Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[PrescottCR]

I would buy them again. My only advice is - buy one from a reputable source that has a warranty. Or you can take chances on eBay.

[Barry_Duncan]

A large number of posts here are about problems with a BDB. While the many thousands of machines that are behaving well giving the owners great coffee. They are not newsworthy and are not often reported here while working well.

Any bit of machinery at any price including cars, aircraft and coffee machines can have mechanical and electrical breakdowns. I have had my BDB for a little over two years. It was among the first sold. At about one year an O ring had to be replaced by Breville. It has behaved perfectly well ever since.

Many of the problems reported her are nothing to do with the machine but the coffee used or the user’s problems with grinding, dosing, tamping and pouring.

I knew that being a newly developed machine there was a chance of problems. I have had two new car models that turned into lemons. With the BDB I took the risk. Other than being without it for a couple of days for repairs, it has been great.

Would I buy it again? I don’t know yet. It depends on how long it lasts and what is around when I need to replace it. For what it costs it is very good value for money. Before next Xmas Breville promises to have an upgraded Dual Boiler as well as their new Oracle with an inbuilt grinder and automatic dose and tamp.

Barry

[cinda]

my bdb is 11 months old i had is for 2 months and got the err 1 come on it and would not go to 93 it was on 120 and took 6 weeks to get it back now to night it has starred to buzz all the time it has did the buzzing noise just for short time of and on and the pf handle flys of every no and then .

cinda

[Yelta]

Was considering this Double Boiler Unit but man, seems like a lot of issues out there? Would you guys/gals purchase this machine again? If not, which brand would you go with? Thanks!

I don't and have never owned one.

Having followed this thread with interest from the start, wouldn't even contemplate a Breville DB, way too many issues for my liking.

[TiminNC]

Thanks for the feedback all ... I really love the value to feature ratio with this machine but will most likely have to wait on the newer unit and the reports on how it performs prior to giving Breville a try ... I'll be following this thread very closely ... Thanks again, Tim

[crazysurfanz]

Was considering this Double Boiler Unit but man, seems like a lot of issues out there? Would you guys/gals purchase this machine again? If not, which brand would you go with? Thanks!

I've owned mine for a few days over a year now and have to say I've been very happy with it. I haven't had any of the problems requiring service that I've seen in this thread (and I've read every post and been following the thread since before I decided to purchase the bes900).

As Barry_Duncan suggested, you are likely to see the issues in a thread like this more than you are the reports of 'omg it's amazing'. And, as he also suggested, it would depend what else is available at the time it comes to replace. I don't think anything else has come on the market that comes nearly close to the features/value combo that the BES900 has, and having used it for a year, it would be hard for me to go without many of those features. At the same time... I would find it hard to justify to myself paying 3 times as much for one of the 'italian' models.

I purchased mine with an extended warranty (from 2 to 5 years), I never purchase these, but in this case I felt it was quite possibly a good investment as the BES900 was unproven at the time. If I was to purchase it again at this point I think I would still get the extended warranty.

Given there is a new one coming out.. sometime in the near future... at this point I'd definitely wait for that... although I guess it really depends how eager you are to jump in, what you have at the moment etc.

Hope that helps

[spowellau]

Was considering this Double Boiler Unit but man, seems like a lot of issues out there? Would you guys/gals purchase this machine again? If not, which brand would you go with? Thanks!

If I was buying again with a budget of $1,500 I would still buy the BES900. Even though I've had a number of issues, if I get another 2 years out of the replacement machine I will be happy. I recommend buying from a reputable local retailer in case you do have problems tho. Like Barry mentioned there are thousands of these machines out there that don't visit forums to say how great their machine is. When this machine works it produces amazing coffee.

If your budget is higher ($2,500+) and you can justify it I would also look at the European brands like Expobar, Vibiemme etc. I'm sure you're checking out the "Pointy End" thread, plenty of good advice there.

