Review on Gaggia 1003380 Accademia Espresso Machine, ☕️ Silver: A Perfect Blend of Style and Functionality by James White

Let me start by saying that I have had a Saeco Sirius Incanto Superautomat for 10 years, it works perfectly and I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from an espresso machine. I was fooled by the overall 4 star reviews on this device and made a huge mistake of buying it just to confirm that everything that was said in the previous 1 star reviews is true and still is There are more issues I found that weren't mentioned. Before moving on to the main issue with the drip tray, let me summarize the minor issues: 1) Coffee Dispensing Unit: It has a very cheap and flimsy plastic coffee spout that often moves as you move it up and down and put the coffee in it finally expired. All around a "black box" that some coffee actually enters through 2 holes at the bottom of this box. 2) I have consistently seen excessive amounts of coffee grounds all over the brew unit - note the machine was brand new and has the same (or very very similar) brew group as my good old Saeco, and never over 10 which I don't have I've seen so much coffee grounds all over the block in my old car for years. All with the same Lavazza beans I've been using for over 10 years. 3) As mentioned in other negative reviews, the water tank and grain bin are undersized for such a large heavy machine and need constant refilling. 4) As mentioned in other negative reviews - drinks are warm even at max temperature. 5) Now that I have a Delonghi coffee maker with a LatteCrema system, the milk carafe opened my eyes to how bad the Gaggia milk carafe was - every time you tried to turn the milk spout you felt like you would break it in a moment; It's a lot harder to collect and clean compared to Delonghi Lattecrema and oh yeah once the milk level starts to drop it starts squirting the milk making a nice mess that needs cleaning which is my new carafe never does! And now, if you can live with the above 5, keeping the price of this machine in mind, here's the main issue: DRIP TRAY: Compared to other machines that only have a drip tray under the coffee spout, this machine has an extra one a very small drip tray (10 ounces) that sits in the same drawer as the coffee grounds container. This is how this drip tray fills up after 2 double espressos! Or - if you switch off the machine rinsing (which is of course not recommended) you can prepare up to 3-4 drinks without the message "Empty drip tray and coffee grounds container". One good thing I can say about this machine is that it has a nice big color display, but you start to hate it when you wake up every morning and see the "Empty drip tray and grounds container" message written in red on the big display see screen. , and that's after you've only made 2 double espressos since you last saw this message! A day later the message "Fill the water tank" appears - and the memory that this was not the case with your old Saeco is still fresh! So, with all the above issues, I sincerely believed my machine was broken and spent a lot of time talking to Importika Gaggia USA support on the phone and exchanging lengthy emails with them (since their support is only Monday through November). Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., which is very inconvenient for many working people). At first they seemed to help. I spent a lot of time following their recommendations to find a "leak" in the machine, one of them wanted to buy red food coloring and fill the tank with colored water on a white paper towel overnight. After none of the fixes they suggested worked, I emailed them saying the machine was under warranty and asking for a replacement. Again, sincerely and naively, I believed that the car had flaws. After a few days of no reply, I finally called them at lunchtime and repeated my request to trade the car in. They acted like they had trouble finding me in the system and promised to call me back asap. At the end of the day, I received a rather rude (bordering on arrogance in my opinion) email from them stating that my machine should be considered normally working. A flaw in the design of this machine, it is a VERY BAD, VERY BAD DESIGN THAT REQUIRES A COMPLETE REFORM! So I called Revain straight away and thanks to their great customer service I was able to get this horrible Gaggia Accademia back the very next day. Over the next few days I bought a DeLonghi America ECAM28465M Prima Donna fully automatic espresso machine with a stainless steel lattecrema system (compact, half the weight of Gaggia Accademia) from a Revain Flowmar dealer for almost the same price I paid for Gaggia Accademia . So far I'm really enjoying my new DeLonghi and it hasn't revealed any of the above Gaggia Accademia issues. So far it has been better in every way! I took the time to write this long and detailed review to warn any potential customer thinking of buying this poor and expensive product.