De’Longhi Eletta Explore vs Dinamica Plus: which premium De’Longhi?

Eletta Explore vs Dinamica Plus at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the machines are level have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on what you drink.

Design, size and build

These two look like siblings, and in many ways they are. Both have a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, a front-loading water tank and a milk carafe that clicks onto the front.

The size is where they part. The De’Longhi Eletta Explore measures about 10.2 inches wide, 17.7 inches deep and 15.2 inches tall, and it weighs about 25 lb.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus is about 9.3 inches wide, 17.3 inches deep and 14.2 inches tall, at about 21 lb. That extra inch of height on the Eletta Explore turned out to matter more than any spec.

The Eletta Explore is the bigger machine, with a hopper lid that only just opens under standard wall cabinets.

Under my standard wall cabinets, the Eletta Explore’s hopper lid only just opened. I had to slide it forward to refill beans for the first week, until I moved it to the end of the counter.

The Dinamica Plus fitted with room to spare. Its titanium finish and heavy brushed stainless drip tray cover also felt a little more premium in the hand.

The Eletta Explore wins on cup height. With the drip tray adjusted, a 7-inch travel tumbler fitted under its spouts, which is handy for iced drinks in tall glasses.

Height on the counter

Standard wall cabinets sit about 18 inches above the counter. Leave room to open the hopper lid.

Our tip: Measure the gap under your wall cabinets before you buy, and leave a hand’s width above the hopper so refilling beans never means sliding the machine forward.

Setup and the first week

Setup is guided on the touchscreen on both. You pick a language, test your water hardness with the included strip, decide whether to fit a filter and let the machine rinse.

The water test took under a minute. Both then ran a rinse of about 30 seconds from a cold start, so put a cup under the spouts every time you switch on.

The first few drinks were weaker on both while the grinders bedded in. I didn’t judge anything until about the fifth cup.

The Dinamica Plus walks you through setup on its 3.5-inch touchscreen.

Our tip: Keep a cup under the spouts whenever you switch either machine on, because the automatic rinse lands on the counter if you forget.

Touchscreen, profiles and the app

Both use a bright 3.5-inch color touchscreen with picture-based drink icons. Neither has physical buttons for drinks, but both worked fine with damp fingers.

The Eletta Explore adds four capacitive shortcut buttons under the screen for Hot, Cold, To-Go and Favorites. In practice, the Cold button was the one I pressed most in the afternoons.

Profiles

The De’Longhi Eletta Explore stores up to four user profiles✕User profilesSeparate saved settings for each person in the house. Each profile remembers its own drink sizes, strength and milk preferences, so you don’t overwrite each other., each with its own name, color and icon. Every profile saves its own coffee volume, strength and foam preference.

The Dinamica Plus has three personal profiles plus a guest mode that uses the factory defaults. Its Smart One Touch feature moves your most-used drinks to the front, and after one week my top four were on the first screen.

The apps

Here the Eletta Explore has the better hardware but the same frustration. It connects over Wi-Fi for registration and Bluetooth for sending settings, and saving a change still took several seconds.

Remote start works over Wi-Fi, but every start-up triggers a rinse that dispenses hot water. Unless a cup is already sitting there, starting coffee from bed is impractical.

The Dinamica Plus uses Coffee Link over Bluetooth only, so you must be near the machine. The first connection after power-off took up to about a minute.

Its app is genuinely useful for one thing, though. It lets you change grind time, water volume and pre-infusion✕Pre-infusionA short soak of the ground coffee before full pressure starts, so the water flows through the puck evenly. per drink, and it shows each brewing stage live.

The Eletta Explore’s best app feature is Bean Adapt. It asks for your roast level and Arabica-to-Robusta ratio, then suggests adjustments based on how the coffee tasted to you.

The drink menu: 50+ vs 16

This is the headline difference for many buyers. The Eletta Explore has more than 50 hot and cold recipes on the machine and over 100 in the app.