[J_Hutt]

I've had my BDB 18mths with typical use 2-4 coffees per day. Have had the gasket issue & been fixed. New problem; Often when starting up after correct temp is achieved when first shot is started using manual, the pre-infusion pump doesnt come on. Settings are default (6s @60% or thereabouts) but for those 6 sec no pump runs and the shot/full pressure proceeds at the 6 sec mark.

To get around this I run a purge shot (which I know is recommended anyway). Sometimes the PI doesnt come on, sometimes it does. After it does, the next shot works as expected. I have seen it happen later in the day as well as first up in the morning. Machine is cleaned weekly.

[csutak40]

Nice :-)

I'm indoctrinating my just turned 3 year old son already that instant coffee isn't real coffee :-)

I don't think you need to do much indoctrinating. :-) I don't remember ever saying anything to my son, but having grown up in my house, I doubt he has ever drank instant. He certainly doesn't have any in his house.

Having said that, not drinking instant isn't necessarily enough. We once visited someone's house. Can't remember the occassion, but there was a large crowd of people and my son offered to make coffee in their moka pot. He started filling it with coffee, wasn't quite full yet when the hostess noticed and said: Oh my God, much too much coffee! It will be too strong - take out at least half! Needless to say, both of us declined the offer of a cup of coffee :-)

[inorog]

I don't think you need to do much indoctrinating. :-) I don't remember ever saying anything to my son, but having grown up in my house, I doubt he has ever drank instant. He certainly doesn't have any in his house.

Having said that, not drinking instant isn't necessarily enough. We once visited someone's house. Can't remember the occassion, but there was a large crowd of people and my son offered to make coffee in their moka pot. He started filling it with coffee, wasn't quite full yet when the hostess noticed and said: Oh my God, much too much coffee! It will be too strong - take out at least half! Needless to say, both of us declined the offer of a cup of coffee :-)

Yes - the secret to (acceptable) pot-coffee is "when they think you've put enough coffee, double it!"... Most people wouldn't know what a good coffee is if it bit them in the bum, so they just go along with brown-coloured water which might as well been used to wash the portafilter... a week ago!

I work at a Uni - and we have a renowned coffee shop which makes the foulest, disgusting coffee I have tasted in a long while. For a while I thought they'd be recycling the grinds - it was *THAT* bad. Then I think we figured out that a). they have the temperature problems, b). They have the grinder on the same setting since they unpacked it out of the box c). they have no idea how to make a coffee - that long black? - yeah - that's about a minute extraction! ... Yet people come in the morning and get their dysfunctional coffee!

Figure that one out!

[mwcalder05]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Yet people come in the morning and get their dysfunctional coffee!

Figure that one out!

I guess ignorance is bliss for some! Especially for one customer who I recommended choosing a Single Origin for their long black at work to which he replied: just give me something nice like Vittoria :P

[danestead]

Haha. One time I saw the 'barista' at a hotel make a long black for a guest and after the pre programmed button had been pressed once, she pressed it again to make up the volume for the long black! Considered saying something but wasn't worth the effort.

[canucklehead]

I've recently started experiencing my first problem with my 14 month old Breville Dual Boiler.

I always use the manual button to extract my espresso, but starting yesterday, I noticed that the pump is now shutting itself off after 35-37 seconds. I've tried this many more times since, and it always shuts itself off after 35-37 seconds.

Any suggestions on what might be causing this, and if there's anything I can do to address it myself? Time to call Breville? Thanks.

[ggoosen]

I see there is a new pf on the market and was wondering if we could use it on the bdb. Can anyone comment around Breville using one of the following types of PF.

They have 3 different fit, LM/Synesso, Nuova Simonelli and E61. Not sure if Breville uses different PF.

[Steve82]

I see there is a new pf on the market and was wondering if we could use it on the bdb. Can anyone comment around Breville using one of the following types of PF.

Pretty sure the design of breville PF is proprietary, so other pf will probably not fit.