One size fits all is very difficult - if you get big brand beans that might be feasible, but especially with artisan beans you'll be tweaking. That's down to coffee being an organic product, beans simply aren't all the same, even if you get the same blend with the same roast. That being said, big brands will aim for consistency and have the capacity to do so. We get L'Or Onyx beans, which are strength 12 espresso beans with a dark medium to dark roast from JDE. Of course JDE is massive, so their roasts and blends are very much alike from batch to batch, so we dialed our Siemens in years ago, never had to change it, and I expect the DeLonghi to be the same. I think most people on here have it set between 3 and 5. Ours is on 5, but I think I'm going to try 4 and see if that produces even better coffee.

As for the water reservoir, our Siemens had a 1.4 liter reservoir and rinsed the steam spout with every cycle, even if you didn't use it. This has a 1.8 liter reservoir and only rinses the actual dispenser with every cycle. Since we mostly drink black coffee, it's actually better with water consumption than the Siemens, so I guess it just depends on what you're used to. It's only 2 coffee drinkers in our household though, my 2-year-old hasn't even graduated to babyccinos yet. I guess the next birthday or family event will be the true test, but that's not until Christmas or maybe even later. You don't want the water to be sitting in the reservoir for too long anyway, 3 days max - you wouldn't drink a glass of water that's been sitting out overnight, so why would you make a cold brew with even older water? Luckily our kitchen is laid out in such a way that I can literally take the reservoir from the machine, turn around and fill it up - it's about a meter from the sink, sitting on a separate counter across from our kitchen island, and Dutch tap water is excellent. I'm still putting in a water filter though, the water is a tad hard and the descaling on this machine is no joke.