First things first: The machine makes very good coffee. We have acquired the unit Easter 2010 and after nine months until today no problems. I look forward every morning and evening on my 1-2 cups of cappuccino. Even my wife, who actually is one of the avid tea drinkers, now enjoys her daily latte macchiato. My mother has a ESAM 3000 B, and when I was allowed to marvel at this unit during our Christmas visit in action, I thought with relief: ". How nice that we decided for the slightly more expensive ECAM" And I was stunned at the beginning, how quickly prompted us the device for descaling, already 2-3 weeks after purchase. And that despite the softening filter, which was provided. Well, we live in Berlin, water hardness level 4. But friends of mine have a JURA fully automatic and swear that they, because they use the recommended water softener filter, do not have to descale. What is certain is that in their manual. That bothered me, the DeLonghi descaler are not exactly cheap. So I telephoned me through various service hotlines and came to the following conclusion: The so-called softener filter affects, even if it is properly registered with the machine, so virtually no impact on the duration of the cleaning cycles of. Ever you can save the filters for the water quality in Germany basically. It may be that it's different in Italy. In my manual is the portentous phrase, "Use only DeLonghi Entkalker Never use descaling case sulphamic or acetic based otherwise invalidate any guarantee claims.." Acetic base makes sense to me, but sulfamine (also amidosulfonic) is often the basis for quality descaler for coffee machines. Why should not be appropriate? When I asked I was told that the devices have just been tested only with DeLonghi decalcifiers. A rogue who evil thinks. Incidentally, none of the service staff was able to tell me on what basis the DeLonghi SER 3018 based descaler. I then phoned a DeLonghi service workshop and asked her to tell me what they decalcify. Answer: stinknormale citric acid. The softener filter is kicked out after two months and I descale liquid with citric acid from the supermarket. This brings me to about 13 euros annually costs and drive much cheaper than my JURA friends. And I feel good about it.
Update 1.8.2012: The machine is now for over 2 years in daily use. I have found no reason to deduct a star.
