Breville Infuser Espresso Machine
$359.99
Description
| Brand | Breville |
| Color | Stainless Steel |
| Product Dimensions | 10.12″D x 12.28″W x 13.15″H |
| Special Feature | Jug, Programmable,Water Filter |
| Coffee Maker Type | Espresso Machine |
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$359.99
| Brand | Breville |
| Color | Stainless Steel |
| Product Dimensions | 10.12″D x 12.28″W x 13.15″H |
| Special Feature | Jug, Programmable,Water Filter |
| Coffee Maker Type | Espresso Machine |
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Anonymous –
I’ve had the Breville Infuser (in black sesame) since 12/10/20, as well as a Breville Smart Grinder Pro.I did a lot of research on machines within my price range and was impressed with the features this model has for the money, so this is what I bought.In researching this machine, there were a few mostly minor gripes that seem to be a common theme:Problem: Water reservoir too small.Solution: I made a habit of checking it DAILY even though at 2-3 double shots a day I only have to add water about every 4 days. Better to do this than to let your pump run dry.Problem: Drain pan too small.Solution: I made a habit of checking it after EVERY use. If I get distracted or forget once, it’s still never a problem.Problem: It’s nearly impossible to remove the filter basket from the portafilter.Solution: After disposing of the puck, turnthe pf upside down over the sink. Using your dose trimming tool, (The Razor) apply downward pressure against the lip of the filter basket and it will pop out. This isn’t the intended use for the tool but it works, though it isn’t exactly effortless.Problem: Water doesn’t get hot enough.Solution: I turn on my machine first. Then I grind my coffee into the portafilter, tamp it and lock the portafilter into the group head. I use double wall glass espresso cups and leave them face down on top of the machine to heat up. I walk away and come back 30 minutes later. As soon as I make a cup of coffee, I use my digital thermometer to check the temperature and it’s 195.6°Problem: The puck stays in the group head after removing the portafilter.Solution: After making your coffee, put a mug under the group head (without the portafilter) and push the one cup button. If you hold it right up under the group head, the water will all go in the mug. This flushes the residue from your making your coffee and some loose grounds from the group head and minimizes a buildup on it. Use a clear cup and you’ll be surprised by how much.I’ve tried it without using this flushing procedure several days in a row and what happens is that after a couple of days, when I remove the portafilter from the group head, there’s a fair amount of liquid on top of the puck and around the edges. A few additional days later, the puck stays in the group head after removing the pf. Either way, it’s wet and messy to remove the puck.If you habitually push the one cup button and dispense water into a cup or mug immediately after you make your coffee, you won’t have either of those problems. The puck will come out nice and dry and it won’t stick in the group head. Also, the group head stays much cleaner.Yeah, you use a little more water using that procedure but it’s only .39 for a refill gallon of reverse osmosis water at Wally.*** When I bought my whole setup, I was trying to decide which big, ugly, overpriced knock box to get that wouldn’t mold, lose it’s coating on the bar or take up too dang much room on my counter. Since I had to buy a tamping mat, I decided to just knock the pucks out onto that. That works just fine but once I discovered how to get the pucks nice and dry I just jerk the portafilter downward once over the trash can and the puck falls right out, cleanly. I don’t have to bang the portafilter on anything or get it all germy in the trash can and I don’t have to deal with a knock box.*** I don’t rely on my machine to tell me when to descale or change my water filter. I have a reminder app that I downloaded and I set it for the appropriate intervals. I descale monthly and change my water filters every two months, using Cafiza tablets to descale and Breville water filters ordered from their own website.My only real gripes are that I think Breville should offer a longer and better warranty on this machine since this isn’t exactly a low end model. Also, it would be nice to be able to use an authorized dealer for any repairs that might be necessary. I would think it would be rough on a heavy machine like this to bounce around the country in a UPS truck both ways.Overall, I’m very happy with this purchase so far.
Philip –
Followed the instructions. Made excellent coffee. As good as my ECM or Gaggia machines costing $2500. But, not as fast, not as many, and not as hot. Foam is excellent microfoam, but it takes a long time for a two-cappuccino pitcher. Still, for the money, it far exceeds my expectations. As always, using a really expensive grinder is the key to good cappuccino.
KiwichibiKiwichibi –
UPDATE 7/9/23: A few years ago, the double basket started to loosen and pop out of the portafilter while knocking out the puck. The other rarely used baskets remain secure. Breville sells replacement for $7, but it hasn’t been that much of an issue for me. The most recent issue is that the water gasket seems like it needs to be replaced as there is some water leakage from the tank area occasionally. Part of me is happy the machine has lasted so long without major issues, the other greedy part has been waiting for it to die so I can change to a machine with a 58mm portafilter.UPDATE 4/2/16: Made the most wonderful cup. Espresso was balanced, sweet (finally got it!), fruity, and smooth. It was time for a cleaning cycle and the liquid that came out was tinged brown. I wonder if that made a difference- if it’s not picking up old flavors of a different roast anymore. Anyhow, I would say this merits a bump up to 4.5 stars. If I ever get the flavor notes to be distinctly pronounced, this review will be changed to 5 stars =).ORIGINAL REVIEW:I’ve had this for a few months now and enjoy playing around with it. First I started with the single wall filters and thought I must be doing something wrong so I changed to the dual wall. The flavor from the single wall is so much better. It turns out I just wasn’t used to the flavor of straight espresso.When the barista class instructor heard I had a Breville, she gave me a condescending, “Oh….I’ve seen people make that work for them.” Well, to be honest, this machine may not be able to draw out all the potential taste notes of your coffee beans like the industrial espresso machines can. But for something that’s a reasonable price for the person who wants to enjoy a decent cup of espresso at home, it’s a pretty good machine. I give it 4 stars because it’s not able to bring out the full potential of my beans, but it does pretty well! You’ll be a completely satisfied customer if you don’t expect it to do exactly what a machine 3 times its price (and footprint) can do.For those who may experience some water leakage, check to make sure your tray isn’t full. I accidentally put the metal tray cover on backwards so the “Empty Me!” sign couldn’t pop up and ended up with water all over the counter when it overflowed.And if anyone is new to this like me, there are plenty of youtube videos on maintenance/ operation (important for good espresso!). Make sure to let the unit warm up/ run hot water through before making espresso. I turn mine on 30-45min (not seconds) before I want to use it. It’s important all parts are nice and warm/hot before you start or the espresso will not taste good.Still working on the art part -_-;;tl;dr Don’t expect the exact same capability as from an industrial espresso machine. It’s still fun and makes a pretty darn good cup!
Brobar –
In Feb 2021, I started making our own espresso drinks early during the pandemic. This opened our eyes to how much better we can make and fine tune to our tastes. Better quality beans, provide better espresso. I wanted a separate grinder to have more control and have a dedicated machine for grinding. This machine has worked without fail daily. Having a separate grinder of good quality (DF64) and a roaster nearby gives us the start of a great day with latte/cappuccino.Sept 2023, I have see water and steam coming from behind the group head right side. Changed the portafilter gasket (old one look good). No change. Searched online and it appears others have had to disassemble the machine to tighten the screws holding the group head. Not something I wanted to do. I tried to go to the Breville chat line, but it is never operational. I called and finally got a support person that I needed to do a video session with. I was informed to return it to Breville service in Torrance CA for repair.I used the prepaid UPS label provided by Breville. About a week after it arrived there I was sent an invoice to pay over $200 for the repair, the only part was a new portafilter gasket (it had a new one already in it, but that is OK). NO explanation of what they found or what was done to fix the problem. I tried to call Breville for explanation, but after hours, I received a call and was disconnected. I called back and a recording told me they are closed! I received an email last night that it is being sent via UPS, but still NO EXPLANATION.We love this machine, but did expect it to work longer than two years (pull only two times a day) It gives us good espresso coffee using beans from a local roaster. But service is too busy to provide timely information and support on the chat or telephone to existing customers.
Silverface –
I have had this machine for 5 years. I’m on a fixed income and it was a major purchase.I should have returned it, but repacking & shipping was too much hassle and I delayed it too long (I’m disabled and kept trying to get it to work right, letting the warranty expire rather than returning it. That part is my fault.). The fact, though, that it rarely works and even then only by using methods NOT approved by Breville is NOT my fault!I have replaced the silicone seal twice, thoroughly cleaning the “guts”. I clean the thing religiously – and one time out of 5 it will reach the very bottom of the espresso pressure reading on the meter, resulting in a weak cup of espresso and a thin, wimpy amount of crema around the edge of the cup.Plus – the ONLY way it sporadically works is with q grind resembling confectioner’s suga – a brown powder (and this was with the THIRD grinder I had to get – actually a gift from my son – a $500 Rocky, on its #8 setting, FAR below what they recommend for espresso.As far as tamping goes – I’m 6’2 and weigh 223lbs – I have to use nearly enough weight to lift myself from the floor. I think 30# of tamping pressure is a misprint and they meant *300*. AND I have to use the not-recommended “twisting” motion or it never hits even minimal pressure.There is no rhyme nor reason for the few times it works properly. I filter my water before filling the tank AND change the internal filter, clean the parts, and as mentioned have changed the silicone seal. It doesn’t leak, so internal connections are OK. My coffee is vacuum-sealed and ground fresh every “try” (and I’ve tried pre-ground with the other baskets.My son (who got me the current grinder and worked as a barista) was going to replace the filter basket with a better one – but this Breville uses a small, non-standard size (which also doesn’t fit the filter basket holders on any grinders) – so you have to hold the basket assembly while you grind or guess at the amount, grinding into another container.I’ve given up. I can’t afford a decent espresso machine, am not going to donate an inconsistently-working machine to charity. So I use a $35 manual Aeropress – which makes a much better cup of semi-espresso.The Breville sits on a counter and is rarely used as a milk steamer – I guess until I can get someone to take it awayA truly unfortunate waste of money that I wish I could afford to replace. NOT recommended.
@nonymous –
Makes it easy to make good espresso, I’ve had it a few weeks and I’m still getting the hang of perfection though. The more recently the coffee beans were roasted the better (I always grind them myself right before I use them). However even with beans that are a few months old it makes good enough espresso for a latte or mocha – I figure that it’s worth the price as I’ve finally broken my Starbucks habit.I haven’t tried out “manual mode” yet, as opposed to just pressing the button for 1 or 2 shots once I get everything set up The pressure guage don’t show anything in automatic mode, but the instructions seems to imply that it only works when you are manually controlling the extraction process.I ordered the red one, and it looks pretty nice, however it is not metallic red, despite looking like it is in the picture. Also, some parts of the housing, including the “warming tray” on the top are plastic, not metal. This is fine, however it does decrease the effectiveness of the warming tray. Having the magnetic slot to hold the tamper is a pretty cool space saving feature, and the tamper that came with it is of okay quality. I’ll see how well it holds up, although since the magnet that holds the tamper is in the machine and not the tamper handle it might be possible to design a custom handle that would fit if I even wanted to replace it with a higher end tamper someday. I should say that this part is important – you have to use a significant amount of pressure when you pack the coffee in, so having a good quality tool to do this is nice.Noise wise it’s quieter than my coffee grinder (Capresso Infinity), so I can’t complain. The main reason that I am giving it 4 stars is the vibration issue. When I first got it it was vibrating everything on the counter and I could feel the vibration in the wall next to it. I put some rubber coasters under the “feet” and there is now very little vibration. It’s a minor issue, but for the price it would be nice to have better vibration damping built in, rather than having to have random coasters sitting on my counter.
butchosbox –
I love this machine and especially if I’m in a hurry because it’s mostly automatic. Throw water in the back, add ground coffee, hit the button for single or double shot and you’re ready for great cappuccino. I use a separate unit to whip my cream although the wand on this works great. I also use a separate grinder. Good quality and fairly quiet. I only wish they gave me two plastic measuring spoons because I live in terror of losing or breaking the one that is included, or better yet, make the spoon out of stainless steel.
Lincoln Davis –
Despite being really happy with this espresso machine, I have held off on writing a review for it too early because my main concern when parting with the money for such an expensive item was its durability. Having owned it for a little over 2 years now (purchased May 16 2009), I think that I can now feel comfortable sharing my opinion.I worked at a coffee bar 20 years ago, and, since that time, I’ve have always wanted an espresso machine for my home. The problem always was that they are very expensive. When I was 19, I was too broke to afford one. Now, at 39, I’m just cheap, and I was held back by the nagging idea that, no matter how good the coffee that comes out of it is, it’d be really financially unwise to spend a lot of money on an espresso machine unless it would last many years.My wife and I first met at that coffee bar where I worked in the early 2000’s, and we bought this machine on our 10th wedding anniversary. I did as much research as I could beforehand, and I don’t regret the decision.It makes espresso and foams milk every bit as good as the professional machine that I used 20 years ago. The portafilter is no different from a professional machine. The steam has slightly lower pressure, so it takes somewhat longer to steam milk, but it is able to make foamed milk with the exact same quality as a professional machine, too. No complaints there. I can make espressos, americanos, cappuccinos, lattes, etc that are better than the local coffee shop’s. I use a manual burr grinder to grind my coffee (a Lido 2) and use freshly roasted coffee. The espresso is amazing, and my mom and sister come to my house just to get me to make them some.I’ve had zero problems with durability. I use the machine almost every day, and it just works with no problems. The company includes instructions for maintenance that makes me think they are paranoid that people are going to be trying to make espresso using pond water and then lodge complaints when they end up with problems. I followed those instructions for the first month or two and then stopped worrying about it. I haven’t ever changed the water filter in the tank, and I haven’t run a cleaning cycle on it in over 2 years. I do use reverse osmosis filtered water which won’t gunk up the machine with mineral deposits. It makes the coffee taste better, anyway. Why would you spend so much money for something that makes amazing coffee and then use sink water?I don’t necessarily recommend you not follow the company’s instructions, but I feel confident at this point that the machine is well-made and doesn’t need to be meticulously maintained to avoid problems. I would use filtered water, though. You also really will need a burr grinder (and they’re not that cheap… i think my manual grinder was $180) and somewhat fresh coffee. I have tried making a shot using cheap coffee that’s probably been sitting on the grocery store shelf for months. It will make a shot, but it’s hard to get the water pressure right, and it is noticeably less tasty.So that’s my review. Overall, the cost of these machines is intimidating, but this one is capable of making 100% professional quality espresso and steamed milk. You just have to use fresh coffee and a burr grinder for even particle size. The machine is well-made. It isn’t going to break down on you after just a year or 2 of use even if you aren’t faithful with cleaning and maintenance. It seems like the cleaning/maintenance instructions are concerned a lot about hard water, so just use good water. I think it’s an excellent value–much, much cheaper than daily trips to Starbucks! I’m really glad I bought it and recommend it without hesitation.
