Coffee machines · 7 min readThree bean-to-cup machines worth the counter space
One for a household that drinks different coffees, one for cappuccinos with the least cleaning, and one for black coffee on a budget. What each costs to run, and who should buy none of them.
The best bean to cup coffee machine for most UK households is the De'Longhi Rivelia: 16 one-touch drinks, milk texture Coffee Blog's Kev rates the best of any machine he has used, and a second bean hopper for decaf, at £592 on Amazon at the time of writing (September 2026). For one-touch cappuccino with the easiest cleaning, buy the Philips Series 2300 LatteGo at £369; for espresso and black coffee on a budget, buy the De'Longhi Magnifica S at £290.82.
Which bean-to-cup coffee machine should you buy?
The De'Longhi Rivelia if you can spend about £600 and more than one coffee gets drunk in your house; the Philips Series 2300 LatteGo if you want cappuccino at a touch for under £400; the De'Longhi Magnifica S if you mostly drink espresso or black coffee. All three grind, dose, tamp and brew by themselves, and all three come with a 2 year manufacturer warranty.
The picks rest on reviewers who used the machines and on owners' long-term reports. Coffee Blog's Kev concluded the Rivelia was De'Longhi's best bean-to-cup machine yet. Coffeeness's Arne Preuss calls the Philips 2300 the best value in Philips's range and the Magnifica S 'not the best, but it's definitely the best in its class'. Owners on r/superautomatic report Magnificas still working after eight and ten years.
De'Longhi Rivelia: best overall
De'Longhi lists 16 one-touch drinks, two interchangeable 250g bean hoppers, a 3.5 inch touchscreen, 4 user profiles and a LatteCrema Hot milk carafe. Unlock one hopper and switch mode either grinds away the beans already in the grinder or uses them for a last drink, about 9g by Coffee Blog's count, so you can keep decaf in the second hopper. Kev at Coffee Blog says the carafe makes true microfoam and the espresso is among the best he has had from a bean-to-cup machine.
Two caveats. Milk drinks are warm rather than hot: Kev measured 61 to 62°C and Coffeeness about 70°C. And machines built before 15 June 2024 can throw a false alarm asking you to empty the grounds container, which De'Longhi's own technical bulletin traces to a weak part and fixes with a stronger container. Skip it if you drink only one coffee, or the machine has to sit under a low cabinet, because the screen is on top.
How the hopper swap works in practice, and what owners report after a year, is in the full review. De'Longhi Rivelia review
Philips Series 2300 LatteGo: easiest to keep clean
Philips lists a 15 bar pump, a ceramic grinder with 12 settings, a 275g bean container, a 1.8 litre tank and three one-touch coffees: espresso, coffee and cappuccino. The LatteGo jug is two plastic parts with no tubes that clip onto the front, and owners comparing brands on r/superautomatic agree it is the easiest automatic milk system to keep clean. Coffeeness measured the grinder at 63dB, against 71dB for the Magnifica S.
The shot is the compromise. Tom's Coffee Corner weighed the dose in this Philips brew group at about 6g to 8.8g of coffee for a 32g espresso, roughly half the strength of a café shot, and owners who have had both brands describe Philips coffee as lighter than De'Longhi's. Maximum strength and a finer grind help. Skip it if you drink espresso neat, or want a latte or flat white button.
How to get a stronger cup from it, and its upkeep schedule, are in the full review. Philips 2300 LatteGo review
De'Longhi Magnifica S: best under £300
De'Longhi lists a 15 bar pump, a 1.8 litre tank and a 250g bean container, with buttons for one or two espressos or long coffees and a dial for strength. Coffee Blog says it shares the brewing parts that matter with De'Longhi machines costing two or three times as much. Milk is done by hand on a steam wand: Coffee Kev got noticeably better milk with the panarello sleeve removed.
