New Breville BCG820 "Smart Grinder Pro"

[NikoleWare]

I have Breville at home. It was an amazing coffee grinder that I ever had.

[willyroo]

A heads up that this is on sale at Myer as part of their boxing day sale for $199.
Myer Catalogues

Yesterday morning, my modded BCG450 died. I had some store credit at Myer, so this was a no-brainer.

Since the modded BCG450 needed a grind at minimum settings for a good shot with the EM6910, I started off with a grind setting of 6. With the merest of tamps, I created the perfect brick. After a little experimentation, SWMBO having fun at my expense "I thought this shiny new thing was the duck's guts" etc, a 20 second drop into the basket at grind setting 13 gave the best double that machine has done.

Sold.

[kbilleter]

New Breville BCG820 "Smart Grinder Pro"

I bought one of these at the previous sale in July. As a first grinder I didn't have any preconception as to where the settings should be but ended up with numbers similar to above. 6 months down the track I've tightened the burrs two notches and usually run it for 14s on 6-7 for 18g of grounds. Grain size seems to be more consistent with a bit of wear. I'll be interested to see how much it changes over the next six months.

[bokka]

Pulled out that top burr today, Breville were very clever with the way you adjust it, the handle lugs lock in the setting, with holes all around, it's a ring within a ring you twist, put the handle back in to lock it.

Mine was set at 6, so I dialed it back to 2 playing it safe, with the machine back together I drew a couple more shots, grind level 1 was a little too fast before, 4 now was actually a little too slow, I suspect 5 maybe good now, will play with dosing amount, this was using 16 gram shots in a double basket on the Lelit, in the past I have gone anywhere from 15-17 grams+ depending on beans etc.

This is actually very close to my settings for my Gaggia Classic.
Burr set to 3, grind set to 4, 16.8 seconds double shot. This produces around 18g.

[brew]

i just bought one of these to replace a worn out BCG800. Sadly, the dose adjust nob doesn't work. I turn it, but the dose time doesn't change. Every now and then it does, but mostly, it does nothing.

The nob feels more flimsy than the old BCG820, but otherwise it is a very small upgrade on the original. I'm delighted to see that the plastic sweep cog beneath the inner burr is now metal- that's what gave out on my old '800 after 4 years.

I'm working on replacing the brand new '820 for one with working dose adjust.

[artman]

If it was DOA they should just give you a new replacement. Pretty sure the warranty is s replacement one anyway (could be wrong here).

Had a quick play with a friends 820 and it has some useful minor tweaks over the 800. Great that Breville is doing these incremental improvements to their products.

Cheers

[flaviocc]

Hy guys,

Ill ask here, but shortly.

When set to espresso (finer) Its hard to turn the knob ?

More finer --- harder to dial....

Its normal ?

[kbilleter]

Hy guys,

Ill ask here, but shortly.

When set to espresso (finer) Its hard to turn the knob ?

More finer --- harder to dial....

Its normal ?

I'd have it grinding when tightening down at the pointy end

[rightosighto]

So I've been playing around with the BCG820 after buying it in combo with the BES920 Dual Boiler a few days ago. When I first began to dial in the shots for the Dual Boiler, the BCG820 set at 10 (which is in the recommended 'espresso' range) would poor way, way to fast. Like, 60ml of coffee from the stock double basket in 7 seconds.

I eventually worked my way down through all of the electronic grind settings, and then moved on to adjusting the burr itself. From the factory, the burr adjustment was at level 6. It is now at level 1, and the electronic grind setting at 2 is pulling really nice single shots, around 24-26 seconds for 45ml of coffee from the single basket (13.7g of coffee). Note that when you are adjusting grind settings for espresso, make sure the machine is on and grinding as you adjust. Having the burrs spinning when the grind is being changed will prevent the grinder from stalling or, worst case scenario, breaking.

