KitchenAid KF6 Review

KitchenAid is relatively new to the super-automatic espresso machine market. But they’ve been getting some serious buzz. So we thought it was high time we got our hands on them to do a KitchenAid KF6 review and see if the buzz is genuine, or just good marketing.

Overall, we’re impressed. The KitchenAid KF6 has some really nice features that make it an excellent machine for its price. The 15g dose, stainless steel body, quiet operation, and interchangeable bean hoppers are all excellent features. Sure, it’s not the best milk froth or espresso quality. But at the price, it’s a superb option.

Everyone’s coffee needs are different so we’re digging in to see if the KF6 ticks all your caffeine requirement boxes. Then we’ll take a look at where it stands compared to the more established names in the espresso-making game. Let’s see what KitchenAid got:

At a Glance: KitchenAid KF6 Review

1. 7 coffees to choose from

The marketing material says 15, but as with all the great super-automatic machine manufacturers, that’s not really true.

You get 7 different coffee styles:

• Americano
• Espresso
• Coffee
• Cappuccino
• Latte
• Latte Macchiato
• Macchiato

There are 1 or 2 shot versions of everything except Americano, which gets us to 13. Then there’s just hot water and a portion of warm milk to get to the “15 recipe options”.

This borderline deception is not unique to KitchenAid, they all do it. Seven coffees is still pretty good and having single or double-shot options for most drinks is also good and not super common at this price. As long as your favorite coffee is on the list, then you’re good to go.

Two notable absences from the list are flat white and cortado. You’ll need to splash out on the big brother, the KF7, if you want those – you can read our full KitchenAid KF7 review here.

2. Removable bean hopper

We’re huge fans of this feature:

The bean hopper is fully removable and KitchenAid even sells spare ones so you can have a couple of different beans on the go at any one time and it’s easy to switch between them.

The spare hoppers come with a tight-fitting lid so the beans are fairly well-protected from oxidizing. Just make sure to keep them in a cool, dark cupboard.

When you switch them out, the KF6 will purge any of the old beans from the grinder. So there’s no risk of cross-contamination. This is a really excellent and well-thought-out feature which we hope to see more of.

3. Stainless Steel Casing

Most machines at this price point (other than Breville/ Sage), have a plastic casing. We don’t particularly care as plastic can look very nice and the casing isn’t involved in making your coffee.

That being said, we would always prefer metal casing if available. It’s stronger, it looks nicer, and it feels more “premium.”

Alongside the classic look, it’s also available in porcelain white and cast iron black. These still have the stainless steel casing, just with a different finish on top of the metal.

4. 15g Max Dose

If you want full-bodied, complex espresso, then you need a pretty large dose. 9g is unlikely to get the job done, in our opinion.

So the KitchenAid KF6 having a 15g max dose is a great feature. Especially for anyone looking to get punchy, delicious espresso from a super-automatic machine.

There are 3 dose sizes to choose from, but we think the biggest dose is the only one worth choosing. The other 2 produce watery, weak coffee. You can also play with the “body” setting to change the flow rate through the puck, giving you even more control.

5. 4 User Profiles

User profiles are a game changer in any household that argues over how a cappuccino should be served. The KF6 allows you to save drinks to 4 user profiles meaning you can all save your perfect coffee settings.

This avoids any arguments in the morning, or worse, drinking the weak coffee that your partner likes.

To use, you just go into your profile and select the coffee you want to make, and it will automatically brew to your personal preferences. You can save every drink too, so if you’re feeling an espresso one morning and a cappuccino the next, you don’t need to remember all your settings.

6. Quiet Mark^TM

Quiet Mark is an independent charitable foundation that tests all sorts of products and awards a certificate to the quietest ones. This is done from a health and wellness perspective as excess noise can cause stress, disturb sleep, and so on.

All the KitchenAid super-automatic espresso machines have this certification, as do most Jura machines and some Philips. It’s a nice thing to have – especially if you make coffee when others are still asleep.

7. 2-year warranty

We tend to view manufacturer warranty lengths as a proxy for their confidence in the build quality.

Getting a 2-year warranty is a pretty strong indicator that KitchenAid builds its machines to a very high standard.

8. One-touch Americano

The coffee, milk, and hot water are all dispensed from the same unit, meaning you never have to move your cup for any drinks.

This maybe isn’t that important for most people, but if you’re a “press button and wander off” type of coffee person, then having a “one touch” everything is critical.

Touchscreens are all the rage and they do look better. But I still find screens with buttons a little easier to use. Maybe it’s because I’m an older millennial. Maybe it’s because I’m clumsy. Who knows?

The soft-touch buttons to scroll through the menu and adjust the settings make choosing, customizing, and saving your coffee very simple. However, it is a little weird at first that you have to use the tick button to change any of the drink settings.

As is customary with super-automatic machines, the factory settings are terrible.

It’ll probably take a week or two of fiddling with the grind settings, strength, length, and body (flow rate) before you feel like you’re getting the espresso you want. So maybe avoid using the good beans at first.

