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Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

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Discussions > Espresso > Machines > Breville Dual...

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JohnLyn
Senior Member

Joined: 15 Aug 2011
Posts: 234
Location: Golden, BC, Canada
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Spaziale Mini Vivaldy
Grinder: Vario
Drip: Bonavita
Roaster: Toastess popper

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 6:48am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Well... I am into my third machine now, thanks Breville, and one thing for sure is that I can talk about the consistency among machines. With the exception of the Err1 message, all three machines have not only performed flawlessly, but aside from a tight PF fit to start, they perform exactly like the previous one. That's pretty cool. On the previous grinder discussion I can only say that I use a Vario and it has functioned super well. Here is a question: what differences are people finding with varying pre-infusion time and pressure? I assume that this would change depending on the coffee used but I have no parameters regarding what it will do. j

occoffeefan
Senior Member

Joined: 27 Sep 2008
Posts: 34
Location: occoffeefan
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville Dual Boiler
Grinder: Baratza Vario W, Mazzer Mini...
Roaster: Behmor

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 9:06am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

I lowered my preinfusion time to 4 seconds at the default 60 %. Breville customer service told me that a shorter preinfusion produces a sweeter shot. My pressure blinds at 9.5 and pulls between 9 to 9.5. The shots are great!

SamP
Senior Member

Joined: 10 May 2012
Posts: 7
Location: MD
Expertise: Just starting

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 9:21am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

No news on the NPF???? Someone mentioned a waiting list a few pages back, did that ever happen?

lowellw2
Senior Member

Joined: 4 Apr 2010
Posts: 32
Location: Austin TX
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville BES900XL
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 7:19pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Well, darn it. I bought a BDB when they first came out and it had the OPV misadjustment. I returned it before all the DYI fix was available, but I've been watching for a good price on another and pulled the trigger early this week. I have a Vivaldi Mini ver. 1 so I have a very decent machine but wanted to test the BDB against the Mini and like the potential better temperature control. I also like the timer built in and the variable preinfusion. The new macine arrived today and everything started out great, except the pressure gauge does not even wiggle. Anyone else had this problem. I guess the fix will be to call Breville service first thing Monday, but wanted to see if anyone had some thoughts. It seems like no pressure is getting fed to the gauge. Only pulled one shot which was fine. I didn't even have to vary the grind on my Vario. The steaming was slower than the Mini, as expected, but the microform was easier on the BDB and much richer and thicker.

dagoat
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Posts: 294
Location: santa barbara, ca
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: BDB (Breville Dual Boiler...
Grinder: baratza vario
Vac Pot: aeropress
Drip: manual
Roaster: cafe rosto

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 9:30pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

on the breville tapered basket, and getting no-stick pucks on the shower screen... when i first got my BDB back in december, i started off with 17.0g doses, (to the exact 10th), and about half or more pucks stuck to the screen. then i upped the dose to 17.5g, (again, to the exact 10th), and got fewer than half of the pucks sticking. then i switched to 18.0g and that pretty much ended any more pucks sticking to the shower screen. i even trumpeted it to one of our new BDB faithful, our own, Michaelgo. Then last week, we had a long time friend over for dinner, who had moved to the neighboring town. he brought me over a bag of freshly, light-roasted coffee from a local roaster where he lives, (ventura, CA). i continued dosing it out at my now, well-known, "it never sticks" weight, of 18.0g. well guess what? about a third of them were sticking. apologies to michaelgo if i sounded like a blowhard. what did i learn? consistent with what i had learned earlier, which was that an under filled basket causes "stickers", i observed that this new (to me) light roasted coffee was producing a fair bit less volume for a given mass than my city-to-full-city-level home roast. sooo--for this lighter roasted coffee, i started dosing at 19.0g and voila! the stickers have gone away. so if you are like me who doses religiously by mass, keep in mind that lighter roasts will fill the basket to a lower level for a given mass than darker, (drier) roasts. if you like me, decided to save your money and not buy an expensive, (but no better than the breville you already have), VST basket AND if sticking pucks bothers you, keep in mind that the volume of grinds for a given mass will vary with the level of roast. and that if you don't want stickers, you have to get the volume right. i make volume adjustments by weighing out more or less. so michalego, i still don't have any ONT layovers coming up, (still love to get together when i do), but if you were getting stickers with 18.0g of your beans, try 18.5g or 19.0g. especially if klatch roasts lighter rather than darker. -peter

JohnLyn
Senior Member

Posted Fri Jun 1, 2012, 10:47pm
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

occoffeefan Said:

I lowered my preinfusion time to 4 seconds at the default 60 %. Breville customer service told me that a shorter preinfusion produces a sweeter shot. My pressure blinds at 9.5 and pulls between 9 to 9.5. The shots are great!

