Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[VirgilC]

Bes 900 - buyer beware -

My machine, also 2 years old, has exactly the same issues as you describe. The buzzing sounds electrcal, the hissing steam wand is getting worse, and now and again, I just loose pressure altogether.
I'm not flush enough to poay for a service, so may try and descale myself and see if I can resolve the issues, I think pressure relates to the solenoid O-ring, the leaky steam to scale buiold in the valve, and the buzzing from dirty electrical contacts.

Be interested if anyone has successfully attempted such a de-scale / repair

- BUYER BEWARE -

I have had the same problem that crept into my machine last year after 20 months of great coffee production. As the problem got worse I arranged for Breville to rectify. Long long story short, the technician recommended a replacement machine however Breville have been ultra difficult to deal with. After wasting the bulk of today trying to resolve I have given up and lodged a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading.

Brevilles interpretation of their responsibilities under Australian Consumer Law Consumer Guarantee differ greatly from my interpretation and understanding of the common law test of reasonable and relevant.
I believe a $1500 dollar machine can be reasonably expected to work for well in excess of 2 years, even my original Sunbeam EM6910 lasted 4 years (at less than half the cost).

As soon as the Office of Fair Trading confirms I will be pursuing Breville through the small claims tribunal. If anyone else hits the wall trying to deal with Breville PM me and I will share the magistrates interpretation of their responsibilities once the case is heard.

A true shame that Breville cannot provide timely service for the customers who purchased their flagship coffee machine.
As much as I love the coffee the dual boiler produced I cannot justify a $1500 dollar machine that lasts less than 2 years, nor the contempt I have been treated with.

It appears 2 years old is becoming a tipping point for the machine from some of the posts here, hope your machines last longer than mine.

[>mcknightp]

Hi Virgil, sorry your machine has had a problem. Can you tell me which Breville service centre did you take it to? Who have you been speaking to at Breville?

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Yes its just us. Everyone else has gone to the 920 thread

Have you tried turning your pre-infusion up to 75% and did that change things? Mine only exhibits the behaviour now upon startup each day with PI set to 75...but it has changed the extraction, its more like pre-infusion isnt on at all.

Have not heard back from Breville (both Customer support and technical promised they would call back with a plan to resolve)....

Hutt, sorry to hear you have an issue. Can I suggest as Breville requested, you send your machine back to Sydney. If you PM me your details, mob #, address etc, we'll get a courier to pick it up & deliver it back to you after servicing. This is not siomehing that can be diagnosed over the phone.

Phil

[>mcknightp]

Hi everyone,

Interested in hearing from owners who have had the machine for close to 2 years now. The machine's performance is starting to suffer a bit now and i'm not getting the pressure up to 9/10 bar anymore. When brewing, it tends to sit on the pre-infusion range for the entire brew which on a 1 cup press is taking about 60 seconds. This has only just started happening, a few months ago I was brewing perfectly at around 30 seconds with full pressure. I'm also using the same beans, grind and dose each time.

Machine is cleaned regularly with the tablets and filters have been used in the water tank since I've had the machine. As a test, I put in the backflush insert and ran a cycle. The pressure eventually went up to 10 bar after around 30-40 seconds.

Should this performance degradation be expected and is it a sign that it needs a "tune-up" of sorts from a repairer? Or even a de-scale?

Thanks in advance.

This can be easily fixed. Please call the Breville Customer Service no 1300 139 798 & they will direct you to your nearest BES900 authorised service agent. They will replace a couple of internal parts & do a firmware upgrade. After that your machine will perform like it was new.

Cheers, Phil

[>mcknightp]

Yep, same problem.

I've had my 920 since June 2013 and now the pressure fails to reach 7 bars and the coffee is dispensed too quickly. I use to pull 9-10s each morning. Something has caused it to loose pressure. I suspect an o-ring somewhere. I'll need to contact Breville. It's annoying because it's only 7 months old.. It had worked great up until now..

aazapf, suggest you grind finer & use the Razor dosing tool as per the Instruction Book. If you want to check the machine, drop in the Dual Wall filter basket, without coffee & press the Manual button. You should get 6-7bar on the gauge. This means there is nothing wrong with your machine & it's about dose &/or grind fineness.

Cheers, Phil

[Pavoniboy]

Great to see you back on here Phil, and backing the machine when people have problems.

Sometimes you just have to get through to the right people.