If it helps, we got the best results with our medium roast Yirgacheffe beans from the second finest grind setting, 30ml length, medium temperature, max strength setting, and body set to “strong”.

And “best” was pretty good – full-bodied, decent complexity, and nicely balanced. Okay, it’s not quite Jura levels of super-automatic espresso, but it’s still exceptional considering the price.

There are some oddities to the KF6 though:

When you make a cappuccino, it does milk first and then the coffee which is the wrong way around. This negatively affects the flavor and foaminess of the milk. The KF6 can do it the other way around as it does coffee first for a latte. So I don’t know if the programmers were on their way to lunch when they did this, but it’s pretty weird.

Whilst this might be an extremely niche annoyance, a more mainstream complaint is that the foam could do with being denser for cappuccino and macchiato drinks. It’s still okay, just not up to the standards of the more expensive Jura and Gaggia machines.

The 9.5 oz (270g) bean hopper is removable and KitchenAid sells spare ones with a lid. This means you can have multiple types of coffee beans on the go at the same time with easy changing and storage. Fantastic idea and really nicely executed.

To swap between hoppers/beans, you need to go to “purge beans” from the cleaning menu. The machine will prompt you to turn the dial inside the hopper to the “unlock” position. Not only does this allow you to lift the hopper out but it also closes the chute to the grinder. The KF6 will then grind through any beans remaining in the grind chamber to prevent cross-contamination as you switch out your hoppers.

The spare hopper comes with a nice tight-fitting lid to minimize air exposure, though we still recommend keeping it in a dark cupboard and using the beans relatively quickly to stop them from going stale. In our house, we mostly use it to switch from regular to decaf beans closer to bedtime.

There is still a ground coffee bypass chute too. This becomes less necessary for decaf as you can swap the hoppers but maybe if you’re into flavored coffee (never run flavored coffee through your grinder – the sugars can damage it) or you have a guest who won’t appreciate your good quality beans!

The grinder is very quiet compared to some of KitchenAid’s competitors – that Quiet Mark sticker is proof of this – which is a pleasant change.

The Looks

The looks are probably best described as “functional”. We love that it’s brushed stainless steel and has a color screen. The problem is it has no accent color so it all feels a little bland.

That said, you can also get the machine in Porcelain White or Cast Iron Black, if you prefer. We straight up hate the porcelain white, the white/stainless steel combo just doesn’t look great in our oh so humble opinion. The cast iron black on the other hand is very nice looking – the two-tone color look greatly improves on the stainless steel finish.

We’ve found that if the machine is discounted, it’s usually only the brushed stainless steel version.

Having stainless steel housing is great in terms of the feel and build quality. Everything just feels a little more likely to survive accidentally getting dropped. Though at 37lbs (16.7kg), I’m not sure your toes would. If you need to move it around, it has slick little wheels on the back so you can easily wheel it back and forth on your counter by lifting just the front.

The Build

The KitchenAid KF6 is currently built in Switzerland, and every piece of it feels like it’s built to a very high standard. The removable parts all click in with a very satisfying “click” and there’s good heft to the drip tray and water tank, which could be meaningless but it makes me feel more confident.

The 75oz (2.2L) water tank is removable. It’s accessible from the left-hand side, near the front, and doesn’t need to be lifted very high to be taken out. So you don’t need to worry about overhead cabinets. I still prefer to use a jug to refill it instead of carrying it to the sink, but that’s just me.

Size-wise, it’s pretty similar to the competition at 10.2″ wide by 14.3″ high and 18.3″ deep (26 x 36 x 47cm). You need access to the bean hopper on the top of the machine at the back but this should still be no problem even if you have overhead cabinets.

Whilst there’s nothing to suggest the KitchenAid KF6 is likely to break, this is the real world and sometimes things go wrong. This is why we like that KitchenAid offers a 2-year warranty on their espresso machines. This extra level of protection is very nice when making a large investment like this.

Since KitchenAid doesn’t have a long history of espresso making we weren’t really sure what to expect. But after (quite a lot!) of fiddling with settings, we managed to get really impressive espresso – impressive for a machine at this price point. (This is true across the full KitchenAid KF series).

The 15g dose certainly helps get the depth of flavor. Plus, with the “body” setting controlling the flow rate of the water through the puck, we had enough control to get an espresso we really enjoyed.

Don’t get me wrong, Jura still remains the gold standard for super-automatic espresso, and the KF6 isn’t challenging the Jura E series for coffee quality. But I’d argue it’s better than similarly priced DeLonghi or Gaggia machines.

Sadly, the milk leaves a little more to be desired.

While it foams the milk just fine for lattes, the cappuccino and macchiato milk doesn’t have the level of foam density we would like. There’s also no way to customize the milk aside from volume so you’re stuck with it as is.

Another thing to note is that the ‘big brother’ KitchenAid KF8 has a special setting for plant-based milk. Since plant-based milks have a different fat ratio than dairy milk, they tend to foam less well on standard settings. This is a fairly uncommon feature across all super automatics right now so kudos to KitchenAid for including it… even if it is just on their most expensive machine. However, if that’s your only reason for picking the KF8 over the KF6, it’s not good enough to justify the extra spend.