Posted June 1, 2012 link

What coffee are you using and did it increase the sugars or caramels?

I'm going to start playing around with it....

j

Posted Sat Jun 2, 2012, 1:09am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

I use Kean coffee espresso roast. It is a light roast and is available online. I find it becomes sweet with a finer grind causing a longer pull. I use an 18 gram vst basket an a flat tamp.

michaelgo
Senior Member

Joined: 21 Jan 2012
Posts: 92
Location: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville 900XL
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sat Jun 2, 2012, 5:43pm
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

dagoat Said:

so michalego, i still don't have any ONT layovers coming up, (still love to get together when i do), but if you were getting stickers with 18.0g of your beans, try 18.5g or 19.0g. especially if klatch roasts lighter rather than darker.
-peter

Posted June 1, 2012 link

Thanks Peter. I meant to post an update but lots of travel lately put that off. Following your earlier suggestion, I started increasing weight in .5g increments and indeed, less sticking at 18.5 and 19, depending on roast apparently. I can understand that the fuller the basket, the less gap between puck and group head (at least I hope those are the right terms). I suppose that when the pressure and heat stops, it creates something of a vacuum and that's what pulling the puck.

However, when using the VST basket, the coffee level at the same 18.0 - 18.5g dose is lower still then in the Breville basket and those rarely stick. I've had a couple recently by far, far fewer than the Breville with the same beans, grind and tamp. Most curious.

Anytime your travels take you here, I'd like to spend the time.

Michael

theSpaniard
Senior Member

Joined: 2 Jun 2012
Posts: 6
Location: Jupiter, FL
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Sat Jun 2, 2012, 6:08pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster, thanks for all the great advice. I've had the BDB for 3 weeks now and can't seem to get the shots that I feel the machine should produce. I've used much of the advice that is common on this board; good coffee (intelligentsia Black Cat), 18 g dose, 30 lbs of pressure, 28-35 second shots. I also have the smart grinder, which may be part of my problem, but I can't seem to get shots that are adequately sweet/rich. Most of my shots are at least moderately sour, which tells me I'm underextracting, but the pours usually look good; pour like honey after 11-14 seconds with a 7 second pre-infusion. All of my shots are usually in the 8-9 bar range, so I don't think that's the problem. I guess it's possible I'm tasting bitter and not sour, but my gut tells me it's sour. Since I feel like I'm under extracting (I don't get the tiger striping and usually end up with more light golden crema), I've tried to set the smart grinder to the finest grind, but this seems to make the shots even more sour keeping the 18 gram dose, 30 lbs of pressure, 28-35 second variables constant. In general I'd prefer a shorter shot of 1.25-1.5 oz, but it seems like the shorter I go, the more sour they get. I definitely don't get the honey-look out of the spouts for more than the first 5-10 seconds of the shot after pre-infusion, after which it goes blonde and runs out faster. In addition to more sour shots, I think the finest grind on the SG almost chokes the machine. For what it's worth, I routinely have pucks stuck to the group head. Any advice would be appreciated, I realize I've posted a lot of information. I'd also be curious if everyone thinks the extra $200 for the Vario is worth it since I could still return the SG. Thanks in advance.

Posted Sat Jun 2, 2012, 7:16pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

spaniard: little things make a difference. 28s (including pre infusion), is too fast. 35s is not. if you are a little under extracted there are several standard things you can try: (one you already tried, going finer), also up dose a little, the breville basket can handle it, and finally the big DUH trick, raise the brew temperature. that is in fact, the signature stunt of the BDB--it's forte--where it kicks butt on all but the $6000-up class (and it may even better than them). easy and precise brew temp changes are what make this machine the game changer that it is--and possibly why espresso old-timers are not as quick to suggest temp changes to "fix" shots--because the equipment they are using is not (typically) as amenable to fiddling with temp as the BDB. -peter

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