DeLonghi is way better than Jura or Saeco. Qualitiy and handling is the best i ever had and that is my 5th fully automated machine.

DeLonghi is way better than Jura or Saeco. Qualitiy and handling is the best i ever had and that is my 5th fully automated machine.  Read Less

Let's face it, buying a machine of this caliber is a big decision for most people. This is a big investment, and I think most p...  Read More

Let's face it, buying a machine of this caliber is a big decision for most people. This is a big investment, and I think most people will want to be assured that they will get their money's worth with this product. This is a point I was very skeptical about when first receiving the DeLonghi Prima Donna Espresso Machine. I am no longer skeptical about this product. I love it, and I think people who are serious about their coffee will love it as well.First, the unit is fully self-contained. With this system, there's no need to have a separate coffee maker, grinder, milk foamer, etc. All of those features are already contained in this unit, and because it is all contained in the unit, making a perfect cup of coffee or latte is incredibly simple. Add your favorite coffee beans, fill the water tank, fill the milk tank, push one button, and you are done. The machine will grind the beans fresh for each cup of coffee, heat and foam the milk, and you get a perfect latte every time that will rival anything you will get at Starbucks. In fact, if you use Starbucks coffee beans, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a latte that you get at Starbucks and one you brew at home with the DeLonghi Prima Donna system.Now, there are some customizations that you can make that will make this process a bit more complicated than just one push of a button. But even those are easy to master. First, there are different sizes of coffee to choose from: Espresso, Standard, Long and Extra Long. You can choose your coffee strength: Extra-Mild, Mild, Standard, Strong and Extra-Strong. Do you need one cup or two? The DeLonghi Prima Donna can brew two equally perfect cups of coffee at once. (It cannot, however, brew two lattes at once). Want to change the size of each of the different sizes of coffee that are standard with this machine? No problem! Each different style of coffee can be customized that way. You can even customize exactly how much foam you get from the milk container. Honestly, the customization options on this machine are amazing and make it well worth the price, especially if you have more than one coffee drinker in your home, all of whom like their coffee different. One person can program in their Extra-Mild coffee, then the next person selects their Extra-Strong. Simple! No more making an entire pot of mild coffee and one pot of strong coffee, or, one pot of strong coffee, and then the people who want mild coffee need to add water later. None of that is an issue with this machine. Everyone gets the exact style of coffee they want, fresh, every time.Want to use a pre-ground coffee...say...something with a flavoring added? No problem. There is a separate container for pre-ground coffee. Just put a scoop in, program the machine for pre-ground coffee, set your strength and brew. One (or two) perfect cup(s) of coffee are on their way! Want to make hot chocolate for the kids? This is not a problem either! Here's what I do for my daughter: I add a couple of tablespoons of Hershey's chocolate syrup, but you can customize yours with cocoa powder and sugar, or however you make it. Then I connect the milk container. (My daughter is lactose intolerant, so I use soy milk and it still turns out great!). There is already a button for hot milk on the machine, so I just set my amount of foam, push the Milk button, and let the machine do its thing! I do notice that if the milk is very cold, the hot chocolate will not be very warm when it finishes. But this is not a problem due to the fact that the DeLonghi Prima Donna also has a hot water/steam dispenser. Once the mild has been added to the cup, I take the milk tank off, put the hot water spout on, and press the button for steam. I let it go for about 30 seconds or so and have found that this makes for a hot chocolate that is just hot enough, but not too hot that it would burn.Speaking of the hot water spout, this is another great addition and accommodates those in your household who like tea or other hot drinks. Have a powdered hot chocolate or hot cider or other powdered hot drink? The hot water spout is perfect for that. If I had one criticism for the hot water spout it would be that it is stationary, and while that's ok for most applications, I do have some taller cups and I find that I can't really use those for tea using this system, because those cups just don't fit under the water spout. It would be perfect if the spout could be moved up or down like the coffee dispenser spout can.Cleaning is incredibly easy for this machine. The coffee grounds, once they have been used, get pressed into these neat little discs and dropped into a waste container inside the unit. The unit will tell you when to empty, or you can just do that yourself whenever you feel it's necessary. I have also found that this machine wants to clean the milk delivery spout after every use of milk, which is a good thing....you don't want old milk builiding up inside the works. Just turn the foam dial to clean after any milk drink, and once it goes through its cleaning cycle, you are good to go. Another thing I have noticed is that the machine will give me an error message (WATER CIRCUIT EMPTY FILL WATER CIRCUIT) if I try to start it up with the milk container attached. I have found that starting the machine up with the hot water spout attached first stops this problem. It goes through and initial cleaning ritual when starting up, then once that is over, just take the hot water spout off and put the milk container on. There is also a method for de-scaling your machine after so many uses, but I haven't done that yet. Let's just say that with very little effort, this machine can be kept in top running condition for a long, long time.So, as far as its benefits vs. cost, every household is different, but think about this: A standard Starbucks coffee will cost you around $3.65. One per day, and you've spent $1,332 on Starbucks in a year. Have two people in your house that love Starbucks? That's a whopping $2,664 per year. Now, that would be considerably less if you don't go to Starbucks on a daily basis, but if you do, you can see how this system could pay for itself in a year or two. So, if you are someone who loves your coffee and lattes and tends to spend a lot at Starbucks or other coffee houses, I would seriously consider making the investment in a DeLonghi Prima Donna system. I don't think you will be disappointed.  Read Less