De'Longhi Rivelia vs Eletta Explore: do you need cold brew?

Rivelia vs Eletta Explore at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and De'Longhi's specifications. Rows where the two machines are identical have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Two rows, bean switching and cold drinks, decide this matchup for most people.

Design, size and build

From the front, both look like modern De'Longhi machines: a 3.5-inch color touchscreen on top, a tall spout in the middle and a milk carafe that clips on below.

The Rivelia is the slimmer of the two. It measures about 9.6 inches wide, 16.9 inches deep and 15.2 inches tall, and its tank sits on the side.

The Eletta Explore is wider and deeper. De'Longhi lists it at 260 × 450 × 385 mm, which is about 10.2 inches wide and almost 18 inches back toward the wall.

The Eletta Explore reaches almost 18 inches deep, so check your counter first.

The Eletta Explore's 1.8-liter tank slides out of the front, which I appreciated more than I expected. The Rivelia's 47-ounce tank lifts out of the side, so it needs a little room on one flank.

Both are about the same height, and both need a few inches above the hopper. On the Rivelia, you lift a whole hopper off to swap beans, so leave a bit more.

Depth on the counter

Both need a little room in front for the drip tray.

Our tip: Keep the Eletta Explore's cold carafe in the fridge door, not on the counter, because cold milk foams far better and the carafe then never sits out between uses.

Setup and Bean Adapt

Setup took about 15 minutes on both. You fill the tank, test your water hardness, add beans and let the machine rinse.

Both use De'Longhi's Bean Adapt✕Bean Adapt TechnologyA guided setup on De'Longhi's newer machines. You describe your beans, taste a test shot and the machine adjusts grind, dose and temperature for that roast. setup. You tell the machine about your roast, taste a test drink and it suggests grind and temperature changes.

On the Rivelia, Bean Adapt matters more because each hopper can hold a different bean. Each one remembers its own settings, so switching from a dark blend to a light single origin doesn't mean starting over.

The Rivelia's Bean Adapt remembers settings for each hopper.

On the Eletta Explore, my best results with fresh beans landed between grind settings 2.0 and 4.0. With very fresh beans, I loosened the grind to around 4.0 to keep the pump from choking on long coffees.

Our tip: Run Bean Adapt every time you open a new bag on either machine, because a roast change shifts the ideal grind by a step or two.

Two hoppers vs one: the Rivelia’s trick

This is the Rivelia's whole reason to exist. It comes with two 8.8-ounce hoppers that lock onto the grinder with a quarter turn.

You lift one off and drop the other on in a few seconds. In my house, that meant regular beans in the morning and decaf after lunch, both freshly ground.

The catch is the coffee left in the grinder. On my machine, roughly 10 grams stayed behind after every swap, which is about two-thirds of a single shot.

Every swap leaves about 10 grams in the Rivelia's grinder.

After a swap, the Rivelia asks whether to grind and discard that leftover or use it in your next drink. For decaf, discard it, because a transition drink still carries caffeine.

Beans lost per day by switching habit

Based on the roughly 10 g I measured left in the grinder after each swap.

The Eletta Explore has one larger hopper of about 10.6 ounces and a pre-ground chute. For an occasional decaf, a scoop of pre-ground works fine. For daily decaf, it gets old fast.

If caffeine matters for health reasons, the FDA's guidance on caffeine is a useful reference for how much is too much in a day.

Grinder and dose

Both machines use steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. Beans are crushed between them, and the gap sets how fine the coffee is. with 13 settings on a dial inside the hopper. Both top out at around 15 grams for a strong shot.

On the Rivelia, intensity 5 ran the grinder for about 10 seconds and gave me roughly 15 grams. That was my go-to setting for espresso.

On the Eletta Explore, I timed the grinder at roughly 1.5 grams per second and weighed the dose at every strength level. Its Doppio+ goes further, packing a dense 15 to 16-gram puck.

Eletta Explore dose by intensity level

My measurements at about 1.5 grams per second. The Rivelia gave about 15 g at intensity 5.

In other words, the strength setting is really a dose setting on both. For espresso and milk drinks, I kept both at their top two levels.

