Jura-Capresso 13204 Impressa E9 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center

I''ve had this coffee maker for almost one month now and I absolutely love it. My parents have owned the same machine for years and it''s still going strong. The only difference that I could decipher between the E8 and the E9 is that the E9 is painted silver instead of black. Amazon was selling them for the same price, and silver fit better with the rest of my kitchen accessories, so I opted for this model.

The question of whether or not to buy such an expensive machine came down to a number of factors for me: 1) quality of coffee, 2) ease of use, 3) durability & build quality.

As far as quality of coffee goes, I find what this machine produces to be wonderful. I use dark roast Starbucks beans and I''ve had no issues. I read that the Starbucks beans can be a little too oily and cause jams; I''ve had no such issues, at least so far. The manual recommends "airing out" the beans for a few hours before putting them in the machine, so I do this.

Ease of use is wonderful. It even comes with a DVD just in case you find reading too laborious. I opted for the DVD and it taught me everything I needed to know to get this thing up and running, and properly maintained.

Build quality & durability remain to be seen, though I know 3 people who have owned these machines without major issues. The most regular complaint of the Jura-Capresso line, at least in my experience reading reviews, is that the service people are very unfriendly. I wonder if this is a function of the ego of the average purchaser of a $1,000 coffee maker, or if the support people truly are a cantankerous bunch. I''ll probably find out one way or the other, but snippiness on the phone isn''t enough to deter me, if in fact that is the case. I love this machine too much. RECOMMENDED!

We we wondering if we had gone overboard spending about $1,000 on a coffee machine but after 200 cups we are sure we did the right thing. The machine has had a lot of use over the past few weeks with family and friends visiting. The comments have been uniformly outstanding.

The machine is idiot-proof and the result is great.

I figure I will pay for it in 5 years with reduced spending in Starbucks :)

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I have been using the Jura Capresso for the past 3 years. The coffee has decent crema, but I am not happy with it''s inability to make a very strong espresso. Setting the cup size is supposed to accomplish this, but the cup size is variable even when a single setting is maintained.

My bigest gripe is that 2 years ago the machine malfunctioned and again this year. There is a flat fee of $275 to fix it including mailing (find your own box) which I find extremely excessive for a delicate machine that seems to break down every 2 years. The customer service person did confirm that this happens to a number of customers, but it is not excessive in the company''s point of view. Also the turn around time to fix the machine is 3 weeks.

I will switch to another product the next time it breaks down.

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Just got this yesterday, so these are initial impressions. So far I''m very happy with this though. After just a few tries I''ve got pretty good espresso coming out, using a bean that probably isn''t ideal. The frother seems plenty powerful too it took about 150 seconds to steam 8-10 oz of milk, but it only takes about 45 seconds to steam 2-3 oz of milk right in the cappuccino cup, as they show in the instructional video.

I will agree with another poster that the frother doesn''t seem ideal for producing micro-foam, although I read at CoffeeGeek that it can be done with some practice. It satisfies me at this point though, and I''d be willing to work with it to see what more it can do.

The ease of use is the best part. I''ve had the traditional burr grinder/semi-automatic machine combination, and it was just too much work to be worth using as much as I''d like. This reduces an espresso to a few button pushes, and a cappuccino to not much more. Cleanup is great too a wipedown of the frother, run some water through the frother, and let the machine rinse itself out. Now the problem will be not drinking espresso all the time.

Durability is my only potential concern, but from what I''ve been able to find out on the web, this brand should be about as good as I can get in the home market. Hopefully it lives up to that.

I didn''t give 5 stars only because it''s a bit noisier than I''d like. The grinder is pretty quiet, but the pump is louder than other machines I''ve used. It''s hardly a problem, but if that sort of thing matters to you, it''s there. For me, I''m very happy with the machine so far and expect to be for quite a while.

UPDATE July 6, 2009:

We''ve used this pretty heavily since buying it, and I only like it better. The cleaning tablets seem to do a good job of removing any gunk that might build up inside. It still is working flawlessly. Keeping it clean is easy too the trays all slide out from the front and can be quickly washed and reinstalled. I''ve looked inside, and don''t see any coffee grounds, so I think it''s staying clean inside.

The ground coffee hopper is really handy too, when we have guests and they want a flavored coffee instead of the standard beans. We can entertain a pretty good crowd with this machine.

I''m very satisfied with this, and will get another Jura-Capresso when this one has brewed its last.

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I used to work in a kitchen store that had one of these coffee centers on demo, and that''s how I got hooked on the Jura machines. I bought one for home use, and while yes, they are expensive,if you drink as much coffee as I do the per-cup price goes down quickly. Even using bottled water (my local water is 15 grains of hardness) and organic beans, my per-cup cost for espresso drinks is now about 25 cents.

Re the comments on coffee strength: I''d have to say that I don''t think other reviewers read the instructions thoroughly. The built-in grinder has adjustable coarseness settings and each cup of coffee can be made in either mild, regular, or strong, which corresponds to how much coffee goes into the shot. I have had no problems with this, although when switching types of coffee (light to dark roast, say) one may have to play around with the settings a bit to get it perfect. That said, there''s a lot of settings to play with on this machine.

The frothing/hot water functions have given me no problems, either. The hot water comes out at about 170 F on my machine, so it''s not perfect for some types of loose tea but works well for instant oatmeal. :) I would definitely buy another, and my only regret is that I didn''t buy one sooner.