Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[WiredArabica]

Does anyone have any knowledge on how the hot water outlet is supplied with water or an internal schematic of the BES900? I ask this because I am getting hot water out of the hot water spout that has a light brown tinge. Is it possible to get rancid coffee through the hot water tap or am I seeing something else?

I clear water back flush after every coffee making session and I do a chemical back flush every few weeks using caffetto.

I also filter all the water that goes into the machine and have been vigilant to change the filter in the machine as recommended.

The hot water comes from the brew boiler, which is filled from the tank via a heat exchanger in the steam boiler. Do you get clear water from the group? It shouldn't be possible to get dirty water from the group through the hot water wand if everything is working correctly.
How does the water in the tank look? Might be an idea to remove & clean the tank, perhaps replace the anti-calc filter just in case and flush a tank full of water through the group and hot water & see if it clears up.
How are you filtering the water that goes in? Another possibility is spillage on the warming tray making it into the tank fill spout (one thing I really don't like about this machine, needs a lip or something there).
A chemical backflush every few weeks sounds like rather a long time between cleans though...

[neofelis]

edit: double post sorry!

[neofelis]

So after having the BDB for just 4 months it had to go in for repair today.

I've had about 3 portafilters fly off and the OPV setting needed lowering.

It took it to AJ Appliances in Coburg and they didn't seem to know very much at all regarding the BDB's.

Whilst I was there I asked for a descale aswell and he pointed out the cleaning tablets and said we don't do descaling.
I advised him that they're more for back flushing rather than actually cleaning the tubes inside the machine and if they were descaling tablets then they would be inserted into the machine rather than the portafilter.
The manual only says 'Do Not Descale This Machine!"

Does this mean they CAN'T be descaled?

Over all so far shocking knowledge of the BDB and I honestly don't think my machine will come back fixed at all... Really dissapointed and Breville should open up a new service centre for Melbourne as AJ Appliances is the only one.

Once the warranty expires Ill do all the repairs myself.

[mr_walker]

I've been enjoying the dual boiler since I got it last Christmas, and it just got better when I teamed it up with the smart grinder last month!

I've just run into a problem however, and I want to know if anybody else has seen anything like it. When pouring a double shot the pour stops early (9 bar, about 19 seconds), with only about half a shot in each cup (yes I definitely hit the double shot button). Sometimes if I load it up again it works fine (9 bar, about 35 seconds, 30ml per cup). It's definitely not a grind/dose/tamp problem. I'm guessing a problem with the flow meter inside the machine?

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Simon

[Khanuen]

I've had the reverse happen. Occasionally my machine will pull a quadruple shot instead of a double. It's only happened a few times.

[J_Hutt]

I think I would prefer the double shot button to control extraction time rather than volume. ie Set it to X seconds + pre-infusion. I wonder if the firmware can be adjusted to this....

[MarkZammit]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Just use the manual button. You should be watching your shots and stopping when blonding occurs. Then adjust grind/dose to achieve the desired volume/weight in the desired time. The one/two shot buttons are a bit of a gimmick and clearly not consistent - lots of people on forums complaining. Just use manual.

[Barry_Duncan]

Breville should open up a new service centre for Melbourne as AJ Appliances is the only one.

I had my machine repaired at Brevilles Ultimo Factory Outlet in Sydney where the fix it man knew what the problems with my BDB were and had it fixed in less than one day.

If you have any problems with your BDB in Melbourne, I suggest you contact Brervilles Factory outlets at:

427 Smith Street
Fitzroy VIC 3265
Telephone - (03) 9417 7126

Or

261 Huntingdale Road
Huntingdale VIC 3166
Telephone - (03) 9543 8199

Breville suggest that we may need a descale after about 3 years and say we should take it to them.

Alternatively when out of warranty we should work out how to do it ourselves. We would need a way to empty and flush all descale chemicals out of the pumps, pipes and boilers.

Barry

[Jason]

Hello peoples, I am new to this thread but I have had a BDB since they where first released. Actually I am on my second one and that has just gone back for repair/replacement. The problem has been when I press the one or two shot buttens pre-infusion starts but then stays in that mode until shot is poured. The pump doesn't kick in to 9 bar it stays around 1 bar. This has happened with both machines. Has anyone else had this problem?