The Dinamica Plus has 16 one-touch drinks. They cover espresso, Doppio+, Long, Coffee, americano, cappuccino, Cappuccino Mix, flat white✕Flat whiteA short milk coffee with a double shot and a thin layer of silky microfoam. It is stronger and less foamy than a cappuccino., latte macchiato, caffelatte, hot milk and Over Ice.

Honestly, 16 was plenty for my household. The extra Eletta recipes are mostly cold variations, which is exactly why you would buy it.

Recipes available

Counted from each machine’s menu and app.

Both make one milk drink at a time. Back-to-back, the Eletta Explore handled two cappuccinos and an americano without making me wait, and the Dinamica Plus made six cappuccinos in a row at about 1.5 minutes each.

Grinder and dose

Both use steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. Beans are crushed between them, and the gap between the burrs sets how fine the coffee is. with 13 settings, adjusted with a knob inside the bean hopper. Lower numbers are finer.

The Eletta Explore doses by grind time, at roughly 1.5 grams per second. I weighed the dose at every intensity level, and level 5 reached 13.5 to 16 grams depending on the beans.

My measured doses on the Eletta Explore. Bean density changes the weight.

The Dinamica Plus took about 5 seconds for a single dose and about 10 seconds for double strength. Its dry puck at the highest dose weighed about 15 grams, or roughly half an ounce.

Both have real range. On the Eletta Explore, the finest setting with a big dose actually stalled the pump, which tells you the grinder can go finer than the machine needs.

My sweet spots were settings 2.0 to 4.0 on the Eletta Explore and setting 3 on the Dinamica Plus, reached one click at a time over a couple of days.

Espresso quality

Both have a 19-bar pump and a thermoblock✕ThermoblockA compact heater that warms water on its way through a metal block, instead of keeping a tank of water hot. It heats up fast and switches between tasks quickly., and both run at about 9 bar during a normal shot. In the cup, the Dinamica Plus edged ahead.

On the Eletta Explore, I used a medium-dark blend of 60% Arabica and 40% Robusta, aiming for 15 grams in and 30 grams out. The scale read about 22 grams when the pump stopped, and the drips brought it to about 30.

The shot had a thick, long-lasting crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee. with milk chocolate, macadamia and nougat notes. It measured about 169°F in an unheated cup.

Shortened to about 0.7 ounces, the Dinamica Plus pulled the denser shot.

On the Dinamica Plus, the default espresso was too long. Once I set Extra Strong, grind 3 and cut the volume to about 0.7 ounces, the ratio landed near 1:3.

That shot was dense and syrupy, with a hazelnut-colored crema that lasted several minutes, heavy body and low acidity. The fourth espresso I made for guests matched the first.

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 for body, crema, flavor and consistency.

Its Doppio+ came out at about 2.7 ounces by default, which I found too long. Stopping it between 1.35 and 1.6 ounces gave me the base for my favorite flat white.

Our tip: Shorten the default espresso and Doppio+ volumes on the Dinamica Plus and save them to your profile, because the factory settings run long and thin.

Long coffee and americano

Both handle a mug of black coffee well, but they take different routes.

The Eletta Explore’s americano pulls an espresso and then adds hot water from the central spouts, which keeps the extraction short and sweet. Its coffee crema setting gave about 5 to 6 ounces, and grind 4.0 suited very fresh beans.

The Dinamica Plus has two long drinks. Long grinds and brews twice, for about 3.7 ounces of mild, filter-like coffee with very little crema.

Its Coffee drink uses one dose at medium pressure. On Extra Strong, I tuned it to 3.4 to 3.9 ounces, and it became my mid-morning mug.

The Eletta Explore’s lungo runs two short cycles of about 6.5 seconds each, and its Doppio+ grinds for 9 to 10 seconds into a 15 to 16 gram puck. That was the strongest drink on either machine.

Our tip: Make big black coffees as an americano rather than a long coffee on either machine, because adding water after the shot avoids the bitter, drying notes of over-extraction.

Hot milk drinks

Both use De’Longhi’s LatteCrema idea. Cold milk is drawn up a tube into the carafe lid, then mixed with steam and air in a Venturi✕Venturi effectWhen steam rushes through a narrow channel, it creates suction. The carafe uses it to pull milk up the tube and mix in air. chamber.