SeanSean –
I’ve have owned 3 espresso machines over 25 years and this one is amazing! My old 2 boiler espresso machine could not be repaired so I took a chance on this one even though it only had one boiler. Much to my surprise it was just as fast as my old one. I purchased the BES840XL because it has the espresso pressure gauge. I had matched my grind with one of the local coffee shops but I learned that I had been making my grind wrong all these many years. I would not have known this if not this gauge! The espresso tastes so much better!!! I never knew what I had been missing. I bought a Breville grinder a year ago so I did not need an espresso machine with one built in. I also was told by many times by vendors to use a separate grinder.The only negative thing I have noticed is that the silver drip tray rack scratched very easily when I sat the Portafilter on it to drain. I think is may be made out of aluminum with a “stainless” looking coating. I found that any part of this machine made this way scratches easily. My old espresso machines drain rack was stainless and a coated piece of metal. I think if a cloth is laid down on it it would help keep it from being scratched.
A. Deo –
I have been using this machine for almost two months. Wanted to wait a bit to give an accurate review.I love the look of this machine. Compact size, attractive and will fit well in any kitchen. I have had no problems with it. Breville support is superb. I contacted them via email because I wasn’t able to make espresso with thick and rich crema like I see on many YouTube videos so naturally I thought it must be the machine. No it wasn’t. Matt, the Breville rep was very helpful in providing me with great tips on making espresso.I am new to espresso making. Here are some tips if you’re looking into investing in your own espresso machine:1. Read the instructions. I know it’s tempting to skip this step but it is crucial. Know and understand how your machine works.2. Be ready to practice a lot. I went through at least a pound of beans while learning to make good espresso.3. There are a few variables to consider when trying to make good espresso. These tips below are for making a double espresso shot using a non-pressurized basket:a) How you grind your beans: It’s important to invest in a quality grinder. Your $15 blade grinder isn’t going to work. You’ll need a burr grinder. The grind need to be consistent in order to have a quality shot. You’ll have to experiment to find the right grind. I use a Capresso Infinity grinder ($90) set to the fourth finest setting for a double shot. That seems to work for me. I will eventually invest is a higher end grinder like a Baratza Vario ($400).b) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Use the freshest beans you can find. Nothing older than a couple of weeks. I was trying in vain to pull good espresso shots using beans from the Costco 2.5 lbs Starbucks Dark Roast bag without much success. I got a little bit of crema but the shots were very watery. Luckily I found a local coffee place that roasts fresh beans near my house. Using freshly roasted beans MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. My shots were rich, creamy and not bitter (I used Sumatra medium roast).c) How much coffee to use: The instructions say 3 scoops (came with the machine) of ground coffee for a double shot. I use a little more. The key is to overfill (do not pack it when filling the basket) the basket then level it with your finger. Some coffee will fall out when you do this but that’s ok.d) Tamping: This is when you pack the coffee down in the basket using a tamper (this machine comes with a tamper). I have read a lot of tips that you need to use about 20-30 lbs of pressure when tamping. If you use the amount of coffee suggested above, I find that medium pressure works. Don’t push too hard or too soft when tamping. The coffee should pack down nicely by about 1/4 inch. Again, experiment to see what works in your situation.e) Make sure the machine is properly warmed up: The portafilter, the basket and the cup must be warm to make good espresso. I usually leave the machine on about 30 minutes with the portafilter in place before using. You can speed that up by heating the portafilter and basket with hot water. This machine has a hot water dispenser built in. Very useful.I am no expert by any means but these tips seems to work for me. I’m continuing to learn every time I make espresso. There are also lots of tips and videos on the internet. It is very satisfying to make good shot of espresso. Have fun with it and don’t get frustrated. It does take some practice.
XiDillon –
Easy to use, easy to clean, great build quality, and is helping me stay away from Starbucks! However, Im still buying their beans.Only downside is that I am now on an espresso diet. I havent gone to the store in weeks but to get milk and sugar. Sure, I still eat one real meal out of the house, but once im home its coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee. Im really caught up in this machine and cant pull myself away. Its very good. Just be careful, you may end up like me, running on coffee, and a chicken sandwich, and coffee each and every day.
SJSJ –
Some disclaimers 1. I am not a professional Barista. However I did watch a ton of videos to learn how to get the espresso quality that a professional does (I mean a real Barista, not the push button coffee shop folks). And I do know what a good shot is and how to savor a fine espresso. I love cappuccinos and lattes too. So I was looking for a near-pro machine and definitely 9 bars of pressure plus simplicity of use.2. I am a hands on person and clean up and maintain things, so I didn’t want a dumb press and play machine (every bean is different, every roast is different, so if you don’t extract at the right pressure or have the right grind, it is a challenge to get crema.) there. I grind my beans every time and make the espresso right there and keep the beans in an airtight container. 3. This machine shows you where you need to be in the dial. Really simple. The challenge for me was getting the grind size and tamping right. So in my quest for reproducible success 100% of the time, I bought a few tools (I have reviewed them) that were recommended by professional baristas with millions of followers. Most aren’t needed, believe it or not. So save your money. And I make 6-12 shots of espressos a day for myself and my family and friends. I have now made 1000+ shots and 95% were lattes. Baristas may disagree with my review but this machine is the next best thing, a level below the $4,000+ machines. Choosing this single steam tank machine (instead of separate tanks – for water and milk) (saved 3.5k). The pro-machines are not 54mm, this one is. I feel a large portafilter is a disadvantage in extraction as you spread the grind of a single espresso shot in a larger portafilter. To make cappuccino or lattes, you want to steam your milk first and as soon as you extract the espresso you can use it right away.5. 9 bars pressure is key. Even with this machine I couldn’t initially resolve the challenge of getting the pointer in range on the display dial). Tamping and WDT tools didn’t work. Save your money. what did the trick was the 54mm neck collar and the mesh. How good? 100% of the time. Zero failures. My ~$50 WDT tool is sitting here, useless and un-needed. I first put the neck collar on (so no spills of coffee grounds) and it fits like a glove. Then I pour the grinds. Another thing that helps is I take the tamping tool and knock all around the sides of the portafilter like you ring a bell. The vibration settles the grind. Then I press and tamp over the grinds. Then I put the thick mesh over it. And load the portafilter up. Turn it, and it locks. Then I press the button. And M A G I C. Every single time, the extraction happens between those two dots on the dial. More than half the volume is the crema!!! I found fresh Amazon beans to be the best (you need medium to dark roast for coffee flavor to come through the milk in a latte). After about the first 40 cups of failures, I’ve had 1000/1000 cups of success. super well made). The tamping tool and the ports filter have no dents from my knocking. Well made stuff. Every homeowner can now enjoy and save $6.50 for a horrible crass latte made by push button trained employees (fake baristas) at major coffee chains. My niece worked and trained at Starbucks and I am sharing my learnings/experiences. Next time watch your barista and see how they tamp, how they choose settings and you will know the quality before you’re served the espresso. Your street corner barista will be a genius compared to these coffee chains. They really understand the science behind espresso making. Also, for regular black coffee, I till use my Steel French Press (have had it for a few years). This machine I use only for espresso, cappuccino and lattes. Everything I mentioned here is reviewed separately.6. Value for money? Calculate $6-13 for a large latte with three shots (I have paid those in places like Panama City, Hawaii and NY and European countries from Vienna to Budapest etc). This machine paid for itself already within 6-7 weeks!7. The back positioned, small tray filled with a little water a few times. It’s about positioning, I found.8. Water filling is a breeze. I keep three inches behind the machine. Never have to move the machine. When I forgot to fill (2 times), the machine made a noise and the shot paused. Easy. The machine started right away once I put the water in.9. If you make steam and froth the milk, you will go through quite some water (cooling off and condensate). I recycle the water in the tray once it cools down by pouring it in my indoor plants. I use the coffee grounds as compost in the plant pots, too.10. I bought a knock box form Breville which I have no idea why they don’t sell with this machine (really shortsighted). This is my opinion.11. It is an Australian company not a U.S. one; so I was skeptical and saved my packaging and box for a month (returns are only 30 days). Pretty lousy way to develop trust, is my opinion. It’s not a small box (about 2.5 feet square) so good luck storing it and seeing it and wondering if you’ll be needing to send the product back…bad karma for the company!!12. The hot water for tea and coffee is literally within a minute.13. I am yet to try and adjust programming but it allows for more volume extraction as well if you like.14. The trimming tool they give is awesome and I used it to shave down my tamped down coffee puck initially. Now I hardly ever use it as I got the level and amounts all wired in my brain. It is a super useful thing they inckude with the machine.15. They have a plastic grab tool to open and clean the top of the wand – used that and it was super easy. Now why would you make that out of plastic? Give the customer a metal one (shortsightedness again). This opinion, too; is mine.16. Didn’t come with a properly sized coffee beans scoop. What a branding opportunity lost!! Every time a customer uses a scoop (I thank Oxo and think of Oxo, instead of Breville), they would remember your name, right? A plastic scoop must only cost cents!! The one they sent is a tiny one so you can never get your measure for beans using their scoop. Shows that it is a young company chasing the wrong things, and lacks depth of understanding for coffee making (and they’re in the coffee business). Still, a great barista-entry product, here; no doubt. So congratulations to the Breville team for giving me access to amazing espresso shots, lattes and cappuccinos without needing a 4.5k to 15k machine.17. I use a Fellow cup (thin lip of a doubled wall insulated cup) for the coffee. This company doesn’t even send you an espresso cup or anything!! All the gear is yours. If Costco does things, they make sure the manufacturer provides all these little things so their member doesn’t have to run around for small stuff. Another brand opportunity lost.18. I use a conical grinder and I use airtight containers from Fellow, for those wondering what else would you need on this “make and have great espresso every time” journey. Factor those costs in. I didn’t, so I exploded my budget (a lot was wasted on tools recommended by Baristas that honestly NO ONE NEEDS if you grind beans by batches/every day). All you need is 1) knock box, 2) proper scoop for beans 3) neck collar and 4) a mesh which is A MUST in my opinion. And you’re set. Have great cappuccino’s and latte’s EVERY time. Extracted at 9 bars to perfection, every time!!19. I forgot to mention, the steam takes a minute longer and getting the milk foam right is a tough skill (I finally nailed it, and am working on latte art next for fun). For a homeowner you don’t need massive steam capacity and separate tank (3.5k more) and pressure adjustments (9 bars of pressure is ideal) on a machine ( any more pressure is just narcissism as it doesn’t extract better espresso). Even the big chains can’t train and have their people follow the directions so all the coffee you get there is far far inferior and dumbed down by poor tamp and press. Their coffee will taste horrid once you start making your own espressos, cappuccinos and lattes with this machine.20. Lastly, I am me and you are you. If you’re not someone who will wipe down the steam tip (forgot they don’t supply you with that little piece of cloth either; (but the neck collar company sent me one, luckily!!), or empty the tray or fill water (I put filtered water to begin with so will avoid the scaling issue, forgot to mention that), and aren’t interested in the mid level complexity or responsibility, than this isn’t for you. Just find a local barista and pay up as you go.21. I did buy a latte art tool (This company doesn’t send you any). Breville fails to inspire homeowners into baristas who Wilkie have upgraded to their product again and again. (When I upgrade, it won’t be to another Breville machine, for sure, as much as I like this machine for what it does and the price I paid for it. They still cannot have me enrolled as their lifelong fan). Other companies that make end to end metal parts have 4K-15k costs of buying (even refurbished ones) and that I feel is prohibitive and ridiculous, This one has one tank and plastic parts wherever needed and that’s fine in my opinion. It is super efficient. Space wise really goes under the cabinet on a standard countertop in the US. No water lines needed. Standard power outlet, too. The top gets warm and fuzzy so you can keep your cup on it (just like French press or any coffee making temperature is important) so this helps. It heats up right away in less than a minute and a half. No issues at all.22. If there are negative reviews, it is perhaps from people who don’t like doing annual stuff or don’t follow instructions or aren’t as particular with the process and application of a new knowledge or skill. As a homeowner, if you want to be making barista style espresso shots, that is a huge upgrade and you need to read, be willing to learn for your own failures and not blame the machine. Don’t expect a massive steam generation (not needed for one cup, of latte a time) or separate large storage tank (one for milk pressure and one for hot water pressure) when it really ain’t needed. This makes one cup at a time so my family learns to be patient with me too!!Lastly, do upgrade your coffee drinking. It isn’t like wine. I found a really huge difference when you have the right bean, freshly ground and espresso yielded by this machine. And I sat on this purchase for 6 months. Wish I could have saved all that money at the coffee places I went in my search for a great cup of coffee every single time. This machine (my model is the one with the pressure -don’t make the mistake of buying the lower model number), this model BES840XL does that at a price that is just unbeatable.I wish all of you awesome cups of espresso, capppuchino and lattes!!
