I recently purchased the new Z6 after seeing one at William''s Sonoma around Christmas. I resisted the temptation to purchase until a friend of mine called and told me he found one under the Christmas tree! We both purchased the Capresso 1500 about 3 years ago and thought those were the "Cat''s Meow". Now fast forward to 2007 and the Z6 is here as the super automatic on steroids.After unpacking I sat down and watched the included DVD twice. Once with my wife and once alone as I set up the machine. After you get through the initial setup and programming the machine is very easy to operate and maintain. Making a coffee drink is as simple as pushing one of 8 drink buttons on the front panel. I like the idea of the thermal milk storage tank but it''s recommended that you don''t store milk in it after use. I find this a little inconvenient to have to pour the milk into another container. With my previous C1500 I just put the plastic milk jug in the refrigerator and used it the next day.
I bought this unit to replace my C1500 for two major reasons. The first was my C1500 struggled to make a really hot coffee drink. I found myself drinking the beverage too quickly to avoid it getting cold or putting it into the microwave to heat it back up. The Z6 makes a hotter beverage that is much improved but still could be a few degrees hotter in my opinion. The second reason I purchased the Z6 was to get a bigger cup under the spouts. The C1500 was limited in what size cup I could place under the spouts and the Z6 allows me to put virtually any reasonable sized cup under the spout.
The Z6 is a beautiful piece to look at sitting on your counter and will be the envy of many a guest. However it has a chrome finish which appears durable but I would caution you to take extra precautions not to scratch the finish as it would be permanent. I place a paper towel on the lower tray when using ceramic type mugs to avoid scratching.
Update on 05/26/2008
I would like to say that the Z6 has been performing flawlessly for the past year and a half. As long as you perform the routine maintenance the Z6 will provide many years of trouble-free performance. I''ve also been putting the thermal milk container in the refrigerator with milk in it with no issues.
Pros
1) Looks Great. It is the Rolls Royce of coffee machines.
2) The Espresso/Coffee is good. (Not Excellent, and don''t tell me about using diffrent beans I have, its not like I''m using folgers.
2) The Steamed/frothed milk attachment produces excellent results.
3) One touch button to make cappuccino/Lattes. (Nice to impress friends)
4) Has a timer for when to turn on and off so you don''t need to wait around for the initial warmup time when you first start the machine.
Cons
1)The metal plate where the cup sits scratches very easily.
2)You can only fit a normal size coffee mug (8 oz)under the nozzle. You cannot deviate from this size at all. No travel mugs or slightly tall mugs. Same height restrictions for the cappuchino/Latte attachment.
3) The hotwater dispenser trickles out hot water. It takes almost 1 and half minutes to fill 8 oz of hot water. Its quicker to ''Nuke'' the same amount of water in the microwave for tea.
4) You need to clean the machine with special tablets and they cost about $20 for 6. You will more than likely go thru 1 tablet every 2 months or at least 6 in a year and more if heavily used. Also theres no way around this since the machines displays ''Clean'' and beeps every time you turn it on until you go thru the cleaning process.
5) Also the water filter. This costs about $20 and needs to be changed about every 3 months depending on the use. If you don''t use the filter then you will have to descale the machine every 6 months or so but that also depends on the the water hardness in your area.
6) The electric cord is a fairly decent length which is good thing but its not retractable which is a pain. The C3000 had a retractable cord, so you would only pull out the amount of cord needed and the rest would be unseen. With the Z6 I have my plug right behind the machine on my countertop and have about of 2 feet of cord I need to hide.
7) The silver front is also just plastic and it is not made of any type of metal.
8) The rinse feature (which was a button on the front panel of the C3000) is buried deep in the menu with the Z9. So you have to press the Dial, then turn the dial to go to maintenance then turn it again until you find rinse then you have to press the button once to rinse the coffee spout then again for the espresso attachment (even if you didn''t use it). This is a major pain to do and time consuming especially in the morning. So you tend not to rinse the machince as much as you should. This affects the taste of the coffee because little bits of the old grounds get mixed in with the new ones. On my old capresso I would press the rinse button before I made my coffee and then again after I made it so it would stay cleaner longer and not affect the taste of my coffee.
So, based on these facts i would have to say that for the price I would expect more. It is a nice machine but you could purchase the Jura E8 for the 1/3 the price and it would do everything the Z6 does (Except the one touch cappuccino/Latte) which is overrated anyways. Also there are more fully automatic machines entering the market with almost the same features but lower the price. When I did my research for this machine almost everybody said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread but after paying $3600 who would admit it wasn''t all that?
UPDATE:2012-01-12
So had this machine for a few years now and so far I''m not impressed. The front plastic has warped off near the bottom tray since it comes in contact with water when making coffee/rinsing. The tray that you pull out to clean the grinds an empty the water does not fit that well and the now and then I get the ''Tray missing'' error. When I was cleaning the machine I got a ''error 8'' message and was like ok so what do you want me to do? So I turned off the machine because nothing else worked and had to restart the cleaning process. Pardon my French but that really sucks because the cleaning tablets are not cheap and happened 2 out of 5 cleanings I did. Also the price on the water filter cartridges have gone up by at least 10 dollars. I cannot find anything at the price I bought these at before. I really wanted to like this machine but man for a premium price I don''t think anybody has to deal with these issues.
Buy Jura-Capresso 13299 Impressa Z6 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center Now
I am giving a review of the Z5....not the Z6. I believe the insides are very similar if not identical and that most of the changes were cosmetic. I have had the Z5 for about a year and have been very pleased.Pros:
Excellent coffee & cappuccino. You can tweak the machine twenty different ways. I think it is not as good as the best coffee joints but it is pretty close. The convenience of waking up and hitting a button can not be overstated. You will hooked forever after a week. It has worked flawlessly since I bought it. If two people in a household go to Starbucks every day, just buy this and it will pay for itself in no time.
Cons:
The biggest con is the coffee temperature. You will see this pop up again and again in reviews. Buy yourself a very well insulated coffee cup and preheat the cup by adding hot water from the machine and letting in sit for two minutes. The cup will then be hot and won''t suck out the energy from the added coffee.
All in all..when my Z5 dies I will most likely replace it with a Z6.
Read Best Reviews of Jura-Capresso 13299 Impressa Z6 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center Here
This is the ultimate in automated coffee centers for home or office. If you are a regular at coffee shops, paying $4 and up for frothy coffee and milk drinks you can make your own and amortize this machine''s initial cost in less than a year. Jura of Switzerland is the leader in this type of automatic coffee centers and it is no wonder they sell so well all over Europe.Want Jura-Capresso 13299 Impressa Z6 Automatic Coffee and Espresso Center Discount?
i have had so many issues making the purchase of the Jura Z6 was big mistake.Jura customer service is basically non-existant
Save 25% Off
0 comments:
Post a Comment