It is a good machine for our household. We usually drink espresso and coffee and only sporadically cappuccino or other coffee with milk. We had a Nespresso machine for this and the Philips makes significantly better coffee. You do have to be a little patient with finding the right combination of settings for grinding degree (12 settings) and coffee strength (3 settings). We had initially set the grind size too fine and the strength too high, so the coffee came out very slowly and was very bitter. Once you have found the right settings, you don't have to worry about it anymore and making a delicious cup of coffee is a breeze.
The steam pipe does its job but we hardly use it. It is easy to remove and clean. This actually also applies to the other parts of the machine. The drip tray and water tank are both easy to pull out of the machine through the front of the machine.
It is a pity that both the drip tray and the grid, which you slide a cup over every time and which is therefore subject to wear and tear, are made of fairly thin and scratch-sensitive plastic. This while Philips itself sells a replacement copy of black metal. It's a shame that this can't just be standard with the device, because the plastic grid is already scratched after a week of use.