I have done some extensive research prior to pulling the trigger on this machine. Decided to go with 4 years extended warranty offered via Amazon. Very happy with the purchase so far. Would do it again.October 2024: After nearly three years of heavy daily use, my Gaggia Cadorna Milk Espresso Machine is still delivering café-quality coffee. The build is durable, and the design looks and works like new. It brews rich espresso with perfect crema, and the milk frother produces consistently silky foam, ideal for lattes and cappuccinos. The machine’s easy maintenance and intuitive interface make daily use and cleaning hassle-free. If you're after high-quality coffee at home with minimal fuss, this machine is a worthwhile investment. Five stars!

The actual making of the coffee is nice - it makes a good cup of coffee in several different styles. Unfortunately the ease and enjoyment of use + longevity of the entire machine is impacted by several very poor design choices. First off, the water carafe has the smallest volume of any water tank I've ever seen made for any coffee machine - this means you will likely have to refill with water every day if more than 1 person uses the machine. Second, the water carafe has a black face plate that delicately clips onto the front of the tank - for some unknown reason the only way to remove the water tank is by pulling on this black face plate...there is literally no other way. When you do this however, the black plastic face plate bows, bends, and warps until the water tank snaps out. Over time, likely in under 2 years, this black face plate will snap off as other users have mentioned in reviews. Third, it has extremely inaccurate and inconsistent milk measurements. You can specify exactly how many ounces of milk you want for a drink, however it will be wildly off in reality. Depends on the exact type of milk, the suction and connection of the tube on that day, etc., but often it will be ~50% of the volume you expect.Overall the most frustrating aspect to long term use is probably the water tank capacity. Having to refill the water every day, sometimes multiple times a day, is incredibly tedious over time. I can not in good conscience say I would spend this amount of money on this machine if I could do it all over again. I would recommend exploring other options in this price range, as all the other options will probably lead to a happier end user a year from now.

The good: Smaller space requirement, great ceramic grinder, many options to choose from for making a desired robust cup of coffee, low noise grinding, modern design, smartly designed aqueduct water collection tray located at the bottom of the machine, many brewing options on the digital menu to choose from (digital menu options), small pull of platform to elevate coffee cup for pour collection, two smooth spout coffee dispensers, easily removable motor for cleaning, smaller bean reservoir allows resupply of fresh beans, before and after auto-rinse prolongs the life of coffee maker, automatic messaging for descaling and cleaning; The not so good: Plastic coffee dome inside the bean reservoir avoids coffee beans to pass through (to the ceramic grinder) at times making the machine grind half the way, stop, and message refill coffee bean reservoir (wastes coffee), coffee pucks messaging messages full when the tank for coffee pucks (waste and brewed coffee) is not full, and no metal side walls. No means of messaging the user before brewing button is pressed that the coffee maker may contain too many coffee pucks or be short on water - message appears half way through brewing that water reservoir is low and brewing is left incomplete in one's cup! Description: We used a Gaggia coffee maker for thirteen years before it developed leaks, motor problems, etc. The machine was a Platinum Vision, well made and we enjoyed the coffee for many years. We could not repair the machine because Gaggia communicated they no longer manufactured the motor type and also could not refer us to a dealership in the U.S. for repairs. We recommend this machine, whether you are a coffee aficionado or enjoy a great cup of coffee. Should you maintain this coffee maker well, the unit should serve you well for many years, producing just as a great cup of coffee as compared to what you may receive in a coffee shop. The Cardona Milk is a great machine overall, whether you are a pro coffee enthusiasts, or enjoy a quality brewed white-top at home, and prefer not to regularly spend a considerable part of your budget on coffee served in the retail coffee shops. The Gaggia Cardona Milk is also a great machine to start enjoying pro-quality coffee at home, with a one touch command using its electronic display. Should you have a need for a higher capacity machine, then the prices will drastically increase, although I still believe that over all, these machines are priced too high. In the order of preference, value, I suggest Gaggia (Italy), Jura (Switzerland - quite expensive), and finally some of the German manufacturers, such as Krups. My suggestions for other machines would take you to review videos on YouTube, and preferably purchase the machine from Amazon (for now). I am updating my review on this date (27 March 2027). Speaking with customer service of Gaggia service outfit in N.Y. did not make a realistic solution available to coffee bean starvation during the brew cycle. Because of their liability, they tried to stir me in directions not practical to resolve the coffee bean starvation issue during the brew cycle. The real solution to the problems I'd discussed was to remove the plastic dome, used to sift coffee beans for them to reach the grinder. That is where the Italian designers failed. Not enough tests to reach a conclusion that such a design could result in coffee bean starvation during the brew cycle and therefore a considerable waste of coffee. If you have children and concerned, I would recommend you purchasing another manufacturer as mentioned above. Otherwise, remove the plastic dome inside the coffee bean chamber.

It has a cheap, plastic-y feel to the doors and drawers and it's loud and it doesn't even have a latte setting... its a clunker for a $1,000! The milk frother is okay but you'll do so much better with a wand. But most importantly, it took for ever to dial in a decent shot of espresso and not consistently as that. If it was $300 it would be 2 stars.

Only had this machine about a month and we are truly enjoying it. A short learning curve but once you get past that its smooth sailing. The milk coffees are delicious and easy to make but personally that freshly ground regular coffee is my go to in the morning. May sound plain but a drip coffee can never compare to the delicious cup this machine makes. Cleaning is easy. Think I spend less time maintaining this machine than I did our old drip coffee maker. Also really enjoy the hot water feature since I often have a cup of tea in the afternoon. Just have to press the button and have a hot cup of tea in a couple minutes. No need to boil a kettle of water. We looked at a lot of automatic coffee machines, and it took us a while to pull the trigger and buy the Gaggia, but we have absolutely no regrets.