[nickoyang]

I had my machine repaired at Brevilles Ultimo Factory Outlet in Sydney where the fix it man knew what the problems with my BDB were and had it fixed in less than one day.

If you have any problems with your BDB in Melbourne, I suggest you contact Brervilles Factory outlets at:

427 Smith Street
Fitzroy VIC 3265
Telephone - (03) 9417 7126

Or

261 Huntingdale Road
Huntingdale VIC 3166
Telephone - (03) 9543 8199

Breville suggest that we may need a descale after about 3 years and say we should take it to them.

Alternatively when out of warranty we should work out how to do it ourselves. We would need a way to empty and flush all descale chemicals out of the pumps, pipes and boilers.

Barry

DIY Descaling is definitely doable. I had done four times myself including the heat-exchange pipe and all boilers. Use citric acid and then soda to neutralize all the acid residues and then rinse the pipes and boilers. The brewing and steaming results were very good after the descale.

Thanks

Nick

[Spoony]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Nick,

Would you please share how to do the descale. I will be moving away from Australia soon (to Africa) and want to take my BES900 with me and would love to hear how you did it as I won't be able to take it to Breville to get it done.

Cheers
Spoony

[neofelis]

I got my machine back last night - took 48 hours.

They replaced the whole unit near the shower head.

OPV didn't apparently need changing as it's set to 10 bar.
No descale was done.

It's all fixed now and from now on I'm not doing a clear water back flush like phil shown. Its causing the machine to form a loose seal with the portafilter which eventually causes portafilters to fly off despite the fact when I did them I was careful.

You guys can do them if you want but if you're experiencing a lose portafilter I think it can be related to this.

[pcrussell50]

live4life it does take practice and you have to give it time, I did predict this happening though before it was even available, people wouldnt give it the time and wed see them on ebay.

not seeing them on ebayUSA yet--but you're prediction is still pretty close, imho. over here on the american/canadian forums, i'm simply stunned, (and disappointed) at the rate this great machine is being adopted by complete rank newbies, and very little by more experienced users. it's one of the reasons i've drifted back here after nearly a year with my usa "xl" version. i was hoping to be the one who was learning from the expert users. instead, i've grown tired of explaining the most fundamental basics of espresso over on CG to new BDB owners (we call it the Breville Dual Boiler, or BDB). this machine is extremely capable. seriously extremely so. but it is NOT automatic. the user simply MUST understand about how to make espresso. period. yet (and i can only guess as to why), it seems to be irresistable to those least able to exploit this machine's greatness, and yet it's invisible to those who can. such a shame. :frustrated:

sorry for the rant. but your words from almost a year ago are ringing true for the most. i left CS on page 23 of this thread shortly after i got mine. now i'm back and i've got a LOT of catch-up reading to do. wish me luck.

-peter

[Barry_Duncan]

Hello peoples, I am new to this thread but I have had a BDB since they where first released. Actually I am on my second one and that has just gone back for repair/replacement. The problem has been when I press the one or two shot buttens pre-infusion starts but then stays in that mode until shot is poured. The pump doesn't kick in to 9 bar it stays around 1 bar. This has happened with both machines. Has anyone else had this problem?

Jason,

Welcome to CS.

Some of us with the very early machines have had water flow problems due to a perishing O ring.

If you are in Sydney Melbourne or Brisbane I suggest you go to one of the Breville Factory Seconds shops for repairs. Otherwise contact Breville for the nearest repair centre.

Barry.

[nickoyang]

I got my machine back last night - took 48 hours.

They replaced the whole unit near the shower head.

OPV didn't apparently need changing as it's set to 10 bar.
No descale was done.

It's all fixed now and from now on I'm not doing a clear water back flush like phil shown. Its causing the machine to form a loose seal with the portafilter which eventually causes portafilters to fly off despite the fact when I did them I was careful.

You guys can do them if you want but if you're experiencing a lose portafilter I think it can be related to this.

If the back flush is not performed regularly, the machine's 3-way solenoid valve will definitely get clogged.
The reason of a flying PF could be the vibration propagated from the OPV. The small vibrating movement on the grouphead collar can slightly loosen the FP I guess.

Thanks

Nick