Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ive found that if you sort of press up and tilt as you remove the portafilter, it unsticks the puck from the head and it drops down into the basket with zero mess and no need to run any water to get it loose.

That method leaves behind grinds on the shower screen for me

[inertia8]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Me too, I generally scrub the shower screen and around the group seal area with a little group head brush after finishing a couple of shots, then perform the freshwater backflush routine at the end of the night.

Do you guys leave your machines set to auto power off? seems to go into a standby mode after an hour then off after 4. Wish those parameters were configurable...

Im also finding the drip tray doesnt fully catch the drips/grinds that fall down between its metal screen and the case, thus theres always a little puddle around the wheel. I try to avoid splashing there if possible.

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Im also finding the drip tray doesnt fully catch the drips/grinds that fall down between its metal screen and the case, thus theres always a little puddle around the wheel. I try to avoid splashing there if possible.

Its a bit of a hassle having to clean up the drips that go underneath the drip tray. Normally happens when I do a portafilter jiggle in the grouphead followed by a clear water backflush. I plan to cut a cloth and hold it in place with a couple of strong magnets. Hopefully the cloth is able to either absorb all the water or redirect it into the drip tray rather than underneath it

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Me too, I generally scrub the shower screen and around the group seal area with a little group head brush after finishing a couple of shots, then perform the freshwater backflush routine at the end of the night.

Try a blind filter or the silicon disk. Hold PF close to group head but not locked in. Press and hold 2 cup button and jiggle PF - washes group head. Only hold for 6 seconds or less..

Do you guys leave your machines set to auto power off? seems to go into a standby mode after an hour then off after 4. Wish those parameters were configurable...

You can configure the auto off. I turn mine off at night and also if Im not going o be using it within 4 hours.

Im also finding the drip tray doesnt fully catch the drips/grinds that fall down between its metal screen and the case, thus theres always a little puddle around the wheel. I try to avoid splashing there if possible.

Yep. Bit unavoidable.

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Normally happens when I do a portafilter jiggle in the grouphead followed by a clear water backflush. I plan to cut a cloth and hold it in place with a couple of strong magnets. Hopefully the cloth is able to either absorb all the water or redirect it into the drip tray rather than underneath it

I find it also does it with the back flush when you build up pressure and release. Maybe when the drip tray is fuller..

[stihl88]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Bought my BES900 yesterday to replace my manual Presso and can say that after some dialing in i am very pleased with the results.

Just bought some single origin beans from the Goat House in Elsternwick today and it sure beats the supermarket stuff i used to dial the machine in with. A little more dialing in with the Smart Grinder and the new beans was all that was needed tonight to get a respectful well timed espresso.

Anyway, i think Ill have to post the Presso up for sale as the Dual Boiler is a keeper

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Hi All Breville BDB CSers,

After polling over 700 shots with my BDB, I encountered the hot water tap leak issue. My unit issue is the hot water tap starts to drip slowly when unit is heated up sufficiently warm and drips more while polling a shot.

I frequently backflush the grouphead with hot water or detergent so I suppose the 3-way solenoid valve should not die so early. I seldom to use the hot water tap so the knob is always at closed position firmly.

This issue seems to be a reliability concern because you can do brewing pressure "profiling" with the hot water tap while polling a shot. Does this imply the hot water tap piping is at same system with the brewing piping connected to the 3-way solenoid valve? When the hot water tap has leakage issue, the brewing pressure cannot be upheld to 9 bar. This is the problem I am having now.

Hi Phil,

Any advise on my units issue?

Cheers,

Nick OY

[artman]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Had a play with a BDB on the weekend (not mine). Had a bit of struggle to get a decent pour as it was a new grinder etc (and the OPV is running at almost 13 bar), but was slowly getting there after a few shots.

The steaming is amazing, I nailed the first jug with perfect microfoam, it was so easy.

the pump noise vibration/noise varies a fair bit, is that normal? I mean sometimes is very quiet and other times its quite loud, although still significantly quieter than a sunbeam 6910 or nemox.

The nifty features make the machine great and user friendly, very well thought out.

I am going to try and do a side by side comparison with my Faema, use the same grinder, beans, basket, tamper etc to minimise variances.

Cheers

[karmann]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I am going to try and do a side by side comparison with my Faema, use the same grinder, beans, basket, tamper etc to minimise variances.

Cheers

Probably not a fair comparison, but will be interested in the results.

[artman]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Well it should be quite fair IMO. The Breville is meant to be temp and pressure stable etc so no real reason why it shouldnt perform on par.

Cheers

[Pete39]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

The steaming is amazing, I nailed the first jug with perfect microfoam, it was so easy.

I had a play with one on the weekend too and was very impressed with the steam, but I was comparing with a EM6910

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Hi All Breville BDB CSers,

After polling over 700 shots with my BDB, I encountered the hot water tap leak issue. My unit issue is the hot water tap starts to drip slowly when unit is heated up sufficiently warm and drips more while polling a shot.

I frequently backflush the grouphead with hot water or detergent so I suppose the 3-way solenoid valve should not die so early. I seldom to use the hot water tap so the knob is always at closed position firmly.

This issue seems to be a reliability concern because you can do brewing pressure "profiling" with the hot water tap while polling a shot. Does this imply the hot water tap piping is at same system with the brewing piping connected to the 3-way solenoid valve? When the hot water tap has leakage issue, the brewing pressure cannot be upheld to 9 bar. This is the problem I am having now.

Hi Phil,

Any advise on my units issue?

Cheers,

Nick OY

Just update what I had done to try to fix the hot water tap dripping issue.
Observations:
1. The hot water piping system is controlled and throttled by a T-shape needle valve whose one end connects to the 3-way solenoid valve and another connects to hot water outlet, the other end is tied to the hot water knob.
2. There is a design tolerence concern in the nucleus rod inside the needle valve as the rod is actually a worm-drive like bolt. This rod should be driven enough to close up the end of the needle valve to the hot water outlet when the hot water knob is closed up firmly.
3.  As you can imagine, the tolerence of the rod length can affect the tightness of sealing of the hot water outlet.
4. It appears to me that using a needle valve is not a reliable implementation of the hot water outlet as the needle valve itself is not durable as a ball valve and tends to leak due to wear-out or larger mechanical tolerence.
5. The so called brewing pressure "profiling" by adjusting the knob reflects the "side effect" of such implementation.

What I did to the needle valve:
1. Disassemble the hoses conencted to hot water tap and the 3-way solenoid valve respectively.
2. Disassemble the nozzles screwed onto the needle valve.
3. I found there was some coffee debris inside the needle valve. I wiped it off. Turning the hot water knob to check the movement of the nucleus rod and suspected the rod cannot completely shut off the end to hot water outlet.
4. Applied Don Cowning 111 silicon lubricant/sealant to the interior of the needle valves hot water outlet end to improve the air-tight of the hot water outlet closure.

Hot water tap dripping was reduced and the brewing pressure comes back a lot but issue was not resolved reliably. I am thinking how to make the rod move further toward the hot water outlet end when knob is closed up. The knob itself is screwed onto the assembly of the needle valve firmly and dont know how to lossen it to check whether the rod could be screwed in further...

Cheers,

Nick OY

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Interesting...

Care to provide us with some pictures?
It may come in handy some time in the future

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Well it should be quite fair IMO. The Breville is meant to be temp and pressure stable etc so no real reason why it shouldnt perform on par.

Cheers

I agree. Nick has compared it with an Alex Duetto and says he cant tell the difference in the cup.

[Dennis]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Nick has compared it with an Alex Duetto and says he cant tell the difference in the cup.

Well there you go. If Nick says so then it must be correct. :