Delonghi Dinamica Plus Review

Quick Answer: I strongly recommend the Delonghi Dinamica Plus especially if you like milk drinks and there will be more than one of you using the machine. 

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus is one of the most expensive of Delonghi’s dozens of super-automatic espresso machines.

In Let’s Delonghi Dinamica Plus review, I’ll assess the machine’s drink quality, ease of use, and durability, and see whether it’s worth paying a premium for compared to other Delonghi models.

I’ll also be comparing the Dinamica Plus to similarly priced models from Jura and Philips.

Let’s get started.

Should I Buy the Delonghi Dinamica Plus?

I recommend the Delonghi Dinamica Plus if you are going to be making a lot of milk drinks and if there will be more than one of you using the machine.

I really like the Dinamica Plus. I think it more than justifies its price tag, especially compared to Jura machines.

It creates a really good espresso by super-automatic espresso machine standards and its LatteCrema milk system offers a good value between steamed milk quality, variety of milk textures, and ease of keeping it clean.

If you are going to be the only person using the machine then I’d recommend getting the Delonghi Dinamica with LatteCrema instead of the Delonghi Dinamica Plus.

This is the exact same as the Delonghi Dinamica Plus except it’s operated with buttons rather than a touch screen and doesn’t have user profiles. 

Its workflow is the exact same as the Dinamica Plus (even without a touch screen) and its lack of user profiles shouldn’t be a problem if you’re the only person using the machine.

If you only drink black drinks then I’d get the base Dinamica which has a steam wand instead of the LatteCrema system. This costs significantly less than the Dinamica Plus and Dinamica with LatteCrema.

Delonghi Dinamica Plus Pros

Good tasting espresso, especially by super automatic espresso machine standards.

Steams milk to three textures so there is real variation between your milk drinks.

Less messy than super automatics with external milk containers (Jura machines for example).

Delonghi Dinamica Plus Cons

Some of its menu items are redundant or just outright bad.

All its drinks are a noticeable step down from what you’d get in an artisanal coffee shop.

Its drip tray has a lot of sharp edges.

Delonghi Dinamica Plus Review: Machine Overview

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus is a super-automatic espresso machine (known as a “bean to cup machine” in the UK with a detachable milk frother (instead of a steam wand).

All you have to do is fill the machine up with coffee beans, water, and milk, and the machine can make pretty much any coffee drink you can think of (to varying degrees of quality – I’ll go into what it does well and badly in a bit).

It is operated by a touch screen and a control panel.

Available Drinks

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus can make 14 drinks, as well as dispensing plain milk foam and plain hot water.

Here are my thoughts on each of the machine’s coffee recipes:

• Espresso: I’m impressed with this. One of the best espressos I’ve had from a super-automatic machine. Grind on grind setting 2-3 and on maximum strength for best result. 8/10

• Doppio: This was an espresso brewed with double the water and the same amount of espresso. It’s too watery and reminds me of the poor-quality espresso you get on a Philips super automatic. 5/10

• 2x Espresso: This is a true double espresso. Two shots of water through two pucks of coffee. 9/10

• Coffee: This was terrible. Incredibly watery. Clearly, the machine does not use enough ground coffee beans to make a proper drip coffee. 3/10

• Long: This is an Americano – an espresso followed by a shot of plain boiling water. It’s slightly better than the Doppio but still not great. 6/10

• Coffee pot: This is just six servings of its drip-style coffee. 3/10

• Cappuccino: This needed a stir but was nice. The milk integrated well with the coffee. I’d have liked the coffee flavor to be stronger. 7/10

• Cappuccino extra shot: Now we’re talking. I liked this a lot. 9/10

• Caffe latte: This required you to put its milk frother on its thinnest setting which meant the drink had barely any texture once it had cooled down. It was just espresso with hot milk. Not the best. 5/10

• Latte macchiato: This was better than the latte. Frother was set to a middle setting which allowed the milk to still be bubbly but integrate a fair amount with the coffee. 8/10

• Macchiato: This is an espresso with a dollop of very thick foam on top of it. I find the whole idea of a macchiato a bit weird but it does the job if that’s what you’re into. 7/10

• Flat white: This also asked you to set its milk foam to the middle setting. It was very similar to the cappuccino, just not quite as bubbly. Not bad, but would benefit from having an extra shot of coffee added to it. 7/10

• Truebrew over ice: My model didn’t have this iced coffee mode. However, since it’s brewed at a lower-than-usual temperature (Delonghi says this themselves it will probably be quite a dull tasting.

Many people on Reddit say that TrueBrew over ice doesn’t significantly melt your ice less than a regular espresso anyway. I’d just put ice and a small amount of cold water in my class and add an espresso shot for an iced coffee.

In short, I really liked the Dinamica Plus’s espresso, cappuccino extra shot, latte macchiato, and flat white.

