KitchenAid - KF8 (KES8558SX)

Oof. I just purchased my KF8 with insider pass for $1799. You got a steal!

That’s how I feel about my KitchenAid KF8. Highly raved and praised online but I’m on my third machine after the first 2 were duds. Got it from Whirlpool website so no returns allowed. Retail price is like $2K but it’s all plastic build too some parts flimsy af. I wouldn’t care about all the plastic parts if the machine just worked flawlessly.

I have them them both.  The taste is different, I wouldn't say one is noticably better or thousands better for that matter either. 

I think if you get a quality machine it will last many many years of use. The time to make a latte from machine off to coffee in cup for my KitchenAid KF8 is probably 2 or 3 minutes. Cleanup can wait until later in the day when you have time but really it’s just dumping the grounds bin and running a rinse on the milk system. Takes maybe 2 more minutes. In total from powered off to drink made and machine cleaned maybe 5 minutes. Way faster than a traditional espresso setup with a grinder and only maybe a tiny bit slower than a pod machine.

I think there is a pretty notable difference. I went from a Philips 5400 (same machine as the 3200/3300 just fancier features) to a using my brother in laws Delonghi Dinamica Plus pretty regularly, to the KitcheAid KF8 we have now and I would say every one of them was a noticeable jump in quality even though we drink milk drinks 90%+ of the time. The real question I think is if the KF8 is 50% better than the Philips since that is about the price difference and personally I think so, but I’d wager that most people would find it to fall in the diminishing returns category.

Based on your budget and desire to get excellent espresso, I’d suggest either a KitchenAid or Jura unit. Jura may be hard to find in that budget but it’s the absolute best espresso I’ve ever had from a super auto. KitchenAid is a very close second (like 90-95% as good). Delonghi does great milk and acceptable espresso in my opinion. But I find that KitchenAid and Jura are very close to Delonghi in milk quality and their markedly better espresso puts them over Delonghi. I personally ended up with a KitchenAid KF8 after trying quite a few machines (Philips 5400, Delonghi Dinamica Plus, a few Juras, and I can’t remember what else).

Not necessarily. I think it may fit your particular situation quite well, but if you had a larger budget or could sneak one into your current budget I’d probably suggest Jura since it sounds like espresso quality is the absolute most important thing to you. I think KitchenAid probably fits your budget better than a Jura and to me it’s a marked step up in espresso quality from the Delonghi. I like Delonghi machines but I think Jura and KitchenAid are both better for pure coffee quality.

Both my Philips and KitchenAid had explicit instructions in their manuals on what can only be described as a break in period. What would you like to call making and dumping 10 shots, followed by not adjusting the grinder for X period of time?

You can also just go into this subs lounge section and ask for one. Someone in there will certainly be able to hook you up. That’s how I got my KF8.

My personal opinion is Jura is at the top for pure drink quality, and KitchenAid for the best blend of UI, drink quality, and ease of maintenance. We personally chose a KF8 for our house after trying or owning a machine from basically every manufacturer that is readily available in the US. Delonghi while good, I just don’t think is really on the same level as those two. I find our KF8 and the Juras I’ve tried make a superior drink to my brother in laws Dinamica Plus by a pretty significant margin and the KF8 has a better UI and easier maintenance.

Personally I went with the KitchenAid KF8 and it has been spectacular. It makes great coffee and milk drinks, the UI is simple and straightforward, maintenance is dead simple, and maybe my favorite part, it’s very quiet for a super auto. Delonghi also makes a good machine. My brother in law has a Delonghi and it makes great coffee. It’s definitely better than the Philips my wife and I had before the KA. But I think the KA is a step up from Delonghi. TK I don’t have any first hand experience with, but they have a pretty rough reputation. Lots of problems with machines, poor performance, questionable customer service, etc. These could be the growing pains of a relatively new company, but it doesn’t fill me with confidence. Note to be fair they do also have a contingent of customers who are very happy and praise the novel design and features. Personally though, I’d stick with a more traditional brand like Delonghi, KitchenAid, Jura, Miele, etc.

