Delivery
The delivery side of the machine is a bottle of descaler, a maintenance set with brushes and a tube of grease, and a Intenza contain water filter that I did not use due to our soft water. So water and coffee beans suffice to get started right away. With the included Quick Start Guide the machine is put into operation in no time. In addition, you should definitely download the detailed German manual from the Philips website to learn about all the possibilities of this fully automatic.
Customer service
As the owner of Avanti GranBaristo one enjoys at Philips a special status and is supervised by the Premium hotline. The contact I was looking for the first time, as the Avanti app for our Samsung tablet in the Google Play store in early October was not yet available and was looked after very accommodating. So they told me in advance not only the final release date with, but also responded promptly when the app is not allowed on our technically suitable tablet install.
Construction
The GranBaristo Avanti is 21 cm width is very narrow and only takes up little space on the desktop. Apart from the on / off switch at the back of the machine of the coffee machine is operated only from the top and from the front. The ceramic grinder He grinds the coffee very quiet. The display is bright and clear, and the display and the symbols shown clear and understandable. The GranBaristo Avanti has an outer and an inner drip tray, the transport due to their small size well and leave empty. Completely revised compared to older Kaffeevollautomaten has the Saeco brew group, I think is a significant improvement because it can now be removed with just one finger and used without any problems again. The outlet is located at a height of 11.5 cm, ideal for higher cups. He can pull down to 8 cm, so that espresso cups are filled without being injected. In addition, it can be moved horizontally to the rear, which also my 16.5cm high thermo cup, or even large latte macchiato glasses fit under the spout. With 1.7 liter capacity water tank is designed quite small and must by the frequent flushing of the machine - are often filled - and particularly in the use of Intenza water filter. I suppose but for the overall quite small fully automatic gladly accept.
Manual Setup
At the time of delivery of my machine, since the app was not yet available, I took it into operation manually. After I are using the Quick Start Guide first espresso within 15 minutes after unpacking before me, was enough a brief orientation in the manual and on the machine to make them intuitive to use from now on also without App. The buttons are on the front clearly labeled and easily. The unit can store a total of six profiles. In addition to 3 preprogrammed profiles for different coffee beans (Arabica, Robusta and Saeco Blend - a mix of the two) three more profiles can be freely set. This means that for each profile for each drink individually coffee beans amount, coffee (and possibly milk), pre-brewing and beverage temperature can be programmed. So with us each family member has his individual preferences at hand immediately.
Manual operation
Espresso, Lungo, coffee, and American coffee are output via the buttons to the right of the screen by pressing a button, hot milk, and the coffee-milk specialties espresso macchiato, cappuccino and latte macchiato via the buttons on the left side. All other products can be accessed via the beverage menu. Extremely easy and convenient water spout is taken out with one hand and used the milk container on the front. Its outlet is only drawn using the existing cup, and poured coffee and foamed milk in a single operation in the cup. Then, the machine indicates a cleaning cycle, which you can start right within 30 seconds. The advantage is that this rinsing water is used from the water tank, so that the upper part of the milk carafe is then cleaned and the rest of the milk can be kept in the decanter even for a short time in the refrigerator until the next cappuccino / latte macchiato. One drawback of the machine is that it is not timely indicating that the water tank needs to be refilled, so that before a coffee shrinkage fill breaks in the cup with the message water tank. Then you have to adjust and get used, if necessary, to take a brief look into the water tank in front of the button.
Operation via App
Clou this is fully automated by the use app that has unfortunately is only available for a few tablets and iPad available. Cups and glasses must of course still be made by hand under the spout. Besides the operating instructions and instructions for maintenance and cleaning - according to statements of the Customer Service are on the iPad as opposed to Android and videos available -, you can customize via sliders beverage settings such as aroma, temperature, coffee and milk, save it as a favorite and Start output. This works faster and more convenient than on the machine itself. In addition, you can also prepare Ristretto and café crème on the app, and get statistics about the initiated by App spending. However, the advertised queue in the app is so far only available on the iPad (as of 07/11/2014). But what I definitely missing is the ability to restart the device at a specific time. We have now found, however, that you can wake up the machine via App from the standby mode by orders a coffee (even from the bed ;-)). The dialog box for preparing the coffee, I confirm if the machine has flushed to the end and I have parked my cup.
More Settings
The grind of the coffee is set with the included key under the bean container, which must be removed for this purpose. If you want to use coffee beans for preparing the beverage, can another bean container, which is not included use, and replace if necessary. Something detrimental I think that will be lost for 2 cups when changing the coffee bean container, to the new type of coffee ends up as a beverage in the cup. To this end, you can execute the cycle cleaning Coffee system ", or simply prepare two cups of coffee either in the menu.
Beverage preparation
The brewing temperature can be set in the menu to three different values. Lt. Amazon homepage (Stand 11.02.14) creates the machine automatically depending drink for making a different brewing pressure. Specialties such as energy-coffee, mild or strong espresso or latte drinks on the menu, we prepare rather rare. Our favorites are Macciato in each profile in Espresso, Lungo, coffee "and Latte stored, prepared with only one button. The individual fine adjustments we take now more comfortable about the app before. The hot water runs at a temperature of about 85 ° C from the machine, which is enough for me to preheat my cups, me for tea - but is too cool At latte macchiato, espresso macchiato, cappuccino and the latte the layers are clearly separated and the foam pleasantly laid - with the exception of various green teas..
Cleaning
The machine performs at startup and at each transition to standby from a flushing operation. When I see how cloudy the water is every time I take the high water consumption and the frequent water tank needs refilling gladly accept. The grounds container holds 20 coffee portions and is just like the drip tray and water tank daily flushed with us because it is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and mold with its humid heat. Absolutely brilliant is the new feature that drip, drip trays, coffee grounds container and the parts of the milk carafe now dishwasher safe and the local rinses unscathed. Continues to be a main argument for buying a Saeco machine is the removable brew group, which offers the possibility of a thorough cleaning for me. When and how cleaned and the brewing unit to be greased, described clear and understandable both in the manual, as well as in the app. In addition, the machine has now some features that run through the regular cleaning cycles that can be completed quickly and with little effort.
Other
The machine is classified in energy efficiency class A. In standby mode, the default turns off after 30 minutes, it consumes less than 1 Wh, which we have reduced this time via the menu to 15 minutes (it can also be increased to 60 or 180 minutes). By default, the device is set to water hardness 4. It is recommended using the enclosed test strip to determine the water hardness as soon as possible and place them according to the device. A message on the display, the fully automatic out if it needs descaling.
Conclusion
Granted - this device is an absolute luxury and has increased our coffee consumption significantly. It is in our long-term use, has prompted my husband to take a morning coffee To Go and only made my son at all for coffee drinkers. It produces several times a day class, various coffees and cappuccino at the touch of a button. Thanks to our various user profiles and our favorites stored in the app, we need not have to worry about individual settings. The cost to manufacture the product is minimal, and cleaning and maintenance of the machine now routine. The few mentioned shortcomings are outweighed in our opinion the extremely delicious coffees again. An availability of the app for smartphones would be great. We enjoy our coffee every day's new and do not want to miss this device.