Dinamica Plus: one thermal carafe, three foam levels

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus has a double-walled stainless steel carafe. Milk I poured in at fridge temperature stayed cold through several drinks, including a run of six cappuccinos.

A dial on the lid gives three foam levels. Left makes smooth milk for a flat white, center suits a latte and right gives the dense foam for a cappuccino.

The cappuccino pours milk first and espresso second, for about 6 ounces with clear layers. The Cappuccino Mix flips the order, and it tasted sweeter and more velvety.

Eletta Explore: a dedicated hot carafe

The Eletta Explore’s hot carafe holds about 500 ml. Its foam selector turns smoothly between flat, dense milk and thick foam.

My favorite spot was about 75% toward thick foam, which gave glossy microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what a good flat white or cappuccino needs.. Turned fully right, the foam went stiff and dry and separated in the cup.

Its latte macchiato pours foamed milk first, pauses, then sends espresso through the middle for clean layers. Each carafe also remembers its own foam setting, which saves fiddling.

The Eletta Explore’s hot carafe made glossy microfoam at about three-quarters toward thick foam.

How each milk foamed

My ratings out of 10 for texture and stability, hot milk on the Dinamica Plus. On the Eletta Explore, oat and skimmed milk both foamed well hot and cold.

Both made milk that was pleasant to drink straight away rather than scalding. That is deliberate: research from the University of Camerino found the best foam structure in milk steamed to around 60°C.

Our tip: Keep milk at fridge temperature on both machines, because warm milk gives big, weak bubbles that collapse before you finish the cup.

Iced drinks and cold brew

This is the section that decides the matchup for a lot of people. The Dinamica Plus has one cold trick, and the Eletta Explore has a whole menu.

Dinamica Plus: Over Ice

The Dinamica Plus’s Over Ice drink brews a concentrated coffee at a lower temperature, made to be poured over a full glass of ice. It became my default iced coffee, with a splash of cold milk on warm days.

It is good, simple and quick. What it can’t do is make cold foam, because its only carafe heats the milk.

Eletta Explore: cold foam and cold brew

The De’Longhi Eletta Explore has a second carafe, about 390 ml, that aerates milk without heating it. The cold foam floats on top of iced drinks like a café cold foam.

The screen prompts you for 4 to 8 standard ice cubes before each cold drink. My iced cappuccino measured about 77°F in the glass before most of the ice melted.

The real party trick is cold brew✕Cold brewCoffee brewed with cool water instead of hot. It tastes smoother and less bitter. Done by hand, it usually steeps for 12 hours or more.. Done by hand, cold brew steeps for 12 hours or more.

The Eletta Explore purges its thermoblock, then pushes water through the grounds in slow, low-pressure pulses. The water left the spouts at about 98°F, and over ice the drink settled at 35.6 to 37.4°F.

The whole thing took about three minutes. It tasted smooth and sweet, with low bitterness and a lighter body than an overnight steep.

Drink temperatures I measured on the Eletta Explore

Probe thermometer readings, from hottest to coldest.

Our tip: Fill the glass with large, solid ice cubes before you start any iced drink, because small cubes melt fast and leave the coffee warm and watery.

Hot water and tea

If anyone in your house drinks tea, the Eletta Explore is the easier machine.

It has a black tea mode, and I measured the water at 199 to 203°F. That is right where black tea wants to be, and lower temperatures suit green tea.

On the Dinamica Plus, hot water needs a separate spout. You unplug the milk carafe and plug in the hot water spout each time, which got old fast during a week of afternoon tea.

It is also how you make an americano by hand or warm your cups, so keep the spout somewhere within reach.

The Eletta Explore also made the better hot cocoa. I put cocoa powder in the cup and added steamed milk from the hot carafe at about 135°F, then stirred.

Cleaning and upkeep

On the coffee side, both are easy. They rinse the coffee path when they switch on and off, and both have a removable brew unit you rinse under warm water with no soap.

The Eletta Explore’s brew unit slides out from a side door next to the water tank. On the Dinamica Plus, you switch off fully, remove the tank and open a small door behind it.

