Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ive experienced the shot times being longer and ive found its actually very smart design. The 1 and 2 shots dont ever change on my machine they ALWAYS remain same. I dont reprogram or touch them in anyway.

Sounds like your machine may have the newer firmware and it solves the problem. How old is it? Based on the dated of Phils post the new firmware was probably introduced late 2011
People are not talking about the time a shot takes rather an incorrect volume being delivered is the issue.

My unit is very old week 35 2011 and it does dose with correct volume no matter how long to compplete it. My grind size and tamping skill are in best shape, so normally the volumetric shot for 1 cup completes within 1 ~ 4 secs variations but the coffee in the cup is still very good.

Cheers

[argus]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

My unit is very old week 35 2011

Mine is even older at week 26/11 and it does suffer from this firmware bug undocumented feature that every now now and then the two cup button will pour much more than 60mLs, even though grind, dose and tamp are identical to the previously poured perfect cup and the machince is cleaned when prompted by the LCD and backflushed daily.
It would be interesting to know from Breville what the update adressed and when it was implemented.

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

My unit is very old week 35 2011

Mine is even older at week 26/11 and it does suffer from this firmware bug undocumented feature that every now now and then the two cup button will pour much more than 60mLs, even though grind, dose and tamp are identical to the previously poured perfect cup and the machince is cleaned when prompted by the LCD and backflushed daily.
It would be interesting to know from Breville what the update adressed and when it was implemented.

Please let us know how Breville resolves the issue of your machine. I think it is not a firmware bug but a degradation of the flowmeter to report the flow difference between high and low presure fluids. Thats said, the flowmeter senses less volume than it really outputs gradually after the meter recalibration had been done and saved in the CPU flash memory.

Cheers

[argus]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Nick, unfortunately the problem is intermittant, if I take the machine to a service agent I cant make the fault happen to demonstrate to them so it is likely to be returned with "no fault found" so Id rather not be without the machine for however long that may take since it still works fine 99% of the time.
The reason for posting here is because several others have also reported the same high delivery volume problem and since Breville reps seem to duck in and out of this thread they may be able to confirm if it is an issue they are looking at or perhaps have already solved and identifed a fix. If nothing else at least it makes them aware of it.

In the mean time Im just waiting for someone to suggest a shot glass with a hole drilled at the 60mL mark, it could be bundled along with the pressure gauge sticker that was developed early on in this thread to solve the opv issue. 

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Pressure gauge sticker? LOL.

I found the setting would reset itself if the machine was switched off so ever since I have used the manual button. That way it doesnt matter what the machine does.

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Nick, unfortunately the problem is intermittant, if I take the machine to a service agent I cant make the fault happen to demonstrate to them so it is likely to be returned with "no fault found" so Id rather not be without the machine for however long that may take since it still works fine 99% of the time.
The reason for posting here is because several others have also reported the same high delivery volume problem and since Breville reps seem to duck in and out of this thread they may be able to confirm if it is an issue they are looking at or perhaps have already solved and identifed a fix. If nothing else at least it makes them aware of it.

In the mean time Im just waiting for someone to suggest a shot glass with a hole drilled at the 60mL mark, it could be bundled along with the pressure gauge sticker that was developed early on in this thread to solve the opv issue. 

Totally agree with you that earlier version BDB may have some issues in the volmetric dosing. I encountered the programmed volume reset for no reason and I aborted the polling when it starts to overpour, so I never noticed the dosing could be non-stop till the tank get empty.

Cheers

[argus]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Pressure gauge sticker? LOL.

Wish I could still find the picture they posted, might have been deleted once Breville started adjusting the incorrectly set opvs?  ;D

I also use the manual button, but by the sound of it the improvements that have been made to volume control make the BDB even better. Would be nice if we could have them too.

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Perhaps. I guess when yours/ours needs descaling is the time to get the upgrade.

[argus]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Upgraditis may have hit by then, no doubt theyll have the BDB v3.x available around that time. 

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Maybe but Im not planning on surcombing. I had my last fully-auto machine for almost 10 years before it gave up the ghost and was replaced by the BDB.

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Nick, unfortunately the problem is intermittant

Yesterday I opened up my BDB to see where the group head pipe goes and found it is from brew boiler to the 3-way solenoid valve. If my inspection is correct, your machines issue could be some small pieces of scale were trapped in the valve to cause the valve fail to switch to drip tray for bypassing hot water from group head when the polling stops.

Cheers

[Blaire]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

HiFellow Bes900 owners!

I have had my machine for a few days now and really need help in producing a great cappuccino.

I dont like doubles strength as I prefer to have more cups of coffee over the day.

I have a plethora of questions:
What basket do I use for constant shot satisfaction?
what settings should I have for Pre-infusion, temp, volume etc?
I am using espresso WOW beans from CS

Please help me as there was a burnt taste to my coffee this morning

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

HiFellow Bes900 owners!

I have had my machine for a few days now and really need help in producing a great cappuccino.

I dont like doubles strength as I prefer to have more cups of coffee over the day.

I have a plethora of questions:
What basket do I use for constant shot satisfaction?
what settings should I have for Pre-infusion, temp, volume etc?
I am using espresso WOW beans from CS

Please help me as there was a burnt taste to my coffee this morning

Congratulation! You had got a great espresso machine.
Back to your questions, let me ask you some questions fist.
1. What type of espresso grinder are you using? I suggest Mazzer Super Jolly or a worm drive type espresso machine.
2. Had you ever used a blind filter to test your machines OPV set at 9.5 ~ 10 bar?

If yes for above two questions, it is definitely easy for you to make a perfect 1-cup shot. I usually use the single-wall 1-cup basket to weigh 12g bround beans and pour a very prefect 1-cup (30 ml) espresso consistently.

Cheers

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

What basket do I use for constant shot satisfaction?what settings should I have for Pre-infusion, temp, volume etc?I am using espresso WOW beans from CS

Use the Single wall single basket. If correctly dosed according to Phils instructions you will find it will contain around 14g of coffee. (here we go again)
Leave the pre-infusion at the default and temp as well.
Use the manual button and stop extraction when you have 30ml of coffee. The pre-programmed shots seem to be a bit hit and miss.

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

For a beginners guide,

Firstly establish the coffee your using, is it preground or beans and your grinding, also what sort of grinder do you have if your grinding ?
As this is VERY important.


1. Then use single wall, single shot basket. Put it in the machine without any coffee in it, run a few seconds of hot water through it to not only heat your cup as it comes out the bottom but also heat up the portafilter.

2. Put in enough coffee grinds so the tamp u get with the machine, the base of the tamp (silver bit) is hidden by the walls of the basket.

3. Give it a press down to flatten and square off the coffee.

4. Start with everything stock, dont change any of the settings. Your new and need to make slight adjustments over time as you start to understand the machine.
So, leave PF to 7 or 10secs whatever it is, leave temp at 93c and volume, TRY single shot to get 30ml if not then go with Manual button.

5. Tip the water in your cup out cause thats just heating water from step 1 and run a single shot. This bit is where your make and break will be from your grinds.

If your shot is too runny and watery then you need to raise the dose (put more coffee in the basket)
If your shot is very very slow and dripping or not at all then youve got to much.
Once you get a smooth, oozeing shot then adjust the fineness of the grind.

Once you get it come out as above, then start to adjust your PF, Temp and Volume.

Heres a clip i made from a while back with roughly something drinkable.. I can make better now but you can make this easily with the guide above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toEmT_sL3UY&feature=youtu.be

Let us know