Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[nickoyang]

just to cloud the issue a little more, when I tested my pressure with Greg Pullmans pressure guage, 9bar at the group head was reading 9.6 on the machines guage

This symptom is possible. I have a blind PF with a guage on its spout but it cannot install on BDB so I just can compare the BDB with my Duetto2 because Duetto2 was calibrated with FP with guage. The results of the crema made by both machines are quite the same.

To use the PF with guage, you should pour some fresh water into the blind PF. The best case is the amount of water is enough and just equal to the amount to fill the whole chamber between the PF and the grouphead. So when you press and hold the 1-cup or 2-cup button, the pressure just goes to the limit of the OPV withiut any air trapped inside.

Cheers

[swamprat96]

Of more concern imho seems to be the way Breville has dropped the ball on support / warranty. You'll see by reading back how responsive Breville were when the BDB was first released and I had nothing but praise for the way the opv issue was addressed on my machine, but now we are seeing reports of weeks at the service agent, lack of parts, this thread where swamprat96 has waited days for a call back or this one where Angelo's machine has been back to the service centre 5 times and they still can't stop the portafilter falling out.

I'm also alarmed by both the drop in service levels and the issues that seem to by occurring after 6-9 months of use where machines are scaling up, leaking etc. I've come from an unreliable machine so I hope they pull their socks up

[>mcknightp]

Hi Phil,

Are you able to elaborate on how the cleaning solution under pressure will be discharged via the 3 way rather then moving retrograde into the brew boiler?

I was reading in your cleaning steps that you will have the pump running for about 60s with the blind filter in, but I was under the impression that the cleaning solution/dirty water will only move through the 3 way once pressure/power is disengaged.

Given 60s of running the pump, wouldnt the back pressure force the cleaning solution into the brew boiler, or once the OPV opens (after 2-3s w/ blind basket in) is there no significant backflow of water occuring?

Thanks.

There will be no water flowing back to the boiler in this instance. The path that is cleaned exists between the dispersion screen & the solenoid & the drain tube. The shared water path between the dispersion screen & the solenoid is the one that really needs cleaning as hot filtered water flows in the same path as the discharge from the group head when a shot finished. This discharge contains coffee that oxidises & taints the flavour of your espresso.

Cheers, Phil

[Tupinamba]

I'm also alarmed by both the drop in service levels and the issues that seem to by occurring after 6-9 months of use where machines are scaling up, leaking etc. I've come from an unreliable machine so I hope they pull their socks up

Hmm, reading such things makes me lean towards keeping the 5 year Harvey Norman replacement warranty on my machine.

BTW, brewed my first coffee... what can I say? Not 100% undrinkable

[>mcknightp]

There is so much SG hating in this thread.

Out of interest, i realise people could have done side by side tests, but other than that, has anyone from Breville specified that they are ALL set differently ? Or is this an assumption someone is making ?

I dont think its the best grinder out there, but for $200 its cheap and grinds to how i need it.
I kind of getting the feeling people are very unhappy with the SG and annoyed at the fact that a $200 grinder isnt performing like a $1000 grinder ?
Put it this way, its better than a spice grinder and there isnt much else in that price range that is as good.

Peter.Wake is the only SG hater on this thread! His comments regarding the SG should have been moved by a mod to the associated grinder thread back in May when he first posted. If you have even the smallest amount of intelligence, you can get more consistant doses & espresso performance than any grinder on the market for less than $300.

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Hi

I will not do so if the fraction between the PFs lugs and the silicon gasket of group head is increased. THat will definitely shorten the life time of the gasket. Remember that that gasket is still not available for replacement in Brevilles website.

Cheers

Nick, as usual your advise is wrong. What Barry has suggested will not shorten the life of the group head seal! What do you think happens in a commercial machine where brass on brass tears off material (albeit very small) every time the porta-filter is inserted, but the seals are unaffected!

Barry's mod is valid & we've already asked the factory to investigate & provide feedback.

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Allow me to tell you the truth...
The ODM of Breville is actually a Taiwanese espresso/home appliance machine makers, called "Tiamo". Tiamo's factory is in Mainland China. Due to the business model between Breville and Tiamo, Breville normally will not place order too much spare parts to Tiamo and mostly Breville is dealing with a whole machine based business with her ODM. So that is not surprising, no spare parts availble from Breville. Please note what the spare parts I refer to are not the water tank, drip tray but the internal key components such as vibe pump, O-ring, silion group head seal, flowmeters, OPV and custom design 3-way solenoid base from OLAB.

