Jura IMPRESSA J9.3 – Coffee Machine Review

In this coffee machine review, we look at the Impressa J9, which is Jura’s current top-of-the-line model and, at first glance, it looks the part. Gleaming silver body and chrome buttons and accents plus a color LCD screen make a stunning first impression. This fades a bit when you notice that nearly all of what you see is plastic, including the chrome-plated spouts. Some people do expect at this price point, to get actual stainless steel or chrome-plated brass parts.

• Makes great coffee
• Highly customizable for strength, size, temperature
• Energy saving features

• Some usability issues
• Low spout height
• Perhaps too much plastic for the price category

Explaining the Parts

In front middle, above the drip tray  is the dual coffee spout, which slides up and down and the dual spouts pivot apart for filling two cups. Coffee comes out of both spouts at the same time regardless. The height of the spout is adjustable between 110 – 153 mm, with the maximum distance between the spouts being about 50mm. This is the one part where some customers will complain about the height being too short.

On the left side is another single spout which is used for milk and hot water. The standard spout serves as a mixer for milk, water/steam, and if you’re making a latte or cappuccino, dispenses both the coffee and the milk, which is a nice touch. The height of this spout is adjustable between 102 – 146 mm. This spout has an adjustable dial to control the air/steam mixture with the milk, which enters the spout through a port on the left, which is used to  insert a piece of silicone tubing (supplied) from a milk container or connected to the supplied stainless steel insulated cup with siphon tube. This cup is said to be able to keep milk cold for up to 8 hours, though only when full. When not in use, the port is covered with a red rubber plug.

Below the center spouts are two LEDs, with a single LED under the frothing spout. These initially illuminate white and change to yellow during the brew process and go out after a short while after the serving is done.

There are four hinged doors on top. The door on the left side is for the water carafe, which is tall and narrow. A handle swings up on the carafe to assist removal, holding and replacing. An optional “Clearyl Blue” filter sits inside the carafe with an extender that snaps on to bring it up to full height. Since you cannot see the water level once the carafe is in place which becomes a minor irritation,  since the “refill water” indicator doesn’t come on until there is less than 240ml of water remaining. This just means that your last cup might not be completely full. The door on the right side covers a storage compartment which holds a spoon for pre-ground coffee, a hot water spout that can be swapped in for the milk frother, and the adjustment for the coffee grinder.

A small door in the center is where you would spoon in ground coffee if desired – lifting that door triggers the pre-ground coffee cycle which is then started by pushing one of the buttons at the sides of the LCD panel within two minutes. A large door at the top rear surface exposes the bean hopper, which has an “aroma saver” inner lid and a plastic grille preventing you from getting your fingers near the grinder opening.

Since these doors are on the top, it’s best to have this unit free standing and not under a counter which could block them.

The drip tray has four components. The large tray itself has two electrical contacts on the end that tell the machine the tray is inserted. The chrome grille (with a plastic grille underneath) sits on this. A secondary tray sits on the large tray and a plastic grounds container sits on this secondary tray.

Making Espresso Coffee

Above the center spout is the LCD display with three buttons on each side. This is your primary interface to the J9. In normal mode, it presents six choices: Espresso, Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte macchiato, Hot water and 1 portion milk. Pressing the button by one of these choices immediately starts dispensing the selected item. On the top front surface of the J9 is a large rotary dial with a central push button. This is used to select additional beverage choices and to make adjustments. Flanking this dial are the power button and a P button used for programming.

If you spin the dial, you are shown all the standard beverage choices plus these: Ristretto, 2 Ristretti, 2 Espressi, 2 Coffees. You push the central button to make your choice, though if you choose a standard offering; it just takes you back to the main screen. Otherwise, pushing the button immediately starts dispensing the beverage. The double-portion choices double the amount of water used, but not double the amount of coffee ground (weaker coffee, rather than double coffees).

