Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[6htkom4]

Help:Water pours from group head on start up.

Hi all,
Please help...
I picked up my BES900 from Harvey Norman two days ago. Once I got it home,I did all the stuff the manual says then pressed Start. Water commenced pouring out of the group head, so after my initial shock I switched it off. After a few minutes I switched it back on and all was fine. I have made three cups of coffee with it up to today. This morning I switched it on and water immediately commenced pouring out of the group head again - I mean lots of water. I put the milk jug under it and waited but it just kept going. I've tried switching it off and waiting 10, 5, 2, 1 minute but still the same. I tried resetting to default (though I hadn't changed anything as yet) but still the same. I'm waiting on the Breville coffee help fellow to ring me back, but thought I'd try here while I wait. Does anyone know what has happened?

Thanks,
Rimel

[WiredArabica]

Hi all,
Please help...
I picked up my BES900 from Harvey Norman two days ago. Once I got it home,I did all the stuff the manual says then pressed Start. Water commenced pouring out of the group head, so after my initial shock I switched it off. After a few minutes I switched it back on and all was fine. I have made three cups of coffee with it up to today. This morning I switched it on and water immediately commenced pouring out of the group head again - I mean lots of water. I put the milk jug under it and waited but it just kept going. I've tried switching it off and waiting 10, 5, 2, 1 minute but still the same. I tried resetting to default (though I hadn't changed anything as yet) but still the same. I'm waiting on the Breville coffee help fellow to ring me back, but thought I'd try here while I wait. Does anyone know what has happened?

Thanks,
Rimel

Sounds odd. Hopefully it'll be quickly sorted. In the meantime I suggest giving the manual, 1 & 2 cup buttons a few firm presses (not excessively hard) - maybe the machine thinks one of them is stuck on.

[WiredArabica]

I find the biggest variable in my brewing in my BDB is due to the different beans I use. I have at least a dozen origins of greens that I roast and have at variable ages since roasting.

That means that as I change beans I have to surf the grinder.

Barry

Something to look forward to once I start roasting my own - hopefully in the not too distant future. Only tried three different lots in my BDB so far, each has been very different to work with. I mucked up my supply last week which meant I had to start using a batch of beans that were less than 24hrs old - probably ploughed through 200g before getting something drinkable, but it was either that or go without...
I always end up wasting a few shots worth each time I change beans, probably wouldn't be so bad if I could bring myself to stick with one blend, but there's just so much out there that has to be tried . Usually I buy 500g at a time which lasts me 1-2 weeks, but for some reason my consumption rate appears to have increased since the BDB arrived .

[6htkom4]

Sounds odd. Hopefully it'll be quickly sorted. In the meantime I suggest giving the manual, 1 & 2 cup buttons a few firm presses (not excessively hard) - maybe the machine thinks one of them is stuck on.

Yes, WiredArabica, I had the same thought so have tried this quite a few times already. Thanks for your quick reply.

[ozmackem]

Maybe you want to try to adjust the temperature down a little bit, i have been playing with different brewing temperature and using bean bay coffee bean as well. You will be surprise how 1'c temperature change can affect the taste of your espresso.

Just want to check with all the owners here, do you purge all the steam when you finish making coffee for the day? I started doing this and find the steam is more powerful and does not have much water condensation in the morning when I start up my machine. Anyone care to comment??

Cheers for all the advice.
Messed about with the temperature a bit. Dropeed it down to 90 and that has made a huge difference, much smoother taste and a big reduction in the bitterness.
May try going even lower.
Do you reckon my temp guage is reading slightly off, or do some coffees just require different temps?
Anyone had similar experience with e the BeanBay espresso wow?

[6htkom4]

Yes, WiredArabica, I had the same thought so have tried this quite a few times already. Thanks for your quick reply.

I decided to contact the store where I bought it from to get things moving as I got sick of waiting for the Breville guru to ring me. Harvey Norman rang Breville to get a quicker response from their coffee guru. Breville Customer Service rang me very quickly, asked a few questions and said it was definitely a fault, unable to be fixed over the phone, so they got back to Harvey Norman who are seeing their rep tomorrow to organize getting another machine in for me from somewhere else (I knew the one I bought was the last one in that store) supposedly tomorrow, so I can return this one and collect the replacement on same trip ( 1hr 20min round trip for me ).

