Miele CM 6160 vs CM 6360: which Miele should you buy?

Miele CM 6160 vs CM 6360 at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and Miele’s specs. Rows where the two machines are identical have no winner.

The tally is not my verdict. Most rows are ties, and the few differences matter only to certain households.

Design, size and build

Put these two side by side and only the badge and a few details give them away. They share the same compact body, about 14.1 inches tall, 9.9 inches wide and 16.8 inches deep.

The Miele CM 6160 and Miele CM 6360 both have the 1.8-liter tank that lifts out from the side, a 300-gram bean hopper on top and the pre-ground chute behind it.

The 6360 adds a heated surface on top for cups and a tidier glass milk container that sits beside the machine. Otherwise you would struggle to tell them apart from across the room.

At under 10 inches wide, both are narrow for a full-feature machine. They slid under my standard wall cabinets with room to open the hopper lid.

The CM 6160 is compact for a machine with this many features.

Build quality is typical Miele: solid panels, smooth-sliding drip tray and a well-damped brew unit. Neither felt cheap after a month of daily use by several people.

Our tip: Leave a few inches to the left of the CM 6360 for its glass milk container, so it sits next to the spout without stretching the milk line.

Setup, profiles and the app

Setup took about 15 minutes on each. You fill the tank, choose a language, set the water hardness and let the machine rinse.

The Miele CM 6360 greeted me by name the next morning, which is a small thing that set the tone. With eight named profiles, it is built for houses where four people make four different drinks before 8 a.m.

The Miele CM 6160 has four profiles. In my house of three, that was plenty, and setting them up took a couple of minutes each.

Wi-Fi and app

Both connect to Miele’s app. On the 6360, Wi-Fi setup took patience, and it only worked once I had finished setup on the machine itself.

I used the app for remote start and checking maintenance. I never needed it for daily drinks, because the buttons and display cover everything.

The CM 6360 greets each person by name and pulls up their saved drinks.

Our tip: Finish setup on the machine itself before connecting the app, because connecting first was the one thing that made my Wi-Fi setup fail.

Display and controls

Both use a touch display on the front panel with direct-select drink buttons. You tap a drink, adjust strength or size if you want, and it starts.

Miele’s menus are logical but deep. The clever extras, such as the modes, the Barista Assistant and per-drink temperature, take some digging to find on both machines.

Once found, they are worth it. Temperature is programmable per drink, so my espresso ran on the highest setting while my partner’s latte stayed at the default.

The Miele CM 6360 shows each person’s name and saved drinks first. With eight people it is the clearer of the two to share, because nobody scrolls through someone else’s list.

The Miele CM 6160 uses numbered profiles. With three of us it never caused confusion, but a family of five would start to step on each other’s settings.

Both Mieles use the same touch display; the clever extras sit a few menus deep.

Milk drinks

This is why you buy either Miele. My very first cappuccino on each had a thick, glossy cap with bubbles too small to see.

The milk system is the same on both. Milk is drawn up a tube, frothed in the spout head and poured straight into the cup, and drinks finished at about 60 to 65°C, or 140 to 149°F.

That temperature range is hot without tasting scalded. Research from the University of Camerino found milk foam is most stable at around 60°C.

2% was my favorite balance of density and lightness. 1% made a lighter, airier foam that some people in my house preferred on lattes.

The milk container difference

The Miele CM 6160 doesn’t include a milk container. I put its milk tube straight into a carton from the fridge, which worked fine but looked untidy on the counter.

The Miele CM 6360 includes a glass container. It’s the tidiest upgrade of the two, and it goes back in the fridge after the rinse.

One quirk on the 6360: its two-tube milk line doesn’t fit neatly into the storage spot on the machine. I ended up looping it loosely, which is a small annoyance on an otherwise polished machine.

The CM 6360’s glass milk container is the tidiest way to keep milk next to the machine.

How each milk foamed, my scores

Same on both machines, out of 10 for texture and stability.

