CoffeeGeek - Espresso: Espresso Machines, Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Espresso: Espresso Machines
Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Commercial Equipment

Nuova Simonelli, La Marzocco, Rancilio. Nationwide installation. Instant financing options.
www.seattlecoffeegear.com

Not Logged in:

updated topics	new posts	new unanswered
search	faq	sign up

Discussions > Espresso > Machines > Breville Dual...

view previous topic | view next topic | view all topics

showing page 3 of 216

first page | last page

previous page | next page

Author

Messages

espresso_drinker
Senior Member

Joined: 26 Oct 2011
Posts: 49
Location: Austin, Texas
Expertise: I like coffee

Posted Thu Dec 15, 2011, 10:17pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

I had to replace my filter the other day. I normally fill the machine through the opening on the top towards the front of the machine. Has anyone noticed that the water in the reservoir is really linty? I just use tap water so I don't know if it's the result of repeated filling/settling of lint in the tap water or if it's something coming off of the cloth that encloses the filter/softener packet.

Taranto
Senior Member

Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 75
Location: Kennewick, WA
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Breville Dual Boiler
Grinder: Mazzer Super Luigi
Drip: Bodum Chambord

Posted Thu Dec 15, 2011, 11:35pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

To those with the stuck puck dilemma: I had it too but fixed it by going to a different basket. You can't tamp and compress the puck enough with the stock basket because the sloped sides are too far up. A different basket allows you compress your puck further making more room for the dispersion screen.

DJP1812
Senior Member

Joined: 14 Dec 2011
Posts: 3
Location: Tampa, Fl
Expertise: I like coffee

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 10:00am
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Taranto Said:

To those with the stuck puck dilemma: I had it too but fixed it by going to a different basket. You can't tamp and compress the puck enough with the stock basket because the sloped sides are too far up. A different basket allows you compress your puck further making more room for the dispersion screen.

Posted December 15, 2011 link

Can you recommend (if that is allowed) on types of baskets that fit the BDB Portafilter and any online retailers. I'm pretty sure there is not a specialty store near me.

Also, if one was to buy the VST 18g basket, would you get ridged or un-ridged?

Maybe not the right forum for this question, but at least it is for the BDB.

Thanks!

dagoat
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Posts: 292
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 Dec 16, 2011, 11:10am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

the aussies are also using synesso baskets, and apparently, they are not as tight a fit as the VST's -peter

SHCoffee
Senior Member

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Posts: 19
Location: Texas
Expertise: I like coffee

Espresso: Breville BES900XL
Grinder: Wega/Compak K3 Elite

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 11:10am
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

espresso_drinker Said:

With 18G of Meritage in the VST basket, is the spent puck is less likely to stick to the BDB's
dispersion screen than with the stock double/non pressurized basket? It's not a super big
deal but my puck is almost always stuck to the screen after extraction with the stock basket.

Posted December 15, 2011 link

I don't know about 18g in the VST. With 19g (which is what I'm currently dosing) it may be sticking less often. But then again it only was happening may one out of 4 or 5 pulls before with the standard basket. Often I simply hit one of the buttons for second or two before I remove the pf just to avoid that.

selzoc
Senior Member

Joined: 21 Jul 2009
Posts: 32
Location: RTP
Expertise: Just starting

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 11:34am
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

SHCoffee Said:

Posted December 16, 2011 link

I have not had any sticking with 18g in the VST basket.

9Bar
Senior Member

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Posts: 1
Location: Virginia
Expertise: I live coffee

Espresso: VBM Junior HX, Breville BDB,...
Grinder: Nemox Lux stepless
Roaster: Westbend hot air popper

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 2:07pm Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

