De'Longhi Eletta Explore: cold brew, two carafes and an app

Hot milk, cold milk and cold brew

The Eletta Explore comes with two carafes. The LatteCrema Hot carafe works like the one on the Magnifica Evo and Evo Next: it froths and pours on its own. The LatteCrema Cool carafe makes cold milk foam for iced drinks. Each offers 3 froth levels according to the manual. De’Longhi does not publish how much either carafe holds.

The other addition is cold brew, by what De’Longhi calls Cold Extraction Technology. Among the bean-to-cup machines in our database, the Eletta Explore is the only one with this function. A To Go function and cup complete the picture, with a fold-down support in the manual for a taller To Go cup. Without it, cups up to 14.3 cm fit under the spout.

If you never drink coffee cold, most of this is surplus: the hot carafe, the profiles and the display are what you would use, and the Magnifica Evo Next offers the first two in the upper mid-range bracket.

Display, profiles and the app

Controls are a colour TFT display with what De’Longhi calls soft-touch controls; we list it as a TFT display, not a touchscreen. It holds 4 user profiles. Wi-Fi is built in and the Coffee Link app lets you start drinks remotely, according to De’Longhi. It is the only De’Longhi bean-to-cup machine in our UK list with app control; the Rivelia has a touchscreen but no app.

De’Longhi counts 52 drinks. Its recipe lists add up to 30 distinct entries across hot coffee, hot milk drinks, cold coffee, cold milk drinks and hot water; the remainder is not explained, and may come from To Go sizes. Read the number as a sign of breadth, not as something to set against another brand’s count.

Size, water and beans

This is a large machine: 26 cm wide, 45 cm deep and 38.5 cm high according to the manual. That is two centimetres wider and one deeper than the Magnifica Evo Next, and both carafes need a place in the fridge as well.

The tank holds 1.8 l and the hopper 300 g, more beans than the 250 g of the Magnifica range and the Rivelia’s single hopper. The grounds container is rated for 14 servings. Pump pressure is stated at 19 bar, as on the Rivelia, against 15 bar on the Magnifica models; a higher rated pump pressure does not by itself mean better espresso. The brew group is removable, per the manual, and the heating is a thermoblock.

Which Eletta Explore in the UK

Model code	Colour	UK site when we read it	Covered here
ECAM450.86.T EX:4	Titanium	Listed and orderable	Yes (our data)
ECAM452.67.G EX:4	Dark grey	Page present, out of stock	No: its page lacks capacities, dimensions and the cold brew field
ECAM450.65.S, ECAM450.65.G, ECAM450.69.G	Silver, grey	Not on the UK site	No

The shared manual covers several Eletta Explore series and says cold brew is fitted only to models equipped with it. Check the code on the listing.

What De’Longhi leaves open

• Weight: the manual gives a range by model; the product page shows the packed weight. No single figure.
• Grinder: no burr type and no number of grind settings.
• Carafe capacity: not published for either carafe.
• Cup warmer: the product data mentions one, the manual describes none; we leave it out.
• Noise: no decibel figure. It is on our list of planned measurements.
• Warranty: De’Longhi’s UK care pages state a minimum of 2 years on its coffee machines.

Against its neighbours

• The Magnifica Evo shares the tank, power and thermoblock, with a single hot carafe, an icon panel and no app, in a lower bracket.
• The Philips 5400 LatteGo also has four profiles and a colour display, with no app connection and no cold drinks, in a narrower and shallower body.
• For the whole range: our De’Longhi comparison, the bean-to-cup comparison and machines with a milk system.

Before paying for the premium bracket, run your numbers in the cost per cup calculator and see what the machine finder suggests for the drinks you actually make. Two carafes also mean two to clean: our cleaning guide covers the routine.