I have spent may hours reading this site an many others regarding my new Breville Ikon BES400 Espresso Machine and Breville BarAroma Coffee Grinder package I recently picked up from Target for the excellent deal of just $299 for the lot. I found that while all the information is out there no one has summarised it into one place so I thought Id give it a go....
For the record I am not a coffee snob, nor in fact a coffee drinker! I am dating a coffee snob and am a engineer whos brain is wired to enjoy the technical aspects of this sort of thing. I have owned an older Krupps unit that was never hot enough so my coffee drinking friends never wanted a coffee. So time to upgrade. I bought the Ikon in defiance of Choice magazines average review for taste hoping that the good folk here were correct in that a change of filter baskets would mean it would produce a good brew. The fact it looks great (in my opinion) also played into it too! The grinder came with it so I could get the Sunbeam unit people seem to prefer. Speaking to a friend who has this unit (Sunbeam EMO450 or EMO480) it seems while it is a good unit is can create a mess (due to its external shute) and the "fill direct into the filter holder option" is less useful that it appears as you need to tamp mid way through to be able to hold enough grinds without over flowing. (Choice have the, pretty much equal billing.)
When I first tried to make a coffee using the supplied double cup pressurised filter basket I found the machine pumped as expected then "stalled" with the pump clearly straining. I released the pressure by opening the steam valve and thinking I have tamped too hard or filled to high tried again with the same result. (FYI: I was using pre-ground supermarket Lavazza coffee for this trial). I then tried the same thing with the single cup filter and all was well. I called Breville who mailed me out a new dual cup filter and that worked fine. (Breville service was very good). I have since found reviews of people in the US with the same fault so it seems Breville may have a quality control issue with their double cup filter baskets!
My next move was to purchase an non-pressurised filter basket. I have read entries of plenty of people recommending the Krupps units (part #0907163 for the basket, #620342 for the seal) with the draw back being they are a slightly smaller diameter and thus do not hold tightly in the filter holder. The other option is the filters from the Breville Bar Italia (ESP4). I purchased one of these from my local Breville factory outlet/service centre here in Melbourne. The Breville web site will tell you your nearest service agent if you need to track one down. I believe the part number is the ESP4/51 as mentioned elsewhere on Coffee Snobs. I have also read of complaints that the holes in the these filters are larger and this lets coffee grounds pass through. This is not quite true. There are in fact two version of the filter which look similar. I suspect the other version is from the older ESP2 machine. This filter (ESP2/41, I believe) is slightly deeper (which means it works better with the eject function of the filter holder for which the ESP4/51 is not really compatible) but is more easy to distinguish by the fact it has a dull inner surface finish compared to the bright finish of the ESP4/51. I would suggest that if you are purchasing one of these you ensure it is the one from the ESP4 like I did.
The next thing is the tamper. The supplied tamper is useless for generating form of pressure. Unless you have the funds for a Pulman (and even if you do how can you spend more than a third of the price of the costs of a machine and grinder on a simple tamper anyway?) I have found that the InCasa 52mm Stainless Steel tamper (from "The Coffee Company" in Balaclava, Melbourne - they sell online too) fits just about perfectly and works a treat. I grabbed a nice tamper mat from them too!
So - are the "snobs" happy? Yes! Still learning how to pull the perfect brew but I am certainly happy with the setup (especially for the price). Oh: I have included a photo of my new set up too!
Please let me know if I missed anything....

For the record I am not a coffee snob, nor in fact a coffee drinker! I am dating a coffee snob and am a engineer whos brain is wired to enjoy the technical aspects of this sort of thing. I have owned an older Krupps unit that was never hot enough so my coffee drinking friends never wanted a coffee. So time to upgrade. I bought the Ikon in defiance of Choice magazines average review for taste hoping that the good folk here were correct in that a change of filter baskets would mean it would produce a good brew. The fact it looks great (in my opinion) also played into it too! The grinder came with it so I could get the Sunbeam unit people seem to prefer. Speaking to a friend who has this unit (Sunbeam EMO450 or EMO480) it seems while it is a good unit is can create a mess (due to its external shute) and the "fill direct into the filter holder option" is less useful that it appears as you need to tamp mid way through to be able to hold enough grinds without over flowing. (Choice have the, pretty much equal billing.)
When I first tried to make a coffee using the supplied double cup pressurised filter basket I found the machine pumped as expected then "stalled" with the pump clearly straining. I released the pressure by opening the steam valve and thinking I have tamped too hard or filled to high tried again with the same result. (FYI: I was using pre-ground supermarket Lavazza coffee for this trial). I then tried the same thing with the single cup filter and all was well. I called Breville who mailed me out a new dual cup filter and that worked fine. (Breville service was very good). I have since found reviews of people in the US with the same fault so it seems Breville may have a quality control issue with their double cup filter baskets!
My next move was to purchase an non-pressurised filter basket. I have read entries of plenty of people recommending the Krupps units (part #0907163 for the basket, #620342 for the seal) with the draw back being they are a slightly smaller diameter and thus do not hold tightly in the filter holder. The other option is the filters from the Breville Bar Italia (ESP4). I purchased one of these from my local Breville factory outlet/service centre here in Melbourne. The Breville web site will tell you your nearest service agent if you need to track one down. I believe the part number is the ESP4/51 as mentioned elsewhere on Coffee Snobs. I have also read of complaints that the holes in the these filters are larger and this lets coffee grounds pass through. This is not quite true. There are in fact two version of the filter which look similar. I suspect the other version is from the older ESP2 machine. This filter (ESP2/41, I believe) is slightly deeper (which means it works better with the eject function of the filter holder for which the ESP4/51 is not really compatible) but is more easy to distinguish by the fact it has a dull inner surface finish compared to the bright finish of the ESP4/51. I would suggest that if you are purchasing one of these you ensure it is the one from the ESP4 like I did.
The next thing is the tamper. The supplied tamper is useless for generating form of pressure. Unless you have the funds for a Pulman (and even if you do how can you spend more than a third of the price of the costs of a machine and grinder on a simple tamper anyway?) I have found that the InCasa 52mm Stainless Steel tamper (from "The Coffee Company" in Balaclava, Melbourne - they sell online too) fits just about perfectly and works a treat. I grabbed a nice tamper mat from them too!
So - are the "snobs" happy? Yes! Still learning how to pull the perfect brew but I am certainly happy with the setup (especially for the price). Oh: I have included a photo of my new set up too!
Please let me know if I missed anything....



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