The full story
By the Espresso Rated editors · Published Nov 12, 2026 · Updated Nov 13, 2026
The Eletta Explore is De'Longhi's hot-and-cold super-automatic: 52 drinks, a built-in grinder and two LatteCrema carafes, one for hot foam and one for cold. The praise centers on the espresso, the hot milk and the screen. The complaints are about the cold foam, the extra carafe, the app and a few reliability reports.
Rich, sweet espresso under good crema, and a cold brew made in minutes8.7/10
The espresso is the reason to buy this machine, and it is praised almost without exception. Shots come out rich and sweet with a good crema. Tom's Coffee Corner tasted nougat and milk chocolate in a creamy shot1, and Coffee Kev ranks the espresso among the best he has had from a bean-to-cup machine.
“it does happen to produce a nice rich cup of coffee with a very good Crema basically it did not produce a single bad cup of coffee when it worked”
The cold drinks are the unusual part. The machine brews a cold coffee in a few minutes, and Tom's Coffee Corner accepts it as a real cold brew by super-automatic standards2. BrewViant adds the sensible caution that a fast cold brew is not identical to one steeped slowly overnight.
The caveats are small and specific. Coffee Kev dislikes the minimum espresso volumes and the way the single and double relate in dose3, and he finds the cold espresso options a bit odd. There is one temperature setting for every drink, coffee comes out hot enough that you may wait to sip it, and decaf has to go through the ground-coffee chute.
Thick hot foam, a thinner cold cap and a second carafe to store7.0/10
Hot milk is widely liked. The foam is thick, sweet and well textured, and you can set how frothy it comes out. Coffeeness puts it plainly: "hot foam from the Eletta is excellent"4. Coffee Kev places the texture alongside the best he has had from an automatic.
Cold foam is a step down. It works, but Coffeeness found the cap "much smaller and more unstable than with hot drinks"5, and Home Coffee Expert describes the cold output as less luxurious. Treat it as a bonus for iced lattes, not the reason to buy.
The two-carafe design is the trade-off. Each milk system has its own container, and Home Coffee Expert calls that "kind of annoying"6: one more part to store and wash. Coffee Kev also finds the milk a bit cool for some tastes, and Brains Report saw the foaming splutter right after descaling.
A touchscreen that earns its praise, an app to ignore and a grinder some find loud6.4/10
The screen is the easy part, and day-to-day workflow around it divides opinion. The menu is smooth and well organized, and The Wolf of Williamsburg rates it among the best interfaces on any super-automatic he has covered7. Favorites, user profiles and a to-go mode for travel mugs mean most mornings are one press.
The app is the weak link. Tom's Coffee Corner says "the app is terrible"8 and advises using the machine on its own. Wi-Fi linking is reported as fiddly, the Bean Adapt setup can only be done through the app, and two sources say the app is not offered with the US model at all.
A few daily habits are worth knowing. Coffealover EN timed the morning start: "We had to wait 1 minute and 40 seconds to enjoy our first espresso of the morning."9 The tank holds 60.87 oz, which Chris Stead still found himself refilling often. Grinder noise is disputed, quiet in some accounts and screechy in others, and the ground-coffee chute can clog with fine grinds.
Automatic rinses and dishwasher-safe carafes, with a drip tray that spills on the way to the sink7.3/10
Upkeep is widely liked for a machine this complex. It rinses itself before and after use, flushes the milk spout after each drink, and prompts you when it wants descaling or a new filter. Both carafes come apart easily, and the carafes and drip tray can go in the dishwasher.
The automatic rinse does not do everything. Tom's Coffee Corner points out that the stem reaching into the milk and the carafe itself are not cleaned by it10, so they need washing by hand or machine. Coffealover EN describes the big cleaning job as simple but long11.
The drip tray and grounds bin draw the complaints. The Wolf of Williamsburg found the tray complicated and prone to dripping between machine and sink, and the brew unit hard to remove. Pucks were bone dry for Coffeeness, but Chris Stead found the bin humid enough to grow mold, so empty it often.
