Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[WiredArabica]

So I went out earlier this morning, credit card nervously clutched in paw - and returned with a shiny new BES900 and a trembling credit card firmly lodged back in wallet.

Obviously, rather early days (hours?) yet, but so far results are very encouraging. Initial observations:
Size: It does take up a little more real estate on the bench. Not a problem to me, this is coffee we're talking about. Though apparently the spare grinder can no longer reside on the bench.
First shot, grind the same as used for the 6910 resulted in, hmm rather a long pour time (bonus discovery - it's quite apparent the OPV is working correctly).
Second shot one notch coarser on the SJ, 60ml/30sec. A very nice shot, a little refinement required but easily matched the best I've had from the sunbeam.
Third shot, decided I'd better test the steam. Double shot into two 190ml ACF cups, steam milk & split, pour a cappuccino & latte, best and easiest latte art I've pulled off to date.

Texture of milk almost perfect, and this on my first attempt! Took a little longer to reach temp than the Sumbeam, but then on that machine I'd had to up steam temp and wetness to get something useable.
So I be rather excited with my new toy!
Thus far the only minor niggle I've discovered - the baskets are fairly firmly lodged in the portafilter. Slightly less adhesion than the skin on my thumb, but not by much. Maybe the springs will loosen up a bit in use?

Oh and it's so quiet! I was hoping it would be, but you can actually hold a conversation while it's in use. Very, very nice bonus.

[Thirteen13]

Good purchase Wired and welcome to the club! Some of the best coffee's ive ever had have been due to the process of home roast and the BDB, you can guarentee freshness and quality that way.

Although sunbeam would be a rival to breville, i dont really think the 6910 and the bdb are comparable in terms of coffee production. Hence why your best 6910 shots are easily creatable on the bdb.

Its a purchase you wont regret. Also if you run into warranty issue take it to a recommended repairer!

[DavidW1960]

I find the BDB is much easier to texture milk with than my VBM.

[Barry_Duncan]

returned with a shiny new BES900

Welcome aboard mate.

Use a screw driver or 5c piece (aust) to remove filter and prevent thumb damage.

Barry

[WiredArabica]

Welcome aboard mate.

Use a screw driver or 5c piece (aust) to remove filter and prevent thumb damage.

Barry

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Do you know I just might have an aussie 5c coin somewhere...

Obviously I've lots to learn still but that's where this wonderful forum comes in. I do hope to start down the home roast path at some point, but in the meantime I'm fairly fortunate to have a few local options where I can get some good beans delivered fresh (sometimes too fresh!).
Pity I can't order from beanbay. Might have to have a holiday over there sometime to get the really good stuff!

[WiredArabica]

I find the BDB is much easier to texture milk with than my VBM.

That's really interesting to hear, the VBM was on my longish list of "dream machines". I had another go at the milk a short time ago and ended up with fantastic milk for a cappa... of course I was trying for a couple of Latte's! More practice required...

[DavidW1960]

Yeah - it's all in practice. I find the BDB is really eary to steam with. The VBM is just so damn fast and I'm still getting it right. Made a killer cap today though.

[Pete39]

I'm having trouble steaming on an Alex Duetto and also found the BDB to be really easy in comparison.

Pete

[fo3oz]

Welcome aboard mate.

Use a screw driver or 5c piece (aust) to remove filter and prevent thumb damage.

Barry

I use what is usually quite close to hand already since I'm in the kitchen; a teaspoon.

Edit: In other news, I finnaly bothered setting up the smart grinder to give me more consistent doses rather than just using it manually and eyeballing it, (something that I get wrong when bleary eyed in the mornings, so should help). I never too far off personally, but training myself so I can better help others in the household use this machine properly. As far as the coffee quality from the machine, I've only used locally roasted and FRESH beans, and most of what I make with it is better than any coffee I've had ANYWHERE (Disclaimer: Of course maybe I haven't been to a decent cafe though, been to lots of bad ones, but No More LOL)

late edit:

i don't have this machine, but i am surprised that more hasn't been made of the benefits of the automatic timer and the group element combination.

i see this as a big advantage over other machines, in that i can time the machine to turn on say 30 minutes before i wake up, and have a nice warmed up machine to use. the separate group element should make the warm up faster than other machines out there.

granted one can use a timer at the power point, but it's a less elegant way of doing it and it will take much longer to warm up due to the lack of the group element.

It's one of the things that swayed me actually. I'm not an early riser and often even hit the snooze button on the alarm clock anyway.
I guess it wasn't enough to sway the people that would like a more heavy duty italian either, or get the people who wanted a cheaper machine or a pod machine. The breville's market is going to be somewhere in the middle.

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I just hold it with a cloth

[rustic]

Just thought I'd like to mention some of my observations about the issue with the portafilter popping off during extractions.
I had this issue happen to me two or three times about 4 months ago (I'm into my 9th month of ownership) and since then I have been holding the portafilter handle in place during extractions to prevent it popping off.

Recently I've started locking the portafilter all the way up to the lock position (6 o'clock) while waiting for the machine to get up to temp. Previously I was only leaving the portafilter in loosely at about the 7 o'clock position while waiting for the BDB to get up to temp. I have noticed that the portafilter handle doesn't seem to slip backwards as much when I follow this new routine although I still hold the handle due to paranoia.

Something else I'd like to mention is that I stopped using a 19g(or is it 18g?) VST basket months ago and when I locked the portafilter in place with the VST it felt like it was compressing the seal slightly more than the stock basket.
My BDB is also affected by the 11 bar OPV pressure when I brought it home from the shops and I definitely notice the higher pressure extractions (e.g. choked extractions) make the portafilter handle push back so I have to fight to keep it in place at the 6 o'clock position.

Anyway when I find the time to drop my machine off to have the OPV adjusted I hope the issue is fully resolved by the lower brewing pressure as well as conditioning the rubber seal beforehand by locking the portafilter in during warmup.
I was also wondering if it's possible to drop my machine off at a Breville factory outlet to have the OPV adjusted? I'm in Melbourne so my nearest factory outlet is in Smith St.

[Barry_Duncan]

I was also wondering if it's possible to drop my machine off at a Breville factory outlet to have the OPV adjusted? .

I suggest that you phone your nearest Breville factory outlet about the adjustment of your OPV.

Here in Sydney, as well as replacing O rings they adjusted my OPV from 12.5 down to 9.5.

Since I took the shine off the portafilter lugs by rubbing with emery paper. They only slip while backwashing with Clean Machine.

Barry

[rustic]

I suggest that you phone your nearest Breville factory outlet about the adjustment of your OPV.

Barry

By "factory outlet" do you mean the outlets that also sell Breville, Kambrook & Philips appliances?


Looks like there's more locations throughout VIC, NSW & QLD:
Huntingdale VIC
Redfern NSW
Tingalpa QLD
Ultima NSW

[Barry_Duncan]

By "factory outlet" do you mean the outlets that also sell Breville, Kambrook & Philips appliances?

Yes I do. I took mine to the Ultimo Sydney factory outlet, where Len the fix it man adjusted my over pressure valve and replaced a faulty O ring in less than one day. In other places people have had to wait weeks.

Ring the closest factory outlet to you to see if they have the equivalent to Len.

Barry

[neofelis]

That seems like a good turn around. I don't know why others had to wait 2 weeks. Maybe those other places send it off to breville to get fixed without the customer knowing?