Eletta Cappuccino Evo (ECAM46860B, ECAM46860S)

I had a Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino Top. It only lasted 24 months and 6 days. That’s pretty poor, when the old manual I had lasted 10 years. I’ve gone back to a manual espresso and it outperforms the automatics with consistent hot coffee and great micro-foamed milk, though I need to work on my latte art

The Eletta Evo is great

I’ve had the De’Linghi Eletta Cappuccino since 2019. Love the grind and brew and milk feature. You mentioned temps - the lattes or macchiatos I make are quite hot for me.

I'm a fan of the Delonghi Elatta (I think that's what it's called) as it does iced as well as hot coffee which is great in summer. It's an automatic style one though. Campos beans or Toby's Estate is my pick!

That is what I did. A positive surprise is that a super automatic is much less hassle to clean up. I have a Delonghi Eletta.

Automatic milk frother. Dial from hot milk to heavy foam, works perfectly every time. I own several manual and semiautomatic espresso machines and vote 2x on the Delonghi magnifica evo. He'll love a superautomatic espresso machine, and the Delonghi is the best on the market. On my Delonghi Eletta (about 2x your price point, but same brew group as the less expensive De'Longhi machines), to clean the milk unit, I just pull the milk frother from the machine, pop off the top, wash out the container, pull off three knobs/ spouts and flush under the faucet. ~20 seconds max. If I leave milk in the unit, I turn the dial to flush, it runs hot, clean water through the nozzle to clean it out. ~10 seconds. Then I put the unit with milk in it, in the fridge. De'Longhi makes great espresso, lots of crema, foam is silky smooth and really creamy. Their machines are easy to use, easy to clean. He should be delighted if he likes espresso.

Get a super automatic and be done with it. I love my refurbished Delonghi Eletta. I buy specialty beans online so my coffee tastes great. Counter Culture, Klatch, Superlost and Color all have great beans.