Gaggia coffee machines are synonymous with professional espresso machines for the home. They have been making home espresso machines for 45 years and have been making coffee machines for coffee shops for over 80 years. So, are gaggia coffee machines any good? Of course they are, but they are pricey compared to other common brands for the home. The question is, are you willing to pay that extra amount for a professional coffee machine to make coffee at home?
The best 5 Gaggia Coffee machines will be reviewed below:
1. Gaggia Cadorna Prestige (model RI9604/47)
$1,249.00
Rating 4.7 out of 5
Capacity 1.7 litres
Color (steel grey/beige)
The Cadorna Prestige can make 13 different types of coffee drinks, like ristretto, espresso, cappuccino, and latte. The manual says there are 14 options, but one of them is just hot water.
It has a milk tank that makes creamy foam for lattes and cappuccinos and cleans itself automatically, so you don’t have to do it.
You can save up to 14 different drink settings for four different users, so everyone in your family can have their favorite drinks ready. The machine adjusts to the hardness of your water and lets you use an INTENZA+ water filter to keep it clean.
The espresso tray slides out to make sure your cup is at the right height for making espresso.
It features a big display with six selection buttons (three on each side) and five function buttons at the bottom. The display and buttons light up, and the menu uses easy-to-understand icons.
Gaggia offers a one-year guarantee for this machine.
In the box, you’ll find the espresso machine, milk carafe, group lubricant, grinder adjustment key/scoop, water filter, and a water hardness test strip.
2. Gaggia Velasca Prestige (model RI8263/01)
$686.38
Rating 4.6 out of 5
Water Capacity 1.5 litres
Color Brushed Steel
This espresso machine lets you customize your coffee, but it doesn’t have as many options as the pricier Cadorna Prestige. The electronic display makes it easy to pick from different coffee types, like espresso, cappuccino, or latte.
The buttons around the screen include options for espresso, aroma strength, cappuccino, special drinks, cleaning the carafe, and frothing milk.
It’s a bean-to-cup machine, meaning it has a built-in coffee grinder (it holds 0.3 liters of beans), an automatic milk frother, and a coffee brewer. Once you’ve set up your settings, you can make your favorite drink with just one touch. You can choose from different temperature settings and 10 grind settings, so you can adjust how fine or coarse the coffee is, depending on your beans. Plus, there are 5 brew strength settings, so you can make your coffee as strong or mild as you like.
The water tank, which holds 1.5 liters, is easy to fill from the front.
The brewing part needs to be cleaned once a week, which only takes about 5 minutes. You’ll also need to lubricate the brewing parts once a month, which is another quick 5-minute task.
3. Gaggia Classic Pro (model RI9380/46)
$425.00
Rating 4.6 out of 5
The Gaggia Classic Pro features a 2.1-liter water tank located at the front, just behind the espresso spout. You can refill it by lifting the top lid. The black version is more styleishbut might not suit all kitchens so it also comes in stainless steel.
Despite being a home machine, it has several professional-grade features that wouldn’t look out of place in a coffee shop. It includes a 58mm portafilter, which is the handle with a round basket for ground coffee, and a commercial-style steam wand for frothing milk, ideal for making cappuccinos and lattes.
The portafilter, similar to those used in coffee shops, has a chrome cover to maintain the coffee’s temperature during brewing. The steam wand froths milk by shooting steam through its nozzle. With some practice, you can make coffee shop-quality cappuccinos at home.
To achieve the best espresso, use filtered or bottled water because tap water can be too hard.
The Classic Pro has three buttons: on/off, espresso, and steam. Orange lights below the buttons shows you when the machine is ready to brew espresso or froth milk.
It includes a convenient drip tray with a removable top grill and a basic plastic coffee tamper. There is also a side dial on the right to adjust the steam amount for frothing milk.
4. Gaggia Velasca Espresso Machine, Black
Model #RI8260/47
$749.00
Rating 4.4 out of 5
Capacity 1.5 litres
Color Black
Another programmable fully automatic espresso machine from Gaggia. It has a Pannarello steam wand to dip into milk to froth it into a nice foam for your cappucinos and lattes.
There are six buttons surrounding a digital display. The buttons are espresso, espresso lungo (bigger espresso), aroma strength button, standby button, menu button, hot water button and a steam button.
The espresso lungo can be reprogrammed to be any size you want by pressing and holding the lungo button then let the coffee express then when it reaches the volume in the cup you desire press the tick on the aroma button which will stop the coffee coming out and will be programmed in for next time you make a espresso lungo.
You also get 3 temperature settings to adjust the brewing temperature. You need rto experiment with this to get the best temp for your preferred coffee beans.