The milk from the KF6 lags behind its main competitors for cappuccino and macchiato drinkers. But if you’re a black coffee or latte girlie, then you’ll be absolutely fine.

Read next: Our complete Kitchen KF8 Review

The KF6 prompts you when anything needs cleaning. Little icons will appear on your screen telling you to clean the milk hose, the brewing unit, or to descale the machine. None of these tasks are onerous and, other than cleaning the milk hose, they don’t need to be done very often.

While most people prefer an integrated milk container, the KF6 goes down the Jura route of only giving you a hose that you can put into any milk container. (There’s no container included with the espresso machine so if you want the slick KitchenAid one, you’ll need to buy it separately).

Despite being an annoying cost saver from KitchenAid’s perspective, the huge bonus of having just a milk hose is the zero-effort cleaning. A blast of hot water through the hose cleans it out and you’re good to go.

Cleaning the brewing unit is simple. You just remove it from the machine, rinse it, add a cleaning tablet, and then follow the on-screen instructions once it is back in the KF6.

Descaling is similar too and needs to be done every couple of months. The on-screen instructions make it very clear and it takes around 20 minutes – this is pretty standard for these machines.

Gaggia Cadorna Prestige

The Cadorna Prestige is a little bit cheaper than the KF6 and differs in quite a few ways from the KitchenAid super automatic.

You get more drink recipes with the Cadorna Prestige – ristretto, cortado, cafe au lait, and lungo are all available drinks that the KF6 lacks. However, you lose the macchiato and double-shot versions of all drinks. So the question isn’t really about the total number of drins and more about which one’s you want.

We also feel that the lower max coffee dose of 11.5g vs 15g hurts the coffee quality from the Gaggia. It’s still very impressive espresso for the price, but it doesn’t get that same depth and punch as the KF6.

The Gaggia does have superior milk foam though (from a detachable milk container.) The cappuccino and latte macchiato have a much more satisfying milk foam on the top – a huge plus if those are your go-to coffees.

Overall, we‘d probably choose the superior espresso quality of the KF6 over the Gaggia. If you’re an avid cappuccino drinker, however, then it might be worth saving a little money to get your superior milk foam.

DeLonghi Magnifica Plus

DeLonghi offers an incredible level of functionality for the price point. The Magnifica Plus fluctuates around the same price as the KF6 and offers A LOT more drinks for that money. You get 15 individual coffee recipes to customize, including two black “over ice” options.

This is obviously fantastic if you are in a house with a wide variety of coffee drinkers or just like to change up what you have. Just like the KF6, you get 4 user profiles to save all your favorites to.

So what’s the catch?

Well… the coffee and milk quality aren’t quite as good as the competition at the same price. The milk is still really good but the espresso is not up to the KF6 or Gaggia standards.

So this is the trade-off, if you aren’t too worried about having the best espresso but would love to have the option of all the different drinks, then the DeLonghi is absolutely perfect for you.

If you want your espresso to be on point, then the KF6 is the better machine.

Jura ENA 4

Jura makes the best super-automatic espresso machines out there. Unfortunately, they are also the most expensive. Only the entry-level ENA 4 is around the same price as the KitchenAid KF6 and it’s a very different beast.

The ENA 4 is a black coffee only machine. It makes 2 drinks with 3 strength settings and that’s it.

The big bonus of the ENA 4 is that it makes really amazing espresso (for a super-automatic) and it’s basically impossible to mess up using it. So if that’s all you care about – awesome espresso at a touch – then the ENA 4 is a fantastic machine.

But for anyone who doesn’t want to just drink espresso or black coffee, then it’s a lot of money for a machine that doesn’t do a whole lot.

To get a Jura machine with the same level of functionality as the KitchenAid KF6 then you have to get the Jura E6, which is closer to the price of the KF8. (You can read our full E6 review, here.)

It’s hard not to be impressed with this machine:

You get a really great espresso, a nice range of drinks to choose from, and it’s easy to customize. All for around $1000.

When compared to the competition at the same price, it’s one of the best super automatic machines you can buy. Even if the looks are a little dated and the milk foam isn’t the best for a cappuccino.

Whether the KF6 is the best machine for you all comes down to your priorities. Is it the espresso quality? Milk quality? Or the drinks options?

For us, it’s always espresso quality. So our KitchenAid KF6 review has a surprising outcome: this would currently be our top pick if we were looking to spend around $1000 for a new super-automatic coffee machine.

Don’t forget to buy your KitchenAid KF6 On Amazon

Matt Woodburn-Simmonds

Matt's coffee obsession started in 2006 when working as a Barista. A tendency to turn up to work hungover kickstarted his coffee journey which quickly turned into a love affair. As he moved on to work as a Restaurant Manager and Sommelier, the obsession continued to grow. Now, his passion is helping others to enjoy better coffee at home.