Aflleje –
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Update 11_28_2016. The trick to keeping this thing running for is in the cleaning. After talking to support in the beginning of the year, they gave me a few tips:1. When descaling the machine, allow the white vinegar/water solution to sit in the machine for 12 hours instead of running the rinse right away. This allows the solution to break away the calcium buildup.2. Run the clean cycle with tablets once a month to keep any coffee sludge from building up.3. Backflush the machine daily. After your final brew for the day, put in your backflush disc and basket and press the 2 shot button.After doing this for all of 2016, my 840 has been running smooth while consistently pulling great shots daily. Hope this helps.Update 12_31_2015: I’ve had this machine for almost a year and I’ve been experiencing a rattling or buzzing (sounds like the Operation board game) sound in between cleanings. There’s a plethora of discussions on this where people find this after descaling their machine. The most common solution is to flush your machine two to three times after descaling. I find running a clean cycle with the cleaning tablets resolves this issue. However, I had to run the clean cycle 3 times this morning per Berville customer support. They also recommend descaling and cleaning once a month since I use this machine daily. For my trouble they were kind enough to send me some extra cleaning tablets. I’m hoping this will give years of use, but I’m not confident that it will. – End of update.I sifted through a lot of reviews to help me find the espresso machine for me. Although none were perfect, I found the perfect machine for me. In sifting through reviews, I look for customers that seem to have a similar love for coffee as my own. So to help you decide whether you want to keep reading or not, let me tell you a little about my passion for coffee and why I started looking for an espresso machine.About three years ago I was turned on to coffee from local roasters in Sacramento. I became hooked on fresh, locally roasted coffees that brought out the flavor of the bean. From this I started roasting my own beans and found I could roast almost as good as the local coffee shops. My daily cup was brewed with an Aeropress, which I still use but not as often. Espresso was still a coffee shop only drink, which came at the price of $3.30 a cup. So my main goal was to find an espresso machine that didn’t break the bank and could pull shots almost as good as the $10k machines at the local coffee shops. And that is exactly what I found with the Breville 840.After two weeks of use, let’s take a look at the Pros of this machine:* Price. I was looking at machines ranging from a few hundred to a couple thousand. At fewer than $500, this machine is great for me. It lacked the double boiler and full temperature control, but I wasn’t willing to pay premium dollars for a machine I was planning on using two to three times a week. That being said, I’m enjoying this machine so much, I’m using it 3 to 4 times daily to make espressos and Americanos for my wife and me.* Extraction. This is about beans, grind, water, temperature and tamp. After finding my sweet spots, this pulls an excellent double shot of espresso. I use my own roast of single origin beans and get an intense cup of espresso on par with my local roasters. I use a Breville burr grinder (that’s a whole nother review), which gives me a consistent fine grind. My water is double filtered since my fridge and this machine both have filters (I don’t know if redundant filtering makes a difference though). While this machine doesn’t have a temperature control, it does allow you to adjust your temp 4 degrees in either direction in the manual programming. I thought my initial pulls were not quite hot enough, so I bumped it up. I feel it could still be a little hotter, but not enough to give it a strike. Tamp pressure makes a difference, but since I have no way to measure my tamp, I would say start on the lighter side and watch your pressure gauge. Finally, did I mention to watch your pressure gauge? Use the chart in the user guide to help you pull intense, flavorful espresso shots with beautiful crema.* Separate Water Spigot and Steaming Wand. I use the water spigot to heat up my cups before serving a drink. For those of you who want to know about the steaming wand, I haven’t tried it. My main goal was to make espressos and Americanos. UPDATE: The steam wand does a good job making microfoam. I haven’t been able to perfect latte art, but that could be a personal issue. It does, however, take awhile to steam your milk. This is where I think a machine with a boiler (or even better yet a double boiler to allow simultaneous espresso and steaming) would do a better job.* Clean Up. After the extraction this leaves a fairly dry puck that comes out with one tap. Wipe your basket clean and get ready to pull your next shot. I haven’t tried the periodic cleaning or descaling yet, but the instructions are straight forward. UPDATE 12_11_2015: I’ve gone through multiple cleaning cycles that are simple and straight forward. I’ve also descaled this machine once.* Tools and Accessories. This gives you everything you need to get started. Multiple baskets (I use the single wall, 2-cup for double shots),tamper, backflush cleaning tablets, a water filter, plastic scoop, trimming tool, and cleaning tools. I threw the plastic scoop out and use my metal scoop. This doesn’t come with a knock-box, so I’m ordering one. Breville recommends replacing the water filter every 2 months so order some soon after your purchase.Now for the cons.* Water Container. This thing holds about 8 cups of water, which should be plenty. But after running a shot to heat up the pump head and using the spigot to heat up the cups, the water goes sooner than I expected. Two double shots and two Americanos later ran through about half the tank. So if you’re pulling shots for company, keep an eye on your water tank.* Temperature. To get picky, again I thought the standard temp could be hotter. I do wish the starter model had a more precise temperature control.* Storage Drawer. Not a lot of space there and not easy to access. You have to remove the drip tray to access the storage drawer. So I keep the cleaning tablets, tools and baskets in there. I keep my scoop and trimming tool in a kitchen drawer since I need them for every pull.* Steamer. Although the steam wand does a nice job in making microfoam, the steam function makes a knocking noise during the process. I called Breville and found this is normal. Looking at Youtube videos confirmed the knocking is normal for this machine, but isn’t heard on the double boiler machines.So who would enjoy this machine? If you enjoy every aspect of coffee from the roasting to the brewing and your on a budget, you will enjoy this machine. If you enjoy an intense, flavorful, but not bitter cup of espresso, you will enjoy this machine. But if you have a larger budget and are looking for something more automatic, you may want to keep looking. Things I will look for in my next machine (2 or 3 years down the road) will be a double boiler and temperature control. My only concern about this product and price range is if it’s built to last. Some other reviewers mentioned that theirs were bad out of the box, only lasted a few months, or died after a year. I’ll update this review if I experience any problems.Tip: Read up on the instruction manual and tips for brewing espresso. This helped me pull excellent shots after my 2nd or 3rd try. Cheers!
SDR –
Great machine, makes excellent coffee. Others have reviewed that aspect, so here I am focusing on cleaning the machine. It’s easy BUT the instructional manual that I received (May 2020) AND the instructions on the Breville web site (as of today, 8/19/2020) are wrong – and they have been wrong for at LEAST the past two years. BREVILLE – PLEASE CORRECT THIS!!Here’s the issue. The instructions (and innumerable YouTube videos) tell you to clean the machine (when Descale / clean light is flashing) by putting the 1-cup basket into the portafilter, then placing the rubber cleaning disc (with a small hole) into the basket, and putting the portafilter into the group head. Then, they tell you to place a large tray under the portafilter, to catch the cleaning solution that pours out during the cleaning process. In reality, for several years, Breville has used a cleaning disc without a small hole, so no (or VERY little) liquid comes out of the portafilter. Instead, the cleaning fluid is (i) backflushed through the group head, and (ii) expelled into the drip tray. However, because of their wrong instructions, I poked a hole through the Breville-supplied cleaning disc, to make everything work as described by Breville. After I realized Breville’s errors, I bought a new, third-party, cleaning disc on Amazon.So, here is the correct procedure. You can do this anytime (you don’t have to wait until the cleaning light starts to flash).1. Turn the machine off.2. Ensure the water tank is full.3. Empty the drip tray, and place it back into machine.4. Put the 1-cup basket into the portafilter, then add the rubber cleaning disc (without a hole in it). Ensure that it is well-positioned in the basket (level; not tilted to the side).5. Place a cleaning tablet on the disc. I use tablets with a blue dye, so that I can tell when all detergent has been flushed out of the group head (see point 18 below).6. Put the portafilter / basket / disc / tablet onto the group head.7. Place a clean white cup under the group head (why white? See point 18).8. Hold down the 1 cup & 2 cup buttons, then press & hold the power button.9. After about 5 seconds, cleaning begins. Release all three buttons.10. If the Descale / clean light wasn’t already flashing, it will start flashing now.11. The pressure gauge starts low, but very quickly rises above the grey Espresso level. It remains there for ~12 seconds, then drops back to zero pressure. Contrary to Breville’s instructions, you should NOT see a lot of liquid pouring out of the portafilter (because the cleaning disc does not have a hole).12. It does this 5 times over a period of a little over 5 minutes. The final high-pressure stage is longer than the others (~30 seconds).13. The cleaning cycle ends immediately after the fifth high-pressure stage. The machine beeps twice, and cleaning stops; the Descale / clean light stops flashing. The machine stays on.14. Very little liquid should have fallen into the white cup during cleaning.15. Carefully remove the cup & drip tray, empty the hot blue water into the sink, then replace the empty tray.16. Remove the portafilter, and its contents, from the group head. There may be a few residual grains of detergent on the rubber disc. Thoroughly wash the portafilter, basket, and disc.17. If necessary, clean any material (which will be blue) from the white cup, and return the clean cup to its position underneath the group head (do not insert the portafilter).18. Push the 2 cup button. This flushes the group head with hot water, removing remaining detergent. At first, the water will be bright blue, indicating that detergent remained in the system. Empty the cup, and repeat the 2-cup flushes until the water is clear; using a white cup, and tablets with a blue dye, helps me tell when the water is clear (i.e., that the detergent has been flushed out). Usually, this takes a total of four to five 2-cup flushes.19. Refill the water tank. You’re done.
Moorblues –
I use my Breville everyday, sometimes twice, and this thing works as good as as day one. I descale the machine when it calls for it and that’s it for maintence. I paired the Beville with a Rocky grinder and it is a match made in heaven.
Chris Punches –
I’ve gone through 4 of these in the last 5 years (admittedly one was the barista express, same brand). They all leaked. None of them lasted more than 18 months. They aren’t serviceable. They usually make poor tasting espresso shots and I’m not even really sure it qualifies as espresso.I use only distilled water for my water source.The leaking is so bad that I had to build a special mount for my countertop in my kitchen to keep it from staining my counters on unit 1 after learning a lesson. Then, by the time you get used to that nonsense, you come in one day to find it can’t make pressure anymore. I just had unit number 4 go out on me since my five year investment in Breville started.They seem cheaply made and they aren’t built for you to repair them when you open one up. The espresso they make is not great, but it’s passable some days if you make a latte. I would encourage you to learn from my very expensive lesson and just buy a better brand unit.I’m going with Quick Mill for the one I am replacing my latest Breville machine with. I type this as I clean the pieces of this unit off my kitchen floor after I finally had it trying to tinker with this thing to make a decent brew. Just save up a little more and buy the real thing.
Chuck GChuck G –
I’ve been making espresso at home for a couple of years now. I started with a Saeco Poemia I’d purchased “refurbed” from Seattle Coffee Gear. It served me well over the past 2 years, but I felt I could always do better. The shots were decent, especially after I’d purchased a bottomless portafilter for the Saeco. That really improved the shots.Onto the Breville Infuser… I’ve had this machine for a couple of months now, and I can say that it is categories above my old Saeco. The brew pressure gauge is a God-send! It is a great tool to use in dialing in new beans between your grinder and your espresso machine. I have a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which I love… having a good grinder is of the utmost importance in pulling good shots. You could have the most expensive espresso machine money can buy, but without a good grinder to help dial in your shots….it won’t ever make good espresso. This machine is AWESOME, by the way. The programmable dosing buttons are super easy to use, and the ability to change brew temp is a very nice feature. The auto-fill after steaming helps protect the thermo-coil from burning up. The steam wand is a traditional type, and really forces you to master your foaming technique. It is a no burn wand, but you still should wipe off the milk immediately after use, as well as purging the wand after that.Overall, the Breville Infuser makes nice espresso and good quality steamed milk, half/half, and heavy cream. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to step up their espresso game from an entry level machine.
Leigh –
Amazing machine!
Peter –
Another quality product from Breville. Fit and finish is excellent. Comes with everything for the home barista, short of a grinder and scale. The Black sesame version has a timeless classic look that reminds me of a vintage car. Heats up quick and ready within 10 seconds. I have been able to produce consistent quality shots with this machine. I find that brew time between 27 to 35 seconds provide the best results. The pressure gauge is helpful in providing feedback whether the shot was under or over extracted. I don’t make any milk based drinks so I can’t opine on the steamer. I don’t recommend placing the drip tray into the dishwasher as it will eventually chip the paint. At full retail price, it is expensive. But whenever these go on sale, they are worth it!
CHAD R BEAN –
After owning this item for several years I really love the machine at the price point but there are two things about it that pushed me to give a three star instead of a 4 star.1.) The solenoid started failing before the first year (loud buzzing sound). I called customer service and they insisted that the issues was due to descaling. I always descaled the machine every month and cleaned every couple of weeks. The problem continued until it got worse and item was out of warranty. This is a little upsetting that I had a item that was defective during warranty period and had to be replaced outside of warranty. The unit continue to make this loud buzzing sound for a 2-3 years later. Some of this is my fault, I should have been more of a jerk and insisted it be fixed instead of just trying all the things, that didnt help, and just letting it go.2.) When i did have to replace the solenoid valve I decided to do it myself. I got the valve out and took everything apart to clean. The valve(s) themselves were not clogged at all and it ended up being a failing solenoid not the valve. Putting the valve assembly back in the machine I got a little confused about where to put a certain piece. It was a fairly basic question that would be easily answered by looking at a schematic/diagram. I was told they do not offer any technical help and the only option is to pay a pretty high price to send in the machine to be serviced. I cant remember the cost but basically i could have gotten another used machine on ebay for the same price ($200+). I really was disappointed with customer support that they would not at least try to send my case to a technician to try and answer a very simple question. I did end up figuring it all out and fixing my machine.I love this machine but because of the lack of technical support and ease of being able to order replacement parts through the vendor, without just sending the whole unit in for service, I would probably try a different manufacture for my next machine.
Steph –
I purchased this in september 2015. My mom and I drank double espressos religiously every morning for all these years. I only had to repaired it once around 6 years of using when the silicone ring tore but that was an easy fix. I purchased a replacement from amazon and easily changed it out with pin needle pliers. Unfortunately this time it wasn’t such a simple fix. I’ve checked for solutions and but it seems the pressure gauge and the internal pressure system no longer works. When you first turn on the machine you would hear it but it no longer makes that noise and doesn’t produce any pressure when water comes out. I decided to upgrade to one with a build in grinder and hopefully that lasts me at least another 8 years.
Brandon Southern –
Overall I like the machine and I can’t imagine not having great coffee because of it. But getting the right pressure is an issue.I have one of those $350 grinders on the finest setting, and rarely can I get this machine up to the preferred pressure.1. I’ve used the little leveling tool that it comes with, and that takes off too much grounds and the machine gets almost no pressure.2. I’ve gone white-knuckle tamping the grounds.3. I’ve tried doing the same with more than 18g in the dual filter. Up to 22g and so much that you almost can’t get it on the machine. Sometimes this gets the pressure right. But then when I use different beans I start the whole process all over again trying to find the right amount of beans and pressure.Bottom line, I’ve had to play around a lot with each bag of beans to try my best to get it close.Finally after many trials, what I’ve learned is that instead of pressing straight down to tamp your grounds into the filter, If you use a rocking, circular, or side to side motion, you will get the beans packed in a little better.This has allowed me to finally get the right pressure. It’s a little bit of an art even when weighing your beans.