Cheers

Nick,

You should retract this complete load of BS. That is not the factory we use & we do have stock of all the components you list! It's standard policy we have all those in stock. We don't sell them on our website & probably never will, but are there for our authorised service centres to order should they require them.

Cheers, Phil

[swamprat96]

BTW, brewed my first coffee... what can I say? Not 100% undrinkable

Hey keep trying. Practice practice. There's lots of good youtube videos made by Phil. Use the manual button with the shot clock and fresh beans, aim for 25-35 seconds with a 10-12 seconds before the coffee starts coming out and you are on the right road

Re warranty - I think breville are just busy. They seem to come to the party in most cases.

[kohnicky]

hello all,
i was a very happy BES900 owner since Feb 2012. This morning my BDB died , no pressure and water disperse from the group head. called breville and they advised me to send my machine to Swift electrical.
Then i was told i will need to live without my coffee machine for another 2-3 weeks, as they do not repair them in Perth and need to post it back to Breville for servicing.
I would expect an immediate replacement if the machine is less than 1 year old.

[Tupinamba]

Hey keep trying. Practice practice. There's lots of good youtube videos made by Phil. Use the manual button with the shot clock and fresh beans, aim for 25-35 seconds with a 10-12 seconds before the coffee starts coming out and you are on the right road

Re warranty - I think breville are just busy. They seem to come to the party in most cases.

Thanks for the encouragement! I can see there is a lot of learning by doing in the process. Watching the videos has not been enough. Learning is fun, though. I didn't get my Smart Grinder yet so I am using a spice grinder. Actually, I expected to get the SG today but thet stuffed up the order at the shop. Now I hope to get it by the end of next week. I told them I was unhappy about their sloppiness so I got the spice grinder for free to start experimenting.

I can understand the customer service might be a bit overwhelmed because of the commercial success of the machine, but they need to react to that as soon as possible.

I am still undecided about keeping the 5 year replacement warranty.

[swamprat96]

hello all,
i was a very happy BES900 owner since Feb 2012. This morning my BDB died , no pressure and water disperse from the group head. called breville and they advised me to send my machine to Swift electrical.
Then i was told i will need to live without my coffee machine for another 2-3 weeks, as they do not repair them in Perth and need to post it back to Breville for servicing.
I would expect an immediate replacement if the machine is less than 1 year old.

Sounds like yet another victim of the Perth water. Please let us know the results. I'm off to get a filter jug this weekend to try and avoid this

[>mcknightp]

I'll give it a test tomorrow morning. Thanks Nick and John for your comments; it makes sense what you're both saying.

I'll make my grind a bit coarser and see if I can find a sweet spot where I get a good extraction without activating the OPV. Part of me says this will make my shot come out faster and in doing so, I'll end up with an under extracted shot. I'll report back...

Seriously? Don't do that, it's not the correct approach. Set grind & dose according to flavour. The gauge will sit where it sits & the OPV will operate. It's a 15bar pump, how loose do you think the pour will have to run so you only get 9bar? So loose the coffee won't taste any good.

If the volumetrics aren't working, take it to a service centre. Take it to ours in either Ultimo or Redfern & it will come back to Botany HO for our own Techs to look at it.

Cheers, Phil

[DavidW1960]

I wouldnt worry about it. Id get my money back as thats $160 you cna put towards your next machine if it decides to die

I disagree Thirteen. Money well spent IMO. It's a replacement warranty - ie your machine currently in the service centre would have been replaced by now.

[>mcknightp]

just to cloud the issue a little more, when I tested my pressure with Greg Pullmans pressure guage, 9bar at the group head was reading 9.6 on the machines guage

With a Scace on any LM, you'll see a minimum of 1bar & sometimes up to 2bar difference to the machines indicated gauge pressure. Can you define the accuracy of the Pullman pressure handle? Seems odd that ours is a proprietory handle design, but a Pullman handle will fit??

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Quick quiz for all the experts out there. What's the most elastic variable in the espresso extraction process??