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Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

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Iluvdabean
Senior Member

Joined: 7 Mar 2005
Posts: 1,057
Location: California
Expertise: I live coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra/Gaggia...
Grinder: Baratza Preciso/K-A Pro...
Drip: Capresso MT 500/Pour Over
Roaster: Nesco 1010/Behmor 1600

Posted Thu Mar 7, 2013, 11:25am
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Pressureized portafilters are to true espresso as a blind man is to judging an Ansel Adams print.

Sarobin Said:

Re: pressurised filters - as I understand it, they were a bit more forgiving to a novice's tamping, grinding, etc.

Interesting thought about doing the descale at home - I'll have to look out for guidance on that one!

Posted March 7, 2013 link

MerleApAmber
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Nov 2012
Posts: 157
Location: Atlanta
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville BES900
Grinder: Baratza Preciso + Esatto
Vac Pot: Yuma
Drip: bah-humbug
Roaster: Hot Top 2K P

Posted Thu Mar 7, 2013, 12:15pm
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Iluvdabean Said:

Pressureized portafilters are to true espresso as a blind man is to judging an Ansel Adams print.

Posted March 7, 2013 link

"Pressurized porta-filters are to true espresso as a shot of ever-clear is to a very dry martini."

Contrabass_Bry
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Jan 2013
Posts: 19
Location: Omaha
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville BES900XL
Grinder: OE Pharos

Posted Fri Mar 8, 2013, 9:10am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Replacement unit arrived last night. About a 10-day turn-around. This was due to a reoccurring ERR1 code. New unit seems a bit more solid due to better/tighter fitting of all components. May even be a bit heavier. I think the back panel has been re-designed, but I'd have to see pictures of others to be sure. (Even my 8yo son commented that the back looked different!) Another change I noticed was the steam lever and hot water knob both had a noticable "click" when first opening/engaging. My previous unit did not have this. It is like a physical contact switch is being engaged. Pulls with the rubber blank in place max out at 10-10.5 bar. Don't know if it's just a brand-new, clean machine, but the initial shots were quite good and smooth. Looking to get back in the groove with the BDB and my recent Sweet Maria order!! Cheers, Bryan

Sarobin
Junior Member

Joined: 7 Mar 2013
Posts: 7
Location: London, UK
Expertise: I like coffee

Espresso: Rocket Giotto Premium Plus;...
Grinder: Eureka Mignon

Posted Fri Mar 8, 2013, 9:36am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Just had a reply to my enquiry to Gastroback - they won't officially sell to the UK, so it would be totally unsupported. Such a shame, but looks like I'll have to go back to the drawing board and choose a different machine. Thanks for all your help with my questions!

B747VET
Junior Member

Joined: 12 Mar 2013
Posts: 7
Location: SoCal
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: BES900XL/B

Posted Tue Mar 12, 2013, 6:34pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Just received my new BDB/B and so far it is a distinct improvement over my previous but beloved BDB. Differences noted so far: The plastic insert piece inside the portafilter cup is gone. The portafilter fits in much more snugly with increased resistance. Less likely to spin out. The puck no longer sticks after pulling a shot. The pressure is more precisely dialed in easily yielding 8.5 to 10.5 depending on tamping. The machine came with a smaller 16 oz steaming pitcher Don't really know all the differences between the BES900XL & the BES900XL/B, but it seems apparent that they have tweaked a number of issues. Very pleased so far. The /B designation is printed on the shipping box and on the owners manual.

wjordan
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Sep 2012
Posts: 16
Location: London, ON, Canada
Expertise: Just starting

Espresso: Breville BEX900XL
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Precise
Roaster: Local - Hasbeans, London, ON

Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 7:30am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

This thread has been silent for some time now. Is it dead? Everyone moving along smoothly with their BDB?

AlexKilpatrick
Senior Member

Joined: 30 Jan 2013
Posts: 117
Location: Austin

Espresso: Breville Dual Boiler
Grinder: Bairtiza Vario

Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 9:42am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

OK, I'll chime in with some content. Someone asked a while back about the electrical consumption of the BDB. I made some measurements using a Kill-A-Watt meter. These things are great if you are interested in how much power you are using. You plug the device into the Kill-A-Watt, then plug the Kill-A-Watt into the wall, and it will give you a bunch of data. However, almost all of your power usage is cooling and heating, so it is not all THAT interesting. Some quick background: Electrical consumption is measured in Kilowatt-hours. That's using 1,000 watts for an hour. The average for the US is about .09/KW-h. So, if you run a 100 watt incandescent bulb for 10 hours (1 KW-h), it will cost you about .09. The Kill-A-Watt meter has a mode where it will average the power consumption over time and give you a projection for the cost of the device over a month. We make about 4 lattes a day, plus a couple of shots every now and then. I ran it for about a week, and it told me the BDB is going to cost me about $2.85/month. That means the rest of this analysis is pretty useless, but here it is anyway. - When the BDB is shut off, it uses 0.0 watts. That's not an actual 0 watts, but it is pretty close. It is probably a lot less than 0.01/month in "standby" mode. - From ambient temperature to warm up to 200 degrees boiler, it uses about .8 Kw-h. That means it will cost less than a penny for most of you to warm it up. - While maintaining temperature, it consumes about 100 watts. If you left it "on" all the time, it would cost you about .1 Kw-h X 24 hours X 30 days x .09cents = $6.48. In california, about 3X that. So this raises an interesting question, if it only cost $6 in electricity to keep it on all the time, why don't we just do that? That way it would always be warm. Is there any reason no to this? (other then environmentalism)

michaelgo
Senior Member

Joined: 21 Jan 2012
Posts: 90
Location: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville 900XL
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 11:47am
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

AlexKilpatrick Said:

So this raises an interesting question, if it only cost $6 in electricity to keep it on all the time, why don't we just do that? That way it would always be warm. Is there any reason no to this? (other then environmentalism)

Posted March 21, 2013 link

Cuz in California that's $18 and almost enough for a gallon of gas. LOL

Great analysis Alex, thanks. The question I have is, what parts, if any, in the BDB would be subject to burnout if left on all the time? For example, would the group head heating unit suffer an early demise?

Michael

cafeespresso
Senior Member

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 104
Location: South Florida, USA
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Expobar Office Pulser
Grinder: Baratza Vario
Roaster: FR 8+, SC/Turbo CO

Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 12:05pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Alex Exposure to heat will degrade plastic components, that reason along prevents me from running a machine 24 x 7

AlexKilpatrick
Senior Member

Joined: 30 Jan 2013
Posts: 117
Location: Austin

Espresso: Breville Dual Boiler
Grinder: Bairtiza Vario

Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 12:11pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Is it possible to run the BDB all the time? I am not at home, but I think it shuts off after an hour no matter what? If it has the ability to be on all the time, that implies that they tested it for that. I would guess that it would be fine. When my warranty is up, I plan to see if I can wire it so that it will turn on when it is plugged in. Then, I can just use a programmable external timer with my own schedule.

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