Advice reg Breville BES870 Barista Express

[charzy]

I am having trouble adjusting the temperature (PID) with my newly purchased Barista 870. I am following the directions in the manual.

It may help if there was some more information. What have you tried doing on the machine? What happens after you press the buttons? What makes you think it's not adjusting?
I have a BES870 and from memory you need to hold down some buttons while pressing the power button on for a few seconds.
The lights should flash into a mode where you can choose -2, -1, default, +1 or +2 degree difference. Once you press a button it should switch to 'on' mode where you can continue making a shot.

[Frasa089]

Problem with temperature

I am having trouble adjusting the temperature (PID) with my newly purchased Barista 870. I am following the directions in the manual.

[noidle22]

I'm returning mine and hoping for a replacement that works in the way the manual says. I've gone through many combinations of tamping and grind but I've never managed to get more than 20ml out of the single wall single shot even though the manual says it should be 30ml. And 20ml is not a lot of coffee. Has anyone else had this problem?

Did you reprogram the single shot button for 30ml? You can program the buttons to output whatever volume you want.

You press the "Program" button then the single or double shot button, let it prepare as much espresso as you want it to then press the shot button again. It will then program this amount.

[AndrewStein]

I'm returning mine and hoping for a replacement that works in the way the manual says. I've gone through many combinations of tamping and grind but I've never managed to get more than 20ml out of the single wall single shot even though the manual says it should be 30ml. And 20ml is not a lot of coffee. Has anyone else had this problem?

[willsmother]

Another new owner, from the Breville outlet in Smith St, Fitzroy (Melbourne) for a bargain price of $330! Mine is red and although this would offend the purists it being red was a big part of my coffee machine choice. It looks great! Apart from arriving without the top burr set in the grinder (no idea why) , quickly sorted by a return trip to the outlet, it seems in perfect order thus far, did not seem to have had any evidence of previous use and works well. It comes with the same one year repair warranty as the retail outlets, though I used my credit card so I will get an extra year. a pretty good deal for $330 I thought. FYI they had several more in the silver but no more red ones, and also had several of the 'precision duo" bundles (Duo Temp Pro not dual boiler). They get new stock regularly so it would be a case of calling or popping in to see what they had. Nice staff and good pricing.
I followed the same learning curve as everyone else and drank far too much coffee in the process. So far I have found that grind 7, single wall single basket, 12 o'clock on dosing dial, reasonable tamp, gets me just into the broken area around 1 o'clock on pressure gauge and gives the best flavour and good crema. I found the "ideal" grey area seemed to under extract.
I came from a Moka pot and Porlex hand grinder or when I was in a rush a handed-down Lavazza pod machine and stove top milk frother.
Have settled on piccolo lattes as the favourite, mainly because I want to practise latte art and don't want a huge milk dose. The piccolo latte seems an ideal balance of powerful coffee and some smoothness and sweetness from the milk, and it looks so stylish too I use a smaller jug than the one that came with it, was wasting too much milk with the large one.
I have been using Lavazza beans but I have Lao beans to move onto from last week's trip to Vientiane, Lao Mountain coffee....gourmet, I'm pretty sure freshly roasted, they were a gift from a colleague. After that will have freshly roasted Timor coffee soon enough.

[Gr3y]

I picked up this machine recently and have enjoyed it a lot so far. However, my unit came with two tiny dents on the stainless steel panel that's behind the grinder chute and grouphead. I took it back to get it exchanged but the new one has it too Is everyone else's like this too? Are they just made like this? Here's a video of what I'm talking about:

https://youtu.be/O4OnRCPJHao

[Sammy80]