The Doppio and TrueBrew Over Ice functions seem a bit redundant. The Doppio, Long, and TrueBrew Over Ice are all basically the same.

I’d avoid the machine’s coffee and coffee pot menu items.

User Interface

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus is operated by a touch screen and a button touchpad.

The touch screen just acts as a menu, the buttons let you customize your drink and access the machine’s other settings.

While I don’t dislike the user interface, I don’t think the addition of a touch screen makes the Dinamica Plus’s UI significantly better than the Dinamica with a LatteCrema’s button-controlled LCD screen.

In a similar vein, I don’t think that the Dinamica Plus’s touch screen makes it any easier to use than higher-end Philips super-automatic espresso machines which also use button-controlled LCD screens.

Still, I have no real complaints about the machine’s UI.

Drink Customizability

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus lets you customize your drink’s strength and size on the fly. The only thing that’s a bit of a pain to customize is its milk volume.

You can adjust the machine’s strength (the amount of ground coffee beans it brews with) and its coffee size by pressing the coffee bean or drink size icons on its control panel. You can do this whenever you want.

Adjusting its milk volume is a bit more complicated:

• You need to put the machine into “customize mode” (press the “MY” button on its control panel to do this). 

• You then select the drink you want to alter and the machine will make that drink. 

• You then have to press stop when the milk volume reaches its desired amount. This will be the new default for that drink on that user profile.

I’m disappointed that the machine doesn’t just let you bump your drink’s milk volume up or down as it does with the coffee’s strength and size.

This whole “customize” mode thing is unnecessarily complicated for a very small gain in precision.

LatteCrema Milk Frothing System

The Dinamica Plus’s milk system is a carafe with a small rubber tube in it. It can froth your milk to three textures.

You can adjust the machine’s milk texture by turning a dial at the top of the milk container.

There is a very noticeable difference between each milk texture and this gives you a nice variation between the machine’s different milk drinks. 

I especially like its two thicker textures

Its thinner way gives way to just plain hot milk after about a minute, but its two other textures hold their consistency well.

The machine consistently heats your frothed milk up to 130 Fahrenheit, this is close enough to the ideal 140 Fahrenheit for steaming milk.

The milk container detaches from the machine and can be put into the dishwasher.

My one gripe about the Dinamica Plus’s LatteCrema milk system is its use of a rubber hose. 

This constantly crusts up with sour milk and is very hard to clean because of how small its holes are. 

You can’t get it fully clean in a dishwasher, I clean mine by blowing hot soapy water through it with my mouth (not kidding). You’ll have to replace these a lot and while you can buy single hoses on Amazon, I’d like to be able to buy a big bag of these.

I noticed one prominent review of this machine complaining that it will run a rinse cycle into your drink if you forget to turn its dial back off rinse mode. I haven’t found this to be the case. 

The machine will prompt you if you have left it on rinse so this does not happen.

Grinder

The Dinamica Plus uses a stainless steel conical burr grinder with 13 grind settings.

Its 3rd and 4th grind settings seem to work best for me.

I have nothing really of note to say about its grinder. The grinder on all super-automatic espresso machines is pretty similar.

Grind fineness (and even grind uniformity) is less important on a super-automatic espresso machine than on a semi-automatic because you can’t precisely prepare your puck on the former.

This negates all the virtues of brewing with a very fine, uniform grind size.

Rinsing System

The machine will run a rinse cycle when it turns on and when it turns off.

If you leave the machine on it will turn off automatically after 15 minutes of deactivation and run a rinse cycle. I like to leave a cup under the machine’s spout at all times just in case I forget to turn it off and the rinse overflows my drip tray.

You can also make the machine run a rinse cycle in its settings menu.

Drip Tray and Coffee Grounds Container

The machine’s drip tray and dregs drawer come apart into four pieces. Its dregs drawer can hold around 14 ground coffee pucks before it needs replacing.

I like the used coffee grounds container. It’s bigger than on most machines and can go in the dishwasher.

I don’t like the machine’s drip tray for three reasons:

• All the slots in its grill are so small that if you drip anything on it will stay on the grill rather than going into the tray

• The grill has sharp edges you can potentially cut your hand on.

• It’s an awkward shape to carry to the sink when full without spilling

Brew Group

The machine’s brew group can be removed to be rinsed and then put back in the machine.

I like that you can take the brew group out. It allows you to troubleshoot a lot of potential issues yourself (they often come down to a blocked or under-lubricated brew group).

You can’t do this with Jura machines and it means that you will have to send the machine to a technician unnecessarily (at your expense, obviously).

When I first took the brew group out of the machine a random spring fell out of it. I reported this to Delonghi’s live chat and they had a new brew group at my house in two days. 

This level of customer service impressed me.

Water Tank

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus can integrate with Delonghi’s coffee link app. This lets you control the machine from your phone or tablet.

