Office Coffee Machine Buying Checklist

1. Record your needs before choosing a machine

Use this checklist alongside the broader buying and leasing guide. Keep a single approval sheet, with evidence attached rather than scattered across emails.

Workplace: __________
Decision owner: __________
Target installation date: __________
Operational review date: __________

• [ ] Record typical and busiest-day attendance, including visitors.
• [ ] Count current drinks and note demand around meetings, arrivals and breaks.
• [ ] List essential drinks, cup sizes, decaffeinated requirements and milk preferences.
• [ ] Identify who will refill, clean and report faults, including absence cover.
• [ ] Decide what would make a machine unsuitable, such as inaccessible controls or excessive cleaning work.

The following matrix is an illustrative planning calculation, not a machine-sizing standard. It assumes each person attending drinks two machine coffees daily, excluding visitors.

Replace these assumptions with workplace observations. Daily volume alone should not decide the purchase: ask the supplier to demonstrate your expected sequence of drinks during the busiest period.

2. Check space and services

Measure the usable tea point, not simply the empty patch where the machine might stand.

• [ ] Record available width, depth and height.
• [ ] Add space for opening lids, removing tanks, pulling out trays and servicing.
• [ ] Include the milk cooler, filter, cleaning container, cups and waste bins.
• [ ] Confirm worktop suitability and the delivery route.
• [ ] Obtain the exact electrical requirements for the proposed configuration.
• [ ] Confirm tank filling or mains-water connection, isolation access and any drainage.
• [ ] Check that users can reach controls and collect drinks without awkward lifting.

Ask for an installation drawing covering the complete setup. Treat dimensions and capacities as manufacturer-claimed specifications, and verify them against the exact model and accessories being supplied.

For plumbed-in installations in England and Wales, the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 include requirements for adequate backflow prevention, which stops water flowing back towards the supply. Ask the installer to document compliance; elsewhere in the UK, require confirmation against the applicable local rules.

HSE workplace guidance requires access to drinking water and somewhere to rest and eat. Keep those facilities available independently of coffee-machine availability.

3. Confirm water treatment and machine features

Ask your local water supplier for the office address’s hardness data. Record the units: mg/L as calcium carbonate expresses hardness on a common comparison basis; Clark degrees and German degrees are different scales and must not be entered interchangeably.

• [ ] Obtain a site-water test and the manufacturer’s permitted water specification.
• [ ] Record the proposed filter, its settings and replacement method.
• [ ] Confirm who changes cartridges and updates machine settings.
• [ ] Establish the required descaling procedure.
• [ ] Check bean, water and grounds capacities against actual drink settings.
• [ ] Confirm cup clearance, drink-volume adjustment and user-access controls.
• [ ] Demonstrate the decaffeinated route and any separate milk arrangements.
• [ ] Ask whether connectivity is optional and whether the machine works offline.

Water treatment needs to address both equipment protection and flavour. SCA technical guidance explains that hardness and alkalinity, the water’s ability to neutralise acids, have different roles; a filter-coffee recommendation should not automatically become a steam-boiler specification.

Do not accept “automatic cleaning” as a complete description. Ask exactly which parts require chemicals, removal, rinsing or replacement, and have those tasks demonstrated.

4. Run a repeatable workplace trial

Agree the pass criteria before the demonstration: acceptable drinks, manageable queues, suitable controls and cleaning that your staff can complete.

Use this numbered method. The drink settings and timing below are suggested trial conditions, not manufacturer instructions or universal brewing targets.

1. Prepare the proposed setup. Use your intended beans, treated water, milk and cups. Have the supplier commission it according to its manual.
2. Record a repeatable black drink. If supported within the manufacturer’s settings, use an illustrative 10 g coffee dose and a nominal 150 ml black coffee. Otherwise record the supported dose in g and programmed volume in ml. Note when dose information is unavailable.
3. Measure what arrives. Check the delivered volume in ml, or weigh the drink in g. Record temperature in degrees Celsius at the same point after dispensing. Compare like-for-like drinks rather than imposing one temperature on every recipe.
4. Check milk storage. Verify that refrigeration maintains the recommended 0 to 5 degrees Celsius range, and follow the milk label’s storage instructions.
5. Reproduce the queue. Run your expected busiest 10-minute drink sequence. Time from the first selection until the final drink is ready, including interruptions.
6. Complete the cleaning. Have a workplace user perform the instructed routine. Record hands-on time separately from automatic cycle time, then check readiness for the next working day.

