Gaggia Synchrony Compact

We have two of these Gaggia Synchrony Compact machines - one in each of our houses. Both perform reliably. Regular descaling (one of them is in a very hard water area) and a service by Gaggia every other year and evrything is fine.

So so many bad points for the Gaggia Synchrony Compact. You have no way of telling what is wrong with the machine when the red light starts flashing and it stops working. So you have to check everything. Also, it uses the same brew unit as has been used in our last three Gaggia machines - and it has some serious engineering faults. The thing breaks down on a daily basis.

The Gaggia Synchrony is a great idea, but poorly executed. In less than 3 years, our machine has been back for repairs 6 times. Once it even came back with the original problem solved, but a new problem in its place. It suffers from irritating niggles, e.g. sometimes it persists in displaying the "fill water tank" message (meaning it's impossible to make coffee) even when the water tank is full to the brim. Currently, it is grinding the coffee, making a series of banging noises, then ejecting the grounds without actually making a cup of coffee, which is very wasteful of coffee beans. All in all, it has been a very disappointing purchase, and I wouldn't recommend the Synchrony to anybody.

Does everything (supposed to) like store beans, grind, produce coffee and steam for the milk. Looks good.

I didn't prefer the water container right above the electrical input especially when you had a full container and carefully had to put it in place.

One of the main bad points that made me get a refund, was the steam wasnt 100% steam - we had too much water coming through which was adding to the milk and didn't heat it up from cold as it was meant to. (maybe we got a dud but it's put me off Gaggias).

We couldn't fit two large cups under the coffee nozzle - but then again I suppose this had espressos in mind for its main purpose.