Hopefully, after all the packing up and unpacking again, things will be different. What a pain, when I was so looking forward to getting this machine. I'll let you know if all goes as quickly and smoothly as Harvey Norman have promised.

[J_Hutt]

I find the biggest variable in my brewing in my BDB is due to the different beans I use. I have at least a dozen origins of greens that I roast and have at a variety of ages since roasting.

That means that as I change beans I have to surf the grinder.
Barry

So true...

[kohnicky]

Cheers for all the advice.
Messed about with the temperature a bit. Dropeed it down to 90 and that has made a huge difference, much smoother taste and a big reduction in the bitterness.
May try going even lower.
Do you reckon my temp guage is reading slightly off, or do some coffees just require different temps?
Anyone had similar experience with e the BeanBay espresso wow?

according to the owner manual, the temperture variation is +/- 1C, i have not personally tested it, but i can tell taste wise, it can have huge impact on your coffee.

i am using the beanbay wow beans now, I just love it...it taste great...

[WiredArabica]

I decided to contact the store where I bought it from to get things moving as I got sick of waiting for the Breville guru to ring me. Harvey Norman rang Breville to get a quicker response from their coffee guru. Breville Customer Service rang me very quickly, asked a few questions and said it was definitely a fault, unable to be fixed over the phone, so they got back to Harvey Norman who are seeing their rep tomorrow to organize getting another machine in for me from somewhere else (I knew the one I bought was the last one in that store) supposedly tomorrow, so I can return this one and collect the replacement on same trip ( 1hr 20min round trip for me ).

Hopefully, after all the packing up and unpacking again, things will be different. What a pain, when I was so looking forward to getting this machine. I'll let you know if all goes as quickly and smoothly as Harvey Norman have promised.

Indeed, what a pain! Oh well at least the customer service appears to be working and you'll hopefully have a replacement before the weekend.
I'm sure you'll enjoy it once it's up and running though - make sure you've plenty of beans on hand...

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

according to the owner manual, the temperture variation is +/- 1C, i have not personally tested it, but i can tell taste wise, it can have huge impact on your coffee.

i am using the beanbay wow beans now, I just love it...it taste great...

You can get smaller increments by changing over to fahrenheit

[WiredArabica]

Rats. I've come to the conclusion that my 2 week old BDB has developed a fault.
Out of the box, with the blind filter the OPV was right on 10.5bar, and extractions were pretty much perfect at 9bar.
But, it's slowly but surely been dropping pressure. Now with a blind it's only reaching 9bar, if I dose and grind to get that then the pours are way too long, and it's become impossible to get a good shot out of it. Also noticed that the pump seems to make a slight humming, buzzing noise for the first second of the shot that it didn't out of the box.
I probably should've figured out there was something wrong a bit sooner - what with it being so extremely sensitive to three different lots of beans and all, but anyway.

Anyone else had something like this?

Oh well, I guess I'll get in touch with Harvey Norman in the morning and see where to from here... I guess I'll no longer be wired until it gets sorted...

[DavidW1960]

Have you been doing a daily baskflush?

[WiredArabica]

Yes, that's how I noticed really. It actually started a couple of days after I got it, the pressure during the clear water backflush going from 10.5, 10 (thought maybe the OPV was just settling in)... 9.5 last weekend and now maybe a needle width above 9bar with the blind. Dropped dispersion screen and cleaned, ran cleaning cycle with cafetto, factory reset (just in case). Dunno what else to try.

[WiredArabica]

Oh well, left it at HN this morning so I guess I'll play the waiting game while it goes for repair - obviously much won't be happening over the weekend.
Back to the 6910 for now... Says it all really when with one minor grinder tweak I'm getting better than I was for the last week of effort with the BDB.

[Tupinamba]

Actually a 22g VST will fit the standard PF - the naked is not required.

That's good news. Where do you recommend to buy the VST? Are ridge and ridgeless versions of the 22gr variety? Which one would best?

Thanks in advance.