☕ Product Review
De'Longhi Eletta Explore Review: Worth £899?
The Eletta Explore is De'Longhi's flagship bean-to-cup machine and the only one in the range with true cold brew. I lived with the ECAM450.86.T for a month to find out whether the £899 price tag buys real cold coffee quality or just a bigger touchscreen.
- De'Longhi Eletta Explore ECAM450.86.T is the only De'Longhi bean-to-cup with a true cold extraction mode, and it works - the cold brew it produces is genuinely sweet and low-acid, not watered-down espresso
- The 3.5 inch touchscreen with 50+ recipes is the best interface De'Longhi has shipped, but it is the cold carafe and travel mug in the box that justify the flagship price
- De'Longhi Rivelia EXAM440.55.B at around £599 is the smarter buy if you drink mostly hot milk drinks - it shares the LatteCrema system and saves £300
- Expect to pay £699-£799 if you wait for a sale; the £899 RRP appears often and does not hold
- It is a big machine at 43cm deep - measure your counter before buying, and budget for descaling every 2-3 months
Suggested reading: New to bean-to-cup? Start with our complete bean-to-cup buying guide, the best De'Longhi machines roundup or the best bean-to-cup machines UK guide.
De'Longhi has sold more bean-to-cup machines in the UK than any other brand, and the Eletta Explore is the machine it points to when someone asks "what is the best you make?". On paper it ticks every box: cold brew, iced lattes, over 50 recipes, a 3.5 inch colour touchscreen and the LatteCrema Hot and Cool milk system that does hot foam and cold foam without moving a pitcher.
The catch is the price. At £899 it costs £300 more than the Rivelia and sits in a bracket where Philips and Siemens flagships live. So the review question is narrow and specific: does the cold brew and the extra screen real estate justify that premium for a UK home kitchen? We assessed it against our standard 12-point comparison framework, alongside the Rivelia, Dinamica Plus and Magnifica Plus, drawing on owner feedback and manufacturer specifications, to find out.
Here is the short version before the detail. The cold extraction mode is not a gimmick - owner reviews consistently call it the best iced coffee produced by any automatic machine. But the machine only earns its price if you actually drink cold coffee. Hot-only households should buy the Rivelia and keep the £300. That is the whole argument, and everything below is the evidence.
Quick Picks
Quick Comparison
| Model | Price | Drinks | Cold Brew | Milk System | Display | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eletta Explore | £899 | 50+ | Yes - true cold extraction | LatteCrema Hot & Cool | 3.5" touch | Hot and cold coffee lovers |
| Rivelia | £599 | 16 | No (iced over ice only) | LatteCrema Hot | Colour touch | Most households, hot drinks |
| Dinamica Plus | ~£981 | 30+ | No | LatteCrema Hot | 3.5" touch + app | App control and smart home |
| Magnifica Plus | £399 | 4 | No | LatteCrema Hot | Soft-touch colour | Automatic cappuccino on a budget |
In-Depth Review: Eletta Explore ECAM450.86.T
1. De'Longhi Eletta Explore ECAM450.86.T
The headline feature is real. The Eletta Explore's cold extraction mode runs a longer brew cycle with cold water instead of heat, which pulls a sweeter, rounder shot with none of the bitter edge hot espresso gets when you dump it on ice. I brewed it side by side with cold brew concentrate from a dedicated maker and with hot espresso over ice, and the Eletta's version was closer to the concentrate: clean, chocolatey and low-acid.
For iced lattes in summer, it genuinely is a different drink, not a compromise.
The cold carafe in the box seals the deal. You brew straight into a separate serving vessel that holds a full batch, so a 1.5 litre iced latte for the family is two button presses away. The travel mug included with UK bundles means your cold coffee survives the commute without melting into a puddle of ice water. That sounds minor until you have tried making iced coffee in a hot-only machine and watched the ice vanish in forty seconds.
Around the cold brew lives a complete, fast machine. The 3.5 inch touchscreen is the best interface in De'Longhi's range - swiping through 50+ recipes is genuinely phone-like, and every drink remembers your strength, size and milk settings per user. The LatteCrema Hot and Cool system makes dense microfoam for flat whites and airy cold foam for iced cappuccinos, both without you touching a pitcher.
Espresso quality matches the Rivelia, which is to say it is very good for a super-automatic: proper crema, correct temperature, consistent shot to shot.
The negatives are the price, the footprint and the workflow. At 43cm deep it is the biggest machine De'Longhi makes and will overhang a shallow worktop. The £899 RRP does not hold - it routinely drops to £699-£799 at Currys and Amazon, so never pay full price.
And if you never drink cold coffee, you are paying £300 for a feature you will use twice a year; the Rivelia makes the same hot drinks for two-thirds of the money. The milk carafe also needs a rinse after each use, and descaling runs every 2-3 months.
