Bitter experience
Written: Oct 12 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Gaggia name to impress your friends
Cons: Bitter coffee, Poor build quality, Control panel problems (?)
The Bottom Line: Don't buy.
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| hampshire-boy's Full Review: Gaggia Syncrony Compact Espresso Machine |
I bought this machine because of the brand and its compactness.
It feels rather plasticky and things don't always fit well. Eg the metal drip tray doesn't fit well inside the plastic molding. The "kick" from expelling the grounds sometimes causes the door to pop open from time to time (the catch is poorly aligned).
After a couple of weeks, the panel reported an error implying it was out of water when it wasn't. Nothing would work. On phoning the supplier they said quite a few had control panel problems and the only solution was to return it. I'd taken the unit overseas and this wasn't easy. I tried everything - "rebooting" it, emptying and refilling it, shaking it/holding it upside down, removing and cleaning the key parts. No success. Then after a week or so, the error just cleared by itself and hasn't returned since.
It is noisy and the tamping is an unpleasant "thwacking" sound. As its in a noisy environment, this isn't a problem - but it might annoy some and would certainly be enough to wake up others sleeping if used in a home environment.
Its been lightly used in a small office environment for 8 months now. Espresso is always bitter. I feel the water is not hot enough and there is no setting you can change to adjust this. There is a little crema but not much. I've experimented with different coffees, ground setting and coffee dose but can't get away from this problem. Given I'm using it outside of Europe where it was purchased, I've checked the voltage just in case, and no problems there. I've given up on it - my colleagues are less discerning and happily add milk and sugar to their espresso...
You can use pre-ground coffee but I wouldn't recommend this. Some of the coffee seems to "miss" and is deposited internally. It will still be bitter.
Gaggia is owned by Saeco and its obvious that some of the parts of the same. I've had nice espresso from other Saeco models (eg Vienna deluxe) so wrongly thought this would be as good.
In conclusion: Don't buy this unit unless you can try in the shop before you can buy. Even then, don't buy for the Gaggia name - the build quality is poor.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
hampshire-boy
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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