PHILIPS 2300 Series Automatic Espresso Machine with LatteGo

The machine looks very nice, professional and everything. I was excited to get it. Then I made coffee with it and it was just bad. I thought, I need to practice more, so I tried different coffee beans, different settings, but still… The regular coffee that comes out of this thing is what my French mother would have called “dirty socks juice”. Really, just brown water, even at the highest strength setting and with a very dark roast bean. The espressos were barely okay, without much crema. The cappuccino was good, but basically any mediocre coffee will taste good with great frothed milk (that part worked well!) and sugar. I won’t even discuss the various weird behaviors of the machine pouring water at the end or at the beginning of a cycle, and warning you about all sorts of issues, except when the beans run out and you get water. Finally, I started reading about all sorts of technical issues people have after a few months and the poor support from Philipps.

Definitely not worth the $649 price it commands, and not even the $450 with typical discounts. I returned it after 2 weeks, and really trying to like it. My $25 French press makes way better coffee, so does my nespresso Vertuo when I am in a hurry. I decided to buy a manual espresso machine and a good burr grinder for less than half the price, we’ll see if I’m happier with that choice.

Everybody liked this product in my house also all my friends . Great , Great , Great product . I also recommended to a friend and he purchased it .

Great option for those coffee lovers at home. The package arrived in optimal conditions (I had my doubts ordering something like this) but works perfectly!
Quality / price just perfect.

Your initial “buy in” for the machine is high, but if you enjoy coffee and have 2-3 cups a day, the investment is well worth it. You can use almost any type of bean…try avoid super oily beans if you can. Your daily cost per cup will drop significantly and the quality is unbeatable. Overtime, the machine pays for itself.

You can save money from not buying $tarbucks, Terrible Hortons or other coffee’s that cost over $2.50 per med or large cup. There’s lots of math that supports the savings after the machine is paid for. I’ll leave that for you to figure out…I did mine and the savings is excellent.

The machine is a decent size so ensure you have some space for it.
It’s easy to clean and maintain which is key to longevity.
Noise wise, the grinder is not nearly as loud as older machines. The pump, brew group and tamper are about as noisy as a Tassimo or other pump style machine.

My only complaint is that the drip tray where your cup sits is made of plastic and feels a little flimsy. I think that could’ve been beefed up or even made of metal of some sort.

1st Unit, received had multiple missing parts Water Filter and Hardness Test Strip, per instructions I either needed to order a filter to properly function or return it for another unit. I didn’t noticed the missing water filter after I completed the first step, filling the container with water (see the replacement info below), which did not leak and went through the cycle.
I contacted Amazon chat and they offered to send a replacement one. I confirmed through chat this would be a new unit, because of the missing parts.

2nd Unit, received and was surprised it was another Amazon Warehouse “second life unit” this one was missing the original box, however it did have all the accessories. I decided it was a suitable replacement. I followed the instructions like the first one and filled the tank with water. This time water started to leak out the back of the unit, I double and triple check to make sure the water container housing was correctly seeded and was stilling leaking from the lower bottom. Seems like this unit with all the plastic components, could easily malfunction or have issues. Amazon support only offered a return and I’m going to look for a different brand. Maybe if this was a new unit I would have a different experience.

Setup was easy enough although the instructions are very limited and not detailed enough. It is easy to use but again instructions were not clear on the different functions or sizes of drinks. Had to search online for information that wasn’t available in the manual or philips webpage. Note it does take some time to self adjust to get a good espresso. I went though a 1lb bags of beans before I started to get a decent drink that was not watery. My current grind adjustment is set at 1 for a fine grind. This may impact a coffee drink be aware you may need to adjust the grind and there is some information that unit takes 100 runs to self adjust. Other down side is the amount of water it uses, it completes a rinse cycle usually on startup and most times on shut down. You will constantly be emptying the base tray and filling the water reservoir. Overall it is easy to use and will make good espresso and cappuccinos but there are some down sides.