The Eletta Explore's Doppio+ packs a dense 15 to 16-gram puck.

Our tip: Use strength 4 or 5 for anything with milk on either machine, because the lower levels drop the dose to 8 to 10 grams and the coffee disappears under the foam.

Espresso quality

Both machines run 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 tasks quickly., and the coffee sees roughly the classic 9 bar during a normal shot.

On the Rivelia, intensity 5 and about 30 grams in the cup gave me a smooth, balanced espresso with a fine, even crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee.. It was a very good shot, just a touch light in body.

On the Eletta Explore, I used a medium-dark 60/40 Arabica and Robusta blend and aimed for 15 grams in and 30 grams out. I set the volume so the scale read about 22 grams when the pump stopped, and the last drips carried it to almost exactly 30.

At level 5, the Eletta Explore pulled the slightly richer shot of the two.

That shot was a little richer and heavier than the Rivelia's. Without preheating anything, it measured about 169°F in the cup.

My espresso ratings

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

Our tip: Pre-warm your espresso cup with hot water on either machine, because my shots lost several degrees in a cold cup within a minute.

Hot milk drinks

Both machines use De'Longhi's LatteCrema Hot✕LatteCrema systemDe'Longhi's automatic milk system. A carafe clicks onto the front, the machine draws milk in, heats it with steam and mixes in air, and a dial sets the foam level. carafe for hot drinks. You click it on, choose a drink and set the foam dial.

On the Rivelia, my frothed milk consistently measured between 140°F and 149°F. That's right where milk tastes sweetest, hot enough to enjoy without scalding.

The Eletta Explore's hot carafe holds about 500 ml, enough for several drinks before refilling. My favorite setting was about 75% of the way toward thick foam, where it made 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 needs. that blended into the espresso.

The Rivelia's milk came out at 140 to 149°F, the sweet spot for flavor.

In a blind taste of cappuccinos, the two were very close. The Eletta Explore foam was a little silkier at its best setting, and the Rivelia foam was a little more consistent from drink to drink.

Our tip: Set the Eletta Explore's foam dial about three-quarters of the way toward thick, because that was where the foam turned glossy rather than stiff.

Iced drinks and cold brew

This is the Eletta Explore's whole reason to exist, and it does it properly.

It comes with a second carafe, LatteCrema Cool, which froths cold milk without heating it. It holds about 390 ml, a little less than the hot carafe.

For iced drinks, the screen tells you how much ice to add, usually between 4 and 8 standard cubes. My iced cappuccinos came down to about 77°F in the glass before most of the ice had melted.

The Eletta Explore's cold carafe makes real cold foam for iced drinks.

Cold brew in about three minutes

Traditional cold brew✕Cold brewCoffee made with cool water instead of hot. It tastes smoother and less acidic, but by hand it takes 12 hours or more. steeps coffee in cold water for 12 hours or more. The Eletta Explore uses what De'Longhi calls Cold Extraction Technology to do it in about three minutes.

The water left the spouts at about 98°F, roughly half the temperature of a hot espresso. Poured over ice, my finished cold brew settled at 35.6 to 37.4°F.

It tasted smooth, low in acidity and genuinely refreshing. It's not identical to a 12-hour steep, but it's far closer than iced espresso.

Drink temperatures I measured on the Eletta Explore

My own probe readings.

The Rivelia can make iced milk drinks too, but only with De'Longhi's cold milk accessory, sold separately. It has no cold brew mode at all.

Tea, hot water and cocoa

Both machines make good tea water. On the Rivelia, my readings came in between 194°F and 203°F.

The Eletta Explore has a black tea mode, and the water ran continuously between 199°F and 203°F. That's right for a strong brew.

The Eletta Explore also makes hot cocoa with its hot carafe. My cocoa came out at about 135°F, warm enough to enjoy and safe for kids to drink right away.

The Eletta Explore has dedicated tea settings and makes hot cocoa too.

Our tip: Use the Eletta Explore's cocoa program for kids, because at about 135°F it's warm and comforting but cool enough to drink straight away.

Touchscreen, profiles and the app

Both machines use a responsive 3.5-inch color touchscreen. Both store four user profiles, each with its own strength, size and temperature for every drink.