Expect a settling-in period. Owners on r/superautomatic say to throw away the first 10 coffees and allow 10 to 30 before the grinder beds in, set the temperature to maximum, and grind finer one click at a time. For a bigger drink, press the one-cup button twice: Coffee Kev found the two-cup buttons grind the same coffee and add more water. Skip it if you want milk drinks at a touch.
Settings owners use, and how to make its coffee hotter, are in the full review. De'Longhi Magnifica S review
How do the three compare on paper?
The Magnifica S is the smallest and the Rivelia the tallest; the Rivelia also has the smallest tank. De'Longhi lists the Magnifica S at 23cm wide and 34cm tall, and the Rivelia at 24.5cm wide and 38.5cm tall with a 1.4 litre tank, against 1.8 litres for the other two. Philips lists the 2300 at 24.6cm wide and 37.1cm tall.
| Spec | De'Longhi Rivelia | Philips Series 2300 LatteGo | De'Longhi Magnifica S |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon price | £592.00 | £369.00 | £290.82 |
| Pump (bar) | 19 | 15 | 15 |
| Milk | LatteCrema Hot carafe | LatteGo milk system | Manual steam wand |
| Water tank (litres) | 1.4 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Bean hopper (g) | 250 | 275 | 250 |
| Power (watts) | 1450 | 1500 | 1450 |
| Width (cm) | 24.5 | 24.6 | 23 |
| Depth (cm) | 43 | 43.3 | 43 |
| Height (cm) | 38.5 | 37.1 | 34 |
| Weight (kg) | 9.7 | 8 | 9.3 |
The Rivelia's 19 bar pump is a spec-sheet difference rather than a reason to buy: the reviewers here judge the cup, not the figure. What matters more is the dose. Coffee Blog measured about 5g to 10g across the Rivelia's five strengths, European Coffee Trip 8.5g to 13.5g on the Magnifica S, and Tom's Coffee Corner 6g to 8.8g on the Philips brew group.
What does a year of coffee cost through each?
Between about £750 and £1,050 in the first year at two drinks a day, machine included, against £2,555 to £2,920 for two coffee-shop flat whites a day. The coffee is priced at the median of the 812 whole bean coffees we track, 63p a cup on an 18g dose, so two a day for a year is 730 drinks at 63p, or £459.90.
| Setup | Upfront | Coffee for a year | First year | Paid back after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De'Longhi Magnifica S | £290.82 | £459.90 | £750.72 | 102 drinks |
| Philips Series 2300 LatteGo | £369.00 | £459.90 | £828.90 | 129 drinks |
| De'Longhi Rivelia | £592.00 | £459.90 | £1,051.90 | 207 drinks |
| Two flat whites a day at £3.50 to £4 | £0 | £2,555.00 to £2,920.00 | £2,555.00 to £2,920.00 | Never |
The payback column is the machine's price divided by what each home drink saves against a £3.50 flat white: £3.50 minus 63p is £2.87. So the Magnifica S is covered in about seven weeks at two a day, the Philips in about nine and the Rivelia in about 15. None of this counts milk, which the café price includes.
In practice the bean bill is lower, because a bean-to-cup machine uses less than 18g for a single drink. At the doses reviewers measured, the same median beans cost roughly 18p to 47p a shot. The catch is the same number: less coffee in the brew group is why a single shot from these machines tastes milder than a café's.
| Machine | Water filter | Filters a year | Descaling |
|---|---|---|---|
| De'Longhi Magnifica S | About 2 months | 6 (about £41) | When prompted; Coffeeness expects monthly |
| Philips Series 2300 LatteGo | 95 litres or 3 months | 4 (about £42) | Up to 5,000 cups with AquaClean, Philips says |
| De'Longhi Rivelia | About 2 months | 6 | When prompted, about 30 minutes |
Which coffee beans work best in a bean-to-cup machine?