By pressing the espresso or lungo espresso button you can get two cups of coffee at the same time. You will need to place two cups under the expresser before you do this. the 2x will appear on the screen to let you know.
You can adjust the automatic burr grinder to choose from 10 different grind levels, ranging from very coarse to very fine.
It has a front loading water tank which holds 1.5 litres of water. The water is filtered by an AQUACLEAN water filter that needs replacing periodically. Meanwhile the bean holder holds 300g of coffee beans.
Although the Velasca is self rinsing and self descaling, it still needs to the brew group to be cleaned once a week. But only takes 5 minutes.
5. Gaggia Magenta Prestige Super-Automatic Espresso Machine
Model #RI8702/01
$749.00
Rating 4.7 out of 5
Capacity 17. liters
Color Black
With its new updated colorized digital display, programming the perfect cup of coffee could not get any easier. You select any type of coffee you want and an image of that coffee is displayed for you to choose from such as espresso, latte, flat white, cappucino, etc. When you click on the picture of your choice a new menu is displayed which shows you customization such as amount of coffee powder to use, volume of coffee to produce, temperature, and amount of milk. Alter these to your hearts content. And it will ask you to save settings for your chosen coffee so you can enjoy the same exact coffee in the future. You can also chose a 2 cup option which will make two cups instead of one. But make sure you remember to place two cups below before you press start.
You can adjust the quality burr grinder to suit the coffee beans you are using.
A superb feature for this machine is that it will do the frothed milk first for a cappuccino or a latte machiatto whilst other milked coffees will do the frothed milk afterwards. It makes for a much better cappuccino. This is exactly the way they do it in Starbucks.
The milk container(carafe) is integrated into the machine and does the milk frothing easily and automatically for you. It holds half a liter of milk.
The coffee spouts are adjustable allowing you to place taller cups or small espresso cups beneath them. Also the removable drip tray grill can be moved up closer to the spouts for your small espresso cups.
It uses an INTENZA+ water filter.
Descaling and rinsing is automatic and milk rinsing is automatic but you can chose when to do it.
6. Gaggia Magenta Plus Super-Automatic Espresso Machine
Model #RI8701
$699.00
Rating 4.0 out of 5
Capacity 1.7 litres
Color Black
Special Feature Programmable
Coffee Maker Type Espresso Machine
About this item
Because the Magenta Plus does not have a built in milk carafe, but instead has a coffee shop style milk frothing wand, it is less automated than the Magenta Prestige. So, although the Magenta Plus is fully programmable it does not have the options for making milk based coffees. This is a great machine if you like like automated bean to cup coffee making but want to create your own cappuccino/latte froths by hand. If you want full automation then the Magenta Prestige is the better machine. If you have some cappuccino making skills or want to practice frothing your milk then this is the machine for you, although it is a little fiddly to use at first.
This is a modern looking budget espresso maker with a frothing wand to froth the milk for cappuccinos. The matte black plastic with red line trim make this a stylish and modern looking machine that would fit well in most kitchens. It’s small footprint makes it ideal even for the smallest kitchen but it is a little tall and with the machine being top filled, you will need headroom above the machine.
The metal drip mesh can be lifted out of the drip tray and placed at ledge level closer to the espresso spouts. It is fully adjustable allowing you to place from large 6 inch mugs to smallest of espresso cups beneath the espresso dispenser.
As an upgrade from previous models, the magenta plus has a quick heat boiler that makes the machine ready to brew coffee with minimal waiting time.
7. Gaggia Babila RI9700/64 espresso Machine
Model # RI9700/64
$1,749.00
Rating 4.6 out of 5
Color Stainless Steel
Special Feature Programmable
Coffee Maker Type Espresso Machine
This machine can make 9 different basic drinks, but its touch screen display feels a bit old compared to cheaper models. However, it looks great with its steel and chrome design, unlike the cheaper plastic espresso machines.
It’s a fully automated machine, handling both espresso making and milk frothing by itself, plus it cleans itself. If you prefer, you can also manually froth milk using the built-in frothing wand. If you don’t want to froth milk yourself, the machine can do it automatically with the push of a button.
You can customize the strength, temperature, and froth for each of the 9 built-in drinks. Depending on the drink, you can adjust the coffee’s aroma, body, temperature, length, pre-brewing level, and milk froth. There’s also a dial to control the flow of hot water through the coffee grounds. A good espresso should take about 20 seconds, but you can adjust this for a shorter or longer brew to get the flavor you like.
For the best espresso, use an AquaClean water filter to remove chlorine and hardness from your water.
Unlike cheaper Gaggia models, this machine has a double boiler, speeding up the time between making the espresso and frothing the milk for cappuccinos or lattes making it one of the fastest home cappuccino makers.