Hi BDB owners. New coffeegeek member here. I've had my Breville Dual for a few weeks and have had similar experiences that have been listed in this thread. I'll throw my 2 cents in on a couple of the discussions: Stock double basket is not bad. I have tried others... Gaggia and E-61 baskets and they fit (tho snug) but I started getting great results with the stock basket once I got the dose right. Nice dry, hard pucks that never stick to the screen. 17g is the magic amount for my grind & beans. If I go up or down in dose, it either sticks, or is sloppy. I use a tiny digital scale (from Harbor Freight - costs $12 has .1gm resolution) to get the dose right every time. And I looked at the hole pattern on the stock basket, then at the holes themselves with a loupe - they are quite perfect. All uniform in size and perfectly round. Really nice. None of my other baskets are anywhere near that exact. So, I'm thinking the stock basket isn't too bad. And the slope sides lets me just about shake the puck out without banging it hard. But like I said... the dose has to be right on or the slope works against you. Anyway, don't discount the stock basket, once you get the dose right, it's downright good. The stainless Breville portafilter is nice, but be aware that it does not conduct heat like brass. It takes much longer to heat up than brass, and one thing to note - and this is kind of a big deal - the heat from the PF is not well transferred to the spouts! So you spend a lot of time getting your PF hot and your spouts stay about 50 deg cooler, and suck heat out of your espresso flow. Not good. The PID puts a lot of effort into giving us perfect temp, it's a bummer when the spouts take it away. This might not seem like a big deal, but those spouts are a substantial bit of stainless steel and they will draw heat out of an ounce or two of espresso. SO, be sure to run a few seconds of water through the PF just before loading the basket. The spouts will come up to temp and you should be good to go. The black plastic disc in the PF - Even Breville has decided to delete that from future production runs. Delete yours now. It originally was to help keep the espresso hot if the user did not allow the PF to come to full temperature. And as an aid for the squirt of espresso when using double wall baskets. But they have decided it's more harm than help. My Gaggia bottomless PF fits the Breville group. The tabs are at a different angle so the handle stops at about 7 or 8 o'clock. But that don't matter and it holds tight. But to get the best fit, I filed the thickness of the tabs a little bit to match the Breville basket. Was easy enough. There's nothing like a seeing the bottom of the basket during the pour to help fine tune grind and tamp. It'd be nice to have a real Breville one, but till then this works great. I'm sure an old Gaggia PF would not be too hard to come by for lots of you. 5 minutes with a hole saw and you're naked!. Well, I mean your PF is naked. When you're running blank shots of water (to heat your spouts - or flushing, or whatever) be sure to have the shot timer showing and always stop before 7 seconds! Seven seconds is the magic number that the computer counts as a shot. This is important because the thing counts your shots and tells you when to run a cleaning cycle. No need to count up every blank shot in that list. It could be asking for more clean cycles than it needs. I always press and hold the 1 or 2 cup buttons for blank shots, as this bypasses pre-infusion and kicks the pump on right away. Then I stop it at 6 seconds so it doesn't count towards the clean cycle tally. An easy way to make a blind/backflush basket is grab some foil-tape (HomeDepot has it in the plumbing dept $7 ) and grab your (hopefully never used) 1 cup double wall basket, cut a disk of the aluminum tape to fit perfectly inside the basket covering all the holes. Peel the backing and burnish in place. It's there to stay, but hopefully you have no other plans for that basket anyway. be sure you have the right stuff tho, this tape is for A/C duct work. It's literally thin aluminum foil with adhesive on the back. It can take the heat and pressure and makes a complete seal. And be sure you put it inside the basket - it won't work covering the holes on the outside. Well, this was longer than I planned, so let me end on this thought... if your OPV is not adjusted properly and you feel like it's a problem, you can always open your hot water control a tiny (and I do mean tiny) bit to bleed off some of the extra pressure. Figure out what pressure setting works best then have your OPV adjusted. Good luck everyone.

Zimberto
Senior Member

Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 91
Location: Pacific Northwest
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Quick Mill Silvano
Grinder: Barista Vario
Roaster: Zack & Dani's

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 9:49pm
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

lbp775 Said:

I'm so glad this thread has been created. There's nothing worse than hopping on a thread to get information on how to use your newly purchased machine and coming back with a bunch of reasons why others do not like it. Kinda makes you second guess your decision.

Posted December 15, 2011 link

I'd also add that there's nothing worse than having a thread closed for being full of bitchin', only to have another thread open which is full of people reminding everyone how much bitchin' was going on in the old thread. Drop it. Move on. Let's talk about the new Brevelle like adults and let my post be the last one alluding to said bitchin'.

And yes, I own a Silvano, but I want this machine to be good. It has all the specs and the price is right.

Posted Fri Dec 16, 2011, 9:56pm
Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

9Bar Said:

Hi BDB owners. New coffeegeek member here. I've had my Breville Dual for a few weeks and have had similar experiences that have been listed in this thread. I'll throw my 2 cents in on a couple of the discussions:

Posted December 16, 2011 link

Great post! It's a shame that this website isn't allowing people to post reviews of this machine (payola, baby!), otherwise you could have submitted it as a review too.

shape_shifter
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 12
Location: Newcastle, Australia
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: BES900, Aeropress, Presso
Grinder: Spong No.1, BCG800, Kyocera
Vac Pot: Hario 2 cup Syphon
Roaster: UCR (modified popper)

Posted Sat Dec 17, 2011, 12:28am Subject: Re: Breville Dual Boiler BES900XL Owners Thread

I use a Synesso 22 grams basket, it is a really really snug fit, to the point that I have to pop it out with something else. I don't understand the parts where you are tamping down as far as 8 mm and beyond. The metal part of the tamper is supposed to be used as a guideline, 6 mm I think and that is as far as you tamp. Obviously each to the own in how we grind and tamp. I'm not sure if I put this up in the other thread, have to go and have a look but I'll put it up again anyway now that it is locked. This shot is using the Breville basket a few weeks ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK6Bb52hVzY Oh thought I should add I'll be getting a Naked PF next week hopefully, so watch out for lots and lots of videos :)

...Coffee is FRESH food... http://nic.steve-tek.com/

showing page 3 of 216

first page | last page

previous page | next page

view previous topic | view next topic | view all topics

Discussions > Espresso > Machines > Breville Dual...

updated topics

new posts

new unanswered

faq

Not Logged in: log in
Discussions Quick Jump:
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.

Saeco Espresso Machines

Large selection in-stock, includes Free Gifts and Free Shipping!
www.espressozone.com