Coffee Machines

SEVERIN S2+

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Crema versus crema
By Julie Cutler
(sorry couldn't resist that one).Nov 2012As with all electronics products this is a work in progress, as I can't predict how reliable this pre-sale release model will be. Initial impressions are how impressively clean and efficient the machine is and how intuitive. It even has a self clean for the milk pump. We've tried cappucino, espresso and latte from beans, siting it in the office to lure in friends and clients (previously served with burr grinder and cafetiere). The frothy crema on the top of the espresso worked well, but I don't know if the slight lack of kick was due to the beans bought or a strength adjustment I need to make. Similarly the milk froth for the cappucino was a little too hard...I've made softer creamier ones with a traditional steam arm (mixed with flat disasters too)....but it could have been the cheap brand of milk. Adrian, a latte obsessed business owner who was only too happy to guinea pig the new toy, was happily extracting the last of the foam from his cup, so one up on the onsite cafe.What is not easily answered by the minimalist instructions, but was from the incredibly friendly UK distributors/ authorised repairers Fairfax Coffee (London NW3) 0800 316 87001. Replacement water filters- This is proprietary and is available from Amazon under the snazzy title of "Severin water filter for fully automatic coffee machines S2+S3". The machine will squeak at you when it needs changing, but Fairfax suggested once a month for heavy hard water areas (like mine) £11.97 currently. Can be left out in soft water areas, but...presumably also improves taste.2a. Cleaning cycle- general machine- 2 tablets are provided and you can get more branded ones from Amazon (also at ouch price so I'm trying half a 2.5g Puly tablet from Amazon, as no easily obtainable 1g tabs)- Fairfax suggest once every 2-3 weeks depending on how heavily you are chugging the caffeine!2b. Cleaning out milk system..in my researches Puly also do a milk cleaning solution- which seems sensible to use- Proprietary Severin one expected Jan from Amazon.2c. Descaling - The guru from Fairfax Coffee was very keen to emphasize this one for a hard water area. Again the machine will throw up the bat signal but 2-3 months was recommended to me for this water supply. Proprietary stuff available in tablet form, there also appear to be liquid ones for other bean to cup brands.2d. The ceramic grinder is claimed to need no cleaning by Fairfax.All in all the just in case kit came to £44 (and that was trying to pick the most economical). However:3. Two out of the three reviews for an S2 machine (not S2+) on Amazon.de have complained of various faults after 3 months. (release date was a year ago). Now I destroyed my trad Gaggia because I knew nothing about regular cleaning from the sketchy instructions...so blocked pumps and grinders could be down to user error...the instructions in full are only available on CD ROM and you have to chose the English sections in the enigmatically entitled BDA_8020_Komplett pdf (some of the translation is ...well "the grinder grinds".....) Waiting until the machine prompts you may be inadvisable in certain water areas, even if you've deciphered the hardness test strip and found the menu. Plus regular cleaning really does make a difference to the quality of the coffee. I'll be back mid Feb 2013, Mayan apocalypse permitting (ouch)?My coffee obsessed sidekick specifically bought a burr grinder because of reviews claiming ceramic blades shattered...he surmised that using frozen coffee beans ( our preferred way of keeping them fresh) may cause thermal shock or be just too hard for the blades. Not wanting to pregrind per cup (there's a hopper for ground coffee that is supposed to take precedence) we plan to change behaviour by filling up the machine with frozen beans to defrost overnight....more OCD! I note the other machine I was looking at comes with burr grinder. Ceramics are supposed to heat the coffee oils up less as they grind and so produce a better flavour. I'm going to have to draw up a schedule in Excel to keep on top of all of this.....LONG TERM USE UPDATESLATTE GLASSES- (I think actually it produces a macchiato- a layer of coffee injected into the middle of pure milk froth. But the cheap glasses ("Costa style") I got were too tall (14.5 cm) to go under the nozzle without dismantling the drip tray.Drip tray cleaning- comes apart really easily for keeping clean- great engineering.Mid March review. Machine very clean operation, but I still don't like the frothed milk and the quality of the coffee BECAUSE DUMB COMMENTATOR! WE CAN'T FREEZE THE BEANS TO KEEP UP THE. QUALITY OF THE COFFEE AND HAVE TO JUST STORE IN AN AIRTIGHT BAG! BECAUSE THERE IS NO BURR GRINDER. Still prefer cafetiere as can't just pop off to Italy or Malta for a caffe doppio. My aspiration is bean to cup with burr grinder and separate milk frother. Visitors still like it though....peasants!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Exceptional coffee, but comes with responsibilities
By Mr. Mischief
