I bought this unit to replace a failed superautomatic and have been using it for a month. It’s a solid little unit, although without the auto-milk feature, and other tradeoffs in cost that keep it more affordable, so fewer bells and whistles of a unit 2 or 3 times the price. The US Magnifica Evo comes with the traditional steam wand (ECAM29043SB) — bean-to-cup top drop grinder, 6 one-touch drinks, and you use your own carafe. Milk is a panarello wand and steam knob, and is easy to clean and operate. Our unit has LED icons, the LatteCrema Evo (ECAM29084SB) has a milk carafe, and Magnifica Evo Next has a color LED panel.
The unit features an adjustable grinder and your choice of sizes: espresso, cafe, and americano, plus an iced setting, more easily understood as (approximately) 2, 4, 6 ounces of water, which is adjustable. The bean grind size and amount are adjustable. The water container holds over a quart/liter of water, not quite two, but operationally works out to around 1.5 as it won’t use all the water before asking for refill.
I tried several different bean types and got consistently good pulls once I got it dialed in. It is possible to overdo it and restrict the output, which stresses the machine, so start with the defaults and adjust slowly. The bean grind setting is easier to adjust up than down, because there are beans in the grinder that block compression. If you want to adjust down, do it while it is grinding to make the adjustment easier. The temperature is not adjustable.
The steam function works well, is easy to manipulate, and importantly, easy to clean. I prefer this steam function to the more advanced superautomatic milk frothing units because sometimes I just want steamed milk in a pitcher the old fashioned way. That being said, I do miss the one button macchiato and Irish coffee function.
The unit itself is easy to clean and dishwasher safe, but running the parts through the dishwasher will shorten their life and alter the appearance over time. Mine isn’t there yet, and I don’t use the dishwasher for cleaning parts, but all plastic ages, so don’t be surprised if after several washings it is not as shiny. This is a problem common to all automatics and plastics. Cleaning the infuser unit is also easy and should definitely be done monthly if not more often as detritus does accumulate on it and if it is neglected too long, will probably create problems. The descaling notification cannot be turned off, so if you use distilled water, get used to seeing the red light.
One minor area of concern observed is the accumulation of grounds behind the infuser unit. This appears to be minor at this point and may be inconsequential as it appears any significant accumulation may drop down into the waste tray. I have observed problems with other supers over long operating periods where this can become a problem, so as the unit ages, keep an eye on the accumulation. It may be possible to brush or vacuum it out, but as there is a greased screw near the same location, be mindful of scattering debris into that area. Hopefully gravity does the job for us, long term.
The unit will pull 8-12 cafés (depending on puck size) before wanting to be emptied, which lines up near the water use. It can hold more pucks, but it uses water on startup and shutdown to flush the pipes and if you only make one or two cups at a time, that extra water will alter your fill frequency and lead to a full tray indicator light. Note that the tray can overflow, despite having an indicator float, so don’t rely on that float.
One nifty engineering feature is the drain from the water inlet to the waste tray so that when you pop out a tank with water, the small amount in the pipes runs into the tray and not onto your countertop.
The water amount for a pull is adjustable for each drink button. This is not an intuitive operation and has no undo other than resetting the machine, so if you dial up too much water for one drink and need to undo it, you undo all modified settings. Once settled, you never need to remember it, so the only inconvenience here is that you cannot adjust things easily on the fly. Higher end supers have easy to use variable settings, but getting that feature (and others) included is why those machines cost 2-3x as much.
The cup height on this model is very nice and I was able to put tall coffee cups under it with no trouble. It will not accommodate a full height vacuum tumbler, but none of the supers can either. Espresso is not traditionally brewed into 20 oz tall thermal cups…
This is a home user machine. It is not for shop use, even small shop, as there is no water connection available and the bean hopper is on the smallish side but works well with the cycle of emptying the pucks and filling the tank. Cleaning and filling every other day is typical for a 4 cup a day household.
For casual home users that want simplicity and smaller counter space than the larger automatics, this is an excellent machine that consistently pulls good shots.
Operator Opinion
I wouldn’t buy this model again for me, because I’m interested in the integrated milk capabilities, but I would give it as a gift because it’s a solid, respectable unit. I might try one of the larger units with integrated milk. For a gathering at the house, you can’t beat an integrated milk frother for convenience, but the wand works well and gives it that traditional vibe.
I’d like to see a more easily adjustable water amount for each cup size, larger hopper, larger water tank, and the ability to turn off the clean cycle and beep. Which is what you get with a more expensive, larger machine and this is not that. I also want to be able to disable the descaling cycle as many of us run distilled water and only need to run a descaler once a year to be safe, even if we run out of distilled and cheat with some normal water a couple times.
It’s too early to consider the cost/benefit of the model, but based on my perception, this is not a unit that is going to last for 15+ years like a high end Swiss model. I can’t disassemble it to check the internals, so I’ll keep track of use over time and report back. Back of the napkin for a 2 year estimated life at 4 cups a day, the machine lifetime cost works out to $0.23 per cup, which is respectable, and it will likely last longer than that.
Superautomatic · Removable · -M
The machine
| Model | ECAM29043SB |
|---|---|
| ASIN | B0B38KFWNK |
| Milk | Traditional steam wand (panarello) — no LatteCrema carafe |
| Drinks | Espresso, coffee, long, Americano, over ice, plus steam / hot water from the wand |
| Grinder | Built-in conical burr, 13 settings; pre-ground bypass |
| Water / beans / pucks | 60.9 fl oz · 8.8 oz hopper · 14 pucks |
| Size / weight | 17.32″ D × 9.45″ W × 14.17″ H · 20.8 lb |
| Power | 120 V · 1250 W |
| Pump | 15 bar (manufacturer rating) |
| Max cup height | 5.46″ |
| Warranty | 2 years + 1 year with product registration |
| List price | $749.95 on De'Longhi US |
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| Overall | 7 / 10 |
|---|---|
| Drink quality | 8 / 10 |
| Ease of use | 8 / 10 |
| Build quality | 8 / 10 |
| Maintenance | 8 / 10 |
| Value | 7 / 10 |
Where to buy: Amazon · 1st In Coffee
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