Edit: We tried the Bosch 500 from Costco, not the 800. The 800 doesn't have the bypass chute.  TLDR: We ended up with the KF8, after getting and returning both a Jura J8, and the Bosch 800.  I'll try to answer since it seems like I was in your shoes a few months ago. I made the switch from a Lelit Elizabeth semi-automatic to a super automatic, with a new born since we never found the time to work on the Lelit with the demands of the baby.  Our requirements were fairly similar; I mostly drink espressos and americanos. The wife likes lattes, one in the morning and one in the evening, both usually oat milk. The other main consideration was, that we switch to decaf usually mid to late afternoon.  We tried the Bosch from Costco. For me, it made okay espressos, not as full in body and crema as the Lelit, but definitely passable, especially in the Americanosn and milk drinks. However, the wife always complained about the milk drinks not being hot enough. The other drawback was that even though it has a decaf bypass, if we made five or six decaf drinks I had to weigh, grind, insert the grounds in the bypass for every single shot. That became too tedious. I also found that the decaf pucks would never be as strong than what came out of the hopper inside the machine. Maybe it was user error since I ground up the coffee myself. Regardless, we under ended up returning it a few weeks later.  My office has a Jura Giga 10 at work, and it makes really good espressos. So, I convinced the life to look at the Juras and we ended up settling on the J8 with the upgraded grinder and sweet foam function. It was definitely more than I wanted to spend, but we figured it would hopefully last for a many years. The espressos were great, the milk temperature was passable, but the sweet foam function was a gimmick. However, I had the same problem with the decaf bypass... Jura also has the J8 twin with dual hoppers but we didn't feel like spending close to 4K. The biggest issue with the Jura was the cleaning after every milk drink. Once you set up the cleaning pipe and the bucket, it's very simple, but to do that after every milk drink was a pain. They also recommended doing a cleaning with their cleaning crystals at the end of every day. I forgot to do it a few times and the next morning I had to take apart the front to really get the dried off milk cleaned up. So back it went to the UPS guy.  So now we come to the KitchenAid. It was not even on our radar but there are like 100 different posts for it, on this subreddit. We ordered it using the insider pass. I had some reservations since the return policy is rather vague and says that they only return unused and new items. So the espresso was very decent... not as complex and rich as the J8,  but definitely better than the Bosch. I've been playing around with the intensity and body settings and have dialed it pretty close to what the Jura made. It's still nowhere close to the Lelit.  However, the pluses make up for any drawbacks. The Insider Pass was almost a 30% discount. I also ordered two extra bean hoppers with lids for a light roast I like and and for our decaf beans. Honestly, this feature alone sold it for me. We have the regular hopper in the morning, I switch it to decaf in the afternoon before my last caffinated drink of the day. At the end of the night, I put back the regular hopper which takes about 5 seconds to change.  For the lattes, it does a pretty good job with oat milk, although some of the high fat oat milk doesn't steam and froth really well. We have settled on Califa Barista edition which works really well. I cannot say anything about the bypass shoot, since I have not tried it. Lastly the cleaning has been super easy after milk drinks. The hose that goes to the milk container just plugs into the drip tray and the machine runs a cleaning cycle.  I'm sure the machine has some drawbacks, which I have yet to encounter. However, when I think about the workflow to make an espresso in the Lelit, I definitely don't miss it anymore after using the KF8 for a month.  All the best to you.  

This is a good write up. I know I couldn’t tell the difference in an espresso shot made from good beans in any decent machine. But I was also relatively content with a Nespresso machine, except the waste created. I can tell the difference in a Nespresso shot vs a super auto, but I couldn’t between super autos. The kitchenaid sold me on value and consistency of preparing the almond milk foam for my wife’s drinks. Our previous machine had a wand and we were never able to consistently prepare the milk.

First caveat - I am not a coffee snob or purist. I spent years using a Breville Nespresso Machine with a steam wand. I drink straight espresso shots, my wife loves milk coffee drinks (caramel latte with extra almond milk foam” I am an idiot and didn’t know Nestle made nespresso, so a few years ago I switched to a different brand pod to not give them money, but also hated recycling the pods. So I decided to make the jump. I was gifted an older Delonghi super auto with steam wand, but my wife couldn’t get the steamed/frothed milk consistently, so some days she didn’t enjoy her drink or simply threw it out. I came here to find something user friendly for my wife. I went with the insider discounted KitchenAid K8 (or whatever it’s called). I am a bit of a kitchenaid fan, so it was easier for me to pull the trigger on $1,400 than if it was another brand, but I have loved it for the last month or two. My espresso shots have great body and flavor (pretty close to hand pulled at my local coffee shop that I source beans from). It’s not quite AS good, but really close to the point that I probably couldn’t tell the difference in a blind taste test (I’m sure people with more refined palates could, I’m the same with wines) My wife absolutely loves the milk drinks compared to the Nespresso, and most days think they are better than Starbucks (again, we aren’t coffee aficionados, which is why I mentioned that, I know Starbucks is not the best latte in the world). The only difference in her drink is the pump of caramel and sugar I out (I’m half asleep when I make her coffee in the mornings). But the coffee and the almond milk foam are consistent. If something happened and the machine gets electrocuted or dropped on the floor, I would 100% purchase it again. It is overly focused on cleaning itself, which forces me to care for it way more than I would - which is a good thing for long term use and maintenance I imagine. If you aren’t a top tier espresso taster or sommelier- I would recommend this machine for sure. It’s easy to use, tells you what to do, and is super consistent from a general coffee drinkers perspective. Again, I won’t pretend it’s the best espresso shot you can get, nor would I be able to tell you what makes a machine better than another at making superior espresso. I just know it always tastes the same (using the same beans) and it always satisfies me and my wife (and my son). Hope this sort of helps you. I’d imagine if you are like me, any superauto around $1,000 would probably be sufficient. I just happen to have this one and it’s been amazing. The Jura models didn’t have anything in my preferred budget and the KitchenAid name made it an easy pill to swallow with the employee pricing. Best of luck!!

I had the same journey from Nespresso as you. It’s night and day difference in the three super autos I’ve tasted - but my palate wouldn’t be able to differentiate between them, but I could tell which was from a pod. Happy with my Kitchenaid, but I’m sure I’d be happy with anything I bought in similar price points. I just trusted the kitchenaid name as a long time consumer of their products and they offer steep deals if you search around Reddit

Ah yes, the rare, early waking, non fire spitting awake in the morning teenager. Great laugh here. On a more serious caffeine note, love our KitchenAid KF8. For under $1k, you can buy a KF6 on prime day deal.

So I finally bought a machine, I got the Kitchenaid KF8

KF7 KF8 Edit: whoops.  Failed my copy-paste check  KitchenAid model 7 or 8. Quiet, great results at a very good price for the capabilities. 

Don't overlook Kitchen Aid KF 6, 7 or 8 that are made in the same Swiss factory as Miele and Jura. Great results for what you are looking for. Consider this post as paying it forward!