If attention to detail matters to you, then you'll be overjoyed with the presentation of the Severin S2+. Mine came immaculately well packaged, covered in plastic and sealed with tape inside a hessian-type bag within a box that was within another box that was within another box, the whole lot surrounded by those inflated packaging bag things. The standard of the packaging shouldn't really matter if the product is good, but I always think that if a company has taken care in these areas then they've hopefully done the same in all others. So with such brilliant presentation, I was slightly concerned to see that there was some slight residue in the machine's bean compartment and a very distinct coffee aroma emanating from it. Had Amazon sent me a used one??? I needn't have been worried, as there was a note from Severin inside the compartment stating that they test all their machines before boxing them up and hoping that this doesn't detract from the user's enjoyment. It's detail like that, that goes someway to justifying the purchase of an S2+.Once out of its lovely packaging, I set the machine on my kitchen worktop and starting getting to grips with it. Having `bean' (ho ho, pun intended) brought up on instant coffee, and having only fairly recently discovered the joys of a proper ground cup, the S2+ was something of a revelation for me. Decked out in a fantastic silver plastic casing and with an imposing monolithic design, even if you think that the coffee it makes tastes like pants it will at the very least evoke gasps of wonder from your house guests. It's a fairly sizeable and weighty piece of kit, but not quite as overwhelming as the pictures might suggest. Still, make sure you have room for it and a plug point not too far from its proposed site as the cord isn't particularly long. Also included are two cleaning tablets and a bottle of cleaning solution for the milk system (more on those later), a filter for the water compartment and a CD with the Severin's 30-odd page manual on; I managed to print off a hard copy for easier reference, but I still would have preferred a written version.When you first have a flick through of the manual, you may well be stupefied at how complicated it all seems, especially if you're new to the world of bean-to-cup machines. The array of functions that the S2+ can perform is pretty bewildering at first so a thorough read of the manual is essential, not only to get the most out of it, but also to make sure you don't break the thing! For example, simple things like changing the bean grinder coarseness setting while the grinder is switched off can damage it, so you should first familiarise yourself with the machine to avoid problems like this. Even so, I won't pretend that the manual is the easiest to read, but sometimes the best way to learn is by throwing yourself in at the deep end, which is what I eventually did.Before you can actually make a cup of coffee you'll be asked to go through the Severin's initial set-up procedure, which comprises altering various settings using the e-select jog-wheel on the top. These are displayed on the top backlit LCD and include selecting the display language and the water hardness for your area, which you can check using the included test strip. You then insert the included filter into the water filler tank if you wish to use it, fill the tank with fresh water and then the Severin goes through its rinsing procedure, cleaning the machine before use. It actually does this every time you use it, which is a nice feature that should help stop the thing going stale inside. Once rinsed out, you put a cup underneath the dispenser and fill the bean compartment with beans or add ground coffee powder to the dosing chamber inside the compartment, depending on your preference, then select the type of coffee you want - espresso to cappuccino and everything in between - before setting the coffee strength and water quantity for your chosen cup using the buttons underneath the LCD. Then press the e-select button and sit back and watch the Severin do its thing.Whether you use ground or un-ground beans, the Severin is surprisingly quick at making a cup of coffee. I haven't timed mine, but there can't be more than 45 seconds, tops, between pushing the e-select and the "Enjoy your drink" message popping up on the LCD. And if you don't want a plain coffee or espresso, you can always make a cappuccino or milky coffee using the in-built milk dispenser and milk tube on the side. You'll need a suitable container filled with enough milk for the Severin to draw from, but any old jug or even the milk carton will do, as long as the tube won't be pulled from it inadvertently. And the frothing nozzle inside the coffee dispenser does a good job of frothing milk; it's not as rich or as thick as that from a dedicated frother, but it's better than I was expecting.Whatever type of coffee you choose, and I've had a few different ones from the Severin, I have little doubt that you'll be more than satisfied with the results. As with any machine like this, you'll get a better coffee if you use better coffee, and you do really need to use better coffee is you want to do the Severin justice. I've been extremely pleased with the quality of the drink my S2+ produces, but I do find that cheaper beans give a lesser quality cup and the S2+ shows this up.The only issue with having something as complex as the S2+ is that it does take some looking after. Severin recommends that you rinse out the water tank, drip tray and dispenser