Medium to medium-dark roasts that are not visibly oily. European Coffee Trip recommends beans roasted for espresso machines but not necessarily dark, and steers you away from light filter roasts, which it says come out overly acidic and lacking body. De'Longhi's manuals for both machines rule out caramelised or candied beans, which can stick in the grinder.
Oily dark roasts divide owners. In r/superautomatic threads, some say oily beans clog the grinder and chute over time and that the beans stick in the hopper; others use nothing else and clean the grinder every few years. If you love dark roasts, expect more cleaning rather than a broken machine.
How much upkeep does a bean-to-cup machine need?
A minute a day and ten minutes a month, more with automatic milk. Every machine here asks you to empty the grounds container and drip tray, and the brew unit comes out of the side for rinsing: monthly on the De'Longhis, weekly on the Philips, which also wants a coffee oil remover tablet monthly and grease every 2 months.
- De'Longhi Magnifica S: purge and wipe the steam wand after use; soak and rinse the brew unit monthly, with no detergent.
- Philips Series 2300 LatteGo: rinse the LatteGo jug after every use or put it in the dishwasher; rinse the brew group weekly.
- De'Longhi Rivelia: run the carafe's Clean cycle after milk drinks and wash the carafe in full at least every 2 days; rinse the brew unit monthly.
Who should skip all of these?
- Anyone who wants café-strength espresso. Kev at Coffee Blog says bean-to-cup espresso is closer to a small café crema, and suggests a Sage espresso machine if espresso quality is the priority.
- Anyone who likes milk drinks very hot. One-touch carafes run warm: Coffee Blog measured 61 to 62°C on the Rivelia. A steam wand, as on the Magnifica S, gets milk as hot as you like.
- Anyone who drinks one mug of black coffee a day. A cafetière or filter machine does that for far less money and no brew unit to clean.
- Anyone who will not descale. De'Longhi's manuals say that using the wrong descaler, or not descaling when asked, can cause faults its guarantee does not cover.
If espresso quality matters more than convenience, our comparison sets these machines against the Sage Bambino Plus and Barista Express. Bean-to-cup vs espresso machine
The verdict
Buy the De'Longhi Rivelia if you can spend about £600 and two of you drink different coffees, or one of you drinks decaf. Buy the Philips Series 2300 LatteGo if cappuccino at a touch with the least cleaning is the point. Buy the De'Longhi Magnifica S if you drink espresso and black coffee, want to spend under £300, and are happy to froth milk yourself.
- De'Longhi UK, Rivelia LatteCrema EXAM440.55.B product page19 bar, two interchangeable 250g bean hoppers, 1.4 litre tank, grounds container for 10, 140mm maximum cup height, 1,450W, 245 x 430 x 385mm, 9.7kg, 16 one-touch drinks, 3.5 inch touchscreen, 4 user profiles, Bean Adapt, 2 year warranty, £749.99 RRP.
- De'Longhi, Rivelia instructions for use (EXAM44X.5Y)Brewing unit cleaned at least once a month, water only; carafe Clean cycle after milk drinks, kept in the fridge for up to 2 days, then washed in full; Bean Adapt for espresso only, up to 6 bean profiles; descaling about 30 minutes into a 1.5 litre container; De'Longhi descaler only.
- De'Longhi Group, technical bulletin TBDL_24015_A (July 2024)All Rivelia machines made before 15 June 2024: a weak grounds container actuator can break and trigger the 'empty grounds container and drip tray' alarm; a strengthened container is the fix.
- Philips UK, Series 2300 EP2339/40 product pageEspresso, coffee and cappuccino plus hot water; LatteGo cleaned in as little as 10 seconds; 2 year warranty.
- Philips, Series 2300 EP2339/40 leaflet (UK, March 2026)15 bar, ceramic grinder with 12 settings, 275g bean container, 1.8 litre tank, 0.26 litre LatteGo, 1,500W, 246 x 433 x 371mm, 8kg, 2 year warranty, made in Romania; SilentBrew 40% quieter than earlier models; up to 5,000 cups before descaling with AquaClean, based on 8 filter changes.