Neither uses cleaning tablets for the brew unit✕Brew unitThe removable part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then drops the used puck in the drawer.. A weekly rinse and a little grease on the rails every few months is all it needs.

The milk side

This is where the Dinamica Plus wins. After every milk drink, you turn its carafe dial to Clean, and hot water and steam flush the milk path in about 15 seconds.

Then once a day I washed the lid parts: the pickup tube, the Venturi piece and the dial. They are dishwasher-safe, though I washed them by hand.

The Eletta Explore has the same Carafe Clean cycle, but it doesn’t clean the internal milk tube or the container. Every 2 to 3 days you need to take each carafe fully apart and wash the spout, stem, dial and intake tube.

With two carafes, that is two sets of small parts. I called it a chore in my notes, and I stand by that.

Two carafes means two sets of small parts to wash every few days.

My estimate of hands-on time per day, not counting automatic rinses.

Our tip: Set a phone reminder for the Eletta Explore’s carafe deep clean, because the machine never asks and milk quietly builds up in the hidden tube.

Noise

The Eletta Explore is the quieter machine, and it was the first thing I noticed. Its grinder stayed under 65 dB in my kitchen, against the 68 to 70 dB I usually see from bean-to-cup grinders.

It also has a low, soft pitch. At 6 a.m., that mattered more than the number.

The Dinamica Plus’s grinder makes a short, firm burst that is noticeable but not harsh. Its pump and milk system are quiet, with a soft hiss while frothing.

Measured with a decibel meter in my kitchen. Typical bean-to-cup grinders for comparison.

In an open-plan home with light sleepers, the Eletta Explore is the safer choice.

Water, beans and supplies

Both have a 1.8-liter tank that slides out from the front. The Eletta Explore has a larger 300-gram hopper and a grounds container that holds about 14 pucks.

On the Dinamica Plus, a full tank gave me about 40 espressos, 25 cappuccinos or 16 mugs of coffee. For two people drinking a mix, that meant a refill about every two days on both.

Rough maths from my testing on the Dinamica Plus. The Eletta Explore was similar.

Fresh whole beans made the biggest difference on both. Medium and medium-dark roasts were the sweet spot for hot espresso, and medium roasts were best for the Eletta Explore’s cold brew.

Avoid very oily, dark beans on either machine, because they clog the grinder. Both have a bypass chute for one level scoop of pre-ground decaf, and the used grounds are worth putting in the compost.

Use fresh, cold water every day, fit the filter if your water is moderately hard and skip distilled water, because coffee needs some minerals.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

For hot drinks all year, the Dinamica Plus is the simpler machine to live with.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10 from my single reviews of each machine.

De’Longhi Eletta Explore

De’Longhi Dinamica Plus

Both score 8.6 overall, and that tie is honest. The Eletta Explore does more, and the Dinamica Plus does the hot basics a little better with less cleaning.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: will you really use cold foam and cold brew? If the answer is yes, nothing else at this level does it as well. If not, you are paying for a second carafe you will only wash. Still weighing other options? I rank every model I’ve tested in my guide to the best super-automatic espresso machines.

To see how these fit into the wider range, read my De’Longhi Eletta Explore review, my De’Longhi Dinamica Plus review or my guide to the best De’Longhi super-automatics.

For iced drinks and cold brew, the Eletta Explore is in a class of its own.

Eletta Explore vs Dinamica Plus specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks, making espresso, Doppio+, long coffee, americanos, cappuccinos, flat whites, latte macchiatos and tea water on both, plus iced drinks, cold foam and cold brew on the Eletta Explore and Over Ice drinks on the Dinamica Plus.

I timed and weighed grinder doses, weighed espresso yields, measured drink temperatures with a probe thermometer and measured grinder noise with a decibel meter.

I foamed whole, semi-skimmed, skim, barista oat and almond milk, tested the apps and remote start, ran every cleaning routine and then compared my notes with De’Longhi’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature and drink range.
• Workflow: controls, menus and daily routine.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, water care and footprint.