Breville Infuser (BES840) Owners thread

[Dalby]

I've only had my Infuser for a few days. I normally turn it off at the power after making a cup but yesterday I forgot. I noticed later in the afternoon the power light was blinking. I presumed this was a kind of standby mode but couldn't find any info the manual after several reads. It took me a couple of hours on Google but I finally found confirmation on Breville USA that the blinking indicates standby and eventually the machine will go to 'sleep'.

Care and Use

[LauriG]

You need at least 5 posts (?) before you can include pictures. You appear to have reached 5 posts so try again, it may allow you to add pictures now.

Cheers CafeLotta!! I got there in the end.
Thank You.

[LauriG]

Here's a picture sent to me by Breville customer service. In case anyone is wondering about the pressure gauge. Heaven knows why they didn't print the numbers on the gauge. I suppose for this type of consumer product less technical information is better:

https://coffeesnobs.com.au/attachmen...5&d=1559902959


The gauge reads identical for BES870 and BES840.

[CafeLotta]

Also - Incase anyone wonders about the scale of the pressure gauge, Breville technical support confirmed the scale values to me. (I have a picture, but not able to post images to this forum. I don't know why?)

You need at least 5 posts (?) before you can include pictures. You appear to have reached 5 posts so try again, it may allow you to add pictures now.

[LauriG]

Hi everybody,

What do people think about the water filter in Breville machines; particularly in Melbourne where the water is pretty good to start with? Is it an unnecessary consumable, or will the machine eventually clog up without it?

I think the Breville filter cartridge lasts about 2-3 months, so the cost is less than $30/year. I live in Cairns and we have soft water with very little calcium, but I still would not skip on the filtration. Frequent back-flushing (with and withoug cleaning powder) and clean filtered water would not only prolong the life of the machine, but keep the shots taste better. I would definitely spend the money and keep the filters in.

[level3ninja]

The charcoal in the filter will remove the chlorine, which is important for stainless steel boilers. Other than that you may have to descale a little more often, but using the filters won't remove the need to descale entirely so you still need to do it regularly and keep an eye on how much scale is coming out to know if you need to increase the frequency.

[askvictor]

Hi everybody,

What do people think about the water filter in Breville machines; particularly in Melbourne where the water is pretty good to start with? Is it an unnecessary consumable, or will the machine eventually clog up without it?

[LauriG]

Hello All Infuser-users....

Does anyone have an issue with the basket sticking to the group head? When removing portafilter after pulling a shot, I often just get the portafilter, no basket.
The basket pops out very easily out of the portafilter. Not a huge issue, I can tease it down, but give insult to injury, it sometimes jumps out together with the puck when I knock it in the bin!

Also - Incase anyone wonders about the scale of the pressure gauge, Breville technical support confirmed the scale values to me. (I have a picture, but not able to post images to this forum. I don't know why?)

The values of the notches runs 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15, so that 5bar is the notch at the beginning of the solid grey "espresso range". 9bar is in line with the first screw, 11bar notch just before the second screw. 13bar notch marks the end of "espresso range" and the last notch is 15bar, the max pressure of the pump.

(If you reach the 15bar when pulling a shot, the pump with shut off in protest of incorrectly prepared coffee basket....;-)

[Robw]

I have an infuser which performs immaculately but recently has refused to run a clean cycle.
Anybody seen this? Is there a fix?

Thanks, appreciate any help.

[WarrenK]

It's important to use fresh beans otherwise you can end up chasing your tail. Not freshly bought, but freshly roasted.

I endorse the above ten times over. I have the 870 which is the 840 but with a basic grinder built-in. Many hours were wasted until that lesson sunk in. My local roaster supplies 1kg which takes us about 3 weeks to use. Towards the end I find a finer grind and slightly more beans will keep me in the sweet spot. Ideally I would prefer to buy weekly in 250g packets.

Have fun.

[skeevs]

First rookie mistake anyone here will tell you about those pressure gauges on the breville machines would be not to follow the manuals prescribed ideal zone. I spent early days chasing that and its very unlikely you will get it into the ideal zone. You will however want to get it between 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. The best extractions I've had so far were usually around 2 o'clock. As long as it's not choking the machine where the espresso is just or barely dripping out.

If you have that Smart Grinder Pro, I've been using a few beans from different suppliers and the sweet spot is usually around grind settings of 16-18, with an out of the box burr setting(I never changed this).

You'll want to try hit between 20-30 secs from the moment you hit the button(sweet spot usually 25s-30s for me). Easiest to start with a 1:2 extraction ratio. I've found that best with double basket of 18g in and roughly 36g out. I programmed that on the 2 shot button.