No matter what choice you make, you can individually customise your cup, though the process of doing might be slightly awkward for some. On the J9, you use either the push buttons by the LCD or the dial to make adjustments, but your opportunity to do so is limited. For coffee and espresso, you can select one of five strengths only in the few seconds while the coffee is grinding. Then when the brewing starts, you can adjust the amount of water to be used in 15 ml  increments up to 240 ml. For drinks that use milk, you instead select the number of seconds it will pump milk. For hot water you can select three temperatures; the manual says that “Extra Hot” corresponds to 95 degrees F, although it might be cooler as measured in the cup.

You can, however, preset the customizations for each drink type using the programming menu and the “Expert Mode”. These presets are used as defaults but can still be overridden while the beverage is being prepared.

When you first turn on the Impressa J9, the screen indicates that the water is heating and then it prompts you to press the dial’s button to initiate a rinse of the coffee system. This rinse uses far less water than the E8 did. Then you can make your selections. When you power down, it rinses again.

Ok, that’s a lot of words about the machine, but how good is the coffee it makes? Great! We found the coffee even more flavorful than other previous/older models, without even selecting the strongest setting. The latte and cappuccino is also pretty good, though the milk foam is probably the same thickness as previous/older machines. However, if you’re making a lot of milk drinks in a row, you’ll appreciate the all-in-one convenience of the J9 – just position your cup under the spout, push the button, and it does the rest.

Energy Saving Features

Jura touts the energy-saving features of the J9, so we tested these. When the J9 is heating water, it draws 1300W, but I was amazed at how quickly it came up to temperature from a cold start, only about 15-20 seconds. When it is sitting ready to brew, it draws 3-5W. When powered off normally, Jura says that it draws 0.1W, but most inline power meters will probably read zero (rounded down) as it is probably even less than 0.1W. There is also a rocker switch by where the power cord comes in (on the bottom right) that completely disconnects the power.

You can set an EnergySave mode, which once enabled, when a brew is complete, it does not keep the water at brewing temperature. This is indicated on the display. If you then want to brew a cup, you press a button and it takes 15-20 seconds to reheat, then you press the button again to start brewing. When watching the power meter when in EnergySave mode was disabled and didn’t see the heater come on too often. Jura says that this can reduce energy consumption by up to 40%, but if you want your coffee NOW, you will probably choose to leave EnergySave disabled. You can also set an auto-turnoff time which will shut the machine down after a period of no use that can be selected from 15 minutes to 15 hours.

Cleaning

The coffee and milk systems get cleaned independently. The machine will remind you to run a brewing cleaning cycle every 200 cups or so. This is done using a Jura cleaning tablet that is inserted into the ground coffee funnel. The machine then soaks, sprays, and rinses the system and then flushes with water – this takes about 20 minutes. When you do this, you must place a cup under each of the coffee and milk spouts. About 240ml of solution get discharged into each of these cups.

The milk frother is supposed to be cleaned after every use. The usual way of doing this is to add a small amount of cappuccino cleaner (an initial bottle is supplied) in 240ml of water and let the milk tube suck it up into the system. There’s a cleaning option in the programming menu to do this. By default, it won’t remind you to clean the frother, but you can enable that if you wish.

We recommend: once every couple of weeks or so, take a damp paper towel. Reach into the opening, and with your fingers (and the towel), reach up behind the flap (you can pull it forward a bit – don’t force it) and wipe off the strainer and surrounding area. You may need someone with long fingers (or small hands) to do this. You won’t be able to see what you are doing, but you will be able to feel the disc with its central screw. Cleaning this regularly will keep the quality of the coffee consistent and reduce the chance of problems down the road.

Conclusion

The J9 is expensive, but for that price, you get a stunning looking espresso coffee machine that makes fantastic coffee in multiple styles, and very fast. Some will have issues with the design as far as usability is concerned, notably the positioning and size of the top doors and the quick reflexes you’ll need to make adjustments when brewing a cup. With proper care though, this machine should last for many, many years.