Aflleje –
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Update 11_28_2016. The trick to keeping this thing running for is in the cleaning. After talking to support in the beginning of the year, they gave me a few tips:1. When descaling the machine, allow the white vinegar/water solution to sit in the machine for 12 hours instead of running the rinse right away. This allows the solution to break away the calcium buildup.2. Run the clean cycle with tablets once a month to keep any coffee sludge from building up.3. Backflush the machine daily. After your final brew for the day, put in your backflush disc and basket and press the 2 shot button.After doing this for all of 2016, my 840 has been running smooth while consistently pulling great shots daily. Hope this helps.Update 12_31_2015: I’ve had this machine for almost a year and I’ve been experiencing a rattling or buzzing (sounds like the Operation board game) sound in between cleanings. There’s a plethora of discussions on this where people find this after descaling their machine. The most common solution is to flush your machine two to three times after descaling. I find running a clean cycle with the cleaning tablets resolves this issue. However, I had to run the clean cycle 3 times this morning per Berville customer support. They also recommend descaling and cleaning once a month since I use this machine daily. For my trouble they were kind enough to send me some extra cleaning tablets. I’m hoping this will give years of use, but I’m not confident that it will. – End of update.I sifted through a lot of reviews to help me find the espresso machine for me. Although none were perfect, I found the perfect machine for me. In sifting through reviews, I look for customers that seem to have a similar love for coffee as my own. So to help you decide whether you want to keep reading or not, let me tell you a little about my passion for coffee and why I started looking for an espresso machine.About three years ago I was turned on to coffee from local roasters in Sacramento. I became hooked on fresh, locally roasted coffees that brought out the flavor of the bean. From this I started roasting my own beans and found I could roast almost as good as the local coffee shops. My daily cup was brewed with an Aeropress, which I still use but not as often. Espresso was still a coffee shop only drink, which came at the price of $3.30 a cup. So my main goal was to find an espresso machine that didn’t break the bank and could pull shots almost as good as the $10k machines at the local coffee shops. And that is exactly what I found with the Breville 840.After two weeks of use, let’s take a look at the Pros of this machine:* Price. I was looking at machines ranging from a few hundred to a couple thousand. At fewer than $500, this machine is great for me. It lacked the double boiler and full temperature control, but I wasn’t willing to pay premium dollars for a machine I was planning on using two to three times a week. That being said, I’m enjoying this machine so much, I’m using it 3 to 4 times daily to make espressos and Americanos for my wife and me.* Extraction. This is about beans, grind, water, temperature and tamp. After finding my sweet spots, this pulls an excellent double shot of espresso. I use my own roast of single origin beans and get an intense cup of espresso on par with my local roasters. I use a Breville burr grinder (that’s a whole nother review), which gives me a consistent fine grind. My water is double filtered since my fridge and this machine both have filters (I don’t know if redundant filtering makes a difference though). While this machine doesn’t have a temperature control, it does allow you to adjust your temp 4 degrees in either direction in the manual programming. I thought my initial pulls were not quite hot enough, so I bumped it up. I feel it could still be a little hotter, but not enough to give it a strike. Tamp pressure makes a difference, but since I have no way to measure my tamp, I would say start on the lighter side and watch your pressure gauge. Finally, did I mention to watch your pressure gauge? Use the chart in the user guide to help you pull intense, flavorful espresso shots with beautiful crema.* Separate Water Spigot and Steaming Wand. I use the water spigot to heat up my cups before serving a drink. For those of you who want to know about the steaming wand, I haven’t tried it. My main goal was to make espressos and Americanos. UPDATE: The steam wand does a good job making microfoam. I haven’t been able to perfect latte art, but that could be a personal issue. It does, however, take awhile to steam your milk. This is where I think a machine with a boiler (or even better yet a double boiler to allow simultaneous espresso and steaming) would do a better job.* Clean Up. After the extraction this leaves a fairly dry puck that comes out with one tap. Wipe your basket clean and get ready to pull your next shot. I haven’t tried the periodic cleaning or descaling yet, but the instructions are straight forward. UPDATE 12_11_2015: I’ve gone through multiple cleaning cycles that are simple and straight forward. I’ve also descaled this machine once.* Tools and Accessories. This gives you everything you need to get started. Multiple baskets (I use the single wall, 2-cup for double shots),tamper, backflush cleaning tablets, a water filter, plastic scoop, trimming tool, and cleaning tools. I threw the plastic scoop out and use my metal scoop. This doesn’t come with a knock-box, so I’m ordering one. Breville recommends replacing the water filter every 2 months so order some soon after your purchase.Now for the cons.* Water Container. This thing holds about 8 cups of water, which should be plenty. But after running a shot to heat up the pump head and using the spigot to heat up the cups, the water goes sooner than I expected. Two double shots and two Americanos later ran through about half the tank. So if you’re pulling shots for company, keep an eye on your water tank.* Temperature. To get picky, again I thought the standard temp could be hotter. I do wish the starter model had a more precise temperature control.* Storage Drawer. Not a lot of space there and not easy to access. You have to remove the drip tray to access the storage drawer. So I keep the cleaning tablets, tools and baskets in there. I keep my scoop and trimming tool in a kitchen drawer since I need them for every pull.* Steamer. Although the steam wand does a nice job in making microfoam, the steam function makes a knocking noise during the process. I called Breville and found this is normal. Looking at Youtube videos confirmed the knocking is normal for this machine, but isn’t heard on the double boiler machines.So who would enjoy this machine? If you enjoy every aspect of coffee from the roasting to the brewing and your on a budget, you will enjoy this machine. If you enjoy an intense, flavorful, but not bitter cup of espresso, you will enjoy this machine. But if you have a larger budget and are looking for something more automatic, you may want to keep looking. Things I will look for in my next machine (2 or 3 years down the road) will be a double boiler and temperature control. My only concern about this product and price range is if it’s built to last. Some other reviewers mentioned that theirs were bad out of the box, only lasted a few months, or died after a year. I’ll update this review if I experience any problems.Tip: Read up on the instruction manual and tips for brewing espresso. This helped me pull excellent shots after my 2nd or 3rd try. Cheers!
TigerFan –
First, understand this machine will take some trial and error to get the right espresso pull. The pressure gauge is very helpful in this endeavor. Here is what worked for me – after much trial and error and almost 1 lb of coffee beans:1- buy the following: a good kitchen scale with a 0 out ability, a 54mm portafilter funnel, a puck screen and a good burr grinder2- only use the single wall double filter. You can store the others in the machine3 – get beans that were roasted 1-2 weeks ago. Too young and they don’t grind well and too old they don’t taste as good.4 – grind the beans on a low setting right before you make the espresso. I found 4 on a bararatz grinder to be perfect for my roast.5 – put the funnel on the portafilter and put it on the scale and 0 put. Measure 16-18 grams of ground beans. 17 is perfect for my roast and grind.6 – tamp and add the puck screenFollow all other manufacturer directions including warming the machine, running a single shot without the portafilter etc.This is a lot more work than an automated machine but with practice you can also pull much better shots and tube tube them.My husband likes americanos and I like lattes and after practicing on a pound of beans I’ve been able to make both better than any Starbucks and most other coffee cafes. Next I need to work on perfecting my milk frothing. The machine quickly and easily froths but I want to produce a finer froth. I’m sure it can do it – I just need to spend some time on it.
Lakay –
I bought this a year a year ago, at first i had a little trouble getting it to pull a decent shot.i put the dual wall, double shot filter in and after a few practice runs I started to get it, and now it is Pure coffee heaven.I roast my own beans, and was a purist for just straight black coffee, but one day I decided to try some half and half with the steamer.I watched a video or 2 on how to steam and froth the half and half…I am totally addicted now… 1 or maybe 2 cups a day.one thing that bugged me was the buttons for 1 and 2 shot… they are set for a small pull.you can set the length of the pull but it is difficult to get it just right.I finally got it to pull 1 cup (measurement) i catch the coffee in a pyrex 1 cup measuring cup, but i have to push the 2 cup button twice. I wish i could set it to exact amount with one push of the button, so i could do other stuff, but I cannot complain. each variety of coffee that i roast has more or less of the Crema,so actually when the first Button push runs i can get distracted, and when it stops i have to push the second time, I am present and focused so the Crema doesn’t overflow. My Son liked it so much he bought one for himself. we watched the price and when it dropped he bought. and now he too is loving his.i have a good burr grinder so this rig does the job, and i am proud. Sunday brunch at our house i sometime get to brew cappuccinos for 6 people or so, this machine handles it well.the reservoir could be bigger, i may MacGyver an auto fill system for it.so for me, the fact that it is working after a year of my constant use, at the price, and the QUALITY OF THE COFFEE!this is well worth the money. to get my total dream machine, i think it is in the thousands of dollars.so i am happy and contentif your thinking about buying one, might as well buy bulk filters and get some cleaning tabs and solution.good luck
Kelson –
I bought my first BES840XL Infuser back in Feb 2018. For 3.5 yr it worked perfectly, then died. Paired with a Bartza Sette 270, it made great espresso double-shots with 0.5″ of crema and satin smooth micro-foamed milk for latte’s. I was rigorous about keeping it cleaned. I never waited for the clean light to come on. I did a back-flush on the first of every month and a descaling the first of every other month. At first I descaled using vinegar as directed in the manual but after reading that acetic acid can damage internal parts I switched to Dezcal (citric acid). During the 3.5 yr it lasted I made 2 double shot latte’s every night for myself and my wife. That’s over 2500 lattes. Certainly, I would have liked it to last longer, but if you consider coffee shop prices the unit paid for itself. The unit died suddenly Sept 2, 2021 right after I completed a back-flush. The pump still worked to pull shots but apparently a solenoid valve somewhere got stuck and it would not do steam or hot water. The cost to send it in for fixing rivaled the cost of the unit so I trashed it.I thought seriously about getting a higher end espresso machine but all things considered, the Infuser is simple to use and maintain; it takes relatively little room on the counter and makes a really great latte. So, I just bought a second one. The new Infuser is 95% the same as the old Infuser. There are some differences in the way the cleaning and descaling cycles work, but that’s about it. Also, the manual no longer instructs using vinegar for descaling. They provide a packet of their brand of citric acid for descaling.One thing that is confusing with the new Infuser concerns the rubber back-flushing insert. The one that came with the older Infuser had a small drain hole in the center. The one that came with this new unit had no hole and was completely blind. I don’t see how that can work. I’ve seen other people mention that and so I have a case open with Breville asking for clarification and a new rubber insert if it is supposed to have a hole. Also, the manual states to use the “1 cup basket” with the rubber insert for back-flushing but they don’t say whether it should be the single-wall or double-wall basket. I contacted Breville about that and got replies from two CSR’s, both of whom advised using the double-wall basket for back-flushing in order to get the pressure up during the operation.As far as Con’s go, there is one gripe that I have. The description may say “Brushed Stainless Steel” but it most certainly is NOT. The construction is silver-coated plastic. This is shameful for a machine costing almost $600. And just like any metal-coated plastic, it wears off with contact and it doesn’t take long. On my old Infuser there were multiple wear-through spots on the body and the much-used dial for steam/hot water was almost completely stripped of the metal coating. In short, it looks damn ugly in relatively short order.Edit (13-Sep-21):I received a response from Breville support concerning my question about the new rubber back-flushing insert not having a hole in it. Here is his response:”Newer units come with new cleaning discs with no hole in the middle. This allows for the tablet to better dissolve and backflush into the grouphead. This water will drain into the drip tray. There is a safety valve within that protects the system from situations with too much pressure so there is no damage done to the machine. If there is still some of the tablet left in the portafilter after the process is over, that is okay. You can run the cycle again or pull a couple of shots over it. The older version has a hole in the middle of the disc so you may see some videos with a cleaning demonstration showing the water flow from the grouphead.”
Sneaky PotatoSneaky Potato –
Going into this, I had zero idea how to make espresso. I’ve been using a french press for years, and decided that I wanted to step up my coffee game a bit. This review is for those people that are considering this machine and have no idea what they’re doing. Keep in mind that I paired this machine with the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which is important in this review. I highly recommend the grinder as a companion to this espresso machine.**Why You Should Buy This Machine Over Cheaper Ones**Simply put, this machine offers professional-quality features packed into an entry-level machine, and will produce a far better quality espresso than cheaper machines like the Mr Coffee. If you are considering getting into espresso, don’t waste your time with cheaper stuff or else you will likely be disappointed with the results or just find yourself upgrading everything in a couple of months. A POOR ESPRESSO DUE TO “CHEAP” EQUIPMENT IS WORSE THAN A CHEAP CUP OF COFFEE. Understand that “cheap” is relative here. This is an expensive drink to make, but it’s worth the money to be able to make a great drink.1. My perfect pulls taste EXACTLY like coffee-shop quality (at least to me). I can make a Caramel Macciato and it tastes and looks better than Starbucks. ISN’T THAT WHY YOU’RE WANTING AN ESPRESSO MACHINE? Let’s face it, most of you are wanting lattes and cappuccinos that taste good so you don’t need to spend five bucks a day at the coffee shop. You aren’t just slugging back straight shots of black espresso and writing down the subtle flavor notes to share with your friends. YOU WILL NOT GET THIS KIND OF QUALITY WITH CHEAP MACHINES. It will taste watery, sometimes a bit bitter, and just not really worth the money. You’ll spend a couple hundred bucks and be totally disappointed. This machine is expensive, but at least I feel like I’m actually getting good espresso out of it. and I have zero desire to return to another coffee shop when I can make it just as good at home.2. This is the only unit for under $500 that will let you make decent latte art with the milk steaming wand. Other cheaper units simply do not have enough power to make your milk the right consistency. Again, it goes back to the quality of the drink. Do you want to pay $300 for a really mediocre espresso every day, or pay a little more money and have a really good espresso every day? You can get better units for milk steaming, but if you’re looking for a standalone unit that also does great milk, this is it. If you aren’t drinking lattes, then it won’t matter much to you. But trust me when I say that well-steamed milk makes or breaks your latte/cappuccino. Perfectly steamed milk is sweet, frothy, and creamy. Poorly steamed milk tastes like it was microwaved, or just plain warm milk. Yuck.3. The pressure gauge and pre-infusion (pushing a little water into the espresso before the real pull starts happening) make this a great tool to learn how to make proper espresso. The gauge is immensely helpful and helps you understand what you are doing wrong, and when you’re doing things really right. Few things are as satisfying as making a perfect espresso and seeing the gauge sit in the perfect spot.4. Built-in temperature control, which means more consistent espresso results. Cheaper units that don’t have one are not really worth the money in my opinion. A poorly-made espresso is terrible, and you can honestly make a better drink with a $10 french press and a $50 grinder.Finally, you need to understand that espresso is actually kind of difficult to make if you’ve never done it before. This isn’t a Keurig, this isn’t the same machine that Starbucks uses (theirs cost almost as much as your house does). You aren’t going to make a perfect pull of espresso your first time. It took me TEN shots before I made anything even remotely drinkable, and then I went through half a pound of coffee beans before I pulled my first GOOD shot. This machine makes it easier to make really good espresso, but it requires a good amount of work and calibration from you in order to do it correctly. However, once you figure it out, it’s really easy to do it right every time.In my opinion, this is the “sweet spot” of espresso making. You can make a really great cup of espresso with this machine at an affordable cost. Any more money and you are paying MUCH more to slightly increase the quality of the drink, but it’s not the night and day comparison between this machine and a $200 Costco or Mr Coffee espresso maker. Highly recommend!**If you’re an owner of this machine, the following might be helpful**The biggest difficulties that I ran into while trying to figure out how to make espresso were:1. Grinding the coffee to the perfect size2. Realizing that the Single Shot cups are terrible, save yourself heartache and use the Double Shot (not double walled)3. Getting my shot to pull for the correct time (25-30 seconds)**Grind Size**This was the most confusing part to me, because I had it in my head that I SHOULD be able to grind all of my beans on the absolute finest setting on the Smart Grinder Pro, which was why I spent all the money on the nice grinder, right? I had seen a couple of videos where people were using my same setup and grinding down to a 1 or 2 setting on the grinder and pulling perfect shots in the Infuser.THIS IS WRONG.Clear your mind completely about grind, and realize that it has more to do with the perfect grind for your particular coffee rather than the grind number itself. Using Lavazza Super Crema, I could not go finer than a 17 on the grinder or else the machine would max out the pressure and I would get just a few drips of disgusting sour water. Using fresh coffee beans from a local roaster, I was able to go much finer on the grind, and actually a 17 was too coarse for that coffee and ended up ruining the shots. It’s okay if you have to use a 17 or 18 with some coffees. You’re buying a nice grinder because those 17 and 18 grinds are perfectly consistent, which means the pressurized hot water will evenly distribute rather than find a weak spot to channel and ruin your shot of espresso.See what I’m talking about? This is not a Keurig. You will need to calibrate your grind for each new coffee you try, which can either be a huge pain or a lot of fun, depending on why you’re buying this machine. I found it fun, but I’m also glad that I took an entire day to play around with this machine. Once I figured it out, I was blown away with the quality of the espresso that came out.**Single Shot and Double Shot cups + Shot Pull Time**This is where I found success after a lot of failure. See, I don’t drink a ton of espresso in one sitting. I’m perfectly content with a small latte consisting of a single shot of espresso. I actually put the double shot cups in a drawer, because I didn’t think I would be using them. I was pulling drinkable espresso after a few hours of trial, but my shots were coming out way too fast (15-20 seconds), when I knew perfect shots should be around 30 seconds from the time you push the button. A helpful user online told me to ditch the single shot cups and switch to double shot, because of how finicky the former cups seemed to be. So I switched over to the single-walled double shot cup, and my first pull was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. It poured like golden honey, ran a perfect 30 seconds, and had amazing crema. It was beautiful and I wanted to cry.Apparently, shots pull more consistently in double shot cups than they do in single shot cups. Note that I’m talking about the size of the cup (single vs double shot) and not the double-WALLED cups, which are garbage and meant to be used with pre-ground espresso.Anyway, do yourself a favor and just use the double shot, single-walled cup. If you only want a single shot of espresso, move the cup over so you only catch liquid from one of the cups. You will waste coffee, but it will be so much, much more consistent and better-tasting than if you use the single-shot cup. I now pull nearly-perfect shots every time, where before I was doing 2/5 if I was lucky. Best piece of advice anybody gave me.
