Great machine for the price

I bought one of these refurbished directly from Gaggia UK. I have seen them advertised up to £750 but I paid a lot less than that.

I bought this machine as a second machine as we already have a Synchrony Compact Digital for 3 years which has done over 2200 coffees. The Synchrony Compact Digital will be given a new home soon.

- Twin boiler, meaning steam is produced very quickly after making coffee, but you cannot do both coffee and steam at the same time. From cold, the machine takes about 10 seconds to reach steam temperature. (After initial warmup of a minute or two which happens once a day automatically, or when you switch on.)
- Timer feature for turning on and off once a day. (Energy Save)
- Can be set for automatic self rinse, to flush out any water that has been in sat inside the machine overnight.
- The whole machine is on a turntable, so you can easily turn it around to clean/fill up the water and coffee even with the machine underneath the kitchen cupboards when on the kitchen worktop.
- 3 Programmable quantity coffee buttons.
- Dual brew head makes one or two coffees simultaneously. Just position the cups and press the button once for one coffee and twice for two coffees.
- Brew head adjustable height for big mugs and small espresso cups. Goes up a bit higher on the Titanium.
- Display for showing when you need to fill the water, coffee beans, empty the drip tray/dregbox and descale etc.
- Pass-through doser for using pre-ground coffee instead of the beans in the bean container. (So you can make something different, i.e. decaf. from ground coffee)
- Pregrinding setting so it can grind the beans for the next cup while making a cup. This speeds things up if you have to make lots of coffee for guests etc.
- Coffee temperature adjustable. (Coffee pressure not adjustable.)

- Immediately looks more solidly built, and pleasingly shiny.
- Easier to use door-catch.
- Bigger water tank that is much easier to remove and fill. It now has a carrying handle and is a one-handed operation rather than a two-handed operation on the Synchrony to lift the tank off the machine.
- Slightly quieter operation than the Synchrony.
- Better cup heater (Which can be turned off if you don't use it, unlike the Synchrony where it stays on.)
- Simpler drip tray design.
- Steam wand comes up much higher for bigger cups and Cappuccinatore. The Titanium has a small slot/flap arrangement on the side of the machine to allow the steam wand to come right out and up, to the right of the machine.
- Power switch is recessed on the side and not the back. This makes it easier to access and keeps it out of the way in case you have a mishap and spill water down the back of the machine while replacing the water tank. Water tank filling is MUCH easier on the Titanium compared to the Synchrony.

To me, the machine seems slightly faster than the Synchrony at steaming and changing between steam/hot water.

Turn on the steam jet for a few seconds until it emits steam, put your cup underneath, drop the tube into the milk container, and milk is frothed directly from the milk carton into your cup in seconds. This is great for Cappucino and Latte lovers.

Another feature is Hot Water. This is mostly for topping up Espresso to make Americano etc. You can do hot water for making Tea but it is a little slow to fill a whole mug. Brits like their tea made from BOILING water. The water from this machine is not boiling, but just very hot (For nicer tasting coffee). To make water for tea, fill a jug with cold water and (carefully) steam it until it is super hot enough to make a decent cup of tea. Or... boil a kettle in the traditional way. This machine isn't really about Tea. :-)

Once you've got it set up and have got the hang of it, it really is very simple and quick. People have commented on how nice the coffee is. Certainly the fastest and most hassle-free machine I've seen for this price range.