KitchenAid - Automatic Espresso Machine KF4 porcelain

KitchenAid KF4

A café menu without café equipment: you pick a drink on the touchscreen and the KF4 grinds, brews and froths the milk. The menu holds over 20 recipes, from espresso and cappuccino to flat white and iced coffee.

The body is 19.5 cm wide, so it takes up less worktop than a typical automatic machine. Quiet Mark certification means the first cup does not wake the house, and the milk container and iced coffee mode come as standard.

Who the KF4 is for

This machine solves a few very specific situations:

• you want café-grade coffee without learning to run a portafilter machine: everything happens once you choose a drink on the screen
• you mostly drink milk-based coffee: the automatic milk system makes steady microfoam with no manual steaming
• summer means iced coffee: a separate mode brews the espresso cooler so it does not turn bitter over ice
• your worktop is tight: 19.5 cm fits where a regular automatic machine will not

Over 20 drinks and four profiles

Espresso, cappuccino, flat white, latte macchiato, americano, frothed and warm milk, hot water and iced coffees. On the screen you set how strong you like your coffee, how much milk goes in the cup and how hot the drink should be, then save it to one of four user profiles.

Everyone at home returns to their own version with one tap, instead of setting everything again with each cup.

Three steps to a cup

1. Fill the hopper. It holds 250 g. IntelliGrind matches the grind size to whatever beans you put in.

2. Choose a drink on the screen. Set strength, milk volume and temperature, or go straight to your profile.

3. Take your coffee. Cup illumination shows what is happening in the cup, even with the kitchen lights off.

A grinder that tunes itself

Grind size is the most important setting on any espresso machine: the finer the grind, the slower water flows through the coffee and the stronger the drink comes out. On the KF4 that is IntelliGrind's job, recognising the beans and setting the grind automatically.

In practice it means that after a change of coffee there is nothing to calibrate and no settings to look up. You fill the hopper with new beans and carry on brewing.

Two milk drinks in one cycle

The milk container is included: you fill it, put it in the fridge and take it out ready to work. The machine doses and froths exactly as much milk as the chosen drink needs, and you can set the foam density to taste and save it to a profile.

Two cups fit under the spout at the same time, so a morning cappuccino for two comes out of a single cycle rather than one after the other.

Iced coffee that is not bitter

Homemade iced coffee usually fails for one reason: hot espresso lands straight on the ice, dilutes and ends up watery and bitter. The KF4 has a separate iced coffee setting that brews the espresso at a lower temperature.

The drink stays gentler and better balanced, even when you serve it straight over cubes.

Cleaning in practice

• After every milk drink: rinse the container and the hose. Dried milk changes the taste of the next cappuccino.
• Weekly: empty and rinse the water tank, wash the drip tray and the grounds container.
• Every six weeks or every 50 litres of water: replace the KESWF filter, as KitchenAid recommends.
• When the machine asks: a KESCT8 tablet through the brew unit and a descaling cycle. The brew unit lifts out and rinses under the tap.
• What not to do: do not put parts in the dishwasher, as the manufacturer recommends hand washing. Use cleaning and descaling products made for automatic espresso machines.

Three terms worth knowing

Quiet Mark is an independent certification linked to the British Noise Abatement Society, awarded after laboratory testing to the quietest 10 to 20 per cent of products in a given category. It comes without a decibel figure, because the same number sounds different from room to room, and how loud something feels depends on the character of the sound as much as its level.

The brew unit is the heart of the machine: ground coffee lands there and hot water passes through it. In the KF4 it comes out without tools, which makes cleaning easier and extends the machine's life.

Descaling removes the deposit hard water leaves behind. A scaled-up machine brews cooler and slower, which is why it pays to follow the on-screen reminders and replace the filter on schedule.

KF2, KF3 or KF4

All three compact models share the same 19.5 cm wide body, the same IntelliGrind grinder and the iced coffee mode. What separates them is how much of the milk work the machine takes on and how much you choose from the screen.

The KF4 makes sense when you drink plenty of milk-based coffee, want the milk container in the box and the longest recipe list in this line. If you pour milk from a carton and fifteen drinks are enough, the KF3 does the same for less. If you mostly drink black coffee, the KF2 will do.

Technical specification

Frequently asked questions

In the box

• KESMC milk container
• Milk hose
• Scoop / filter mounting aid
• KESWF water filter
• KESCT8 cleaning tablets for the brew unit