KitchenAid KF8 Fully Automatic Espresso Machine review: Competent but not outstanding

The KitchenAid KF8 is a fully automatic bean-to-cup machine aimed at those looking for a hands-off coffee experience. It has a lot of the bells and whistles you’d expect for its premium price point, such as excellent build quality, a silky smooth touchscreen, full automation and options for both dairy and plant milk. And it provides plenty of control without adding too much in the way of complication.

The KF8’s most notable feature, however, is its Quiet Mark certification, which KitchenAid claims puts it in the top 20% of quietest machines in the bean-to-cup category. While I have no way of verifying this claim definitively, I can say it is extremely quiet, especially compared with other similar coffee machines I’ve tested.

The KF8 certainly makes good espresso, does so quietly in a well-designed, sleek enclosure, but in my opinion it doesn’t quite do enough to justify its near-£2,000 price tag.

KitchenAid KF8 review: What do you get for the money?

The KitchenAid KF8 is a fully automatic bean-to-cup espresso machine with 16 basic drink options, customisation and milk frothing via a carafe. At £1,899, it’s one of the more expensive automatic machines you can buy.

KitchenAid has three models in this range, the KF6, KF7 and the KF8, with the latter being the most feature-rich. Both the KF7 and KF8 come in four colours: juniper (grey), porcelain white, stainless steel and carbon black, while the KF6 is available in the latter three.

The KF8 is a rather large, fully enclosed machine that measures 260 x 473 x 363 mm (WDH) and weighs a whopping 18.1kg. Thankfully, KitchenAid did have the foresight to put the thing on wheels, making it a tad easier to move around the counter but, nonetheless, it’s going to occupy a fair amount of space on your worktop.

Tucked away under a panel at the top is a 270g removable bean hopper for the stainless steel conical burr grinder. At the front is a removable drip tray and you’ll find the 2.2-litre water tank on the left hand side.

In terms of build quality, this is one of the best coffee machines I’ve tested. Much of the exterior is stainless steel and it feels very robust. The water tank is easy to remove and fill and the top of the machine is flat and clear of protrusions, which means it can be easily stored under low kitchen cabinets. You can also use this space to store cups and other accessories as needed.

It has 16 preset options for drinks, ranging from espresso and cappuccino to warmed milk and green tea; temperature and strength can also be adjusted for coffee drinks. You can make two espresso or milk-based drinks at once and the KF8 comes with a milk tube and separate carafe, which can be stored in the fridge if needed.

Maintenance is fairly simple. You can dispose of excess water and pucks by simply lifting out the bottom of the machine, though the drip tray is a little on the small side. And you will occasionally be prompted to run cleaning cycles to keep the machine and milk carafe fresh. I also like that you can remove the internal section where the pucks are tamped, for a thorough clean.

KitchenAid KF8 review: What’s it like to use?

The KF8 is one of the easiest and quickest coffee machines I’ve ever used. If you didn’t have to read the on-screen instructions to set it up, I’m pretty sure you could use it blindfolded – although, obviously, that is something I wouldn’t recommend.

After the initial set up, you can select from one of the one-touch drink options or customise your own drinks and save them to your own user profile. The touchscreen is responsive and, rather than swiping, you tap arrows on the screen to cycle through drink options. Some people might prefer a scrolling screen but I often find myself accidentally pressing things I shouldn’t, so this worked better for me.

You can adjust the grind size by removing a panel on the side – this isn’t super intuitive to find, but it’s easy enough to do. Though I appreciate the point of an automatic is to be as hands-off as possible, I was disappointed with the seven grind settings on this machine – it would be nice to be able to make more adjustments.

Aside from the obvious advantages that come with it being fully automatic, the KF8 has a lot of touches that make it very simple to use. The bean hopper is easily removed so you can switch to different beans and there’s a purge function for removing excess beans still stuck in the grinder so you don’t mix your coffees together. I also really like that the water tank, which is tucked away inside the machine, has a handle. If you have small hands and struggle to carry water tanks one-handed, it’s a nice addition.

