Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

As you can all see weve gone more than a day without any posts. Unfortunately Im going to break the silence now

Yesterday my parcel from Coffeeparts arrived. It contained an 18g VST basket, 1.1mm portafilter spring, blind filter and a few other items.

Couldn’t wait to try out the VST, so as soon as I got home, I pulled about 6-7 doubles but just couldnt get the extraction right. The shots tasted horrible with a sour aftertaste, they felt under extracted and the leftover pucks were muddy. I’m accustomed to dosing 19g into the Breville basket. But as 19g didn’t feel right in the VST, I updosed to 21g which still left the tamper cap below the rim of the basket. I might try updosing slightly more when I get home later this afternoon. Not sure if dosing close to the shower screen will improve the shots as Phil’s advice below:

our stock basket will hold ~18g with the smallest clearance between the screen & the tamped coffee. Throw in a synesso & you get more like21g, using a VST "18g" you get more like 22g. Plenty of places using VST "22g" baskets might have their dose sitting 13-14mm below the top edge of the coffee basket to 18-19g. Rock hard or soggy post extraction pucks seem to be a thing of the past so long as the coffee tastes great.

It’s probably just me as I have never been able to pull the perfect shot using the breville basket.
Has anyone else had issues using a VST basket?
Perhaps I need to master the breville basket before making further attempts on the VST.

P.S. Tried the blind filter I received yesterday and it gave me a reading of 12 bar. I’ve always aimed for an extraction of 9 bar when pulling a shot, but now that I know my OPV is on 12 bar it looks like I need to aim closer to 11 bar for the best shots.

[ROE]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I want to play with another basket with the BES900 what basket do people recommend?

I saw some video on youtube people using Synesso Baskets.

Which Synesso should I get?

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I want to play with another basket with the BES900 what basket do people recommend?

A picture is worth a thousand words.
Greg Pullman posted this image on another forum which Im not sure Im allowed to mention (open the link in another tab and click to zoom in):



Check the older posts in this thread for suggestions on which VST or Synesso will fit the BES900 portafilter

[avsv63]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Well I exorcist my poltergeist !
Some of you may remember I was getting uneven pours from my double basket and PF.
After a number of emails from Phil trying to help me (and Im sure he started to think I was a fruit loop ), I found out it was the PF its self. I had a second PF which still had the plastic insert still in it which was giving me prefect pours.
So I ripped out the plastic insert and it still gave me perfect and even pours.
So bugger me it was a dud PF !!!!!
Im a happy little chappy now and again many thanks to Phil for not thinking I was a you know what ! 8-)

[artman]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

And you can resurrect the dodgy PF to life by making it naked! Although I recall Phil mentioning it doesnt machine very easily.

Cheers

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

ok, so i finally ordered one of these machines.  took advantage of a 30% off sale from a USA retailer... $836 USD, free shipping to my door.  i dont get to open it until chrissie though.

i know this has been discussed before, but this thread has become HUGE, and slow to search, so apologies if i missed this:  going from memory, some of you were able to remove the plastic floor on the stock portafilter without removing the spout.  those who have done it that way, would you elaborate?  im not sure i ever understood exactly how you did it, even when i read about it, a couple of hundred posts ago.  ta.

-peter

[avsv63]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

And you can resurrect the dodgy PF to life by making it naked!  Although I recall Phil mentioning it doesnt machine very easily.

Cheers

After weeks of testing and thinking I was going nuts that particular PF has gone to rest on another planet !!!

[samhighley]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

those who have done it that way, would you elaborate?

I removed mine by removing the spout first, but it strikes me that the portafilter is one massive, solid chunk of stainless, and that spout is just a measly piece of plastic. My guess is that in a war between plastic and solid stainless involving leverage and force, stainless wins every time.

[TC]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

A suitable flat blade screwdriver will do the job

[Barry_Duncan]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I’ve always aimed for an extraction of 9 bar

Until you get your over pressure valve adjusted to 9 or 10, you can manually adjust your brew pressure to 9 by opening the hot water valve a little.

Barry.

[Santalum]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I’ve always aimed for an extraction of 9 bar

Until you get your over pressure valve adjusted to 9 or 10, you can manually adjust your brew pressure to 9 by opening the hot water valve a little.

Barry.

Shades of temp surfing, the more things change the more they remain the same.

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

A suitable flat blade screwdriver will do the job

please forgive me for being dense... are you saying to simply slip the flattie under the plastic where you can, and just pry it up? or is there a special trick or technique? does it destroy the plastic bit?

-peter

[Pavoniboy]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

are you saying to simply slip the flattie under the plastic where you can, and just pry it up? or is there a special trick or technique? does it destroy the plastic bit?

It might, but will you ever want it anyway? I simply pried mine out with a screwdriver as soon as I got it and it didnt break, but I certainly didnt care if it did as it went straight into the bin anyway.

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i will be binning it for sure too. having an idea whether it will break or not, gives me some clues as to what to expect in the removal process. remember, I dont get mine till chrissie, so I dont have one to study beforehand.

-Peter

[avsv63]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

A suitable flat blade screwdriver will do the job

please forgive me for being dense... are you saying to simply slip the flattie under the plastic where you can, and just pry it up?  or is there a special trick or technique? does it destroy the plastic bit?

-peter

Ive now done 4 ( the whole family now has these machines). All I did was use a pair of long nose pliers and 2 yanks and they all popped out.
It does destroy the plastic thingy but it belongs in the bin anyway !