Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[coffeemum]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Oops...Just read the rest of the thread, pleaes disregard my above panic

[fengteo]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

If you set it to dose 19g & then make sure you get all that ground coffee in the basket, and your scales are accurate, then you should have the correct starting point for dose. To get the correct rate of extraction you only need to adjust the grind either coarser or finer.

Cheers, Phil

Thanks for the feedback Phil. I MAY have to drop another shim yet. Running on 3 (one fat, 2 thin). Im at about 6 from the RHS and only grinding about 18g... so I need to go a bit coarser but slightly more coffee dose.

Thanks again.

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Oops...Just read the rest of the thread, pleaes disregard my above panic 

I had the same initial response (after I had paid for it mind you), the good news is they are expecting it to last 4-5 years to need descaling

[tweetypie]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Oops...Just read the rest of the thread, pleaes disregard my above panic 

I had the same initial response (after I had paid for it mind you), the good news is they are expecting it to last 4-5 years to need descaling

and then what happens after 4/5 years hopefully theyve figured out how they going to descale it

[>mcknightp]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

We live 200km or so from the nearest service centre and have VERY hard water around 300mg/L CaCO3... 

Hi, do you mind if I ask what you do about the hard water. Do you have a water treatment system you use for drinking water, water you cook with etc? I ask as Breville would like to get a better understanding of what people in hard water areas are doing so we can take into account how this will impact on our products used in these situations. North America is far worse for hard water than Aus.......Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

and then what happens after 4/5 years hopefully theyve figured out how they going to descale it

When the machine is returned to one of our service centers, it will be drained by removing the tubes supplying water to the 2 boilers, inserting small hoses into the boilers & sucking out the water. Water inlet tubes will be replaced & the boilers filled with a de-scale solution via the water tank, left for the appropriate time, then the boilers drained the same way, re-filled & drained with fresh filtered water several times so there is no de-scale solution residue, then returned empty to the customer for use. Its not a complicated process, but clearly one we cant endorse being done by a customer while the machine is under its 2 year warranty. Im sure after the warranty period is over, many on this forum would be capable of performing the de-scale themselves.

Cheers, Phil

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

phil sez

Hi, do you mind if I ask what you do about the hard water... snip... North America is far worse for hard water than Aus.......Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Phil

we sure do have hard water.  particularly here in southern california.  i use reverse osmosis to treat my drinking and coffee water.  its not ideal, because it removes TOO much, (virtually ALL) minerals, a situation that experienced tasters do not like.  there needs to be _some_ minerals for ideal taste.  but i just suck it up and live with it.  fortunately im not an expert taster.  at least my machines almost never calcify.

at the risk of taking this thread even further into a smart grinder thread and not the BDB thread its supposed to be, what do you think are the odds that american sellers of the BDB will offer the great package deals to include the smart grinder?  im quite happy with my vario, which is MUCH cheaper here than you guys have to pay for them.  BUT i could always use another quality grinder, especially if it comes cheaply in a package deal.

-pete

[TC]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

we sure do have hard water.  particularly here in southern california.  i use reverse osmosis to treat my drinking and coffee water.  its not ideal, because it removes TOO much, (virtually ALL) minerals, a situation that experienced tasters do not like.  there needs to be _some_ minerals for ideal taste.  but i just suck it up and live with it.  fortunately im not an expert taster.  at least my machines almost never calcify.

Espresso machines rely on conductivity to sense the presence of water and RO water inherently has zero to very low conductivity. I have seen fried electronics (assume due to many millions of sense cycles where there should be few). In addition, I have heard stories about boiler leaching, but have no first hand evidence of that.

Pure RO water should not be used neat in espresso machines. It must either be shandied or remineralised.

Interesting reading also on RO and Boron in water. Its worth investigating and thinking about.

Chris

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Aw, spewin buckets. here i thought at least i was being good to my machine, feeding it RO.

just to clairfy, i do not have a BDB, as they have not arrived in the us yet. so my machine is just a regular single boiler saeco... not very electronic. in fact, im not even sure if it has _any_ microprocessors at all. just wiring, plumbing, switches, and mechanical sensors, (i think). are you quite sure that the things that RO hurts, will still hurt my old Saeco machine as i described?

no argument that RO would not be the thing to use in a BDB, (unless phil knows something we dont).

-pete

[Roz]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I took the shower screen off last night just to check the buildup, hardly any at all, very easy to clean and a very interesting design utilizing the dual seal.

I havent gone through huge amounts of coffee but I do my nightly backwash and have not had to perform a clean cycle yet.

[byronseb]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

There are plenty of good options to soften water before you use it, and not all are expensive options.

A decent filter will do the job.

Realistically, if filtered water is used, there should rarely be a need to de-scale. If it needs to be done though, it is always advisable to get someone to do it if youre not confident to do it yourself.

As these machines are currently still very new, there will be few people servicing them. If this machine takes off it should be only a matter of months before we start seeing more and more reputable service centers working on these.

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Today I have opened my first batch of Espresso WOW from Andy, 

today it is 3 days post roast and have made the best coffee I have every had both straight up and in milk, the crema is bit over the top (day 3) for milk but the taste is fantastic

I think I will be feeding the BES900  this for awhile [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Roz]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I dont want this to turn into a price discussion but....

On a side note I kinda feel a bit sad seeing the machine in retail shops such as this with stale beans in the grinder and stale coffee the customer is getting as a demo its really a shame 





Mod Edit: Non sponsor plug removed.

[Rusty]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

at $999 with a BCG450

I didnt believe you so I rang the store and you are perfectly correct

Head office thinks they have made a mistake - their best price is $1350 :

Worth paying the shipping and they can keep the spice grinder

[Roz]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Well I took a photo if you dont believe me but I didnt want to post as this thread is about usability not price   

I actually didnt see the BCG450 near it, a BCG800 was setup next to it filled with stale coffee!

Obviously I didnt think about my post by making a plug for a non sponsor :-X