Siemens TK73001GB EQ.7 L Series Bean to Cup Coffee Machine Silver

We bought this machine a few weeks ago. It produces great coffee and is incredibly easy to use. Whether you want a strong espresso or a mild macchiato it's simply a matter of pushing a few buttons. We use it every day and particularly like cappuccino, so although it is expensive the quality and simplicity for coffee drinks with milk makes it worthwhile for us.

The machine is much quieter than we expected and it tells you when you need to add more water, refill coffee beans, empty the drip tray etc. so you don't have to worry.
There is also a simple rinse cycle to keep the parts coming into contact with milk clean.

So far our only criticism is that the milk could be a bit hotter, so if you don't drink straight away it can be soon too cold.

The coffee is 6 star. After trying increasingly expensive coffee machines and finding that they simply didn't make the grade (coffee was sub-restaurant standard or the machine failed), it was with some trepidation that I placed an order for a coffee machine that costs *a lot*. Where could I go if this one failed?

This machine takes in your choice of coffee bean, grinds it up into grounds before popping them into a brewing unit. Coffee appears (and very good it is too) and then the used and compacted grounds get deposited into receptacle inside the machine.

That was back in November 2009. The machine died on me with a circuit board failure by January. Water has ingressed and shorted something.
A new machine arrived because the required parts were not in either the UK or Germany.
That was sent back because the used grounds were sloppy and unable to clear the brewing unit of used grounds ready for the next brew.
A 4+ week wait later, the latest (new) machine turned up. Thus far it hasn't missed a beat for a couple of months.

The situation has been far from perfect, however I have to say that Siemens Customer Service was pretty good. A little confused at the outset though - not sure if somebody should be sent out to do an on-site repair or have me send it back or send a courier round. I've had one engineer round who did what he could (in fairness) but said in fact he should never have been sent out. All other times a courier has turned up to collect - on time too.

Such a fully automated machine does require attention to be paid to it. When the display calls for a clean or de-scaling - the steps are easy enough to follow. You just put the requisite tablet(s) in and it does the rest. The tablets are proprietary of course, but easily available and not used very often even though we are in a hard water area.

On infrequent occasions it will call for the whole brewing unit to be rinsed under a tap. Eeeek?? Nah! Easy-peezy. The design of the machine is actually very good. There is a little too much plastic around for my liking given the price of the machine - the "silver" from you can see in the picture is plastic, and the lower section is prone to getting scratched. The top of the machine is steel mind you - it needs to be as it can be used to heat your coffee cups prior to use.

After brewing there is some house-keeping to be done. Empty the drip tray. It's not very big and can require emptying mid-process if you are making coffee for a lot of people. To empty it you pull the lower section out from the front of the machine and here lies a weakness. It's only plastic and you do need to support the long tray full of water as it comes out. Keep an eye out on the water level of the reservoir - it does come out easily enough, but I tend to refill it from a jug.

Once out, the little silver plastic front bit lifts off easily enough for cleaning, but it's held on by a pair of flimsy plastic clips. Robust it is not.

If you've made a milky coffee, the milk heating/frothing system needs to be put through a short cleaning cycle as close to immediately after use as poss. You will be aware how hard it is to remove dried-up milk after boiling. There is a setting for it - it's easy to do and easy to forget too!

It has an impressive range of different types of coffee - espresso (single or double), just coffee (single or double), cappuccino and macchiato. That's the coffee. The milk can make or break a good Italian coffee and this machine is *excellent* at frothing the milk. It's frothed milk is the mutt's nut's for hot chocolate too btw.

Not content with the variety of coffees on offer (all Italian coffees are permutations of espresso and quantities of milk) you can choose the strength of coffee (1,2 or 3 bean strength) and also the quantity of coffee (small, medium large). Choose small, 3 bean double espresso to really set your pulse racing!! The best :)

If you've not got beans, you can also use pre-ground coffee. It goes into the brewing unit through a drawer that pops out from the rhs. It works, but frankly I prefer the beans.

The acid test now for my wife and I for coffee we get in a restaurant is to ask if it's as good as ours at home. It is a real accolade to this machine that more often than not, we think the we're better off going home.

Siemens TK76009GB EQ.7 Z Series Bean to Cup Coffee Machine A good machine that I've had for about 6 months. Good Coffee and easy to use. This is the second machine! After about 8 weeks the milk frothing function has stopped working on both machines. I've tried using different brands of 0.1% fat milk as recommend but once they stop frothing that is it! It is a lot of money for a machine that is not reliable.