- Philips, user manual for the Series 2300 and 3300Leave the grind alone for the first 100 to 150 cups; change it one notch at a time while grinding; rinse the brew group weekly, use a coffee oil remover tablet monthly and grease it every 2 months; rinse LatteGo after every use; AquaClean filter after 95 litres or 3 months.
- De'Longhi UK, Magnifica S ECAM22.110.B product page15 bar pump, 1.8 litre tank, grounds container for 14 portions, 1,450W, 230 x 430 x 340mm, 9.3kg, button and dial controls, pre-ground coffee function, 2 year warranty, £349.99 RRP.
- De'Longhi, instructions for the ECAM11 to ECAM22 series (Magnifica S)250g bean container, 40ml and 120ml default volumes, grind dial turned one click at a time while grinding, water filter good for about two months, infuser cleaned at least monthly without detergent, 100ml of descaler per descale, steam cut-out after 3 minutes, tips for hotter coffee.
- De'Longhi UK, care and repairAll De'Longhi coffee machines carry a minimum 2 year guarantee from the date of purchase.
- Coffee Blog, Delonghi Rivelia, Kev's ReviewA couple of weeks of use: true microfoam from the carafe at 61 to 62°C, espresso at 78 to 82°C, about 5g to 10g of coffee across the five strengths, a true double shot, about 9g left in the burrs when switching hoppers, Bean Adapt explained. Coffee Blog shares De'Longhi discount codes with readers.
- Coffeeness, DeLonghi Rivelia review (Arne Preuss)13 grind settings, grinder at 66dB, about six grams left when switching hoppers, a touchscreen on top that is awkward to reach, milk drinks at about 70°C, a flimsy but larger carafe, Bean Adapt for espresso only.
- Coffeeness, Philips 2300 LatteGo review (Arne Preuss)Tested the US EP2330/10: grinder at 63dB against 71dB for the Magnifica S, a loud pump, espresso at 60°C and milk drinks at 64°C, a few bubbles in the foam, grind 3 or 4 and strength 2 of 3, best price to performance in the Philips range.
- Coffeeness, DeLonghi Magnifica S review (Arne Preuss)'Not the best, but it's definitely the best in its class'; the two finest grind settings jam; long coffee watery; menus buried under button combinations; descale about once a month.
- Coffee Blog, DeLonghi Magnifica: S vs Start vs Evo7 grind steps with half steps, 13 in all; the same brewing components as dearer ECAM machines; usually De'Longhi's best value bean-to-cup.
- Coffee Kev (YouTube), Best Low Cost Bean To Cup Espresso Machine?First impressions of the Magnifica S: grind near the finest setting, about 8 to 9 seconds of grinding at maximum strength, the two-cup buttons doubling the water rather than the coffee, the panarello and the bare steam pipe.
- European Coffee Trip (YouTube), 5 Tips For Better Coffee With Automatic Espresso Machine (feat. DeLonghi Magnifica S)Measured 8.5g to 13.5g of coffee per single espresso; best result at grind 2, 9.5g, 36g out; pressing espresso twice beats the long coffee button; monthly infuser cleaning; descaling takes 45 to 60 minutes.
- Tom's Coffee Corner (YouTube), Philips Coffee too Weak? Try these tips! Philips 3200, 3300, 5500The 2300, 3300 and 5500 share one brew group; about 6g of coffee at the lowest strength and 8g to 8.8g at the highest, against a 32g minimum espresso; finest grind and maximum strength help; De'Longhi's Magnifica Evo doses up to 12g.
- Mark's Tech Vlogs (YouTube), Philips 2300 Series LatteGo Bean to Cup Machine Review: Is It Worth It?A UK owner after four weeks of daily use, replacing a five-year-old De'Longhi: quieter grinding but not brewing, no latte button, a false 'grounds full' light, filters about £14, oil remover tablets £8 for six, grease about £6, a replacement brew group £55 from Philips.