Grinder and dose

Both use the same Miele grinder with conical steel burrs and the same brew unit. Grind fineness is set by a lever under the hopper lid on both.

Strength comes from the amount of coffee per drink, which you set per profile. For a stronger espresso, I raised the coffee amount and chose the long pre-brew, then shortened the portion.

The one real limit is dose for big drinks. A single brew cycle tops out where a large mug starts to taste thin, which is exactly why DoubleShot exists.

How strong each drink tasted, my scores

Same on both machines. Out of 10 for strength and body.

Grind changes take effect gradually, over a few drinks. I moved one step finer for light roasts and gave it three cups before judging.

Our tip: Change the grind one step at a time and make three drinks before deciding, because the old grounds take a few cycles to clear from the grinder.

Espresso, long coffee and DoubleShot

Miele espresso is smooth, round and balanced rather than intense. That was true on both machines, with the same beans and the same settings.

Out of the box, the espresso portion is long for purists. On the 6360, I stopped it at about 1.2 ounces and saved it to my profile, which gave it more body.

On the 6160, more coffee, a long pre-brew and the ristretto setting did the same job. The highest temperature setting reaches about 89°C, or 192°F, at the brew.

Miele espresso is smooth and balanced; shorten the portion for more body.

DoubleShot: the secret weapon

Big mugs are where most automatics turn weak, because they push a lot of water through one small dose. DoubleShot✕DoubleShotMiele’s strong long coffee mode. It grinds and brews twice for one cup, so a big mug is not just watered down. grinds and brews twice for one cup, so a mug actually tastes strong.

On the 6360, a single coffee tops out at around 8 ounces. Very big travel mugs need DoubleShot or two runs, and the 6160 behaves the same way.

Coffee temperature I measured on the CM 6360

The heated cup warmer is worth about 6 degrees on a small espresso.

That cup warmer is the 6360’s quiet advantage for espresso drinkers. On the 6160, my espresso read about 70 to 72°C only when I pre-warmed the cup with hot water first.

Our tip: Save DoubleShot into your long coffee profile on either machine, because raising the water volume instead makes a thinner, flatter mug.

Tea, coffee pots and modes

Both are unusually good for tea drinkers. They have tea programs with a timer that remind you when the tea is ready.

The Miele CM 6360 lists six tea programs: black, fruit, herbal, green, white and Japanese. The Miele CM 6160 has tea programs and a dedicated hot water option too, and I used the timer every afternoon.

Both also make a pot of coffee for a crowd. On the 6360, the coffee pot function filled a carafe with about 30 ounces for a weekend breakfast.

Modes you’ll actually use

Both have four operating modes. Eco saves energy and switches off after about 20 minutes by default, adjustable up to nine hours.

Party mode stops the machine from interrupting a dinner with prompts. I used it once on each, and it is the kind of feature you forget about until you need it.

Six tea programs and a timer make the CM 6360 a tea station too.

Our tip: Measure your coffee pot before using the pot function, because a pot taller than the spout clearance spills hot coffee.

Cleaning and upkeep

Both clean the milk side on their own. After milk drinks, they rinse the pipework automatically using an internal valve, so you don’t put the tube in the drip tray.

The brew unit✕Brew unitThe part of an automatic machine that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and ejects the used puck. comes out on both and rinses under the tap. I did it weekly, which kept stale flavors away.

The grounds container on the 6160 holds about ten pucks, and the drip tray holds about 0.8 liters. With three of us making about eight drinks a day, I emptied the container every day or two.

With four of us on the 6360, I refilled the tank and emptied the grounds container daily, and the 300-gram hopper lasted about five days.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

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

Both Mieles rinse their milk pipework automatically after each milk drink.

Noise

Both are among the quietest machines I have tested. The grinder is muffled and the pump is smooth.

I measured about 60 to 63 dB while grinding and about 55 dB while brewing on both. That is quieter than a normal conversation.

Noise I measured

Readings from my meter about 3 feet away.

In an open-plan home at 6 a.m., either is a good neighbor. Noise is not a reason to pick one over the other.