Hi everyone,
i've just joined the forum and mainly only to access this thread- I picked up my Breville BES870BKS (Black) Barista Express 11/6/16. First up, I like the machine. I knew I wasn't buying top of the range but it's marketed with some great features & built in grinder etc so there's a lot to speak for it. I'm not new to the manual extraction scene, but haven't practiced in a while. I am having some issues however!
- Grinder definitely overdoses. Beans being fresh roasted or store bought (I've read those threads too) I get that the grinds can be nice & fluffy & I've seen th you tube vids recommending the shake to reduce spill. It's a shame the adjustment doesn't remedy this issue. 17-18g is gettable but rarely ever without intervention to stop/restart the grind. Holding the grind button in for a manual adjustment is a great tip I saw on one video. Still not perfect as a feature.
- adjusting the shot volume - this machine will run the tank dry on a single shot. Just keeeeeps going. I've set it reset it set it again, no success. Any similar experiences or advice here? It beeps as it should but fails to take notice of the setting. This for me is a real downer on a brand new machine. Shakes my confidence in quality.
- the portafilter sometimes leaves the basket in the machine because it gets stuck in the group head. Hot or cold this happens. Using the tamper to the line after the 'razor' with the right coffee amount & grind it sometimes also leaves the used puck up there stuck to the group head, without the basket. I've heard this can be related to heat but just the basket alone is unusual in my view.
Keen to hear your thoughts folks as this is a new machine I'd rather ask for a refund early than let it go!

great thread too some really useful info so far!
sam

[coffeebaby]

Is this now the unofficial BES870 owners thread? I just bought this machine and am after some pointers on how I should adjust the settings. Fresh beans from Sugar & Spice cafe in Brisbane CBD, grind at 6, firm tamp, single wall double shot basket. Coffee took about 8-9 seconds to start coming out and a total of about 27 seconds (including the 8-9 to start), with the gauge reading in the correct zone. And the result had a definite sour/astringent note that I didn't like. According to the quick start guide I seem to be overextracting, underextracting, and also getting it just right, so I'm not sure which part I should try adjusting. Reading back through some recently comments I will try weighing the next few to check how much dose I'm getting - is 18g about right for a double?

*edited to add* We just tried out the double walled basket and it made a much better coffee (as promised) but it was still really wet inside the basket afterwards. Is that normal for the pressurised basket?

[Horace01]

Breville BES 870 I have a question. Just starting out with the 870 and I notice that the Portfilter has a plastic insert covering the bottom of the Portafilter It doesn't seem to come out but I wonder should it be left there or removed and if removed how does it come out.

I removed mine about 2 months after I got the machine. Never felt the need to put it back in. Seem to me the coffee flows better without it.

Unscrew the spout (not sure what it's called) on the bottom of the Portfilter. The insert is pushed through a hole and hooks on the outside of it. Just squeeze the sides of the insert together and push.

[Horace01]

I have just purchased this machine and have noticed the basket is sticking too. Did anyone achieve a resolution or is it just a design fault of some description?

Many thanks for your help fellow coffee-o-philes.

I find it only does it when there is too much grind in the basket. Perhaps you need to use slightly less beans, or tamp a little harder to push the grind slightly further into the basket

[Ronw]

BES 870 Portafilter Insert

Breville BES 870 I have a question. Just starting out with the 870 and I notice that the Portfilter has a plastic insert covering the bottom of the Portafilter It doesn't seem to come out but I wonder should it be left there or removed and if removed how does it come out.

[belrose]

Hi guys,

Thought I would check with other 870 users... I am having a problem with my double basket getting stuck up under the group head when removing the porta-filter from my machine.

It's not every time but it happens enough that its starting to annoy the heck out of me.

It's worse when it happens after pulling a shot and if not carefully removed it can leave a big mess as you can imagine!

Any one else having the same issue?

Must admit the single basket hasn't gotten nearly as much use as the double but I haven't experienced it with the single.

I have just purchased this machine and have noticed the basket is sticking too. Did anyone achieve a resolution or is it just a design fault of some description?

Many thanks for your help fellow coffee-o-philes.

[newbiebarista]

I recently ( a couple weeks ago ) bought the BES870 after having read multiple forum discussions and reviews on this machine and many others.

My experiences so far.

The over grind is true but of no real problem, a good setting for my beans is the second last notch (about 7 oclock) on single dose. I found alot of people on these forums saying to fill filter so that when tamping (15kg pressure) you can see the silver of the bottom of tamper sticking out, I found this was way to much, pressure was intense and flavour ended up very bitter. As far as grind amount goes I grind with setting of 4 till it almost fills filter flat but not quite. Then when tampered (about 5kg pressure) the entire silver part of tamper is in filter and just a smidge more. I use the double wall double shot filter.

I read many posts that people liked the pressure to go to 12 to 1 oclock on pressure dial. I have been unable to get a nice coffee with this type of pressure. If following my preferences above (grind size, amount and tamp pressure) the pressure should reach and hover around the 4th notch (10 oclock) which I estimate about 7 bars of pressure, I find this perfect for my tastes.

