Review on ☕ Black Gaggia Brera Super Automatic Espresso Machine with Pannarello Wand for Latte and Cappuccino Drinks. Enjoy Espresso using Pre-Ground or Whole Bean Coffee. by Ricky Cruise

TL; DR: Unless you have plenty of time and money and a second machine or french press to actually brew coffee for when you get impatient, avoid this junk. 8 months and we are lucky if 25% of our attempts are successful; the rest is just wasted beans. Whole Lotta Latte has bad support and we're considering just throwing it away for now instead of trying to get their help. We've owned it for eight months now and it looks like it's time to update my review. TLD;DR means retrospectively we wouldn't buy it again. We bought it to replace a $90 machine (DeLonghi) and millstones we got from Costco. They've served us well for years, but we thought we'd spend some money over Christmas and buy one of these. It's more work than the old setup and we're wasting a huge amount of beans because this machine breaks and just throws the grind without actually producing an espresso. Also, the beans, which I really like, really clog it up, so I'm now having a drink that I like less than before. Here are the problems we have had so far: - We have a water filter which is expensive and takes up a lot of space in the initially small water tank. So we do about 3 refills a day. The bean compartment is also quite small and has to be refilled more often. The descaling indicator came on after about 3 weeks. I've descaled it (quite a tedious process) and followed the instructions to turn off the light but it seems to be on all the time (update - finally fixed it but it took some time with tech support) - the magnet holding the Side door keeps closed has come loose and the door is ajar. A little annoying, but looks bad. - I have to clean the brewing unit every night, otherwise we're a mess in the morning. It was like that from the start. This is despite switching to lower-fat beans (it helped a little, but not enough). If we don't do that, there is a lot of work in the morning. Cleaning the brewing unit is often not enough. It needs to dry and be re-oiled, sometimes several times, before it can be made to work. All the time you grind and waste grains with all the failed attempts. The grounds container must be emptied frequently. If we're lucky we can get three double shots before we're empty; often there are only two. The capsules are stacked on top of each other instead of filling the container. Even though I put the cup under the dispenser, the bottom bowl collects a lot of water and needs to be emptied frequently. Apparently quite a lot of water flows out from under the brewing unit. We have now made it a habit to clean the machine every evening, including rinsing the brewing unit and refilling the water and bean container. When we do that, we can usually get through the morning with just one addition of water and two emptyings of the grounds container. That's about five double espressos for two in my family in the morning. But the good days are becoming rarer. Most of the time it just fails, we lose a few coffee beans and go back to our French press. Caveat: We don't use a milk steamer at all, so I can't comment on that. Update: I ended up buying a second one to see if the first one was a lemon. I have 3 days and it fails with "no beans" about half the time. I use very lean beans. Garbage.