Real Life Reviews: The De’Longhi Eletta Explore Is Everything a Lazy Coffee Fan Could Ask For

We’re back, back, back again with another coffee machine review to help caffeine-obsessed Aussies decide which machine they’d like to introduce into their kitchens. This time, we’re taking a look at the swanky De’Longhi Eletta Explore Coffee Machine and assessing whether more tech makes for a better coffee experience. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Real Life Reviews: De’Longhi Eletta Explore Coffee Machine

Before we get into the experience in detail, here are the specs you need to know about for the De’Longhi Eletta Explore Coffee Machine.

• Dimensions (wxdxh) (mm): 260 x 450 x 385
• Weight (Kg): 11.3
• Controls: Touch display
• Display: 3.5″ TFT colour
• Beans container capacity (g): 300
• Water container capacity (l): 1.8
• LatteCrema Hot & Cool Technologies
• Coffee Link App connection
• Price: Starts from $1,699 (at the time of writing)

What’s good?

If you’re familiar with the De’Longhi Eletta Explore, you’ll know that this machine gets a whole lot of love for its fully-automated coffee-making experience, along with its ability to make iced-coffees a little more enjoyable when made at home. We originally checked out the iced coffee feature back in 2022 and were impressed by the ability of the machine to not only produce cold frothed milk, but to pour coffee at a lower temperature to streamline the process.

We made a little TikTok of that process here:

@lifehackerau

A quick look at how the #DeLonghi Eletta Explore makes iced coffee at home 😋. #coffee #foodtiktok #coffeetiktok

♬ Paper Birds (3 min) – Jordan Halpern Schwartz

This time around, I wanted to test out the everyday experience of using the De’Longhi Eletta Explore, and, unsurprisingly, there was a lot to be impressed by.

For a rather complicated machine, the set-up was pretty simple – following the instructions in the machine’s manual, paired with the guidance on the digital display made the whole thing fairly pain-free. I did have some problems connecting the machine to the app, but my guess is that my internet connection was at fault there – which, admittedly, is something you need to consider when using a smart machine.

When it comes to preparing coffee, there are some 40 customisable options to choose from, so you’re almost guaranteed to find something that suits your tastes. There is also the option of saving your favourite coffee varieties to your profile, so you can easily navigate to it when you’re craving a caffeine hit. Conveniently, you can set up as many as four profiles if there are a few fussy coffee drinkers in your home who want to set their preferences.

Not only does the machine have preset settings for coffee orders like espresso, cappuccino and cortado (and more), but you can also customise each coffee type to have the flavour strength, milk and froth level you like – and you can save those preferences to your profile, too.

Using the De’Longhi Eletta Explore LatteCrema (the automatic frothing jug) means that making coffees for large groups is relatively simple. Just fill the jug (hot or cold) with milk, and it will froth away, as well as distribute the milk into your coffee cups when ready. Just make sure you keep a close eye on the milk as it pours because it’s an automatic measure and will spill over if you don’t have the right-sized cup ready. If you notice you’re about to have a spillage because of the wrong cup, don’t stress – you can stop the pour at any time.

My favourite feature with this machine, however, is the app. While it took me a minute to get it working, it quickly became apparent that this would be one of the Eletta Explore’s most convenient elements (in my experience, at least). If you’re a lazy coffee fan, the idea that you can press a button that’ll make your brew for you is a hugely appealing quality.

Now, obviously, you need to do a little bit of work to get your coffee in hand, but the lift is light. If you have your LatteCrema jug prepared and topped up with milk, and if you have a coffee cup in position, you could use the app to select the kind of coffee you’d like and ask the machine to prepare it — without being in the room. (As long as the app connection is there, of course – don’t try it from the shops.)

In terms of taste, the coffee itself was lovely – but I would expect no less from De’Longhi. And the design of the machine would make for a stylish addition to any modern kitchen, if you ask me. It looks pretty damn sexy.

What’s not so good?

Okay, now, onto the details I didn’t love.

The first thing I’ll mention is that it’s very clearly an expensive coffee machine. If you’re after something that looks after almost every step in the coffee-making process for you, then maybe that cost is justifiable to you, but if you’re not into things being techy when they don’t have to be, you probably won’t want to drop $1,600+ on this machine.

For me, the price is steep, and I know I can get a great (albeit more manual) coffee experience for less than that.

The other thing is that the machine will do a rather thorough rinse every time you use it, and while that’s good for the cleanliness of the machine, it uses a lot of water and felt a little excessive – it also meant that I was constantly having to refill the water tank. And when it came time for me to clean the machine (I was sent an alert), I removed the tray at the base and water spilled everywhere. I’d suggest keeping a container or something sitting on the machine so you can collect all that water during every rinse.

I also found, as can be the case with automatic frothing machines, that the milk foam was a little too bubbly for my liking and struggled to achieve the smooth consistency manual frothing can get you.

DeLonghi Eletta Explore Coffee Machine: The verdict

Listen. This coffee machine is basically everything a lazy coffee lover could ask for. The De’Longhi Eletta Explore makes a lovely coffee, any kind of coffee, and it will take care of 99.9 per cent of the work for you. As long as the milk is ready and your cup is waiting, you should be golden.

If that’s the experience you are looking for, you will not be disappointed.

However, if you’re someone who doesn’t care about a slick touchscreen experience or clever app functions and enjoys the process of making a coffee, I’d suggest reaching for a less expensive manual machine without all the techy additions.

You can shop the DeLonghi Eletta Explore Coffee Machine on the website here.