Robert Wiley –
I already had the Breville Smart grinder for regular coffee so this was a natural upgrade. It’s pretty much identical to the Barista Express without the built in grinder and the water tank and drip tray don’t have quite as much volume. It really does a fantastic job making espresso. The fact that it only has a single boiler may slow you down just a bit, but for home use by 1 or 2 people it’s perfect. The only thing I don’t like about it is the drip tray. It will fill up much faster than you expect. Best to empty it EVERY time BEFORE you even turn it on. If you empty it while its on or before it’s completely cooled, you WILL get water in the tool tray or inside the base. There’s a pop-up “empty me” flag that pops up when the tray needs to be emptied. Unfortunately by the time it pops up, it’s probably too late and water has already spilled out of the tray. Or you’ll spill it when emptying because it’s so full. It will of course pop up in the middle of usage and like I mentioned, if you empty it while the unit is on, it WILL drip water inside the unit or tool tray. After using the steam wand it will purge the steam into the drip tray at a point well inside the unit at the rear of the drip tray. It splatters water into the tool tray during the purge and steam also condenses into the tool tray. If per chance you pull the drip tray out while it’s purging steam then it will put water directly into the tool tray. No way to prevent this as the tool tray latches onto the back of the drip tray while you’re pulling it out. The drip tray/tool tray is a poor design. They should have made the drip tray larger and left the tool tray out altogether. The tool tray is next to unusable because of these issues. Overall I am pleased with the Infuser. Just be aware of the drip tray issues because the instruction manual isn’t real clear on the subject. Although to be fair, in the troubleshooting section of the manual, for the problem : “Drip tray fills tooquickly.” they answer: “No action required as this is the normal operation of the machine.”
Charlene CunninghamCharlene Cunningham –
I did a lot of research before I bought my FIRST Breville BES840XL Infuser Espresso Machine. It was one of the highest rated espresso machines in the price range I was willing to pay (up to $600 before-pandemic dollars). The first one lasted about 2 years before the pump failed. The second one was bought in October 2019. Yesterday it had a spectacular steam failure, with more steam coming through the group head than through the steaming wand. This built up a tremendous amount of pressure in the group head. When I went to remove the group head, coffee grounds exploded all over the place. As I said, it was a spectacular failure. Breville charges about $250 or so to repair or replace one of their machines after the warranty expires.Having said the bad, the good is that it faithfully dispensed espresso and steamed milk for lattes everyday during its somewhat short lifespan. With the good comes a learning curve:1. You have to get the grind right and a burr grinder is the only way to do that. This is trial and error. If the grind is too fine, it clogs the filter and coffee grounds overflow up to where it’s really difficult the clean them.2. You have to learn the fine art of tamping. The instructions indicate a metric value of pressure. Unfortunately, my are does not come equipped with a pressure meter, so it’s best guess.Once you have mastered all that, more or less, a fine cup of espresso can be had.3. You really must clean & descale the machine once a month.At present I will continue to use the BES840XL Infuser to produce espresso, but will use a milk steamer for lattes. I probably will not purchase another. Once burned, twice shot and all that.
Vivienne –
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It took me two days figured out what basket to make the perfect espresso, somehow my experience is different compared to some Youtube video, I have tried 4 different baskets and you can see the espresso results in the end of my video. The machine came along with the non pressuered basket, so no matter how I try or adjust the size of the bean, it just doesn’t work, the moment I changed it to the dual wall basket, the pressure came, and the niddle hit to the right spot. So my experience is prepare a bag of bean and try all your baskets and test every single one you made and be prepared not getting sleep the night. It was not easy for me, but Im glad I made it!!! This is my first Breville machine. I’m also a beginner of home made coffee, kind of fun!
James –
I’ve had the unit for a couple of days and it extracts espresso like a dream. The pressure gauge is nice because it helps you tell if you are in the right spot, pressure-wise, for the extraction. Let me just say that if you have this machine and are having a difficult time getting a good extraction, invest in a nice burr grinder that you can make adjustments to on the upper burr. I bought the KitchenAid burr grinder and it grinds perfect for this machine. I grind my coffee to pretty much powder. Pack it in real tight and let it rip! Extracts very well. I’ve made iced lattes, cappaccinos, americanos (the hot water feature works great for this), and hot lattes. I hope it lasts me a long time. I intend to take real good care of this machine so it can take care of me! The quality matches the price in my opinion.
Unemployed Rocket ScientistUnemployed Rocket Scientist –
I’m generally happy with this machine. It produces good espresso. My preferred drink is a triple shot mocha latte but I also occasionally drink a triple straight shot. I did have to increase the volume of both the single shots and the double shots following the instructions in the manual. Likewise, I also increased the temperature of the shots. Temperature control is more inconsistent than expected; I measure between 154 deg F to 174 deg F. Breville’s PID control needs a lot more work. The biggest improvement was a new conical burr grinder to replace my ancient Starbucks Barista grinder. My new Oxo grinder had 2 or 3 finer settings for espresso which made a proper tamping easier. The first failure was the water pump. One day, after 66 months of use, there was no pumping noise and little water at the brew head or the hot water spigot. After poking around the web, I found a how-to video and a replacement pump from Amazon. I had the foresight to take a picture of the plumbing and wiring after I took the back off but before I removed the old pump. The new pump has been working well in my espresso machine for over 3 years and it actually seems quieter than the original pump. Reassembly is tricky; 2 of the screws are in recesses under the overhang and these are metal screws into plastic holes so there is a danger of stripping the holes while balancing the screws on the tip of the screwdriver. Take away one star for a pump with too short a service life but give it right back for an easily repairable product. The second failure was the portafilter at about 81 months. It has the look of a solid piece of metal with plastic surrounding the handle, but the end is just a metal cap covering a cavity. The filter end fits into the other end and there appears to be some kind of adhesive; perhaps I banged out the pucks too enthusiastically. Breville USA had none in stock and all I could find on Amazon were bottomless portafilters. I wasn’t that adventurous. However, Seattle Coffee Gear had them in stock and I was back making espresso until the third failure. After about 84 months, the single-wall, double-dose filter cracked along the bottom edge. This time Breville USA had the replacement part in stock so I bought 2. It was a bit of work to keep this machine running, but I didn’t want to throw away all the time and effort in learning to use it and the identical machine now costs over $100 more than I paid 9 years ago.
Kelson –
I bought my first BES840XL Infuser back in Feb 2018. For 3.5 yr it worked perfectly, then died. Paired with a Bartza Sette 270, it made great espresso double-shots with 0.5″ of crema and satin smooth micro-foamed milk for latte’s. I was rigorous about keeping it cleaned. I never waited for the clean light to come on. I did a back-flush on the first of every month and a descaling the first of every other month. At first I descaled using vinegar as directed in the manual but after reading that acetic acid can damage internal parts I switched to Dezcal (citric acid). During the 3.5 yr it lasted I made 2 double shot latte’s every night for myself and my wife. That’s over 2500 lattes. Certainly, I would have liked it to last longer, but if you consider coffee shop prices the unit paid for itself. The unit died suddenly Sept 2, 2021 right after I completed a back-flush. The pump still worked to pull shots but apparently a solenoid valve somewhere got stuck and it would not do steam or hot water. The cost to send it in for fixing rivaled the cost of the unit so I trashed it.I thought seriously about getting a higher end espresso machine but all things considered, the Infuser is simple to use and maintain; it takes relatively little room on the counter and makes a really great latte. So, I just bought a second one. The new Infuser is 95% the same as the old Infuser. There are some differences in the way the cleaning and descaling cycles work, but that’s about it. Also, the manual no longer instructs using vinegar for descaling. They provide a packet of their brand of citric acid for descaling.One thing that is confusing with the new Infuser concerns the rubber back-flushing insert. The one that came with the older Infuser had a small drain hole in the center. The one that came with this new unit had no hole and was completely blind. I don’t see how that can work. I’ve seen other people mention that and so I have a case open with Breville asking for clarification and a new rubber insert if it is supposed to have a hole. Also, the manual states to use the “1 cup basket” with the rubber insert for back-flushing but they don’t say whether it should be the single-wall or double-wall basket. I contacted Breville about that and got replies from two CSR’s, both of whom advised using the double-wall basket for back-flushing in order to get the pressure up during the operation.As far as Con’s go, there is one gripe that I have. The description may say “Brushed Stainless Steel” but it most certainly is NOT. The construction is silver-coated plastic. This is shameful for a machine costing almost $600. And just like any metal-coated plastic, it wears off with contact and it doesn’t take long. On my old Infuser there were multiple wear-through spots on the body and the much-used dial for steam/hot water was almost completely stripped of the metal coating. In short, it looks damn ugly in relatively short order.Edit (13-Sep-21):I received a response from Breville support concerning my question about the new rubber back-flushing insert not having a hole in it. Here is his response:”Newer units come with new cleaning discs with no hole in the middle. This allows for the tablet to better dissolve and backflush into the grouphead. This water will drain into the drip tray. There is a safety valve within that protects the system from situations with too much pressure so there is no damage done to the machine. If there is still some of the tablet left in the portafilter after the process is over, that is okay. You can run the cycle again or pull a couple of shots over it. The older version has a hole in the middle of the disc so you may see some videos with a cleaning demonstration showing the water flow from the grouphead.”
Marigolds –
I waited almost a month to write this review because I wanted to make sure I could give the Breville Infuser a fair review. I have to admit there was a lot of trial & error at first. But after watching a few You Tube videos, I finally got the hang of it! Here’s what you need to know … once you get the machine ready to go, you will need to invest in a grinder. I like having a separate grinder because it’s easy to clean. To extract espresso with a beautiful head of crema, you’ll want to buy high quality dark roast coffee beans & make sure to keep them fresh. It’s important to grind the beans on a fine setting. You may have to try several different “fine” options on your grinder before you decide which one you like best. The next thing you need to get right is the amount of ground coffee that goes into the porta filter. The “correct” amount is 19 grams… which I weigh each time. Use the tamper to apply a good amount of pressure… the ground coffee should fit snugly into the filter. Breville supplies a tool with an edge to smooth out the coffee in the filter, but if you measure properly to begin with, you won’t need that tool. Make sure to remove the single wall filter and insert the dual wall for better crema extraction. These different filters are included in the Breville package. You can use the edge of a small spoon to pry out the single wall filter that machine comes with. So why am I telling you all of this? The main reason is to get the ideal level of pressure necessary for proper extraction. And, second… these basic suggestions may save you a lot of time & effort! You’ll want to spend time practicing with the milk frother. It works very well, but I found the metal container for frothing that Breville includes to be too small. I bought a 30 oz container on Amazon, and that did the trick for me! Oh, one other thing… I bought more water filters (again, through Amazon), which worked better than the one Breville included. I’d like to end by saying that I’ve come to love my machine. The learning curve was definitely worth it!Addendum: It’s been a couple of months since I wrote my first review. I still love my Breville Infuser, but I’m now taking a few shortcuts with excellent results. For instance, instead of weighing to get exactly 19 grams into the porta filter, I just use 3 scoops of coffee. Use the little rounded plastic Breville spoon that comes with the machine. And, instead of grinding each time, I grind up just enough beans for a few extractions and save what I don’t use in a glass jar. Both changes are time savers without sacrificing great results!
Alexandra –
Got this machine from Amazon about two weeks ago now. Setup was a breeze and the machine works very well. Overall very satisfied.Pros:-Looks great-Pressure gauge is very helpful – though good shots are usually pulled on the high end of the pressure range-Pre-infusion has generated good results-Pre-programmed shot amounts are really helpful-Machine prepares quickly-Quiet operation-Steam arm is long and on a great ball joint-hot water dispenser is nice-Great tamper holder built into machine-large water tank-Includes both pressurized and non-pressurized baskets-Uses a thermocoil instead of a thermoblock-Easy cleaning cycleCons:-Shots pull fine, but come out not as hot as expected (when pulled stand alone). I haven’t measured temp on them but if cups and porta-filter are warmed as suggested in instructions i’m sure I would have better results.-In-spite of built in feature to cool water down to make a shot after steaming, the water stays too hot for a good shot. You have to wait a min or run a bit of water through it first to get the right temperature for the shot. This makes it difficult for latte art purposes because you can’t swirl your milk forever. I usually just pull my shots first and then steam last. Shot looses a little but when drinking the latte you couldn’t tell the difference if you tried. This problem is not as much of a problem as it is just the limitation of single boiler machine. I just didn’t like how it was advertised as being able to pull a shot very quickly after steaming. I mean…you can pull one….just not a good one.Overall very good machine and I’m very happy with it. I would recommend it. I use it in conjunction with the Breville Smart Grinder which has also been a great product. 1 year warranty on all Breville products
F64 –
We have had this machine for a week now, and are very happy with it. We had been using a Keurig as a daily machine, and an older espresso machine which wore out. The K-cup thing had lost it’s appeal for me after that espresso machine.Yes, this is more than we had hoped to spend, but after trying 2 less expensive machines (which had high ratings, but were terrible) we started the search again and decided on this Breville.PROS- Really well made, with a solid feel to every part and switch- This is super quick to heat. My wife was reluctant to replace the K machine because she was used to it running on a timer and being ready to go in the morning. This Breville is so fast, it heats before you can load and tamp the coffee. Then it pulls a single or double shot in about 10 seconds. Start to finish is probably 1 minute if you are in a hurry, and the K machine took that long or more.- This dispenses hot water, so if you are after an Americano, just slide your mug to the right and turn on the heated water head. No having to boil water on the stove. (We make Americano’s almost all of the time.)CONS- I can only think of one, and again this is for our usage which is skewed toward an Americano, using more water than regular espresso. The water chamber could be a little bigger. On a day when each of us has 2 cups, we will have to refill the water chamber. Again, if you are mostly going to make espresso that will not be an issue for you.We also have had a Breville burr grinder for a few years, and as a company there is a consistent high level of build quality and design on their products.We couldn’t be happier with this machine.
