Nespresso Vertuo Up Coffee and Espresso Maker w/ Aeroccino Milk Frother by De'Longhi

After our previous machine broke after 5 years, I decided to purchase this model four months ago. The Pros: The ease of cleaning/descaling the machine through the app The over ice feature The quality of the brew The ability to personalize temp, size, etc in the app The Cons: The catch basin for used pods is smaller The water basin is smaller It is loud (the machine itself and inserting the pod) There are many pieces to clean ***The MOST SIGNIFICANT CON The amount of liquid that falls into the drip tray/used pod area is excessive. It spills nearly every time we recycle the pods. Additionally, if we don't empty and clean the tray daily, mold grows quickly in the summer heat. We went on vacation and left in a hurry, forgetting to clean the tray that day. When we returned after 6 days, there were maggots crawling in the tray. I have been a loyal and loving Nespresso consumer for over 10 years. This is our third machine and the first I have been extremely disappointed in. The required frequency of cleaning in order to maintain basic health and safety standards is overwhelming and detracts from the efficiency of a pod based machine. Before purchasing, I read other reviews about the water in the drip tray/used pod basin, but thought maybe those machines were lemons based on the overall positive average rating. I should have trusted those customers. If I could do it over, I would purchase a different machine.

After two months of use, I wrote a review giving this new Verturo Up two stars. After just one more month of use, unfortunately I have to update my review to just one star. Pros to machine: -nice design -warms up in just a few seconds (an improvement over the 30-second warm up of my last machine) -The quality of the coffee appears to be the same as with my previous machines Cons: -much worse quality than any other Nespresso machine I've purchased -design has the pods drop straight down into a basket but lots of water falls into that basket/tray, too, which causes mold since there is no ventilation unless you clean it daily -machine splashes a ton when pouring the coffee into your cup; not sure if that is the design of the spout or the length the coffee has to fall, but especially on my “pearl white” machine, that means I have to wipe down the machine after each use -after 2 months of use, the machine starting making a loud gear-like noise when it runs Overall, this is the worst product I have purchased from Nespresso, but I have had good experiences in the past and enjoy their coffee, so I will likely replace my Vertuo Up with another Nespresso machine.