Posted Fri Sep 30, 2011, 12:21pm Subject: Re: It has arrived - Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL!
OMG... PLEASE tell them to get someone with experience to do their video work. I have motion sickness from watching that! And wouldn't it be nice to have the person who knows the machine talked about it instead of correcting the other person over and over... Ughhh... I have seen some of their other videos and they were generally useful, watchful, and helpful. This one was a bit nauseating.
"It cannot be descaled. They want you to come in every 14 or 16 months to have it professionally done... or every three to four years." That would keep me from buying it, but I accept that it as being aimed at a segment of the markec of which I am not a member.
For about $1100 that's a lot of technology and sophistication. Taking Breville's espresso machine's reputation here is the States into account, time will tell if they finally got one right. It has a lot of features that point towards them putting a lot of thought into this one.
IB Senior Member Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 49 Location: pittsburgh Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: Kim Lever, Bezzera BZ07 Grinder: Vario
Posted Sun Oct 2, 2011, 5:13pm Subject: Re: It has arrived - Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL!
I'm disappointed that it looks like they dropped the second PID which was going to control the group head electrical heater. Thought that was one of the most innovative ideas on the machine...plus the little LED to help you see water level seems not to be there (but can't tell for sure in this video), which i also thought was a really nice touch.
lrodrig Senior Member Joined: 1 Jan 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Commerce City Expertise: Just starting
Posted Tue Oct 4, 2011, 8:04pm Subject: Re: It has arrived - Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL!
I broke down and bought one yesterday. Emailed Breville and they told me they were going to be shipped to Williams Sonoma yesterday and I was able to grab one.
First impressions are really good. This seems to be lots of machine for $1,200. I was debating buying a Bezzera as an upgrade to our Starbucks Barista before this came out. Only time will tell if this thing holds up for the price. It feels solid and well thought out. So far the coffee has been much better and more consistent than what came out of the Barista. Hopefully I'll get lots of time to play with it this weekend.
I took into work today so that a couple of my coffee snob co-workers could play with it. They were both really impressed. They own a Vivaldi and Anita respectively, roast their own beans and have been doing this for a long time (or at least much longer than me). Both of them were just blown away at the thoughtfulness Breville put into the machine and the build quality. They also thought the espresso that was produced was very good especially given we had to use our office Costco beans.
The LED is still there. Or I should say there is a blue light shining out of the bottom of the tank where you look at the water level on the front of the machine. I have no idea if it's an LED. Nice touch though...
Yes. I emailed Breville USA Monday morning and their response claimed that WS and Sur La Table would have them that day. Not all WSs have them though. At least 2 in my area didn't. The larger store received 4. This is in the Denver metro. I didn't talk to Sur La Table.
Posted Wed Oct 5, 2011, 6:42am Subject: Re: It has arrived - Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL!
It's amazing that they can't seem to remove the marketing hype from their website page for it even when they DO have substantial features. They have a PID, programmable pre-infusion, etc and they still feel the need to put phrases like "the 15 bar Italian pump" on there. It's kind of depressing when the marketing department rules the world...
Sadly it seems to get in the way of facts. Does anyone know what size the boilers and heating elements are? They don't seem to actually list the sizes. In fact I can't even tell, despite the wording of "dual boiler" if it's an actual dual boiler or if it's a CC1 or Silvano-type "boiler and a half" with a thermoblock steamer or microsteamer that they call a boiler. The thing that makes me wonder about that that they don't list boiler sizes, they show a cutaway of one boiler but show no diagrams of two, they repeatedly mention an HX, and it mentions dual pumps. The dual pumps really have me wondering if it's actually a CC1/Silvano type setup rather than an actual steam boiler.
On the other hand the mention of "HX aids thermal stability" sounds a lot like most DB designs with a passive HX for brew boiler preheat. And a 1700W power rating sounds fairly DB-ish to me (in fact that's a higher power rating than the GS/3.)
Either they're playing with words to talk AROUND the features it actually has and up-sell it, or they're so accustomed to talking in marketing circles they can't state the positive facts about their products in a decisive way even when they really have the features :)
I'm curious to hear when someone pops the shell off one (and they no doubt will around here), what they see when they open it up. It does look like the first REAL espresso machine that the public will be introduced to through normal retailers and that's absolutely a good thing. There's a lot of slick features on here and I see it giving the Oscar a HUGE run for its money. Assuming over the first few years they don't end up with too significant a failure rate etc, of course. I've learned to temper my expectations of anything Breville. They have their good stuff, yes, but their coffee reputation is spotty enough to have some caution.
It claims 2 boilers (no thermoblock). Just reading through the coffeesnobs forums seems to indicate that is also the case. I know that it produces way more steam than I know how to handle all while pulling a shot at the same time. I'll probably open it up as soon as I find some time.
It claims 2 boilers (no thermoblock). Just reading through the coffeesnobs forums seems to indicate that is also the case. I know that it produces way more steam than I know how to handle all while pulling a shot at the same time. I'll probably open it up as soon as I find some time.
Interesting , this would seem to be the info I was looking for (.3L brew boiler, .98L (~1L) steam boiler, so it is indeed a true DB.) However this info also conflicts with info on the official site, meaning I suspect this is an older document based on a pre-production spec, so it may still tell us nothing other than that the original design had those specs.) It's also for the 220V version, so it's possible there's differences beyond just power.
-This document gives boiler sizes, the official page doesn't. -This document references the second PID for the group heater. IB seems unsure of if it's still there, and the official page mentions nothing of it (doesn't mean it's not on the PID though, just a question mark.) -Obviously the element ratings for the 220v version don't mean much for the 110v version -This doc mentions 9 bar vibe pump for brew, 3 bar pump (not vibe?) for steam. The official page goes out of its way to say 15 bar pump (not only a 15 bar pump, but a 15 bar Italian pump. Wow.) :) It may be a "simplification" for this doc thougn meaning OPV set to 9bar on 15 bar pump. Again, a question mark. Not that it matters, but a 9 bar pump would have been an odd find, and the newer official page lists the normal pump, so it's not worth fretting over. Just proof that this document isn't entirely accurate at this point.
If popping it open, you'll want to follow the lead cables to see where he elements go in. Their two boilers COULD be within a single metal "ball"...I.E. it could be a "boiler within a boiler" or "2 chamber boiler" design for the preheat HX rather than physically separate boilers. As long as it has two sets of heating elements, it doesn't matter what design type is used if it works :) And as long as you don't see signs of a thermoblock we can all breathe a sigh of relief (not to slight the Silvano or CC1, they do the thermoblock thing for steam to great effect. It would just be unfortunately misleading advertising if it weren't really a boiler, though that wouldn't matter much for most people buying the machine, the result would be the same.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 