Good looking Solid Machine. 3L water tank means you don't have to keep refilling. Easy to use, Easy to clean. Great for making a dinner party load of coffees.
Negative Product Points
Steamer on Left meant we had to rearrange the kitchen to fit it in! Pump can be a bit noisy. No auto cappuccino attachment (Kids loved using this on the Krups) Requires some care to Tamp the grind into the filter to prevent water forcing a channel and making watery coffee - but that is probably more to do with my incompetence than the machine.
Unit had to be returned after 2 weeks as it started to leak and then the steamer stopped working - replacement has been fine now for 3 months.
Detailed Commentary
After using a Breville ESP4 on holiday (which incidentally I made fantastic coffee with) we decided to invest in a machine (it's going too pay for itself in under 6 months) So we went into Harvey Norman without any real investigation and I asked for one that could steam and make coffee simultaneously, the EM6900 was the only one that could and so I decided there and then we had to have it - however my wife thought it a little big for our kitchen and so after much discussion (and my desire for instant buying gratification) we bought a Krups XP4050 - to cut a long story short, the Krups Krapped after a week, so we took it back and bought this one - which we should have done in the beginning.....
The ergonomics are just great, warms up really quickly and is a complete breeze to use. I love the steamer wand and just like using a machine that is so well built. It has great Tactile performance.
Can it produce great coffee? - no doubt about it, but it has taken some time to get a flat white out of this machine that matches what I produced with the ESP4 (which by the way is only about $80 NZ whereas this was $600 NZ) The Sunbeam just seems to need so much more care than the Breville does in terms of the grind, the tamping of the coffee and the steaming - it's all quite bizzare really.
For the price, I don't think anything else matches it on the market - I can't help thinking $30 for a second hand Breville ESP4 would be better value. I think i might buy one just to do the comparrison.
Buying Experience
Harvey Norman were really good about taking back the Krups and then replacing the Sunbeam I don't think they employ coffee experts in their sales department though.
Three Month Followup
Still think it is great even though we had to return the first one after 2 weeks due to the leak. We went on holiday recently and took the Breville with us as it is small - couldn't wait to get back to using this one again - it's just a pleasure to operate.
