
Also we drink large coffees, yeti cups etc the milk container often had to be refilled every morning.
The super required more cleaning cycles and such naturally. I dont recall exactly, but it just wasnt nearly as convenient as youd hope for. Not to mention it broke.
The breville requires a little trial and error to set up.
As someone else stated, i bought an extension for the portafilter, dosing funnel its called. To help keep the grinds in.
I also bought a better tamper, bc im a noob and it helps me get the pressure right.
The breville is close to fully auto,
Cleaning and such is far less common and pretty easy.
Its been pretty reliable and makes some great coffee.
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Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
Share information with the community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!
59 Comments
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Either way theres no going back to pit coffee
But birthday is coming up, now I can hunt my wife and family about this. Maybe "Thanks op" is in order if I do get it.
Btw this price is at every retailer. Macys, and target has the same price.
If you get it. You absolutely need a dosing funnel designed for it from Amazon and a good tamper. Get an open porta filter. Don't get the fancy insert until you've learned espresso. The ones that come with are fine. You absolutely need a microgram scale. I think it's a calibrated science scale? I don't know. Look for the ones rated by users of illicit substances. It needs to be accurate to the tenth of a gram.
Ignore their setup instructions.
I dialed mine down to grind size 4. Mines from late 2021.
What I did to get my current dial in is the following.
I calibrated for 18 grams of beans in. I would measure and dump in. I adjusted my grind until was getting about 1:2. I usually get out about 42g of espresso.
Get a small glass espresso cup with scales on it. So you visualize the oz. It helps when using the same cup for syrups. And once you get the hang of it. You can quickly see if you're off by where the lines out. Like I said. I'm right around 2oz per shot.
Once I got my grind set, I worked on seeing the exact time it would take to grind without measuring. I did this until I got the timer outputting +/- .5 grams.
In the end. It's now dial and forget. I don't really care about the frother since I use 1% milk. You aren't getting a good product unless you use a whole fat milk.
1% ain't it.
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I had a 50ish dollar Krups espresso machine long ago. I never was able to get a shot of espresso out of it that I found enjoyable.
I have this machine, and... Well, I enjoy far too many cups per week now. 😅 I still buy "out" coffee drinks, but now I can make them just as good as the coffee shop in my own kitchen.
If you're happy with what you have, I'd probably advise caution with any changes. Espresso as a hobby seems to basically be a bottomless well to throw money down. But at least for me, this particular machine was the sweet spot on the scale of drink quality to ease of use, and was worth the expense. On that note, I bought it for this same price, but Seattle Coffee Gear was throwing in an extended warranty at the time. Not sure if they may be doing that this time around.
If you get it. You absolutely need a dosing funnel designed for it from Amazon and a good tamper. Get an open porta filter. Don't get the fancy insert until you've learned espresso. The ones that come with are fine. You absolutely need a microgram scale. I think it's a calibrated science scale? I don't know. Look for the ones rated by users of illicit substances. It needs to be accurate to the tenth of a gram.
Ignore their setup instructions.
I dialed mine down to grind size 4. Mines from late 2021.
What I did to get my current dial in is the following.
I calibrated for 18 grams of beans in. I would measure and dump in. I adjusted my grind until was getting about 1:2. I usually get out about 42g of espresso.
Get a small glass espresso cup with scales on it. So you visualize the oz. It helps when using the same cup for syrups. And once you get the hang of it. You can quickly see if you're off by where the lines out. Like I said. I'm right around 2oz per shot.
Once I got my grind set, I worked on seeing the exact time it would take to grind without measuring. I did this until I got the timer outputting +/- .5 grams.
In the end. It's now dial and forget. I don't really care about the frother since I use 1% milk. You aren't getting a good product unless you use a whole fat milk.
1% ain't it.
Phillips is a super automattic.
This is a semi automatic.
The main difference is that it will auto froth the milk for you.
The breville does but you technically need to fill the cup each time. Also breville allows you to manually froth if you wish.
I have the breville, and we had a saeco Incanto (which is a super auto similar to the phillips) before.
I believe our saeco actually broke after about a year. Theres definitely more parts obviously.
My big take away was that you constantly had to clean out the milk container which easily got pretty nasty, you can put the container in the fridge but still.
Also we drink large coffees, yeti cups etc the milk container often had to be refilled every morning.
The super required more cleaning cycles and such naturally. I dont recall exactly, but it just wasnt nearly as convenient as youd hope for. Not to mention it broke.
The breville requires a little trial and error to set up.
As someone else stated, i bought an extension for the portafilter, dosing funnel its called. To help keep the grinds in.
I also bought a better tamper, bc im a noob and it helps me get the pressure right.
The breville is close to fully auto,
Cleaning and such is far less common and pretty easy.
Its been pretty reliable and makes some great coffee.
https://rstyle.me/+KBMzWHEyXhLOFv
Tamper that has a spring to help me get the force right:
https://rstyle.me/+YQBECMQkGbwckt
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Join The Conversation
Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
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