De'Longhi Magnifica S: buttons, a dial and no milk carafe

Capacity and clearance, in plain numbers

Count roughly 120 ml for a long coffee and the 1.8 l tank gives about 15 cups per fill, before the water the machine spends on rinsing. For a couple at two cups each, that is a refill twice a week. For a household of four, plan on every other day.

The hopper takes 250 g. A 227 g or 250 g bag goes in whole; a 1 kg bag needs an airtight tin in the meantime. At 8 to 10 g a cup (our assumption, not De’Longhi’s), a full hopper lasts roughly 25 to 30 cups.

The manual gives 24 cm wide, 43 cm deep and 35 cm high, one of the narrower bodies in our comparison of compact bean-to-cup machines. Height needs more thought than width: the figure does not include the room to tip beans in or lift the tank out, so measure the gap under your wall cupboards first. Cups up to 14 cm fit under the spout, so check your tallest mug. At 8.9 kg it can be slid forward for cleaning, but it is not a machine to put away after breakfast.

Milk: a steam wand and your own hand

The Magnifica S has no automatic milk system. The machine pulls the coffee, then you froth milk in a jug at the steam wand and pour it yourself. It is one more step for each drink, but there is no carafe or milk tube to wash afterwards: you wipe the wand and that is that.

If milk drinks are an occasional treat, this is a sensible trade. If two people in the house want a cappuccino every morning, compare the models in our guide to bean-to-cup machines with a milk system first.

Two recipes, a dial and a brew group that comes out

De’Longhi counts 2 coffee recipes, espresso and espresso lungo, with hot water on top and a two-cup function. Treat that number as the manufacturer’s own count: every brand counts differently, so it is no yardstick between makes. Controls are buttons plus a dial, with no display to navigate.

The brew group is removable according to the manual, so you can take it out and rinse it under running water; the cleaning guide sets out how often. Everything else is washed by hand too: De’Longhi’s manual says none of the machine’s components can go in a dishwasher. Its product pages are looser and do not agree with each other (the UK page mentions the drip tray grid, the German page the grounds container), so follow the manual.

The UK model and its neighbours

The data here describes the ECAM 22.110.B, which De’Longhi lists on its UK site. Other Magnifica S models appear on De’Longhi’s German and French sites (ECAM 22.110.SB, ECAM 11.112.B, ECAM 22.140.B); we have not confirmed them for the UK, and the figures on this page should not be assumed to apply to them.

Within De’Longhi’s own range, two models sit close by:

• The Magnifica Start has the same stated tank, hopper, pump pressure and power, but swaps the buttons and dial for a touch-sensitive panel, and its product page names a thermoblock heating system.
• The Magnifica Evo adds a milk carafe and more one-touch drinks. We set the two side by side in Magnifica S vs Magnifica Evo.

Outside the brand, the obvious rival is the Philips 2200, which also uses a manual frother but publishes its number of grind settings: see Magnifica S vs Philips 2200.

Gaps in De’Longhi’s documents

• Burr type and grind settings. Neither the product page nor the manual gives them. If fine control over grind matters to you, read our guide to grind size and treat this as a gap, not a hidden strength or weakness.
• Heating system. Not stated on the Magnifica S product page.
• Noise. No manufacturer publishes a decibel figure for these machines. It is on our list of planned measurements.
• Two sets of dimensions. The manual and the product page disagree: the web page shows the machine a centimetre narrower, a centimetre lower and nearly two kilos heavier. We follow the manual.
• Guarantee terms. De’Longhi’s UK care pages state a minimum guarantee of 2 years on coffee machines; the exact terms come with the machine.

Is it the right machine for you?

If you are still weighing up whether a bean-to-cup machine is right at all, the machine finder narrows the field in a few questions, and the cost per cup calculator shows what beans cost you against pods using your own prices. All nine machines are set side by side in our bean-to-cup comparison.