LizLiz –
8 years later… still in love with my machine! I bought a pump as sometimes the pressure isn’t as good, but after switching the brand of coffee beans she works perfectly. Can’t tell you how wonderful this machine is. I find it helpful to use filtered water to limit any water calcium buildup (I’ve cleaned with the water filter cleaner once to run through the machine) and it worked really well. That calcium buildup can affect pressure over time so keep an eye on that.If you ever need to replace any parts, call Breville directly and they will advise. I believe it was at least $150 for service, but that includes parts and anything else that may need replacing. I ended up not needing to send them my machine as somehow it worked itself out.From 2019, 4 years after I bought:Steamer has lower pressure than anticipated, but LOVE it! It’s my own little coffee shop! Red is great in white and steel retro kitchen. The clean me indicator light and water filter month reminder in the back is very helpful. To achieve the right pressure, it takes several tries… my favorite is the Four Barrel Espresso bean, which I grind with the Breville coffee grinder, 2nd to finest ground. You need to press firmly to pack down the espresso (but not as hard as the larger more expensive machines like most of the Marzocco models), maybe 3/4 of the pressure for the double shot. Be patient and try different beans and grinds (fine ground for mine), and once you have it mastered you will want one after another!Take good care of the machine and rinse (pressing the espresso button without grinds) before and after making espresso, and it will last a long time! I use this machine every day, and also make for guests a couple times a week, so it’s able to make one espresso after another without issues.I love this little espresso machine- it’s perfect for home use and makes delicious espressos/capuccinos/lattes.If you’re debating on buying a Nespresso machine- this is so much better tasting!!! Highly recommend.
madfin –
I highly recommend this machine. Takes a few weeks of mastering, as pulling quality espressos is a learned skill that this machine won’t just do for you but once you mastered the techique you’ll be pulling beautiful espressos with ample rich crema. The pressure gage is very helpful in learning the proper prep technique and in refining your technique over time by providing clear feedback that helps you know how to refine your grind size and packing tightness. Steaming the milk properly is actually harder to master on this machine than the actual espesso but once you learn this you be making cappachinos that are usually better than the coffee shop since you are making them yourself, attentively without a demanding line pushing you to rush. Machine steams milk well but somewhat slowly but end result is quality, creamy, ample micro-foam. With practice you’ll even master creating the beautiful design on top.Buy the best coffee you can even while learning. This let’s you judge your progress better and a wasted shot doesn’t cost that much at home, even with quality beans.To achieve all this, you’ll need a quality burr grinder for your beans and you will need to spend at least $150.00 to get something appropriate. I bought the Breville Smart Grinder which is working great. A cheap grinder will not grind fine enough for espresso.One small quibble. There always seems to be a small flood of backed up water that comes from an unknown place every time I remove the drip tray, no matter how carefully I do it. It also seems to always get a little water into the storage compartment behind the drip tray however both these issues seem to be clean unused water and haven’t been much more than a “conceptual” annoyance.One last recommendation: You will need to watch/read some tutorials. This is a real skill and will be difficult to master on your own without guidance.Additionally, this machine provides water and steam from a thermocoil rather than a thermal block. It’s one solid boiler rather than two peices screwed together. Thermoblocks will eventually leak from the seal where the two pieces are joined. Thermalcoils are a single solid piece that will not leak and provides better temp control.Bottom line: This is an expensive machine. I don’t make lots of money and had to save up for this but the qaulity is great and the daily payoff makes it well worth it. Absolutely no regrets!
em33 –
For the price, this is a great little espresso machine. It heats up really quick and you can start making drinks in about a minute or so after powering it on. It does have a dial that shows the pressure of the shot as you pull it, but you should really be timing your shot and as well as using a scale under your cup to pull the best shot.The milk frother works well too and you can get nice silky, smooth consistency making your milk drinks delicious! Make sure to get a decent grinder so you can use the single wall filter and pull the best shots possible from this machine. While this machine might be less money than some of the lower priced built-in in grinder machines, it might cost you more in the end after purchasing a decent espresso grinder that would be better than what those machines come with. If you are just going to purchase the Breville Smart Grinder Pro you might just want to look at their Barista Express all in one. If you are going to purchase a better grinder than that, stick with a separate grinder and machine.All in all, great machine to get into espresso.
SJSJ –
Some disclaimers 1. I am not a professional Barista. However I did watch a ton of videos to learn how to get the espresso quality that a professional does (I mean a real Barista, not the push button coffee shop folks). And I do know what a good shot is and how to savor a fine espresso. I love cappuccinos and lattes too. So I was looking for a near-pro machine and definitely 9 bars of pressure plus simplicity of use.2. I am a hands on person and clean up and maintain things, so I didn’t want a dumb press and play machine (every bean is different, every roast is different, so if you don’t extract at the right pressure or have the right grind, it is a challenge to get crema.) there. I grind my beans every time and make the espresso right there and keep the beans in an airtight container. 3. This machine shows you where you need to be in the dial. Really simple. The challenge for me was getting the grind size and tamping right. So in my quest for reproducible success 100% of the time, I bought a few tools (I have reviewed them) that were recommended by professional baristas with millions of followers. Most aren’t needed, believe it or not. So save your money. And I make 6-12 shots of espressos a day for myself and my family and friends. I have now made 1000+ shots and 95% were lattes. Baristas may disagree with my review but this machine is the next best thing, a level below the $4,000+ machines. Choosing this single steam tank machine (instead of separate tanks – for water and milk) (saved 3.5k). The pro-machines are not 54mm, this one is. I feel a large portafilter is a disadvantage in extraction as you spread the grind of a single espresso shot in a larger portafilter. To make cappuccino or lattes, you want to steam your milk first and as soon as you extract the espresso you can use it right away.5. 9 bars pressure is key. Even with this machine I couldn’t initially resolve the challenge of getting the pointer in range on the display dial). Tamping and WDT tools didn’t work. Save your money. what did the trick was the 54mm neck collar and the mesh. How good? 100% of the time. Zero failures. My ~$50 WDT tool is sitting here, useless and un-needed. I first put the neck collar on (so no spills of coffee grounds) and it fits like a glove. Then I pour the grinds. Another thing that helps is I take the tamping tool and knock all around the sides of the portafilter like you ring a bell. The vibration settles the grind. Then I press and tamp over the grinds. Then I put the thick mesh over it. And load the portafilter up. Turn it, and it locks. Then I press the button. And M A G I C. Every single time, the extraction happens between those two dots on the dial. More than half the volume is the crema!!! I found fresh Amazon beans to be the best (you need medium to dark roast for coffee flavor to come through the milk in a latte). After about the first 40 cups of failures, I’ve had 1000/1000 cups of success. super well made). The tamping tool and the ports filter have no dents from my knocking. Well made stuff. Every homeowner can now enjoy and save $6.50 for a horrible crass latte made by push button trained employees (fake baristas) at major coffee chains. My niece worked and trained at Starbucks and I am sharing my learnings/experiences. Next time watch your barista and see how they tamp, how they choose settings and you will know the quality before you’re served the espresso. Your street corner barista will be a genius compared to these coffee chains. They really understand the science behind espresso making. Also, for regular black coffee, I till use my Steel French Press (have had it for a few years). This machine I use only for espresso, cappuccino and lattes. Everything I mentioned here is reviewed separately.6. Value for money? Calculate $6-13 for a large latte with three shots (I have paid those in places like Panama City, Hawaii and NY and European countries from Vienna to Budapest etc). This machine paid for itself already within 6-7 weeks!7. The back positioned, small tray filled with a little water a few times. It’s about positioning, I found.8. Water filling is a breeze. I keep three inches behind the machine. Never have to move the machine. When I forgot to fill (2 times), the machine made a noise and the shot paused. Easy. The machine started right away once I put the water in.9. If you make steam and froth the milk, you will go through quite some water (cooling off and condensate). I recycle the water in the tray once it cools down by pouring it in my indoor plants. I use the coffee grounds as compost in the plant pots, too.10. I bought a knock box form Breville which I have no idea why they don’t sell with this machine (really shortsighted). This is my opinion.11. It is an Australian company not a U.S. one; so I was skeptical and saved my packaging and box for a month (returns are only 30 days). Pretty lousy way to develop trust, is my opinion. It’s not a small box (about 2.5 feet square) so good luck storing it and seeing it and wondering if you’ll be needing to send the product back…bad karma for the company!!12. The hot water for tea and coffee is literally within a minute.13. I am yet to try and adjust programming but it allows for more volume extraction as well if you like.14. The trimming tool they give is awesome and I used it to shave down my tamped down coffee puck initially. Now I hardly ever use it as I got the level and amounts all wired in my brain. It is a super useful thing they inckude with the machine.15. They have a plastic grab tool to open and clean the top of the wand – used that and it was super easy. Now why would you make that out of plastic? Give the customer a metal one (shortsightedness again). This opinion, too; is mine.16. Didn’t come with a properly sized coffee beans scoop. What a branding opportunity lost!! Every time a customer uses a scoop (I thank Oxo and think of Oxo, instead of Breville), they would remember your name, right? A plastic scoop must only cost cents!! The one they sent is a tiny one so you can never get your measure for beans using their scoop. Shows that it is a young company chasing the wrong things, and lacks depth of understanding for coffee making (and they’re in the coffee business). Still, a great barista-entry product, here; no doubt. So congratulations to the Breville team for giving me access to amazing espresso shots, lattes and cappuccinos without needing a 4.5k to 15k machine.17. I use a Fellow cup (thin lip of a doubled wall insulated cup) for the coffee. This company doesn’t even send you an espresso cup or anything!! All the gear is yours. If Costco does things, they make sure the manufacturer provides all these little things so their member doesn’t have to run around for small stuff. Another brand opportunity lost.18. I use a conical grinder and I use airtight containers from Fellow, for those wondering what else would you need on this “make and have great espresso every time” journey. Factor those costs in. I didn’t, so I exploded my budget (a lot was wasted on tools recommended by Baristas that honestly NO ONE NEEDS if you grind beans by batches/every day). All you need is 1) knock box, 2) proper scoop for beans 3) neck collar and 4) a mesh which is A MUST in my opinion. And you’re set. Have great cappuccino’s and latte’s EVERY time. Extracted at 9 bars to perfection, every time!!19. I forgot to mention, the steam takes a minute longer and getting the milk foam right is a tough skill (I finally nailed it, and am working on latte art next for fun). For a homeowner you don’t need massive steam capacity and separate tank (3.5k more) and pressure adjustments (9 bars of pressure is ideal) on a machine ( any more pressure is just narcissism as it doesn’t extract better espresso). Even the big chains can’t train and have their people follow the directions so all the coffee you get there is far far inferior and dumbed down by poor tamp and press. Their coffee will taste horrid once you start making your own espressos, cappuccinos and lattes with this machine.20. Lastly, I am me and you are you. If you’re not someone who will wipe down the steam tip (forgot they don’t supply you with that little piece of cloth either; (but the neck collar company sent me one, luckily!!), or empty the tray or fill water (I put filtered water to begin with so will avoid the scaling issue, forgot to mention that), and aren’t interested in the mid level complexity or responsibility, than this isn’t for you. Just find a local barista and pay up as you go.21. I did buy a latte art tool (This company doesn’t send you any). Breville fails to inspire homeowners into baristas who Wilkie have upgraded to their product again and again. (When I upgrade, it won’t be to another Breville machine, for sure, as much as I like this machine for what it does and the price I paid for it. They still cannot have me enrolled as their lifelong fan). Other companies that make end to end metal parts have 4K-15k costs of buying (even refurbished ones) and that I feel is prohibitive and ridiculous, This one has one tank and plastic parts wherever needed and that’s fine in my opinion. It is super efficient. Space wise really goes under the cabinet on a standard countertop in the US. No water lines needed. Standard power outlet, too. The top gets warm and fuzzy so you can keep your cup on it (just like French press or any coffee making temperature is important) so this helps. It heats up right away in less than a minute and a half. No issues at all.22. If there are negative reviews, it is perhaps from people who don’t like doing annual stuff or don’t follow instructions or aren’t as particular with the process and application of a new knowledge or skill. As a homeowner, if you want to be making barista style espresso shots, that is a huge upgrade and you need to read, be willing to learn for your own failures and not blame the machine. Don’t expect a massive steam generation (not needed for one cup, of latte a time) or separate large storage tank (one for milk pressure and one for hot water pressure) when it really ain’t needed. This makes one cup at a time so my family learns to be patient with me too!!Lastly, do upgrade your coffee drinking. It isn’t like wine. I found a really huge difference when you have the right bean, freshly ground and espresso yielded by this machine. And I sat on this purchase for 6 months. Wish I could have saved all that money at the coffee places I went in my search for a great cup of coffee every single time. This machine (my model is the one with the pressure -don’t make the mistake of buying the lower model number), this model BES840XL does that at a price that is just unbeatable.I wish all of you awesome cups of espresso, capppuchino and lattes!!
