Gaggia Brera Super-Automatic Espresso Machine, Small, Black, 40 fl oz

I ordered the Brera on a Thursday afternoon and had it on my front door step Monday morning. It shipped for free from Whole Latter Love, and it arrived secure and in perfect condition. They shipped it the same day I ordered it! Not only that they included many helpful starter pamphlets and additional instructional materials to make initial set up and use of the machine a breeze. I have subsequently created an account with them and receive points I can use for additional items ordered. Their site is a great resource for everything Coffee and Espresso related with many great instructional videos and tips to make using any of the models they sell easy to use and maintain. Cannot say enough good things about their service or their website.As for the Brera, I purchased it to upgrade from a Gaggia Evolution (which is still in perfect working condition) as I have wanted a super automatic Espresso machine for quite a while now. I have had the Evolution for 6 years now, and it was a great machine to learn on - albeit it can be a quirky machine that requires some real finesse to obtain the perfect shot. But with all of that came a great appreciation for everything that goes into making the perfect shot and what to do and not to do to obtain them.While I wanted a Super Automatic machine, I did not want to spend thousands on one, as it is usually just me using the machine, I did not need huge capacity and I also did not want to use a lot of counter real estate to accommodate one either. After much research and reading through hundreds of reviews I landed on the Brera and I could not be happier. One thing that all that reading and research provided was short cutting some of the growing pains a new machine can present (what are the best beans to use, grind settings, shot settings etc.) to get great and consistent pulls each and every time. While I have had to fiddle a little with the grind and duration of the pull etc., it was a pretty simple process and the shots are deep, rich, full bodied and crema for days!I will agree that if you are more than a two person house hold using this machine, you will need to check the water and bean reservoirs frequently if you are pulling many, many shots throughout a day. The bean reservoir on the top of the machine has a opaque/clear lid, so it is easy enough to glance and see that there are enough beans in the hopper, and the water reservoir can easily be slide out and checked and topped off if necessary. As I usually empty the drip tray and dregs drawer after each use and top off the water reservoir, maintenance is quick and easy and the machine is always at the ready for its next use.The display is easy to understand at a glance and programming and use are easy and efficient. You can program the length of each pull to customize it to the grind and bean and size of the shot you want very easily and then operation is as quick as pressing a button to get a consistent shot each and every time. I am using Lavazza Super Crema beans and the shots are deep, rich and bold, with tons of great silky crema. Heavily roasted and oily beans are not recommended as they may result in clogging of the machine, and the Lavazza Super Crema beans are a great medium espresso roast that produce great shots every time.As many other of the Super Automatic machines do, this one also makes Lungos and hot water for tea and other uses. It warms up incredibly fast, within a couple of minutes, and is ready to go. The steaming wand is ready to go in an instant and produces a strong steady stream of steam to froth as much milk as you need to make your lattes and capps. My Evolution had a Pannarello steam wand, and while some purists may prefer just a regular steam nozzle, I find the Pannarello to make heating and frothing an easy and simple task producing plenty of great micro foam that rivals any I have had from any barista anywhere.If you are looking for a solid Super Automatic machine that won't break the bank, is easy to use and maintain, and produces wonderful and consistent shots every time, this machine is for you. For households with one or two coffee fanatics, this machine is a work horse that does not require a lot of kitchen counter real estate - and its ease of use and maintenance make it a great choice as well.

TL;DR: avoid this piece of junk unless you have lots of time and money to spare, and a second machine or French press to actually make coffee with once you lose patience. 8 months in and we're lucky if 25% of our attempts are successful; the rest is just wasted beans. Whole Lotta Latte are poor at support and we're considering just junking it now instead of trying to get their help.We've owned this for eight months and it seems like a good time to update my review. The TLD;DR is we would not purchase it again in hindsight. We bought it to replace a $90 manual machine (DeLonghi) and a burr grinder we got from Costco. Those served us well for years but we we thought we'd splurge a bit at Xmas and get one of these.This is more work than the old setup, and we waste huge amounts of beans by this machine failing and just tossing the grind without actually producing any espresso. Furthermore, the beans I really like really clog this up so I'm now drinking a brew I like less than before. Here are the issues we have had so far:- we have the water filter, which is expensive, and takes up a lot of space in the water tank which is small to begin. So we do about 3 refills a day. The bean compartment is pretty small too, and needs frequent refills.- the descaling light came on after only about 3 weeks. I have descaled it (quite a process) and followed the instructions to clear the light but it seems like it is on permanently (update - finally fixed this but required time with tech support)- the magnet that keeps the side door closed came detached and the door stands ajar. Minor annoyance but it looks crappy.- I have to clean the brew unit every night, or we will just have a mess in the mornings. This has been the case from the start. This despite changing to a less oily bean (that helped a bit but not enough). If we don't do this then the morning becomes a lot of work.- oftentimes cleaning the brew unit is not enough. It needs to be left out to dry, relubricated, sometimes multiple times, before it can be coaxed to actually work. All this time you are grinding and wasting beans with all the failed attempts.- the grounds container needs to be emptied frequently. If we're lucky we can get three double shots before emptying; often it is only two. The pods pile up high on top of each other rather than filling the container.- even though I keep a cup under the dispenser, the bottom tray collects a lot of water and needs frequent emptying. There's obviously quite a bit of water leaking out under the brew unit.We've gotten into the habit now of cleaning the machine every night, including rinsing the brew unit, filling up the water, and the bean container. If we do that we can usually get through the morning with just one water refill and two empties of the grounds container. That's about five double espressos between us in my family in the mornings. But those are the good days, which are increasingly infrequent. More often it just fails, we waste a bunch of coffee beans, and we fall back to our French press.Caveat: we don't use the milk steamer at all so I can't comment on that.Update: I ended up buying a second one to see if the first was a lemon. I am 3 days in and about half the time it is failing with “no beans”. I am using very non-oily beans. Garbage.