Saeco Sm7684/04 Esspresso Machine, Large, Titanium

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...

For the past 7-8 years we had been avid coffee drinkers thru various Nespresso machines, but if the Nespresso machines are usually available in promo offers for almost nothing (except for the 1st one we purchased on sales with the milk froth for about 250$ at Christmas), almost every next machine we purchased thru special offers were you would get a huge rebate by buying 200-300$ worth of coffee capsules. At some point when Nespresso decided to remove some of our favorite flavors from their offer, I decided to make the math and realized that during the time we owned several machines (in both original and vertuo sizes) we had spent over 18k$ worth of coffee... the least to say is that the TCO of such a system is huge.That was the starting point of searching for an Espresso machine that would on the long run cost much less in consumable and provide still a very satisfying coffee beverage. After reviewing dozens of different models and brands, I put my choice on the Saeco brand which was acquired by Philips a few years ago, but can't deny it's Italian origin. The machine is not small and you'll have to dedicate some space on the counter top, but it's very conveniently designed with the water & puck container accessible from the front. The right side door needs to remain full accessible as it swings out to access the brewing unit to clean-up once in a while. The bottom water receptacle is easy to pull and put back, but remember to empty it every 3-4 coffees as water quickly fills it up from the rinse cycle between each coffee preparation. The water tank says that it should hold 1.3Lt or so, but in reality it's rarely more than 1Lt that you can effectively use, since when using the clear-water filter from Saeco, it reduces by about 2dl the usable capacity, but worse, with the filter in place, you cannot drain the water lower than about 2-3 cm from the bottom, because otherwise the clear-water filter would not be able to pump the water.. I've not tried without the filter installed, so it's fully possible that the water tank could be run down almost to the bottom without a filter set in place.Our water quality we tested with the strip during setup has no minerals and is very soft, so I'm not worried about decal cycles. I changed filter twice so far and it's straightforward, just following the guidance on the LCD display. BTW, that display is very responsive and gorgeous. My main decision point was the fact that on this model you can setup up to 6 user profiles for different users. As our household has 3 adults and frequent visitors from the family, having the personal settings stored allows for quickly pouring a coffee with the preferred settings.The milk froth system is easy to use as well. At the beginning we'd use the milk container that came shipped with the machine, but quickly realize that we could draw the milk straight from the bag in the pot and have once less thing to clean up. The built-in HygieSteam process cleans up the milk system quickly after each use, but from time to time you'd be advised to use a brush to clean the metal tube.The main reason for not giving 5-stars to the Saeco Xelsis is the less-than-stelar way on how the brewing unit is placed in the machine from the right side. Though easy to remove and place back in, it's cumbersome to rinse and clean under water, but that's OK, not so much for the lot of left-over blended coffee that falls in the back of the brewing unit. How come that Jura can build maintenance free Expresso machines, but no one else can ?? It puzzles me that every 2 weeks, when pulling the brewing unit to rinse it, there is a lot of coffee around the unit at the bottom of the machine. We always make sure the unit is set back correctly in place and sits well. We also rarely use the pre-ground coffee opening, which is very convenient to get some extra flavors or some Decaffeinate brew once in a while, so there is no reason why ground coffee should spill outside of the unit.. This to me is an indicator that the loading of coffee once ground into the brewing unit not always works in sync.Another annoyance is that if you don't watch the bean holder in check to not let it run out of beans, the machine may start the grinding process for a coffee, but then runs out of beans before the full dose is loaded (about 12-13gr of coffee). Instead it will show on the display to fill more beans, but when you do so and press the start button to continue, it just ditches the unused ground coffee into the puck container and starts the whole process again... waste of coffee. Once you got caught 1-2 times, you keep an eye on the bean holder and make sure there is always enough in it before starting the process of a new cup.It also happened for no reason that when using the bypass for pre-ground coffee, even using the provided measure to put the exact quantity of coffee, the brewing unit would start taking the ground and then just stop and ditch it into the puck waste container.. for no reason.Other than that, it's a wonderful Expresso machine that has been used daily since the last 6 months and serves every day around 4-6 cups of coffee. The number of options and settings might look overwhelming at first, but once you got your marks, and thanks to the profiles, it's a no-brainer. The same goes for the ground settings, which we find our sweet spot around 5 (on a scale of 1-12) to be just fine.Saeco says you can the water drip tray, the brewing unit and various washable parts into the dishwasher, but we always just rinse them under warm to hot water and it does the job. Every once in a while (2-3months) you need to put some grease on the brewing unit in specific sliding location (Saeco has plenty of short videos on YT for that). Overall, we calculated that even with the upfront investment which is about 10 times this of a Nespresso system, on the long run we get away with a TCO much lower. On average a cup of coffee would be around 35cts with the Expresso machine, whereas the N would cost anywhere between 90cts to 1,30$ per cup. About 3-4 times the price per cup... make your math!

