Excellent quality and well engineered. We have had a built in version for 6 years and love it. So when we needed a coffee maker for our beach house, we looked at the countertop version because we didn't have space in the cabinets for the built in version.

Makes great coffee and there are lots of tweaks you can make like water temp, water temp and quantity. We use Prodomo exclusively so it was easy to duplicate taste we were used to.

It's a fairly large and heavy machine. My only gripes are the relatively small water capacity - about 4 cups. And the "empty waste/drip tray" signals are daily based not actual capacity based like the built in unit.

Overall, I'd buy it again. It makes great coffee/espresso but requires attention to keep everything going. I'm hoping it's as durable as the built in because it is a complicated piece of equipment.

I love the convenience of having an Americano with a beautiful creamy top in the comfort of my own home! I stayed in a home with a built in Meile espresso machine. I thought having an espresso machine was an "over the top" kind of convenience until I got hooked on the amazing coffee that it produced. No comparison to my pour over maker! (Though for a great pot of coffee I love my Moccamaster.)

Before purchasing this counter top model I read many reviews to make sure that I wasn't just pushing the easy button by purchasing the same brand I was used to. The reviews confirmed that this machine is the top choice! I prefer to add cream to my coffee to cool it down so I didn't purchase the model with the milk canister. I believe I can add that later because this machine does have the tube for connecting it to a milk container.

The machine rinses itself upon turning on and off so it requires daily rinsing of the drip tray and tossing out the coffee pucks. It doesn't take me any longer to do this than it did to clean my coffee filter and rinse my coffee pot. It is certainly a nice piece of machinery so expect to occasionally maintain it according to instructions (descale when told to to, etc.). The instructions are clear and easy to follow.

Awesome espresso machine.

My only complain is that the "new machine plastic flavor" took FOREVER to go away. It was bad, too. The first 30 or so cups of coffee or anything with milk tasted extremely plasticky and had a strong odor of chemicals. Not ideal.

To fix this, I just ran a bunch of cheap coffee and milk through the system until it came out normal tasting (took probably three hours) and then did all of the cleaning cycles. The coffee tastes wonderful now.

Update 5/13/2020: Machine is still going strong. No issues to speak of. I had a problem with the breaker flipping in my new house occasionally, and I will say I had the displeasure of dealing with Miele service. They were slow to respond, and in the end, offered basically no help. The problem ended up being a faulty AFCI breaker, and NOT the Miele machine. Still very pleased with this purchase.

The Miele coffee machines add professional quality espresso drinks to my morning. I've tried many others ( less to more expensive... Nespresso to Jura) but they just don't get the flavor intensity or crema right.

Likes:
1) ABSOLUTLEY Great-tasting coffee and coffee drinks.

2) BY FAR the best, most consistently professional frothed milk for cappuccinos and lattes.

3) Brew strength, temperature, and volume are adjustable by type of drink.

4) Rinsing process keeps the machine clean and sanitary. The milk rinsing process keeps the milk fluid path clean ( unlike some others which don't really rinse out the milk pick-up tubing)

Could be improved:

1) Ease of access, more direct access to menu options... Would be nice to have a few more direct access buttons ( like to Froth milk).

2) The water tank could be twice as large! I have to refill if I make coffee drinks for my family of four on Saturday AM...

2) Drain tray and spent coffee grounds volume could be a little larger ( but the plus side is the machine rinsing works). MAKE SURE you place the machine near a sink to empty the waste liquid - otherwise, you will undoubtedly deal with minor spills.

Dislikes:

1)The machine is messy... Lots of overspray when the machine rinses itself ( which is frequent).

2) The machine can be finicky if you don't stay on the CLEANING process. Spoiler alert: DO NOT skip or blow past the CLEANING or DESCALING processes. Miele (as well as other coffee machine companies) will all say the issues stem from oily coffee beans and not to use Starbucks or Peets ( funny that they don't design machines to work with the most widely available quality beans in the U.S. ( Note: Cleaning ( like de-scaling and de-greasing) is different from RINSING).

3) Miele CLEANING and DESCALING products are really too expensive. ( Attention shoppers... there are other products which work just as well).

4) It's super easy to accidentally overfill the ground coffee by-pass... USE THEIR MEASURING SPOON!

5) Internal machine cleaning ( when you take the brew unit out) requires precision and attention to detail - not for someone who doesn't like to do proper maintenance. Spoiler alert - pay attention and carefully clean the 'guts' and you'll be rewarded with a trouble-free machine.

I use this machine everyday. I make anything from large coffee pots to just regular size coffees. This machine is truly the best ever. The best flavored coffee I've ever had. I'm a big coffee guy and I like my coffee strong. I thought this machine would be a headache with all moving parts and trying to clean it but I was wrong. All u need to do is replenish the water container and empty out the waste tray. The machine does all the work. This is definitely my favorite and best buy of 2021. I highly recommend this.