[VirgilC]

Phil,
Thanks for your interest, I delivered the machine to Brevilles Sunshine Coast Service Centre as directed by Breville.
At Breville I have spoken with Pam, Joe, Praveen Kumar and was promised contact from the supervisor Margaret which never happened. I supplied Praveen with a copy of the contact summary which has since been sent on to the Office of Fair Trading.
I would hope Praveen has been kept this on file if you would like to get an indication of how this matter has been 'managed' by Breville.

[tanethomas]

Don't mess wit him! #lawsuit

I just love the machine!

[cookie36]

Having a few issues with out near new BES900 (bought Nov 2013), thought I'd try here before ringing breville. Had been working quite well up until a week ago. In the mornings I brew up two shots using the single basket, usually the first shot goes for around 40 seconds however, dosing idential with the SG the 2nd goes 60-80 seconds. My wife also has said she has measured the single shot amount and sometimes its 30ml, sometimes 60ml. We regularly reset the machine now but it seems to have a mind of its own. Very frustrating. Any suggestions? It also seems to me to be very noisy, especially when using the hot water outlet.
cheers

[saroadie]

Having a few issues with out near new BES900 (bought Nov 2013), thought I'd try here before ringing breville. Had been working quite well up until a week ago. In the mornings I brew up two shots using the single basket, usually the first shot goes for around 40 seconds however, dosing idential with the SG the 2nd goes 60-80 seconds. My wife also has said she has measured the single shot amount and sometimes its 30ml, sometimes 60ml. We regularly reset the machine now but it seems to have a mind of its own. Very frustrating. Any suggestions? It also seems to me to be very noisy, especially when using the hot water outlet.
cheers

Hi cookie36,

I will suggest (as will many fellow and more experienced CSers) to use the double basket. Many times in this thread (and others) are reports of consistency issues with the single basket. Most issues are eventually solved by flinging the single basket in favour for the double.

You state that you brew two shots using the single. It appears that using the double will certainly fit your reigime.

Personal experinece with the same machine tells me the double is waaay easier to produce consistent results with. I'm 1440+ shots and 17 months along my journey and can get very consistent shots with the double but still struggle a bit with the single (albeit much less than when I commenced). I'll be surprised if you are still persisting with the single too much in a few months. I do it occasionally to admire my prowess and development at grinding/dosing/tamping only to inevitably be put in my place and stick the single back un the parts drawer.

As for the noisy (pump I assume) operation of the hot water outlet; my machine has always made more noise when using this too. I have always thought it to be normal and due to the lack of back pressure at the outlet with the pump not not having to push water through the coffee. I imagine this high pressure when brewing makes the operation of the vibrating pump seem quieter when brewing.

[cookie36]

Thanks for the reply. I'll give the double basket a go. I know the wife is not to keen on it as during the day she makes herself a couple of brews and doesnt like to waste the coffee, plus she doesnt like it super strong.

I think we got the grind and dose mastered, its just the inconsistent shot times and volumes that has us pulling our hair out! Thanks for the info on the water pump, will just have to put up with it i guess.

cheers

[PrescottCR]

Many have had issues with the shot volumes from programmed buttons. The answer is easy, use the manual button and stop it when you have the right volume.

While there are variables such as retained water in the puck changing due to the grind, that alone doesn't explain the odd behavior of the programmed buttons. If it frustrates you then do it manually, that's easy enough. If you still have a warranty and the programming is actually flaky I would think that's a good claim for repair.

[shapeshifter]

Two years on and I still don't have and have never had an issue with my BES900

Just saying...

[cinda]

I have had mine in twice to be fix and came back with dint and scraches on it no one would tack the blame and now it just sitting on shelve .got a better machine now

[rzkman]

Dear BDB fans, apologies in advance if this has been discussed to death already, but here goes. I upgraded from a 2nd gen Silvia about 18 months ago to the BES900 and in general it has been a pleasure to use. But even from the start I thought the steaming function was the weakness of this machine and some forum posts I read at the time seemed to indicate this. It was noticeable slower than the Silvia in bringing the milk up to temperature even though the wand on the Silvia looks very much like a pencil compared to the chunkier one on the BDB (not that this really matters in terms of steaming grunt). Well tonight I dusted off my Silvia in preparation to finally sell it and was shock that it was able to produce a very velvety blanket of milk which I easily managed to shape into a fat rosetta. I have never had much lunch with latte art on the BDB and just thought my technique sucked (though I was secretly hoping I could blame it on the machine and upgrade again one day).

So my question is whether it is expected that the steaming function on the Silvia is superior to the BDB? Why is it so hard to get the right milk texture on the BDB when I can turn the Silvia for the first time in 18 months and get a superior result? Latte art is secondary, it is the silky milk texture I am after....oh Ms Silvia, sorry I neglected you for so long...