Water, beans and supplies

Both use the same tank, hopper, cleaning tablets and descaler. Running costs are effectively identical.

A week in numbers

With four people on the 6360, everything moved a little faster. The tank needed refilling daily, and the hopper went in about five days.

The 300-gram hopper holds most, but not all, of a standard 12-ounce bag. It lasted about a week for three on the 6160 and about five days for four on the 6360.

Medium and medium-dark roasts suited both best, especially for milk drinks. Avoid very oily beans, which can clog the grinder over time.

Both machines use the same supplies, so running costs are identical.

Our tip: Rinse the brew unit every week on either Miele, because skipping it is the quickest way to let stale coffee flavors creep into every cup.

How four weeks went

A machine can feel very different on day one and day thirty. Here is how my view of each changed over the month.

By the end, both had settled into the background of the kitchen, which is the best compliment for an automatic machine. Neither threw an error, leaked or needed anything beyond the routine cleaning.

The only lasting annoyances were small. On the 6160, the carton next to the machine; on the 6360, the milk line that wouldn’t sit in its storage spot.

After four weeks, both Mieles had settled quietly into daily life.

Is the CM 6360 upgrade worth it?

Strip away the shared parts and the CM 6360 adds three things. Here is how much each one mattered over four weeks.

The profiles were the biggest difference. In a house of three, I never ran out on the 6160; in a house of four, the 6360’s names and extra slots made sharing smoother.

The glass container was the nicest to live with. If you buy the 6160, budget for a container if you don’t want a carton next to the machine.

The cup warmer mattered only for espresso. Milk drinks finished at the same temperature on both, so latte drinkers won’t notice it.

How much each extra mattered to me

My own rating after four weeks.

The heated cup warmer is the CM 6360’s quiet advantage for espresso drinkers.

Our tip: Pre-warm your cup with a splash of hot water on the CM 6160, because it closes most of the gap with the 6360’s heated cup warmer.

Mistakes to avoid on either Miele

Both Mieles are easy to live with, but a few habits held them back in my testing. These apply equally to the CM 6160 and CM 6360.

The factory espresso was the first thing I changed on both. Shortening it to about 1.2 ounces gave the shot real body without losing Miele’s smooth character.

The second was big mugs. Without DoubleShot, a long coffee tasted watery; with it, both machines made one of the strongest automatic mugs I’ve had.

Ignoring the modes is a smaller miss. Party mode in particular stops maintenance prompts from interrupting a dinner.

Save DoubleShot into your long coffee profile for a properly strong mug.

Our tip: Remote-start only black coffee from the app on either Miele, because a milk drink started from bed means milk left out of the fridge.

Real-life scenarios

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

For couples, the CM 6160 does everything that matters.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10 after four weeks with each machine. The first four rows are nearly identical, so I added household features and value-for-features because they decide this matchup.

Miele CM 6160

Miele CM 6360

Overall, I rate both 8.7. That is the point: the coffee and foam are the same. The CM 6360 earns its extras in a big household, and the CM 6160 is the smarter buy everywhere else.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: how many people share the machine, and do you want the extras in the box? Answer that and the choice makes itself. If none of these is quite right for you, my guide to the best super-automatic espresso machines covers the rest of the range I’ve tested.

To see every Miele model side by side, read my best Miele coffee machine guide, or go deeper with my CM 6160 review and CM 6360 review.

For four or more people, the CM 6360’s eight profiles earn their place.

Miele CM 6160 vs CM 6360 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, with three people on the CM 6160 and four on the CM 6360, making espresso, long coffee, DoubleShot mugs, cappuccinos, latte macchiatos, flat whites and tea.

I measured espresso, coffee and milk temperatures with a probe thermometer, logged noise with a meter, foamed whole, 2%, 1% and oat milk, and timed the daily cleaning.

I set up profiles and the app on both, used every mode, and compared my notes with Miele’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: body, temperature and DoubleShot strength.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature and container.
• Workflow: profiles, app, modes and tea programs.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, water care and footprint.