We love this product and all the features but I had to take a star away because with all the automatic features that it has like when the water needs refilling or the pucks are filled and need emptying and many other features, they missed an important one!A manual bobber that sticks up to tell you to empty the drip tray should have had an electronic sensor that when full the machine won’t work.If you forget to take care of this drip tray you will have a big old mess on your hands! Even though I have not forget it yet for the money and all the other automatic features they should have charged an additional $10 for a sensor and not allow the machine to work until emptied!Other than that I would buy again but highly recommend the company take my suggestion and get that sensor added!

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....

I still shake my head each morning when I fire this thing up and watch it make the first of my two, double Latte Macchiatos. I mean two-grand is a lot dough for a coffee machine, no matter how cool it is—and this one *is* especially cool!I shopped around and read all the reviews, watched all the videos for about a month before deciding on this model. I went round and round on the various manufacturers, the various methods, and especially the anticipated ease of use aspect—because they all look easy when someone else is doing all the work. Believe it or not, I initially set a budget of no more than $1,000. But here’s what finally got me to this machine: first, I’m a drinker of coffee, not a Barista, and I have no interest in becoming one. Second, I honestly wasn’t familiar with all the coffee drinks this machine makes, but I didn’t want to limit my options with a machine that made fewer—and I’m certainly including those machines that don’t produce or provide for ANY milk-based drinks. No milk ever, divided by two-thousand dollars is a long time (tastes change). All of which, finally leads us to the milk thing, which is really the FROTH thing. If you want it, you need a machine provides a way to make it, or that makes it for you. If you want to do it, know how to do it, and can put those two together at four or five in the morning—forever; more power to ‘ya! Frothing is a separate skill and it takes extra time and another steam cycle on lesser machines. With this machine, froth is created as your coffee is brewed, in the same cup your coffee is brewed, and in the same position--you don’t have to know how to do it, you don’t have to get good at it—you just push the button on the screen. That’s something most of us can manage even before the sun comes up. Select drink, push button, drink coffee; no skills required, no failures, no disappointment, no shame, and maybe just a hint of guilt ;- )Okay, suppose you decide to buy this thing, what are the realities of living with it? Well it’s big, you need some space. They make noise! None of the videos I watched recorded the racket these things make—grinding beans makes noise, the froth makes noise, steam makes noise, the brew cycle makes noise, there’s plenty of noise to go around. Then there’s the care and feeding bit—it has a water tank and it needs to be filled. It has a used coffee bin, and it need to be emptied. It has an external milk container with a syphon stem and hose and they need to filled, emptied and cleaned—that’s all everyday stuff. They are picky about the beans they take (oily beans gum up the works). Beyond that, there are cleaning supplies and filters that you’ll need to purchase and use as required—I’m only a couple of months into mine, so there are things I haven’t yet had the pleasure of doing. All of these things are easy and the machine tells you when they need to be done and how to do them. Indeed, the computer inside this thing, and the cellphone quality, color touch-screen that provides the interface between you and it, were the final reasons I decided to double my budget and opt for the best, no compromise machine I could afford/rationalize. I don’t regret my choice, and I’m not the sort of person who tosses around thousand dollar bills without a care. If you can swing this machine, I guarantee you will be overjoyed with your choice and the machine.Ooh—did I mention it makes good coffee?