IzzyIzzy –
I want to start by saying this review of mine is a lot more than just a review on how happy I am with my purchase. But is also a review on everything I have learned the past couple months since buying this machine. I can say now that I have it, I will never go back.The Breville Infuser is a great little machine. I have wanted an Espresso machine for over 10 years and put it off because I had a hard time getting past the cost of a good quality machine.Before I committed to getting my first Espresso Machine I knew I had to do the research, to educate myself on a world that I am quickly seeing is as complex and sophisticated as the world of wine.I learned very early on that while all these steps, methods, and suggestions, that at first seemed snobbish and over exaggerated were actually the pieces of a puzzle that slowly I was able to put together and even now am still working on getting to see the whole picture of.Dark roast vs light roastFreshness of the beansQuality and PH of the waterThe right amount of pressure used for extractionHeated cups vs cold cupsThe fat content in milkWhy the Crema on an espresso shot is really the mark of how good your equipment is and how fresh your ingredients are.Type of espresso Machine does matter.Let me start by saying I didn’t even know that there wasn’t a difference between Coffee beans and Espresso beans when I first started out on my adventure. In my head I thought there was some specially made type of bean that was specific for making espresso on its own. I assumed they were grown different or harvested different. Something that made them special; to only learn that every coffee drink from espresso to that fancy order you put in at your favorite coffee place is all coming from the same source, the coffee bean.I went through a whole experience my first week with my first machine I bought, The Bambino Plus and getting sour lemon shots of espresso that were not drinkable. The shots that had just sprinkled bubbles over the surface of the drink, and me not understanding what crème was or why it was important, or how to get it.I knew that before I could start trying different drinks and adding syrups to make my favorite one. I would have to master simply making a drinkable shot of espresso that didn’t leave me cringing.No one ever tells you once you buy your first Espresso Machine how your home will forever smell of coffee, how you enter this whole new world that you don’t even know your part of yet.No one tells you that the smell that previously welcomed you when you walked into your favorite coffee shop, becomes the scent of your home forever. Or how prepackaged coffee is nothing like having a grinder and grinding your Espresso fresh in your home every day.No one ever tells you the research and studying needed to not perfect, but to simply achieve a really good shot of espresso at home.I even called up Local Coffee chains in my area and spoke to Barista’s asking for helpful hints on what I could do to get a better quality drink. To ask what I might be doing wrong with a machine(The Bambino Plus) that was giving me under extracted, watery, sour espresso shots.I saw machines with fancy gauges and didn’t understand why it mattered I have one. But have learned if you don’t see you reached the right pressure any espresso that comes out will be gross.I went onto forums where I learned why it’s smart to buy a grinder separate from your espresso machine. Because when the day comes your grinder breaks, and that day will come; then you only have to return the grinder and not be without your entire espresso machine in the process.I learned why it’s important to heat your portafilter, and any parts being used to make the drink and the cup you drink from. And luckily the Breville Infuser has a heating plate on top that works perfect for this!I learned why Dark roasts taste better and turn out better even though everywhere seems to recommend a medium roast for most Espresso.I learned that Reverse Osmosis water makes a bad cup of coffee, a bad cup of Espresso, and the flavor will be messed up if you use this type of water.Cold tap water will work, but even that will affect the quality and taste of your espresso.I also learned you want to go to the coffee shops that roast their beans ON SITE and buy freshly roasted beans. I was told by the Barista the sweet spot is 3 to 5 days after a roast the beans are the most fresh, and will pull the best shots. Anything after 2 weeks the quality will start to go noticeably down in flavor, texture, and crème. If you get beans that were roasted that same day, they will be okay, but you will see how everything tastes and gets better if you wait for those few days.And yes I even found myself looking for the best water recommendations from experts and others online. Because my research found the PH of your water can also make an impact. So I went out and bought bottled Fiji water because I read in several places it gives one of the best tastes you can get from water used in your machine for a drink.I eventually quickly exchanged my Bambino Plus that I believe was just a faulty individual machine, and got the Breville Infuser in its place. A step up and it has a gauge which is a must.I will admit I am still using Fiji water for the moment, but I don’t intend to do that forever, but if you are first starting out and looking for the perfect cup and flavor give the fancy water a try.I have a few different flavored syrups I have tried, and I purchased some of the Breville accessories that aren’t included: A better Tamper, the portafilter basket remover tool(which is a must) A knock box, dosing funnel, and even a tamper mat. All of which I had no idea what they were for at the time, but that my friend told me I will for sure need. They have been incredibly helpful and make the process 100% easier.I am so happy with the Breville INFUSER! I am getting quality crema on my shots; they are rich in flavor, no more sour shots with this machine! Like any new thing it takes a while to get the swing of it. And the only negative I can think of to mention, is that when you fill the water tank, after you make your drink and the machine goes into rest mode/powder down mode; The machine purges itself of any water that is still inside the machine. You have to empty the drip tray after each drink made and our drip tray will be almost full each time. That is quite a bit of water it dumps after a drink cycle. But the only reason I think my husband and I care is we have been buying the bottled Fiji water to use. So we notice little stuff like that because it seems wasteful. But if you plan on using tap water that won’t impact you at all!If you are looking for a starter machine I really think this is the right one to begin with, and I can say that having tried the one under it. I am also happy I got my Breville grinder separate as well.Now that I have mastered the Breville Infuser machine, I can start enjoying trying different drinks, different flavors, my husband makes himself homemade hot chocolate using the steam wand to heat and froth the milk. I have bought different flavored syrups. The whole process and experience of learning all this, and getting that perfectly made drink has been so much fun.I would say 2% Milk is the perfect flavor and texture to make those yummy delicious drinks you would get at coffee shops; but if you don’t want the extra fat or calories, skim milk and even oat milk make decent alternatives.When I first wake up in the morning I turn my machine on and allow it to heat up for at least 10 minutes. I have found if you make a drink under that time, the water won’t be quite hot enough. If you heat it up over 10 minutes, you will have to let your hot drinks sit for a minute or two until they aren’t too hot to drink. But as long as you plan for allowing the heat up time and include it as part of your routine, I really think you can’t go wrong with this model of the Breville Infuser.I have had my machine a month now, and I will never go back to buying store bought or coffee chain drinks again!
Maryann –
I have been curious and researching this machine since learning about it when it first came out. I had the Breville Roma, which has lasted years but wanted to upgrade to really nice machine as my taste and interest in coffee has grown. I actually was thinking about making the jump to a $1,600 Italian machine, but the expense bothered me. Even though i buy my lattes and espressos every day at a coffee shop..it would take years to get my money back. With all that said.. the Infuser was pointed out to me by a friend and coffee geek. I’ve been reading reviews and decided on this machine. Recently, I lucked out and purchased here on Amazon for a black Friday sale price of $330.The machine is fantastic on its own..and getting it on sale is like Christmas came early. I have not even had the desire to go to my favorite coffee shop for a latte or espresso. The quality of shots pulled from this machine match what i’ve been paying for.Here is what is great about the Infuser;It is the perfect size, looks substantial but doesn’t hog up counter space it has a modern design and buttons illuminate in a cool blue tone.It has a designated hot water dispenser ( a feature only super expensive machines have for americanos which I drink so i love that)It has in internal PID which keeps water at the 200 degree mark for perfect extraction ( it is not programable..but that’s ok with me for the price of the machine)The gage on the front of the machine teaches you how to pull the perfect shot and tells you when the shot is under extracted or over extracted. This is a key feature that will help you learn how to grind, tamp, and pull a shot to perfection (read the manual and it will take time to get it right.but fun and worth it)Design is modern..hidden drawer behind drip tray for storage and water filter in tank. Also water tank removal is clever.portafilter is heavy and substantial and the machine comes with four baskets.Overall, I can’t say enough good things about this machine. You do have to read the manual..it is written well and helps you perfect your coffee making skills. I will say this machine is for the espresso lover who wants to advance. With the price of this machine..it will keep me from buying those $4 coffees..and will pay for itself in three months.
Panos –
April 28, 2014:I have this machine for more than 8 months now. What can I say..? I wake up to drink espresso, rather than drink espresso to wake up!I am a guy that comes from Greece, a place where coffee drinking is a culture and not a morning routine. I have also been many times to Italy and tried almost every coffee blend (Brazilian, Colombian, Guatemalan, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Nicaraguan you name it…) Staying in Chicago, IL for the last 5 years, I couldn’t stand going to a coffee shop and watch the barista having no clue on how to pull an espresso shot or “expresso” as they most call it for Christ sake. With that, I decided to “invest” on a good coffee machine and give myself a break.My friends reaction when they saw the piece was like I bought a Lamborghini!It is indeed a fantastic machine with very elegant design.Long story short,Pros:a) magnetic tamper (keeps it in place and you ‘ll never lose it)b) hot water dispenser (very useful to warm up the portafilter and the coffee cup prior pulling shots)c) 4 different filters (2 x single wall + 2 x double wall)d) pressure gauge (very helpful especially in the beginning when you experiment a lot)e) warms up quickly (less than 5 mins!)f) look the price again! You will never find a professional machine in this price.h) espresso shot flavor is exactly like you are drinking it in Italy! (buy Lavazza Gold Selection ground coffee and you can start a business!)Cons:a) shots are indeed not as warm as they suppose to be (but this can be easily fixed if you let the machine warm up for little longer, or pull a shot of water before you actually make your coffee)b) frothing jug is big and useless (except if you want to make 4 lattes at the same time, you ll not use the jug. If you want to make one or two cappuccino or latte, simply go and buy a Motta Europa no matter the bucks and you ‘ll see the difference in frothing milk quality right away)c) comes with one water filter and two cleaning tablets (that means that you have to be prepared to spend some extra bucks in few months when the “clean me” button will flash on..)d) lacks grinder (if you really want to see the power of this machine, do yourself a favor and buy the Breville Smart Grinder. No matter what you do with your previous $20 grinder, you haven’t seen anything yet)e) yes, you might have to hold the machine a bit once you try to turn the portafilter in place, but this is not a reason not to buy this machine.If you are not convinced yet, stop reading reviews cuz you will never be!I highly recommend this product. End of story.-June 1, 2014 (Update):The machine still runs like new!I drink 2 espressos per day, 7 days a week and considering that as normal use, I am really pleased with the performance of the machine. Please note that I use bottled spring water in order to avoid changing water filters very often or de-calcifying the machine. The only thing I do every now and then is the auto-clean when the flashing light appears using Breville capsules (maybe every 4 months). The Inox finish of the body is very easy to clean with a slightly wet cloth and the maintenance is very easy.As I mentioned a year ago, I am very happy with my “investment”.
IzzyIzzy –
I want to start by saying this review of mine is a lot more than just a review on how happy I am with my purchase. But is also a review on everything I have learned the past couple months since buying this machine. I can say now that I have it, I will never go back.The Breville Infuser is a great little machine. I have wanted an Espresso machine for over 10 years and put it off because I had a hard time getting past the cost of a good quality machine.Before I committed to getting my first Espresso Machine I knew I had to do the research, to educate myself on a world that I am quickly seeing is as complex and sophisticated as the world of wine.I learned very early on that while all these steps, methods, and suggestions, that at first seemed snobbish and over exaggerated were actually the pieces of a puzzle that slowly I was able to put together and even now am still working on getting to see the whole picture of.Dark roast vs light roastFreshness of the beansQuality and PH of the waterThe right amount of pressure used for extractionHeated cups vs cold cupsThe fat content in milkWhy the Crema on an espresso shot is really the mark of how good your equipment is and how fresh your ingredients are.Type of espresso Machine does matter.Let me start by saying I didn’t even know that there wasn’t a difference between Coffee beans and Espresso beans when I first started out on my adventure. In my head I thought there was some specially made type of bean that was specific for making espresso on its own. I assumed they were grown different or harvested different. Something that made them special; to only learn that every coffee drink from espresso to that fancy order you put in at your favorite coffee place is all coming from the same source, the coffee bean.I went through a whole experience my first week with my first machine I bought, The Bambino Plus and getting sour lemon shots of espresso that were not drinkable. The shots that had just sprinkled bubbles over the surface of the drink, and me not understanding what crème was or why it was important, or how to get it.I knew that before I could start trying different drinks and adding syrups to make my favorite one. I would have to master simply making a drinkable shot of espresso that didn’t leave me cringing.No one ever tells you once you buy your first Espresso Machine how your home will forever smell of coffee, how you enter this whole new world that you don’t even know your part of yet.No one tells you that the smell that previously welcomed you when you walked into your favorite coffee shop, becomes the scent of your home forever. Or how prepackaged coffee is nothing like having a grinder and grinding your Espresso fresh in your home every day.No one ever tells you the research and studying needed to not perfect, but to simply achieve a really good shot of espresso at home.I even called up Local Coffee chains in my area and spoke to Barista’s asking for helpful hints on what I could do to get a better quality drink. To ask what I might be doing wrong with a machine(The Bambino Plus) that was giving me under extracted, watery, sour espresso shots.I saw machines with fancy gauges and didn’t understand why it mattered I have one. But have learned if you don’t see you reached the right pressure any espresso that comes out will be gross.I went onto forums where I learned why it’s smart to buy a grinder separate from your espresso machine. Because when the day comes your grinder breaks, and that day will come; then you only have to return the grinder and not be without your entire espresso machine in the process.I learned why it’s important to heat your portafilter, and any parts being used to make the drink and the cup you drink from. And luckily the Breville Infuser has a heating plate on top that works perfect for this!I learned why Dark roasts taste better and turn out better even though everywhere seems to recommend a medium roast for most Espresso.I learned that Reverse Osmosis water makes a bad cup of coffee, a bad cup of Espresso, and the flavor will be messed up if you use this type of water.Cold tap water will work, but even that will affect the quality and taste of your espresso.I also learned you want to go to the coffee shops that roast their beans ON SITE and buy freshly roasted beans. I was told by the Barista the sweet spot is 3 to 5 days after a roast the beans are the most fresh, and will pull the best shots. Anything after 2 weeks the quality will start to go noticeably down in flavor, texture, and crème. If you get beans that were roasted that same day, they will be okay, but you will see how everything tastes and gets better if you wait for those few days.And yes I even found myself looking for the best water recommendations from experts and others online. Because my research found the PH of your water can also make an impact. So I went out and bought bottled Fiji water because I read in several places it gives one of the best tastes you can get from water used in your machine for a drink.I eventually quickly exchanged my Bambino Plus that I believe was just a faulty individual machine, and got the Breville Infuser in its place. A step up and it has a gauge which is a must.I will admit I am still using Fiji water for the moment, but I don’t intend to do that forever, but if you are first starting out and looking for the perfect cup and flavor give the fancy water a try.I have a few different flavored syrups I have tried, and I purchased some of the Breville accessories that aren’t included: A better Tamper, the portafilter basket remover tool(which is a must) A knock box, dosing funnel, and even a tamper mat. All of which I had no idea what they were for at the time, but that my friend told me I will for sure need. They have been incredibly helpful and make the process 100% easier.I am so happy with the Breville INFUSER! I am getting quality crema on my shots; they are rich in flavor, no more sour shots with this machine! Like any new thing it takes a while to get the swing of it. And the only negative I can think of to mention, is that when you fill the water tank, after you make your drink and the machine goes into rest mode/powder down mode; The machine purges itself of any water that is still inside the machine. You have to empty the drip tray after each drink made and our drip tray will be almost full each time. That is quite a bit of water it dumps after a drink cycle. But the only reason I think my husband and I care is we have been buying the bottled Fiji water to use. So we notice little stuff like that because it seems wasteful. But if you plan on using tap water that won’t impact you at all!If you are looking for a starter machine I really think this is the right one to begin with, and I can say that having tried the one under it. I am also happy I got my Breville grinder separate as well.Now that I have mastered the Breville Infuser machine, I can start enjoying trying different drinks, different flavors, my husband makes himself homemade hot chocolate using the steam wand to heat and froth the milk. I have bought different flavored syrups. The whole process and experience of learning all this, and getting that perfectly made drink has been so much fun.I would say 2% Milk is the perfect flavor and texture to make those yummy delicious drinks you would get at coffee shops; but if you don’t want the extra fat or calories, skim milk and even oat milk make decent alternatives.When I first wake up in the morning I turn my machine on and allow it to heat up for at least 10 minutes. I have found if you make a drink under that time, the water won’t be quite hot enough. If you heat it up over 10 minutes, you will have to let your hot drinks sit for a minute or two until they aren’t too hot to drink. But as long as you plan for allowing the heat up time and include it as part of your routine, I really think you can’t go wrong with this model of the Breville Infuser.I have had my machine a month now, and I will never go back to buying store bought or coffee chain drinks again!
