Makes good, hot coffee quickly

Frother/steamer dilutes milk, carafe cools too quickly, takes up a lot of counter space

I bought the AEG Cafe Ole', which is the same machine as the Capresso CoffeeTEC.  While I found that it does make good coffee, the reason I bought it was because it had a milk frother, and I didn't want to have both an espresso machine and a drip coffee maker taking up space in my miniscule German kitchen.  The milk frother does froth the milk, and if all you want is froth, that is fine.  However, I found that there is a lot of hot water mixed in with the steam, and that it dilutes the milk too much.   I  used 3.5% milk, which came out with less taste than skim.  At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but after reading and re-reading the instructions, and then going to the Capresso web site, I have come to the conclusion that I am not.  Having to take apart and clean all the small parts every day can be a pain and time consuming, as well.
The carafe doesn't have a vacuum lid, so the heat escapes fairly quickly.  If you and yours will drink the pot within a half hour of making the coffee, it shouldn't be much of a problem.  Preheating with hot water or by running the machine without coffee, dumping the water and then brewing does keep it warm a bit longer.  However, my Starbucks drip with thermal carafe that I had back in the States kept the coffee hot up to an hour, longer if I preheated.  It had a vacuum lid, which worked pretty well.

I put this machine away at the beginning of the summer and went to a French Press and sometimes a pour over filter, both of which I prefer over the machine for coffee quality.  I pulled it out for the winter, to give it another try.  I still prefer the French Press or pour over filter.  I will probably get rid of this machine, and purchase a Saeco full-automatic espresso machine to replace it.

MediaMarkt is Germany's Best Buy.   I like shopping there because they have good prices, knowledgeable salespeople, and don't put pressure on you to buy.