nozzle daily, as well as rinsing and cleaning the milk system, which is done using two of the machine's integrated cleaning programs and some Severin milk cleaning liquid. You'll then need to remove and to flush the internal brewing unit under a tap once a week, and to change the water filter and milk tube every two months. On top of all this, you'll also need to clean the bean compartment now and then, and to run the S2+'s full-on cleaning program using fresh water and a Severin cleaning tablet and to descale the machine with Severin descaling tablets when prompted on the display. How often these are required will depend on the hardness of the water you use and how often you use the machine, but it may well be every 6 to 8 weeks. Only two cleaning tablets are included with the S2+, as is a small bottle of milk cleaning solution, but no descaling tablets, so when you factor in these costs, on top of six milk tubes and water filters a year, it does start to add up a bit, but I guess that's the price you pay for such an up-market machine. And, given the initial cost, regular cleaning is advisable to keep the Severin working at its peak - after all, you'd have your brand new Rolls Royce serviced regularly, wouldn't you?If I was reviewing the Severin S2+ on its coffee-making ability alone, it would get 5 stars, no question. It produces consistently brilliant cups of coffee (as long as you use quality beans or ground coffee, that is) and does so with all the flare and pomp of a coffee house machine, just without the drama. However, it may not be something for someone who could never get to grips with programming a VCR or who struggles with anything electronic. If you want a top cup of Joe, if you understand that having one means assuming some extra responsibilities, and if don't mind taking all that on, then the S2+ would be an exceptional choice. On the other hand, if you're just looking for a quick and simple better-than-a-jar coffee with zero hassle, then a simple cafetière or a pod machine would probably be better. But if you're even considering the Severin, then I think I already know which category you fit into.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Goodbye Delonghi, hello Severin, and err, Goodbye Severin !
By Stvtech
Update 2 weeks after purchase:Alas the machine is now on it's way back to Amazon for refund.The most beneficial function of this machine to our household is the ability to set custom values for each drink type independently with the ability to set coffee strength, water quantity, milk quantity, and TEMPERATURE.However, I discovered a fault with our machine's temperature setting (5 options - Very low, Low, Regular, High, Very High) whereby if set to 'High' on milk based drink programs (Cappuccino or White Coffee) the water would not be heated and the coffee would be dispensed cold. If set to 'regular' or 'very high', the water was heated as expected.The response from Severin (via distributor Fairfax) was that "it is not possible that 'regular' and 'very high' temperature are OK and the 'high' temperature not" (direct quote). Well I am here to tell you that not only was it possible, it was also 100% repeatable, happened on both Cappuccino and White Coffee programs (never tested on Latte Macchiato program), and I even purchased a suitable thermometer and made a video to record as evidence that the fault was real and repeatable.The content of my original review continues to be valid, as the machine in all other aspects was very capable and a joy to use. The only drawback I became aware of following regular use was the milk was always frothed just a little too much for my liking, and there is no adjustment for that.But as I feel I should rate the machine's actual performance as opposed to how it should perform, I can now only afford it 2 stars because for my particular machine, it was not 'OK'.--- Begin original review ---This will be my third attempt at owning a bean to cup machine within a month, the first two being the Delonghi ESAM04.350.S, both of which were returned after exhibiting the same fault (empty circuit, fill circuit error). I shall therefore make frequent comparisons to the Delonghi machine.This review is for the S2+ machine which has recently replaced the S2.First impressions are supposed to last, but that was not true of the Severin, which brought me crashing down to earth after being pleasantly blown away upon opening the box. The attention to detail that was self-evident when I flipped open the cardboard was impressive. The machine itself was cossetted within the fairly common thin foam bag so reminiscent of the days of Hi-Fi separates, and then (not unusually) flanked by expanded polystyrene mouldings. Hereafter though, the entire package was enclosed within a textile bag, complete with handles, which made lifting the machine out of its cardboard box a breeze. Following the relative disasters of short-lived Delonghi ownership, I felt sure I was on to a winner here.After a considerable number of minutes removing strips of sticky tape (that held the machine's removable parts in place during transit), filling the water tank and adding coffee beans, I was ready to turn on. Following the on-screen instructions, I duly selected the language, water hardness, and my preference for not using a water filter. Then, with that final