The problem I seem to be having is that, using relatively fresh beans (roasted 5 days ago) the BCG820 can only produce a reasonable shot from my BES920 stock single basket. Industry standards for a single shot basket suggest 7-9g of coffee for a 25-30 second, 30ml poor. This basket will accept up to 13-14g depending on your beans and grind. Saying that, I can produce a high quality extraction using the above grind settings (burr 1; electronic 2), with 13.7g of coffee in a single basket. This will give me around 40-50ml of espresso over 24-26 seconds before anything close to blonding occurs. Which suggests to me that its basically giving me a double shot.

Overall I like the BCG820. I still can't quite get a good extraction from the stock BES920 double basket. I'm using anywhere between 22-24g of coffee, really pushing the limits there, and getting 70-80ml of espresso in 17-20 seconds which is still too fast... I don't know if anyone has had much experience here and has any tips

[snr_crema]

still at $199

Update on pricing...(we should be on commission here)...just bought the BCG820 today still $199 at Myers found it also at G Guys for $249 and B Lee for $289 pays to shop around

[DarrenHeaphy]

Got the smart grinder pro today, won't get a chance to set it up yet. Had the 800 model prior to that (Sage aka Breville kindly agreed to swap it for me, how awesome was that!)

I see some of you prefer 2 single shots as opposed to 1 double; why is that? Do you actually use the single basket one after the other to make 2 shots?

[astormsau]

Hi everyone, first time poster, long time lurker!

Interested in some other peoples experiences with the BCG820.

I got one with my Breville Dual Boiler 920 about 2.5 months ago. I haven't needed to adjust the burrs, I've left them on setting 6 and usually grinding with setting 8-12 on the electronic dial depending upon the bean. This has been yielding good extractions from the double basket (I haven't tried the single) of the standard 60ml in 30 seconds, I can easily dial the grind down a few numbers on the electronic scale and pull some awesome ristretto's so overall quite happy with the combo.

Shortly after Christmas some 8 day old beans I got from a local roster (which I have been using on and off for a few months) caused the clutch to start slipping on the grinder. This happened a few times when trying to grind for a shot and then the grinder became inoperable and just made that horrible slipping clicking noise. I cleaned out the grinder and then tried again with the same beans, same issue, the grinder just wouldn't grind. Tried some Lavazza beans from a family member and they were grinding okay but the grinder would still slip/engage the clutch/make the noise every now and then - funny the same family member was using the same beans in their Saeco super auto without issue.

Anyhoo Breville agreed to replace the grinder. Got the new one and have been using it for about two weeks now with the left over Lavazza Blue beans I got from the supermarket (yes I know but it was New years eve and I had no coffee) without any issues and surprisingly pulling nice shots. Last week I picked up some nice house blend from Axil in Hawthorn Melbourne as I was driving past, they are about 8 days old now, this morning whilst making a few shorts the new grinder made the same clutch slipping noise again twice. The new grinder has the burrs on 6 and grinding on electronic setting of 12. With the electronic setting on 8 I can choke the Dual Boiler so i'm happy that the settings are right.

Does anyone else have this issue? Interested in your experiences... more than happy if its the grinder just 'protecting' itself, I've usually found Axils house blends very reliable so a bit confused...

Drew

[DesigningByCoffee]

Hi Drew and welcome
Often supermarket beans are roasted slightly longer/darker than you'll get from a speciality roaster and are therefore much softer - while lighter roasted beans can be much harder on the grinder. I don't have much experience with the Brevile - but it sounds like it doesn't like the local speciality roasted beans - that clutch slipping sounds like a overload/rock protection device that is choking on harder beans.

Matt

[Doublehelix]

New to site-- great postings. Been using the 820xl for a few weeks now with a Breville DB 920xl. I exchanged a 800xl for the Pro because I liked the variable burr adjustment and 60 dial-in settings. Ben using a burr seeing of 5 and a grind of 14 for very dark espresso beans. Bought an extra bean hopper to quickly change coffees. I like this grinder very much, but don't expect it to last more than 3-4 years.

[astormsau]

Hey Matt
Interestingly another set of beans kept locking the grinder today, even the Lavazza beans from the supermarket were having issues the other day with the clutch engaging randomly. Wondering if this isn't a bad batch of grinders but will chat to Breville again.

Time for a Compak perhaps.
Drew