Posted: February 7, 2011, 10:34amI am luck to have my talea ring plus all to myself. It would be frustrating to share it due to the water reservoir issues and someone else leaving it near empty with no visual cue. Overall I love my machine.-Fully customizable brewing
-multiple sensors to give you alerts for things needing attention
-sophisticated grinder
removable brewing unit
-adjustable cup shelf-proprietary water filter
-small water reservoir with no water level indicator
shallow angled bean hopper means that you have to regularly push beans towards the grinder inlet.With all the sophistication this unit has I was surprised it doesn't have a water level indicator.The unit only tells you when the reservoir is empty instead of letting you know to add more water before you start. To have the brewing stop half way through makes for an inconsistent cup. It would have been easy to add a clear window on the reservoir with a plastic float to give you an idea if you have enough water to brew a cup. The proprietary filter is a joke...it takes up room in an already small water reservoir and is expensive. After mine expired I threw it out and did not replace it. I just use pre-filtered water in it now which is less expensive and my tank holds more water now. I did this with my last machine with a similar pump and it is still going strong 10 years later. The bean hopper is not as much of a problem but you do have to keep you eye on it otherwise you waste a few beans as it thinks the hopper is empty and dumps the initial partial grind. I find when the hopper is 2/3rds the way through it's capacity, I have to open it and either sweep them over or re-fill.
Other that these problems, the ring plus is great and brews a consistent cup. The grinder seems to adjust well to different beans and I love not having to grind beans separately. Overall this unit is a real time saver. I think it will pay for itself over time compared to drip, bodum or percolated coffee if you consider the coffee wastage. The looks are great and although it looks bigger than my old unit, the footprint is about the same.
Second espresso machine, first superautomatic.Posted: February 7, 2011, 10:34am
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