The Rivelia's menu is simpler, with 18 hot drinks on a couple of pages. Nobody in my house needed help finding anything.

The Eletta Explore has more than 50 hot and cold recipes on the machine, plus color shortcut buttons for favorites. It also adds De'Longhi's Coffee Link app, with dozens of extra recipes.

Both machines store four profiles, but only the Eletta Explore has an app.

The app was slow to connect and I rarely used it. The on-machine menu was enough for everything I wanted.

Cleaning and upkeep

On the coffee side, both are easy. They rinse on start-up and shutdown, and both have a removable brew unit✕Brew unitThe part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck. you rinse under the tap once a week.

The milk side is where they differ. The Rivelia has one carafe. The Eletta Explore has two, and both have the same kind of spout, stem, dial and intake tube.

Every two to three days, I took each Eletta carafe completely apart. It wasn't hard, but it was double the work of the Rivelia.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

My estimate for two hot and one iced milk drink a day.

The Eletta Explore's grounds bin holds about 14 used pucks. With its stronger Doppio+ drinks, that bin filled up quicker than I expected.

Two carafes means two sets of milk parts to clean on the Eletta Explore.

Our tip: Strip down one carafe on Monday and the other on Thursday on the Eletta Explore, because splitting the job keeps it to a couple of minutes each time.

Noise

This one surprised me. The Eletta Explore was the quieter machine.

My first grind of the morning on the Eletta came in under 65 decibels, with a low hum instead of the sharp whine I expect from bean-to-cup grinders. The Rivelia measured 66 to 68 dB, which is already fairly quiet.

Sound level comparison

My readings alongside common reference levels.

A few decibels doesn't sound like much, but the scale is logarithmic. More important to me was the pitch: the Eletta's lower, rounder sound didn't cut through the house at 6 a.m.

Water, beans and supplies

Both use the same De'Longhi water filter, descaler and milk cleaner, so supplies cost the same.

The Eletta Explore's 1.8-liter front tank covers a family's morning before it needs refilling. The Rivelia's 47-ounce side tank needed a top-up every day or so for two people.

Drinks per full tank

Rough maths allowing for rinse water. Your numbers depend on cup size.

Use fresh whole beans within a few weeks of the roast date. Medium and medium-dark roasts worked best on both.

On the Rivelia, the second hopper doubles as fresh-bean storage. On the Eletta Explore, the 10.6-ounce hopper means a bag lasts about a week in the machine for two people.

Our tip: Buy a bag you can finish in two or three weeks, because both grinders show off fresh coffee far better than stale.

Real-life scenarios

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

For households that drink coffee hot and iced, the Eletta Explore earns its place.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10. The first four come from my single reviews of each machine, and I added bean flexibility and cold drinks because they decide this matchup.

Rivelia

Eletta Explore

Overall, I rate the Rivelia 8.5 and the Eletta Explore 8.6. It's close because they're built for different households: two-bean homes on one side, hot-and-iced homes on the other.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: is your problem two different coffees, or hot and iced drinks? Answer that honestly and the choice makes itself. For the wider picture beyond this matchup, see my guide to the best De’Longhi super-automatic machines.

If you want to see a third option, my Magnifica Duo vs Rivelia vs Eletta Explore comparison adds a simpler machine, and my guide to the best espresso machines with cold brew covers the iced side in depth.

For two-bean homes and small kitchens, the Rivelia earns its place.

Rivelia vs Eletta Explore 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, long coffee, cappuccinos, flat whites, lattes and tea water, plus iced lattes, cold brew and cocoa on the Eletta Explore.

I weighed doses at every strength level, measured drink temperatures with a probe thermometer, took decibel readings while grinding and tracked how much coffee the Rivelia lost per bean swap.

I foamed whole, semi-skimmed, oat and almond milk hot and cold, ran every cleaning routine and compared my notes with De'Longhi's specifications and owner documentation. Michael Reynolds wrote up the notes from both test periods.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: hot and cold foam, temperature and drink range.
• Workflow: touchscreen, profiles, bean switching and app.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, water care and footprint.