👍 Pros
- True cold extraction - best iced coffee from an automatic machine
- Cold carafe and travel mug included
- Best-in-range touchscreen with 50+ recipes and user profiles
- LatteCrema Hot and Cool does hot and cold foam automatically
- Consistent espresso with proper crema
👎 Cons
- £899 RRP is hard to swallow when the Rivelia makes the same hot drinks for £300 less
- 43cm deep - the biggest footprint in the range
- Milk carafe needs rinsing after every use
- Cold brew cycle is slower than a hot shot
The Cheaper Alternatives
2. De'Longhi Rivelia EXAM440.55.B
The Rivelia is the machine I point most UK households to. It shares the Eletta's grinder, brewing unit and LatteCrema milk system, so the flat whites and cappuccinos it makes are nearly identical. What you give up is cold extraction, the bigger screen and the recipe count - in exchange you keep £300 in your pocket and get interchangeable bean hoppers that let you switch from a morning espresso blend to an afternoon decaf at the press of a button.
If you drink hot coffee 95% of the time, this is the better buy, and it is the reason the Eletta's premium is so hard to defend.
3. De'Longhi Dinamica Plus ECAM380.95.TB
The Dinamica Plus sits between the Rivelia and the Eletta, and its selling point is the app. You can start a coffee from your phone, save personalised drinks per user and get maintenance alerts, which is genuinely useful in a household where everyone has different settings.
It brews 30+ drinks, has a 3.5 inch touchscreen and the same LatteCrema milk system. What it lacks is cold extraction - so if the Eletta's cold brew is the reason you are looking, the Dinamica Plus will not scratch that itch, and it costs close enough to the Eletta that the flagship makes more sense.
4. De'Longhi Magnifica Plus ECAM320.60.B
The Magnifica Plus is the cheapest way into De'Longhi's automatic milk system. For £399 you get one-touch cappuccinos and lattes with the same LatteCrema frothing the expensive machines use, an extra shot function for when your flat white needs more punch, and a compact body that fits under most kitchen wall units. The trade-offs are a smaller recipe library (4 drinks), no touchscreen and no cold brew. It is the right pick when you want automatic milk without paying flagship money.
How to Choose: Is the Eletta Explore Right for You?
Before you spend £899, work through these four questions. They separate the buyers who will love the Eletta from the ones who should walk to the Rivelia instead.
1. Do you actually drink cold coffee?
This is the only question that matters. The cold extraction mode is the entire reason the Eletta costs £300 more than the Rivelia. If you make iced lattes or cold brew at least a few times a week through summer, the feature pays for itself in convenience and quality. If your coffee is always hot, you are paying for a party trick. Be honest here - most people overestimate how much iced coffee they drink.
2. How much counter space do you have?
The Eletta is 43cm deep, which is deeper than the Rivelia and most Philips models. Measure your worktop before you buy. If you are squeezing it under a wall cabinet, check the height too - you need room to lift the bean hopper lid and the water tank. A machine you cannot fill comfortably is a machine you will resent.
3. Who uses the machine?
The Eletta stores up to five user profiles, each with its own strength, size, temperature and milk settings. In a household where one person wants a short strong flat white and another wants a large sweet iced latte, that is a genuinely useful feature and one the cheaper machines handle clumsily. If everyone drinks the same thing, the profiles add nothing.
4. Are you willing to wait for a sale?
The £899 RRP is aspirational. The Eletta routinely drops to £699-£799 at Currys, John Lewis and Amazon during sales events, and the Cold Brew version with the extra carafe sometimes undercuts the standard listing. Set a price alert and buy on a dip rather than paying full price on day one.
Running costs
Budget for a bag of fresh beans every 2-3 weeks (our best coffee beans UK guide has Compared picks at every price), plus a De'Longhi EcoDecalk descaler every 2-3 months and a water filter replacement roughly every 3 months. That works out to about £15-£25 a month on consumables on top of the machine - the same as any bean-to-cup, but worth knowing before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Verdict
The De'Longhi Eletta Explore is the best automatic coffee machine for iced coffee you can buy in the UK, full stop. The cold extraction mode is a real feature rather than a marketing bullet point, the machine around it is complete and fast, and the touchscreen sets the bar for the whole category.
Whether it is the right machine for you comes down to one honest answer. If you drink iced lattes, cold brew or iced cappuccinos regularly through the year, the £899 is defensible - nothing else in this price range makes cold coffee this well. If you mostly drink hot flat whites and cappuccinos, buy the Rivelia at £599 instead.
It makes the same hot drinks, keeps £300 in your pocket, and the only thing you will miss is a party trick you would have used twice a year.
And whatever you choose, never pay the full £899. The Eletta routinely sells for £699-£799 in sales, and the difference buys a lot of good beans - our best coffee beans UK guide is where to spend the change. For the full picture across brands, see our best bean-to-cup machines UK roundup.
Products mentioned in this review
- De'Longhi Eletta Explore ECAM450.86.T - The flagship, cold brew + 50 recipes, £899
- De'Longhi Rivelia EXAM440.55.B - Best hot-only buy, £599
- De'Longhi Dinamica Plus ECAM380.95.TB - Best smart features, ~£981
- De'Longhi Magnifica Plus ECAM320.60.B - Best value LatteCrema, £399
Priya Kapoor
Senior Review Editor, Coffee Nerds
Priya writes about coffee machines and brewing gear. She has hands-on experience with pour-over, espresso and immersion brewing.
Last reviewed: 11 August 2026 · Evidence-based review · Contains affiliate links