Taste drinks after they have cooled enough to assess safely. Note body, bitterness, acidity and milk texture, and include staff who normally choose different drinks.

Use this table to investigate trial problems. Causes are possibilities, not diagnoses; apply only adjustments permitted by the machine’s manual.

5. Check the supplier and support arrangements

Request evidence relevant to your location and intended use, rather than relying on general promises.

• [ ] Confirm the legal identity of the supplier and the service provider.
• [ ] Ask who installs, commissions and repairs the machine.
• [ ] Obtain support hours, geographical coverage and escalation contacts.
• [ ] Distinguish acknowledgement, engineer attendance and restoration targets.
• [ ] Confirm parts availability and arrangements during extended downtime.
• [ ] Obtain references from comparable workplaces, with their permission.
• [ ] Ask whether warranty support depends on specified consumables or servicing.

Keep the detailed service comparison in service contract checks. On this checklist, record the agreed commitments and where they appear in the documents.

For machines with steam boilers, ask the supplier to establish whether pressure-system duties apply. HSE guidance says qualifying equipment needs a written scheme of examination and examination before use; a routine service visit is not a substitute. Assign responsibility explicitly.

6. Review the quotation and contract

Obtain itemised written quotations for the same machine configuration, service scope and assessment period.

• [ ] Match the model, accessories, condition and installation scope to the trial.
• [ ] Record ownership, contract duration, renewal and termination provisions.
• [ ] Identify compulsory consumables, minimum orders and exclusivity.
• [ ] Check exclusions involving scale, cleaning, misuse and relocation.
• [ ] Confirm what happens if the supplier changes or stops supporting the model.
• [ ] Put acceptance criteria, remedial action and return arrangements in writing.

For your own comparison, include the machine arrangement, installation, water treatment, beans, milk, cleaning materials, servicing, replacement parts, electricity, staff cleaning time and end-of-term obligations. Apply the same expected usage and period to each quotation.

To calculate a workplace figure per cup, divide the relevant total over that period by the number of drinks actually expected to be served. Include waste and consumables used during cleaning in the total, without counting them as served drinks.

Ask suppliers to identify VAT treatment by line. Coffee and milk sold as groceries are generally zero-rated, while hot drinks supplied in catering are generally standard-rated; do not assume ingredient treatment applies to the whole arrangement.

Use hidden contract checks for the fuller examination of obligations that may sit outside the headline offer.

7. Sign off installation and training

Do not treat delivery as acceptance.

• [ ] Confirm the delivered model, accessories and condition.
• [ ] Have the installer verify services, water treatment and any applicable safety documentation.
• [ ] Record the serial number, commissioning settings and installation date.
• [ ] Repeat the agreed drink and peak-demand tests.
• [ ] Demonstrate isolation and fault reporting.
• [ ] Train the main operator and absence cover.
• [ ] Have trainees demonstrate refilling, emptying and cleaning themselves.
• [ ] Store manuals and support contacts somewhere staff can retrieve them.

Training should distinguish normal user tasks from work reserved for an engineer. Ask the trainer to explain what to do after inactivity, a water interruption or an incomplete cleaning cycle.

Record outstanding work and who must resolve it before final acceptance.

8. Establish hygiene, waste and review routines

Give each task an owner, frequency, completion record and escalation route.

• [ ] Follow the exact model’s milk-system and coffee-system cleaning instructions.
• [ ] Include tanks, trays, grounds containers, removable parts and nearby surfaces.
• [ ] Specify approved chemicals, dilution and contact times from the instructions.
• [ ] Check milk refrigeration and follow use-by and opened-pack directions.
• [ ] Document milk and plant-drink handling, including shared equipment.
• [ ] Arrange suitable collection for grounds and other waste.

In England, Simpler Recycling requires covered workplaces to separate food waste, including coffee grounds. The rules took effect on 31 March 2025; micro-firms with fewer than 10 full-time-equivalent employees across the business have until 31 March 2027. Compostable packaging does not belong in the ordinary food-waste collection; check dedicated arrangements. Waste rules differ elsewhere in the UK.

As a suggested management schedule, review performance after the first month and then quarterly. Check served drinks, queues, interruptions, cleaning completion and faults. Review this office coffee machine buying checklist again when attendance, premises or drink requirements change.