Changing things like drink size, temperature, strength and coffee order is also very easy and fairly intuitive without too much bouncing around the various screens. Similarly, cleaning the KF8 is super straightforward: you’re guided through it all step-by-step and, while no one enjoys this process, it’s a lot less of a pain when you don’t have to think about it.

It’s also worth noting that Quiet Mark certification isn’t just a gimmick here, I really did find it quieter than other bean-to-cups we’ve tested here at Expert Reviews. My sound meter recorded noise levels during grinding between 60 to 64 decibels from 1 meter away, which is a lot quieter than other bean-to-cups we’ve previously tested, which can reach up to 80 decibels. Not bad at all.

KitchenAid KF8 review: What’s the coffee like?

The KF8 uses a thermoblock system to heat the water and milk, rather than a boiler (or two). This means you’ll enjoy speedy espresso with next to no heat up time. On average, it took me under two minutes to make a cappuccino after turning on the machine, this includes allowing it to go through an automatic rinse cycle on start up. Making a second cup with no rinsing almost halves this time.

There are three strength options on the KF8, and KitchenAid says it uses between 7 and 14 grams of ground coffee per single shot of espresso, depending on the setting you choose. I’ve found this to be fairly accurate. For my tests, I instructed the machine to make an espresso using each strength setting and then canceled the drink before it brewed, so I could weigh the dose of ground coffee ejected into the basket. A single shot on the default medium strength setting came out between 11 and 12g on average.

You can also choose from three temperature levels, low, medium and high, which KitchenAid states will exit the machine between 87–96°C . In my own tests, the coffee typically came out of the machine at around 89 to 90ºC on the medium default setting, settling at around 74ºC in the cup.

When testing coffee machines, I always use the same fresh, high-quality beans – Curve Coffee Roasters House Espresso – to ensure fair, repeatable tests. I found the espresso that the KF8 produced was certainly good for a bean-to-cup and I had good consistent extraction from cup to cup. It wasn’t as spot-on as the slightly cheaper semi-automatic Sage Oracle Jet, though.

Milk foam was pretty good for a carafe-based system, too. There’s a setting for both dairy and plant milks, with the former having a slightly better consistency from drink to drink.

You’re not going to get anything ultra fancy here but it does the job. I also liked that I could choose whether to add the espresso or milk to the cup first when making milk-based drinks.

KitchenAid KF8 review: What could be better?

Like a lot of fully automatic machines, the milk carafe on the KF8 is a tad fiddly to keep clean. KitchenAid has tried its hardest to help with this, as it has a range of decent cleaning functions for the milk tube, group head and more. Some elements are dishwasher-safe but even that’s not foolproof and you’ll probably end up cleaning by hand if you want to keep everything gunk free.

Another issue I had is with the KF8’s plant-based milk option. The idea behind this is that you can get better results from barista-style plant milks because they are steamed at a lower temperature compared to the standard dairy setting. The problem is, there’s only one plant-milk setting – no separate options for oat, almond and soy. Considering the recently released Sage Oracle Jet has these options, all of which steam at varying temperatures to get the most out of the milk, this is a little disappointing.

Ultimately, the main issue here is the price. The espresso and milk drinks produced by the KF8 are perfectly pleasant – some might argue above average when compared to other bean-to-cups – but there’s no getting away from the fact that cheaper machines can do it just as well, and in the case of some semi-automatics, even better. While you do get all the benefits of being hands-off with the KF8, I’m just not sure its wildly high price tag is going to be worth it for most people.

KitchenAid KF8 review: Should you buy it?

If I had nearly £2,000 burning a hole in my pocket, this probably isn’t the machine I’d buy. The Quiet Mark certification, good build quality and plant-milk options aren’t enough to sway me. Moreover, the Sage Oracle Jet (£1,700) and Sage Barista Touch (£1,050) do pretty much the same thing at a lower price point. Yes, they aren’t whisper-quiet or fully automated, but they’re still very hands-off, and look good.

Ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with the KitchenAid KF8, it’s just that its price point pits it against some seriously good machines. If you like the design and want a quiet, fully hands-off experience, you’re not going to be disappointed with the coffee by any means. However, there are just too many things other machines can do just as well, or better, than the KF8 and for less money.