Others say...

"Makes You Want to Come to Work for the Coffee"
We have a Jura-Capresso IMPRESSA Z5 at our office, and everyone loves it, especially because of the one-touch cappuccino. Each person can personalize their cup - cappuccino, latte, espresso, coffee or hot chocolate. It brews cup by cup, but it's high-pressure brewed, so the coffee is higher quality that many other cup-by-cup machines. Warning: other coffee won't taste as good once you try the Z5.

"GREAT DEAL....FOR Capresso! lol... "
I was given this as a gift and originally thought "WOW, a $3200 coffee maker is gunna be great" kinda the super high quality stuff only people how own private jets get.... wrong.
The Z5 works ok out of the box, but falls way short on the "trouble free use" dept. From the first two test cups i had to call CS. Apparently, if you set the grinder on to "fine" it clogs up...after the first two cups.

The biggest problem and most annoying thing is the steamer/frother. It suppose to siphon the milk through the hose and mix it with steam. It does this, but only about 15% of less of the time. Most of the time it blows steam through the hose and into the milk or just steams for 25 seconds (REALLY annoying when your using the milk steamer to milk hot coco, the steam will actually blow the coco powder EVERYWHERE). I've called CS sing maybe day 6 and now im at day 400 and still no fix. Over 1.2 years and 25 + phone calls, I've been told to take the steamer assembly apart and clean it over and over again and STILL its cant consistently siphon milk. Finally on the last call to CS the sent out a new steamer assembly, but same results.
I've also had problems with lukewarm coffee, and "tray missing" if the middle of making a cup(which aborts the coffee production) to deal with.

The latest thing is a funny noise after a cup of coffee has been made. It seems to have a much longer recovery time after a cup then before with a lot more clicking then usual. I suspect something is breaking, but fear it will be $100s to fix (which i wont pay) and so my $3200 coffee machine will be junk.

To summarize, the Z5 is a great idea/concept, makes good coffee simply, but cut corners, crappy warranty and numerous annoying problems make it the worst cool machine I've owned. Not worth the money or problems but AWESOME if you know someone who has one...


"Just a Tip!"
I have owned the Z5 for about 6-months so far. I have had none of the problems that some have posted here. I did want to post a tip for those that have complained about the machine not making HOT latte's, etc.

First, do not even bother using those cheap ceramic cups, etc. You need a thermal glass espresso cup (sold at various places online). If you make your espresso and you can feel that the cup is warm, just throw the cup away. You need one that will hold in the heat and not dissapate it. If you get a nice glass thermal cup, you will find you don't even need to pre-heat the cup with hot water.

Second, if you desire super hot latte's. Let the steam run for a few seconds to heat up the barrel that feeds into the cup. Then, just move the dial until the milk starts to flow. The farther you push this to the "steam" zone, the hotter the milk will be.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with this machine. My initial complaint that I had with the machine had to do with the heat of my latte's. That was until I put a temperature gauge on this an realized it was coming out super hot, but it was somehow much cooler in the cup. Changed to glass... pre-heat barrel (if latte/cap) and you'll be golden.

"Don't waste the money"
Having had an amazing cup of coffee at a neighbors house (made by a Z5), I was sold. Two weeks later, our Starbucks solution had arrived. As mentioned by other reviewers, the coffee, lattes, caps, etc... were excellent and the machine performed as advertised. In fact, we had regular visits by our neighbors, just for the coffee.
But please be warned that these machines do not last and will require major repairs after the warranty has lapsed. Both my machine and that of my neighbors have stopped working, displaying "error 8" and refusing to do anything other than take up space on the kitchen counter. I realize that things aren't made like they used to be, but for $3,000+ I expect a heck of a lot more than one year's worth of light use. While lacking some of the features of the Z5, there are plenty of "super automatics" that are far more reliable and much cheaper. Don't bother with this machine.

"So far, so good"
After returning both a Saeco Primea Touch Plus (it gave me an error message after less than 2 months, at which time I was told to return the machine to the manufacturer for repair), and the new DeLonghi Gran Dama, which has a serious problem with the milk carafe (it doesn't fit properly on the machine - I had this problem with not one, but two machines), I think I've finally found the answer. I was always dissatisfied with the milk temperature (I use a lot of milk in my lattes), but now with this machine - the milk is very hot, as is the espresso - no need to microwave, as with some of the other super-automatics.

Set up was fairly fast (I wasn't as fast as one of the reviewers at 10 minutes, but had it pretty well figured out in less than an hour), the first few test drinks are excellent. I read somewhere that you couldn't store the thermal carafe in the refrigerator, but I think this is a fallacy. The Capresso DVD, as well as the instructions, say that you can, and I can't think of any reason that you can't.

If you want to make the coffee directly in a large (16 oz.) paper cup, you can do so with the left spouts - another reviewer points out that the center spouts don't raise high enough to accomodate a very large cup, which is true, but with all of the customization features, you can program the machine to dispense the coffee from the left spout, which is tall enough.

After having terrible, rude, largely non-responsive customer service from Saeco, I asked was happy to hear from a number of sources that Jura Capresso has excellent customer service. I haven't had to test it yet, but from everything I heard, I'm hopeful that it'll be good.

Pros:

Great tasting espresso, cappucino and latte
Fairly easy to master
Great looking, titanium-faced, as opposed to the metal-clad plastic featured on many other expensive super automatics

Cons:
It's definitely expensive, but still seems in line with other similar machines, and it's better designed

Lastly, I would recommend the Z5 versus the Z6, unless you are totally sold on a chrome face - the machine does splash a bit, as one would expect, and the matte finish on the Z5 seems much more practical and forgiving of fingerprints, splashes, etc.