You can see a video of someone using this below (watch from 9:30 – 11:35):

It’s a bit annoying that you can adjust the milk volume for each drink at the point of making that drink on the app but not on the machine’s control panel. 

Still, the app is nice to have.

Now that I’ve gone through the Dinamica Plus’s basics I’ll evaluate the machine along the following criteria:

• Espresso quality
• Milk steaming performance
• User-friendliness
• Ease of cleaning
• Design and durability
• Value for money

Espresso Quality

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus makes a very good espresso by super-automatic espresso machine standards.

This is true for all Delonghi super automatics, they all use the same high-quality internal brewing system.

Compare the two brewing mechanisms below:

See how Delonghi’s brew basket uses much smaller holes than Philips’s one. Well, this creates more resistance against your brewing water, resulting in longer brewing times and a stronger, fuller-bodied espresso.

Although I like the Dinamica Plus’s espresso a lot, its drip coffee is just plain bad.

Espresso Quality Rating: 8/10

Milk Steaming Performance

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus steams milk to a nice texture and consistency. It’s also one of few super automatics that can steam milk to multiple textures.

Its milk steaming is so good that if I especially recommend the machine you like drinking a lot of different milk drinks and want each milk drink to have a noticeably different texture from one another.

Only the Delonghi Dinamica, Dinamica Plus, and the slightly more expensive Delonghi Eletta Explore can do this.

Still, it cannot make the microfoam needed for latte art (no milk frother can do this, in fairness).

Milk Steaming Performance: 9/10

User Friendliness

Although the Delonghi Dinamica Plus is not difficult to use, it’s not the most user-friendly machine.

I can see some people struggling with the machine at first because its control panel’s buttons are labeled with icons that don’t obviously represent what they do.

For example, it’s not immediately clear what the “my” button does.

The touch screen can also be a little bit crowded at times, leading you to press the wrong drink. Fortunately, it’s easy to cancel out every drink you’d make.

If you are buying a machine for someone who is very non-tech-savvy then you might be better off with the Philips 5400 than the Delonghi Dinamica Plus.

User Friendliness Rating: 8/10

Ease of Cleaning

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus is easy to keep clean because all its parts that come into direct contact with coffee milk and water can go into the dishwasher.

The only exception to this is its removable brew group, which you’ll need to rinse in the sink once a week.

I have to dock it a couple of marks here for two reasons:

1. Its milk system relies on a rubber hose. It’s impossible to stop this from crusting up so you’ll need to replace it very frequently.

2. It needs to be descaled every three months. This is far more often than a Philips or Jura bean-to-cup machine.

Ease of Cleaning Rating: 8/10

Design and Durability

Although the Delonghi Dinamica is completely housed in plastic, none of its parts feel flimsy.

It’s a big step up in build quality compared to Philips espresso machines (it’s a big step up in price too, in fairness).

The only part of the machine that I can see breaking down regularly is its milk frother. It relies on a rudimentary plastic dial that I can see getting jammed. You can see people complaining about this problem in this Reddit thread.

Delonghi is very good with replacing parts (especially if a machine is less than two years old) so I don’t think this is a huge concern.

Design and Durability Rating: 8/10

Value for Money

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus is only good value if you’re going to be making full use of its user profiles.

It’s on a similar quality level to Jura’s line of super-automatic espresso machines, despite being cheaper than them.

I do think if you aren’t going to use all its user profiles then you’re better off with the cheaper Delonghi Dinamica with LatteCrema. This is typically $200 cheaper than the Dinamica Plus.

Value for Money Rating: 7/10

Delonghi Dinamica Plus vs Philips 5400 LatteGo

I think it’s worth paying double for the Delonghi Dinamica Plus instead of the Philips 5400 LatteGo.

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus makes far better drinks than the Philips 5400 LatteGo. While the Philips is slightly easier to use and clean, this difference is very marginal.

The Dinamica Plus should last you longer than the Philips, canceling out some of this jump-up in cost.

Delonghi Dinamica Plus vs Jura E8

I recommend the Delonghi Dinamica Plus over the Jura E8.

The Delonghi Dinamica Plus makes very slightly inferior espresso to the Jura E8. However, it makes better-foamed milk, is easier to use, and is typically $600 cheaper.

The Dinamica Plus therefore offers far better value for money than the Jura E8.

Delonghi Dinamica Plus Review: Final Verdict

I recommend the Delonghi Dinamica Plus if you are going to drink milk drinks and think you’ll make full use of its three user profiles.

If you are going to be the only person using the machine then I’d recommend getting the Delonghi Dinamica with LatteCrema instead of the Delonghi Dinamica Plus.

If you only drink black drinks then I’d get the base Dinamica which has a steam wand instead of the LatteCrema system. This costs significantly less than the Dinamica Plus and Dinamica with LatteCrema.

If you’d like to find out more about Delonghi espresso machines then please see my roundup of the best Delonghi espresso machines.