With this grind setting, you tamp until you feel the force of the coffee pushing back if that makes sense. Doesn't have to be super heavy per se. Try to make sure the coffee is level in the basket and apply consistent force each time.

I don't know if my skills just got better, beans or machine started to break in. Coffee tasted good after a while. Fresh beans would be great too, there are some very reasonable suppliers online.

Also to add onto prydeys note, with 18g in basket you should end up with a puck that is quite dry after extraction. It breaks apart like a cookie(watch breville videos on youtube). Having said that, I have found some darker beans tasting better with a 17g dose. With this amount, the puck does end up with a slight puddle of water on top after extraction.

Hope that helps, best advise is just to take your time, learn the ropes and just practice

tldr; pick a rough grind setting, start with an initial dose(as pointed out by prydey) and get it somewhere between your extraction time window. Observe time/taste and fine tune from there one variable at a time, ie. grind finer/coarser, up/down dose slightly.

Hi! I just got the Breville Infuser this week, have had the Breville Smart Grinder for a couple months now. Until now, I have mainly brewed French Press and pourovers at home (occasionally my grandmother's old percolator), but espresso is very new to me to make at home. I am struggling to figure out the relation between grind size, grind amount, tamping, and extraction time (I don't want to use the pre-programmed setting). If I am using a grind setting of 20, what amount of grounds do I need in order to get the pressure gauge into the sweet spot (the last couple days when I've been grinding less it hasn't jumped up much at all )? And how much time should I really be pre-infusing for?

Thanks and I appreciate any help!

[prydey]

Hi! I just got the Breville Infuser this week, have had the Breville Smart Grinder for a couple months now. Until now, I have mainly brewed French Press and pourovers at home (occasionally my grandmother's old percolator), but espresso is very new to me to make at home. I am struggling to figure out the relation between grind size, grind amount, tamping, and extraction time (I don't want to use the pre-programmed setting). If I am using a grind setting of 20, what amount of grounds do I need in order to get the pressure gauge into the sweet spot (the last couple days when I've been grinding less it hasn't jumped up much at all )? And how much time should I really be pre-infusing for?

Thanks and I appreciate any help!

It's important to use fresh beans otherwise you can end up chasing your tail. Not freshly bought, but freshly roasted.
For espresso, a rough guide is to achieve 25-30ml in about 20-30 seconds.
A rough guide to know how much coffee to grind into your basket is to put a 5c piece on top after you have tamped it. Lock the handle in, then remove it. The 5c piece should leave a slight impression in the top of the puck.
As for grind size, refer back to the first point about flow rate (30ml in 30sec). If you get your volume in less time, you need to grind finer. If it takes longer to get the required volume, you need to grind more coarse.

I've not used an infuser machine but the smart grinder should be up the espresso end of the scale, usually in the teens somewhere.

Tamping should be firm also. You can tamp on some scales until you get a feel for it. As with all things to do with coffee making, consistency is key. There are a few opinions on how hard to tamp but 5-15kg of force is reasonably common.

When you are dialing in your beans to get the coffee pour and taste to your liking, it's best to adjust only one variable at a time so you know what the change did.

Enjoy.

[narwhalesnail]

Hi! I just got the Breville Infuser this week, have had the Breville Smart Grinder for a couple months now. Until now, I have mainly brewed French Press and pourovers at home (occasionally my grandmother's old percolator), but espresso is very new to me to make at home. I am struggling to figure out the relation between grind size, grind amount, tamping, and extraction time (I don't want to use the pre-programmed setting). If I am using a grind setting of 20, what amount of grounds do I need in order to get the pressure gauge into the sweet spot (the last couple days when I've been grinding less it hasn't jumped up much at all )? And how much time should I really be pre-infusing for?

Thanks and I appreciate any help!

[Erimus]

I am still trying to make a milk based drink tho, just with a double ristretto instead In the previous post, the scale was for measuring when to cut the extraction flow. I'm just after a good or right way to make (double) ristretto's out of these breville machines, so would be happy to get any feedback on the "process" I'm going through above.

Buy some fresh beans and stop using 'Aldi beans to practice with', or you're never going to get anywhere.

[skeevs]

I am still trying to make a milk based drink tho, just with a double ristretto instead In the previous post, the scale was for measuring when to cut the extraction flow. I'm just after a good or right way to make (double) ristretto's out of these breville machines, so would be happy to get any feedback on the "process" I'm going through above.