press of the 'OK' button, came the hammer blow - the display simply stated "System Error - Code 58".The Delonghi episodes had facilitated the removal of any hair I had left to pull out, so there I stood - affront the machine - sad faced and feeling mentally assaulted.Well I had not made this purchase without doing my due diligence, and the issue of the 'Code 58' error has cropped up before, not least within this very review section where one commentator reports that this particular error is generated when the water temperature (as recorded by the inlet sensor) is too low. I had filled the tank with mains-fed water and it was -3º outside so, having emptied some water from the tank, replacing it with warm water from the kettle and waiting for 10 minutes, the machine was thankfully up and running.Onward then, to the business of making coffee...Now what constitutes a good cup of coffee is going to be very subjective, so I won't dwell on how good it tastes, rather than how well it makes it. All bean to cup machines grind the beans, force hot water through the ground coffee, and spit the grounds out afterwards. This machine unfortunately makes a bit more of a mess of grounds disposal than the Delonghi, in so far as there is water accompanying the waste in the grounds container thereby necessitating the use of the sink for disposal. The Delonghi deposited nicely formed pellets that were dry enough to drop straight into the bin.The type of drink can be selected by rotating the selector knob to cycle through Espresso, Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, White Coffee, and Hot Milk. There is sadly no hot water option.Drink customisation is a doddle, with separate buttons to select strength, water quantity, and milk quantity - each having four levels, the last of which is a custom level. Using a menu system, you can set the custom levels of strength, water quantity (set in ml to a max of 250), milk quantity (set in seconds), and temperature. The machine remembers the last used setting for each drink type (whether that may be a combination of the three pre-set options or the custom option) meaning you can switch to another drink and your settings will still be there when you switch back.This machine does not incorporate a cup warmer, and in my opinion does not need one. On the standard setting coffee is delivered piping hot even from a cold cup. This is in complete contrast to the Delonghi which even on the highest setting required the cups to be warmed with hot water first (the cup heater just couldn't cut it in my opinion, and just added to your electricity bill) if you wanted a coffee that wasn't already cold by the time you got from the kitchen to the living room. Coffee aficionados can of course customise the temperature down a notch or two, or even upwards if needed.Milk based drinks are easy to prepare, and the system employed seems to me to be far more effective than the Delonghi, comprising a simple silicon tube that pushes onto a nozzle at the side of the dispensing spout. Drop the end of the tube into a milk carton, et voilà - job done. The Delonghi utilised a glass carafe that once filled with milk could be plugged into the machine, then unplugged and stored in the fridge for later use. That seems like an excellent solution, but in practice the carafe was taking up too much room in the fridge, the milk did not get hot enough, and the 'o'ring equipped nozzle onto which the carafe fits was just a failure waiting to happen.After each use of the milk tube, the Severin will prompt you as to whether you wish to clean it. This involves placing the end of the tube into a container of water and following the on-screen instructions.Filling the water tank can be a bit of a challenge if your machine is located in a confined space, because it is located on the back. It does lift off for filling, but I find it easier to use a jug to fill it in-situ, being careful not to spill any water into the coffee hopper (would be very easy to do !) There is a filter supplied with the machine that fits inside the tank, but as we have an under-sink filtration unit for drinking water, I did not fit this and the machine's initial setup asks the question as to whether you want to use it. Not fitting it also increases the tank capacity - useful in view of the `Code 58' error.Running costs should be lower, and in fact Severin boast that this model scores 20% better than 'A' rated energy efficiency. This is largely due to the fact that the boiler(s) are not pre-heated and kept hot whilst the machine is turned on - unlike the Delonghi which heats up on startup - therefore the Severin is consuming significant electricity only when needed. This would also go some way into justifying the error code when the water is too cold although why the display cannot just state that instead of calling it a system error escapes me.For anyone considering this machine I suggest you visit Severin's website to download the user manual to get an idea of its capabilities.Overall then, I find this machine to be streets ahead of the Delonghi in terms of its capabilities and is easy to use. It takes up less room than the Delonghi, appears to be better built, and is more aesthetically pleasing. If it were not for the inability to accept water below 10ºC without causing a System Error, I would give it 5 stars.