Italian-made plastic that feels solid, with a four-day failure and a touchscreen repair on record7.2/10
Build is widely liked. The body is mostly plastic and does not feel cheap, and units checked by Coffee Kev and Tom's Coffee Corner were made in Italy. Perfect Pick reports no loss of performance after months of daily use, with the grinder and controls still working as new12.
The record is not clean. The Wolf of Williamsburg's machine slowed to a trickle and then stopped brewing: "it broke after about 4 days"13. The Vincelli channel had a touchscreen fault, which De'Longhi handled well under warranty, and has had no other trouble.
Cosmetic wear shows up too. Brains Report notes "a little discoloration after 9 months of use"14 even with regular washing. The long-term evidence here runs to months, not years, so keep the box and the receipt.
A lot of machine at $1,499.95, if the cold side gets used6.1/10
Value divides opinion, and the split is about how you drink coffee. For a household that uses the cold brew, both milk systems and the long menu, Coffee Warehouse's line holds: "All the features for that price it's hard to beat."15 Home Coffee Expert agrees, while warning that the price is high enough to check which features you will really use.
“But if you mainly drink espresso, cappuccino, or regular hot coffee, you may be paying for a lot of technology that you rarely use.”
There is a cheaper route to the same coffee. Tom's Coffee Corner recommends the Dinamica Plus for anyone who does not need the cold drinks, and says it performs exactly the same in his experience16.
Running costs are modest but real. Descaler, a cleaning brush and both carafes come in the box. The water filter needs replacing every few months, and Chris Stead found his ran out sooner than he expected.
Our verdict
Buy the Eletta Explore if your household wants good espresso, thick hot foam and iced drinks from one machine, all from a screen anyone can use. Skip it if the cold side would sit idle, because a cheaper De'Longhi makes the same hot coffee, or if you want real control over the shot. Measure your counter depth and the space under your cabinets before ordering. Keep the packaging through the warranty period, and plan to ignore the app.
9 sources quoted in this story (16 notes)
- 1Tom's Coffee Corner · 7:02 “That is a nice creamy shot. I'm certainly getting a little bit of nougat, milk chocolate in there. It's got some nice sweetness.”
- 2Tom's Coffee Corner · 18:24 “So I will call that a real cold brew as well as a super automatic can do one.”
- 3Coffee Kev · 14:08 “I'm not a huge fan of the minimum espresso volumes and the way the espresso and two times espresso relate to each other in terms of dose”
- 4coffeeness.de · written review “By the way, hot foam from the Eletta is excellent.”
- 5coffeeness.de · written review “The foam cap is much smaller and more unstable than with hot drinks.”
- 6homecoffeeexpert.com · written review “Having two separate carafes, one for hot and one for cold foam, is kind of annoying.”
- 7The Wolf of Williamsburg · 2:09 “this is by the way one of the best screens and interfaces that I have used on any of the super automatic machines that I have reviewed”
- 8Tom's Coffee Corner · 34:41 “The user interface I like. It's pretty nice and smooth to use.” but “This has a Wi-Fi interface, but the app is terrible. Honestly, just use the machine on its own.”
- 9Coffealover EN · 2:00 “We had to wait 1 minute and 40 seconds to enjoy our first espresso of the morning.”
- 10Tom's Coffee Corner · 15:37 “You can see the stem going down into the milk, that doesn't get clean. Neither does the carafe itself.”
- 11Coffealover EN · 3:17 “It is really very simple, but quite long. All in all, it takes over an hour.”
- 12Perfect Pick · 7:21 “after several months of daily use I can attest to the Ala explores durability the machine has maintained its performance with without any noticeable degradation”
- 13The Wolf of Williamsburg · 0:25 “it broke after about 4 days which for a $2,000 machine is unacceptable”
- 14Brains Report · 10:57 “even washing it though, it does have a little discoloration after 9 months of use. It's not perfect”
- 15Coffee Warehouse · 13:50 “All the features for that price it's hard to beat.”
- 16Tom's Coffee Corner · 34:24 “if not, then I can recommend the Dynamica Plus. That one's a bit cheaper than this machine. It performs exactly the same in my experience.”
