Originally posted by doobs
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I'll probably leave some stuff out, but here's my user review.
I had previously owned a BES900 DB, and have used a couple of commercial machines so will make a little comparison against that knowledge and experience. It’s teamed with a M4D.
Alright, I’ve had the machine for a week and a bit. Out of the box it’s a beautiful machine with single and double spout portafilters, stainless blind, single and double baskets, a grinds brush, plastic tamper and a silicon tube for use with an in-tank water filter. The build quality is excellent.
While it is slim on the bench it is a bit deeper compared to the BES it is replacing. Shiny stainless trumps silver plastic. From some angles it almost disappears because of the reflection of the surrounding surfaces.
The internal water tank is easy to fill by just lifting the cup warmer which also exposes the brew pressure adjustment screw. This makes it really easy to adjust for brew pressure profiling.
After my initial issue, as documented earlier it works a treat, although I have to use a lot more coffee dialling it in daily, and it’s exposing my roasting inconsistencies a lot more than the BES did.
Although it doesn’t get to temp as quickly as the BES, it is up to pressure after about 10-12 minutes which I think is pretty quick. I purge a little when it’s at pressure as per the manual and I’ve found that it probably does run a bit hot and I do need to flush a bit prior to extraction. It seems to be boiling (or close to it) at the head without a purge if it’s been sitting for 5 -10 minutes after it’s ready to go.
I’m a flat white drinker so the steam wand gets a workout. The steam wand needs to be purged of water more so than the DB but I’d do it anyway so no biggie, and the steam it produces is a really nice volume with a little more gusto than the DB and does a great job of texturing the milk. I thought the rotary knobs might be a little problematic but they work like a dream.
I haven’t found the move from the DB to the HX machine to be difficult at all and the only difficulties I’m having are grind and timer related. I consider them to be user errors or problems. I need to work on my system because I don’t have an automatic shot timer anymore and I feel like I’m scrambling. I still don’t think I’ve managed to pull a decent shot and the only extraction I thought was going to be a beauty, I got distracted by a magpie outside and let it run over to about 50 seconds. Man, I was dirty at my own stupidity.
I'm very happy I bought this machine, and with a bit more practice hope to be pulling shots worthy of it.
I had previously owned a BES900 DB, and have used a couple of commercial machines so will make a little comparison against that knowledge and experience. It’s teamed with a M4D.
Alright, I’ve had the machine for a week and a bit. Out of the box it’s a beautiful machine with single and double spout portafilters, stainless blind, single and double baskets, a grinds brush, plastic tamper and a silicon tube for use with an in-tank water filter. The build quality is excellent.
While it is slim on the bench it is a bit deeper compared to the BES it is replacing. Shiny stainless trumps silver plastic. From some angles it almost disappears because of the reflection of the surrounding surfaces.
The internal water tank is easy to fill by just lifting the cup warmer which also exposes the brew pressure adjustment screw. This makes it really easy to adjust for brew pressure profiling.
After my initial issue, as documented earlier it works a treat, although I have to use a lot more coffee dialling it in daily, and it’s exposing my roasting inconsistencies a lot more than the BES did.
Although it doesn’t get to temp as quickly as the BES, it is up to pressure after about 10-12 minutes which I think is pretty quick. I purge a little when it’s at pressure as per the manual and I’ve found that it probably does run a bit hot and I do need to flush a bit prior to extraction. It seems to be boiling (or close to it) at the head without a purge if it’s been sitting for 5 -10 minutes after it’s ready to go.
I’m a flat white drinker so the steam wand gets a workout. The steam wand needs to be purged of water more so than the DB but I’d do it anyway so no biggie, and the steam it produces is a really nice volume with a little more gusto than the DB and does a great job of texturing the milk. I thought the rotary knobs might be a little problematic but they work like a dream.
I haven’t found the move from the DB to the HX machine to be difficult at all and the only difficulties I’m having are grind and timer related. I consider them to be user errors or problems. I need to work on my system because I don’t have an automatic shot timer anymore and I feel like I’m scrambling. I still don’t think I’ve managed to pull a decent shot and the only extraction I thought was going to be a beauty, I got distracted by a magpie outside and let it run over to about 50 seconds. Man, I was dirty at my own stupidity.
I'm very happy I bought this machine, and with a bit more practice hope to be pulling shots worthy of it.

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