- Reddit r/superautomatic, 'Buyer beware: Delonghi Rivelia' (July 2026)Several owners with the false 'empty the tray' alarm, a link to De'Longhi's technical bulletin, replacement containers fixing it; other owners reporting hundreds of trouble-free coffees and two years of use.
- Reddit r/superautomatic, '$420 Phillips 3200 LatteGo or $599 DeLonghi Magnifica Evo LatteCrema' (December 2025)Owners who have had both brands: LatteGo the easiest milk system to clean, De'Longhi shots stronger and its brew group less work, Philips pucks lighter.
- Reddit r/superautomatic, 'Help I just bought a delonghi Magnifica S and every coffee I make tastes like hot garbage' (December 2025)Owners on a break-in of 10 to 30 coffees, temperature at maximum, grind changes one notch at a time, medium rather than oily roasts, and machines still working after five, six and ten years. The original poster reported the problem resolved six months later.
- RedditRecs, DeLonghi Magnifica S ECAM22.110.B: Reddit reviews in one placeCollected owner comments: a 2017 Magnifica working for eight years, an older Magnifica S for ten, a Dinamica making hotter drinks than the Magnifica did, and the steam wand working well with practice.
- Reddit r/superautomatic, 'Oily beans in Delonghi Rivelia' (September 2026)Owners split on oily dark roasts: clogged grinders and chutes against years of use with a clean every few years; one owner's oily beans stick in the hopper.
- We Try Coffee catalogue medians, September 202663p a cup across 812 whole bean coffees and 71p across 483 ground coffees, both priced on an 18g dose.
Questions people ask
What is the best bean to cup coffee machine in the UK?
The De'Longhi Rivelia, for most households: 16 one-touch drinks, two swappable bean hoppers and milk that Coffee Blog rates highly, at £592 on Amazon in September 2026. The Philips Series 2300 LatteGo is the easiest to clean for cappuccinos at £369, and the De'Longhi Magnifica S is the budget pick for espresso and black coffee at £290.82.
What is the best cheap bean to cup coffee machine?
The De'Longhi Magnifica S, at £290.82 on Amazon in September 2026. Coffeeness calls it the best in its class, Coffee Blog says it shares the important brewing parts with dearer De'Longhi machines, and owners report machines lasting eight to ten years. It has a manual steam wand rather than automatic milk, so it suits espresso and black coffee drinkers best.
Is a bean to cup coffee machine worth it?
Yes, if you would otherwise buy coffee out. At two drinks a day, a year of whole beans at our 63p median costs £459.90, against £2,555 for two £3.50 flat whites a day. A £369 Philips Series 2300 LatteGo pays for itself after about 129 drinks, around nine weeks, before counting milk.
Which bean to cup machine is easiest to clean?
The Philips Series 2300 LatteGo, for milk drinks. Its LatteGo milk system is two parts with no tubes, which Philips says rinses clean in as little as 10 seconds, and owners agree it is the simplest to keep clean. Its brew group asks more of you than a De'Longhi's: a weekly rinse, a monthly oil remover tablet and grease every 2 months.
Why is coffee from my bean to cup machine weak?
Usually the dose. Bean-to-cup machines grind about 5g to 13.5g for a single drink, by Coffee Blog, European Coffee Trip and Tom's Coffee Corner's measurements, against the 18g we price an espresso-machine double on. Set strength to maximum, grind finer one notch at a time while the grinder runs, keep the volume small, and press the one-cup button twice rather than using the two-cup button.
Can you use oily beans in a bean to cup machine?
You can, but expect more cleaning. Owners in r/superautomatic split on oily dark roasts: some report clogged grinders and chutes, others use nothing else and clean the grinder every few years. De'Longhi's manuals for the Magnifica S and Rivelia rule out caramelised or candied beans, which can stick in the grinder. Medium to medium-dark roasts avoid the question.
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