Beans, I started using the fresh beans from my favorite coffee shop with roasted date. I couldn't get it to taste anywhere near what they do, however I ran out of beans before perfecting my above settings and may try them again. I tried various beans, my wifes favorite coffee shop gave her a bag to try though they had a best before date, she loves them. I ended up trying some supermarket beans and ended up loving the grinders medium roast beans with a best before date.

My wife and I both use approximately the same grind size, amount and tamp, her beans are a dark roast.

Also the filter cup staying in the machine when portafilter is taken out does happen, when you get the touch for it you can get it out easily though.

Hope this helps someone, I found what others had posted and what I continued to try and use just didn't appeal to my taste until my wife had a go and found a good setting after having read nothing more than the instruction manual, go figure.

[Javaphile]

I recently purchased the Breville Barista BES870 after having a DeLonghi semi automatic machine (in built grinder and auto tamping).
There was a big learning curve to get the pressure into the 'espresso range'. I was using Lavazza beans from Coles and the double cup single wall filter cup and ended up having to set the grind to '2'.
I was concerned that I needed to set the grind so fine with a brand new machine especially watching a few videos on You tube for this machine where the user had the grind setting at '5' with the same double cup single walled filter cup.
When I ran out of the Lavazza beans I used Vittoria beans (also from Coles) and even after setting the grind to the finest I could not get pressure more than in the 'pre infusion' area with weak coffee and no crema.
Believing the machine (grinder) to be faulty I contacted Breville who first advised that they would email me with instructions how to test the machine which after nearly 4 days of waiting never came.
I phoned them again and they 'walked me through' a test using the rubber cleaning disk with the single cup single walled filter cup. The pressure barely moved off the bottom but the chap said that indicated the pressure was ok (how I will never know).
Anyway he then asked if the beans had a 'roasted on date' and when I told him only a 'best before date' he told me that beans purchased from supermarkets could be very old and that I should be using beans from a roaster or coffee shop - has anyone else been told this?
I challenged him by asking him why doesn't the user manual state this (eg "for best results only use freshly roasted beans")- he did not answer.
I contacted the retailer who said that no one had ever told them this and later contacted Breville and was told by their contact that they would put in an internal complaint (within Breville) to have something done about it.

Has anyone else experienced this problem (need for very fine grind using supermarket beans)?

As your main question deals with the use of supermarket beans and you have created another thread specifically for that question the posts made in reply to that question have been moved to: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/general-co...ermarkets.html Any further posts dealing with the use of supermarket beans should be made in that thread.


Java "Keeping it organized" phile

[jparnold]

I recently purchased the Breville Barista BES870 after having a DeLonghi semi automatic machine (in built grinder and auto tamping).
There was a big learning curve to get the pressure into the 'espresso range'. I was using Lavazza beans from Coles and the double cup single wall filter cup and ended up having to set the grind to '2'.
I was concerned that I needed to set the grind so fine with a brand new machine especially watching a few videos on You tube for this machine where the user had the grind setting at '5' with the same double cup single walled filter cup.
When I ran out of the Lavazza beans I used Vittoria beans (also from Coles) and even after setting the grind to the finest I could not get pressure more than in the 'pre infusion' area with weak coffee and no crema.
Believing the machine (grinder) to be faulty I contacted Breville who first advised that they would email me with instructions how to test the machine which after nearly 4 days of waiting never came.
I phoned them again and they 'walked me through' a test using the rubber cleaning disk with the single cup single walled filter cup. The pressure barely moved off the bottom but the chap said that indicated the pressure was ok (how I will never know).
Anyway he then asked if the beans had a 'roasted on date' and when I told him only a 'best before date' he told me that beans purchased from supermarkets could be very old and that I should be using beans from a roaster or coffee shop - has anyone else been told this?
I challenged him by asking him why doesn't the user manual state this (eg "for best results only use freshly roasted beans")- he did not answer.
I contacted the retailer who said that no one had ever told them this and later contacted Breville and was told by their contact that they would put in an internal complaint (within Breville) to have something done about it.

Has anyone else experienced this problem (need for very fine grind using supermarket beans)?