BobT –
This is a user review of the Breville Infuser Espresso Machine which I have had for about 4 months now.It took me a week or two to get the proper grind/tamping routine figured out for my Infuser, and now I can get a consistent espresso shot with excellent crema using freshly roasted beans along with my Baratza Virtuoso grinder. What a pleasure to see the needle in the good grey zone cup after cup!I think that the quality of my espresso is better from the Breville than the Nespresso CitiZ and Gaggia New Baby that preceded it.And speaking of quality, the Infuser is a little jewel compared to the Gaggia, or even a lot of other machines in it’s class as far as my perception of quality is concerned. The brushed SS is easy to keep clean, and so far I have only had to respond to the”clean me” light once. It is a ruggedly built little machine if the external appearance is any indicator of the total construction. Hopefully this also indicates durability?The steam wand makes it a little difficult for me to froth milk because it is located to near the surface that the machine is on in my kitchen. This is because of the small size and footprint of this espresso machine.I am getting better at making a good latte/capuchino as I adjust to the physical limitations of the frothing wand on the Breville. Some people complain that the steaming process is to slow. It does not bother me because I used a Capresso frothing machine before this- it took longer to finish a froth and the result was not as good as the from the wand on the Breville.My biggest complaint with the machine is that the temperature of a shot of espresso is not quite hot enough if you don’t preheat your cup and portafilter for a while before making the espresso. None of my other espresso makers made shots that were hot enough for me so, I guess that this is a factor of the price class of the machines.Am I pleased with this machine? Yes, Sir! Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes, Sir?
jlasalan –
The most amazing thing about this purchase is it came two days after ordering it so there was no anxiety whatsoever waiting for it. The machine is beautiful and worked as promised right out of the box. It took almost a pound of coffee to get the grind and tamp acceptable for it, however. Slight adjustments in both made big differences in the shot. I now have had it for 8 days and I think I’ve pretty much come to know what it likes and what I like. The shots are creamy and rich like I love. The frothing wand works well and is pretty powerful. The milk swirls and rises and if I’m careful, produces a micro foam equal to the output of the professional machines worked by a savvy barrista. All this takes time and practice, though.What I don’t like, or like to complain about, is how the steam wand is activated. Most machines have a button or something that you push and the machine gets the water up to steaming temperature before you start to froth your milk. This one left the button off. You aim the wand at the drip pan, turn the knob to steam and it starts to heat the water in little spurts and hisses. When the pump starts it’s thumping and there is no more water coming out of the wand, it’s ready to froth. But then you have to turn the knob back to off, quickly get the wand in position, jam your jug under it and then flip the knob to steam again. The manual tells you you only have six seconds after turning it off before turning it back to steam again, otherwise you have to start over. Hence, four stars instead of five.I recommend this Breville if you like to experiment like a scientist and have your reward be a creamy rich latte you can be proud of.
Dave –
If you just want to make espresso drinks at home and want something quick and easy, there machines a lot less than half the price to use with pressurized filters and that have an easy to use steam wands. But if you are ready, or plan to soon, move up to professional style non-pressurized filters, then this is a great machine for the beginner up through intermediate user at a very good price.One thing I want to say upfront, ALWAYS run an empty shot before making your espresso. The first shot runs about 20 degrees below the optimal 200 degrees and will result in an under-extracted espresso. It is also good to heat up your grouphead, portafilter and cup. It makes a very very good espresso that probably can only be beat by a $2.000+ machine. I used a non-pressurized filter on my previous machine, but noticed that the shots with the infuser brought some of the subtle tasted characteristics from my coffee beans. It is important to use a good quality conical burr grinder in order to grinds that are fine enough to use with a non-pressurized filter. I use the Breville smart grinder pro. I think this is a better way to go rather then getting the Breville Barista Express with the built-in grinder, for numerous reasons. One is that it is more flexible than the built-in one, which only has 30 settings. The smart pro has 60 settings so you can use it to get coarse grinds for a French press and other coffee makers. It is also much easier to clean and allows you to upgrade to a more advance espresso machine without having to buy a new grinder.The steaming wand works very well after a small bit of practice. There are some videos on youtube that are helpful. After some research it seemed the best milk to use is grassfed whole milk. So I bought organic grassfeed whole milk, and wow it is the way to go. It tastes great and easy to get an excellent microfoam. I highly recommend that you give it a try.The pressure gauge looks cool, but is totally unnecessary. I wish the tamper were a heavier all metal construction, though this lighter one is needed to use the magnetic holder, which is convenient. The tamper words oaky, so I will just have to get used to it. Overall this is a great machine at this price.update: 13December:thought I would address of common complaints I’ve noticed in some reviews. One being that it uses too much water and that the drip trays fills up to fast. Both are due to the fact that the steam wand purges (through the back of the tray) hot water after use, which is good so that if you pull another shot the water won’t be too hot. To me, it’s not a big deal to refill it. As far as the tray filling up, just do what I do … empty the tray each time you use it. It is very simple and only takes a few seconds. A plus is that the tray design is very easy to remove and install .. it is really no big deal at all.
Larry Halford –
This espresso machine is solid and very nicely crafted. It is easy to use if you can handle the effort it takes to pull good and consistent shots. At $500 this machine is far from cheap but the quality and capability to pull good shots is there. Of course this machine is just one piece of the puzzle. To get really good espresso you need good beans and roast to meet your taste, and a good grinder to get consistent and proper size fines. I’m very happy with the purchase and have taken the time to learn how to get good shots from it. One feature i really like is the ability to program the amount of water delivered for a single and double shot. My preference was to leave the single at 1oz but shorten the double to 1.5oz. 2oz was just to weak for the 15g portafilter basket in my opinion. The single 1oz was OK and i seldom make one shot espressos anyway. As to the frothing wand, it is fine and works as shown in videos. Steaming milk has never been an issue on any machine I’ve had before though.I’m sure there are better machines and certainly more expense ones. If you wont spend the time perfecting your espresso craft or wont pay attention to detail like grind, tamp and weighing your beans then a cheaper machine will probably work just as well.
JVS –
I am coming from a 12 year old Breville duo espresso. The original machine would still be around if it weren’t for the portafilter busting at the bottom.This machine is nice and makes good espresso. I am still getting used to real shot sizes versus the old machine where I could pull as long or as short as I want. This one can do that and you can change the amount of water for shots, but I am trying to be more of a purist.I’ve increased the temperature to the max (+ or – 4 degrees f) so I can make one while I’m wrapping up my lunch for work. This way it’s still a little warm by the time I drink it in the car.The pressure gauge is nice but not necessary. It actually makes me frustrated to know that stuff, since I know if the pre-wetting is too high of pressure or if it pours out before the pressure builds. I am used to going off taste and time. Now I know if it will taste bad before I try it and end up being late for work because I wanted to remake a better one.The steam wand is great. High pressure and quick to froth with smooth micro foam. The pitcher is a bit small if you’re making 2 drinks and trying to avoid frothing a second time.My gripes:The water tank. It’s so small and my old one was double the size. So when I first got the machine and was dialing in my grinder, I thought the machine broke when nothing came out. Nope… out of water. Not only was I mad, I felt stupid. The old one has a light in the water reservoir to show the water level and was in front of the machine. This one makes you turn on some lights in the morning so everyone can see you in your briefs and then makes you do some yoga Houdini crap trying to get the water tank out of the back under the cabinets or shake the machine to get the water line to show me where it’s at.Additionally, the waste water tray is too small. If you even see the tip of the floater that tells you to empty it, you’re dripping or dumping water across the floor and inside of the machine getting it to the sink.So the time you save when the shot is being pulled automatically, you spend more of that time dumping the waste tray and filling the water reservoir.I went with this machine over the bambini plus because of the customizations and maintenance ability. The bambini sounded great for auto froth and could probably do well with coffee, but it had more plastic parts and also seemed geared towards more of an entry level crowd with the double walled single and double filters. The one I bought came with single wall and doubles. I have a Rocky grinder and the double walled ones would get clogged. Doubles are meant for preground coffee when you’re in a pinch. The coffee is dryer, coarser, and not as fresh, so the double helps build crema and depth. My grinder was a little less than the machine and handles everything from Turkish coffee to French or drip… or cold brew, whatever we use the coarse grind for.I recommend this machine based on the coffee and process. I do not recommend it for ease of water tank access and waste water tray disposal. I would have gone for the 1k one without the integrated grinder, but I don’t have the counter space.
Sneaky PotatoSneaky Potato –
Going into this, I had zero idea how to make espresso. I’ve been using a french press for years, and decided that I wanted to step up my coffee game a bit. This review is for those people that are considering this machine and have no idea what they’re doing. Keep in mind that I paired this machine with the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which is important in this review. I highly recommend the grinder as a companion to this espresso machine.**Why You Should Buy This Machine Over Cheaper Ones**Simply put, this machine offers professional-quality features packed into an entry-level machine, and will produce a far better quality espresso than cheaper machines like the Mr Coffee. If you are considering getting into espresso, don’t waste your time with cheaper stuff or else you will likely be disappointed with the results or just find yourself upgrading everything in a couple of months. A POOR ESPRESSO DUE TO “CHEAP” EQUIPMENT IS WORSE THAN A CHEAP CUP OF COFFEE. Understand that “cheap” is relative here. This is an expensive drink to make, but it’s worth the money to be able to make a great drink.1. My perfect pulls taste EXACTLY like coffee-shop quality (at least to me). I can make a Caramel Macciato and it tastes and looks better than Starbucks. ISN’T THAT WHY YOU’RE WANTING AN ESPRESSO MACHINE? Let’s face it, most of you are wanting lattes and cappuccinos that taste good so you don’t need to spend five bucks a day at the coffee shop. You aren’t just slugging back straight shots of black espresso and writing down the subtle flavor notes to share with your friends. YOU WILL NOT GET THIS KIND OF QUALITY WITH CHEAP MACHINES. It will taste watery, sometimes a bit bitter, and just not really worth the money. You’ll spend a couple hundred bucks and be totally disappointed. This machine is expensive, but at least I feel like I’m actually getting good espresso out of it. and I have zero desire to return to another coffee shop when I can make it just as good at home.2. This is the only unit for under $500 that will let you make decent latte art with the milk steaming wand. Other cheaper units simply do not have enough power to make your milk the right consistency. Again, it goes back to the quality of the drink. Do you want to pay $300 for a really mediocre espresso every day, or pay a little more money and have a really good espresso every day? You can get better units for milk steaming, but if you’re looking for a standalone unit that also does great milk, this is it. If you aren’t drinking lattes, then it won’t matter much to you. But trust me when I say that well-steamed milk makes or breaks your latte/cappuccino. Perfectly steamed milk is sweet, frothy, and creamy. Poorly steamed milk tastes like it was microwaved, or just plain warm milk. Yuck.3. The pressure gauge and pre-infusion (pushing a little water into the espresso before the real pull starts happening) make this a great tool to learn how to make proper espresso. The gauge is immensely helpful and helps you understand what you are doing wrong, and when you’re doing things really right. Few things are as satisfying as making a perfect espresso and seeing the gauge sit in the perfect spot.4. Built-in temperature control, which means more consistent espresso results. Cheaper units that don’t have one are not really worth the money in my opinion. A poorly-made espresso is terrible, and you can honestly make a better drink with a $10 french press and a $50 grinder.Finally, you need to understand that espresso is actually kind of difficult to make if you’ve never done it before. This isn’t a Keurig, this isn’t the same machine that Starbucks uses (theirs cost almost as much as your house does). You aren’t going to make a perfect pull of espresso your first time. It took me TEN shots before I made anything even remotely drinkable, and then I went through half a pound of coffee beans before I pulled my first GOOD shot. This machine makes it easier to make really good espresso, but it requires a good amount of work and calibration from you in order to do it correctly. However, once you figure it out, it’s really easy to do it right every time.In my opinion, this is the “sweet spot” of espresso making. You can make a really great cup of espresso with this machine at an affordable cost. Any more money and you are paying MUCH more to slightly increase the quality of the drink, but it’s not the night and day comparison between this machine and a $200 Costco or Mr Coffee espresso maker. Highly recommend!**If you’re an owner of this machine, the following might be helpful**The biggest difficulties that I ran into while trying to figure out how to make espresso were:1. Grinding the coffee to the perfect size2. Realizing that the Single Shot cups are terrible, save yourself heartache and use the Double Shot (not double walled)3. Getting my shot to pull for the correct time (25-30 seconds)**Grind Size**This was the most confusing part to me, because I had it in my head that I SHOULD be able to grind all of my beans on the absolute finest setting on the Smart Grinder Pro, which was why I spent all the money on the nice grinder, right? I had seen a couple of videos where people were using my same setup and grinding down to a 1 or 2 setting on the grinder and pulling perfect shots in the Infuser.THIS IS WRONG.Clear your mind completely about grind, and realize that it has more to do with the perfect grind for your particular coffee rather than the grind number itself. Using Lavazza Super Crema, I could not go finer than a 17 on the grinder or else the machine would max out the pressure and I would get just a few drips of disgusting sour water. Using fresh coffee beans from a local roaster, I was able to go much finer on the grind, and actually a 17 was too coarse for that coffee and ended up ruining the shots. It’s okay if you have to use a 17 or 18 with some coffees. You’re buying a nice grinder because those 17 and 18 grinds are perfectly consistent, which means the pressurized hot water will evenly distribute rather than find a weak spot to channel and ruin your shot of espresso.See what I’m talking about? This is not a Keurig. You will need to calibrate your grind for each new coffee you try, which can either be a huge pain or a lot of fun, depending on why you’re buying this machine. I found it fun, but I’m also glad that I took an entire day to play around with this machine. Once I figured it out, I was blown away with the quality of the espresso that came out.**Single Shot and Double Shot cups + Shot Pull Time**This is where I found success after a lot of failure. See, I don’t drink a ton of espresso in one sitting. I’m perfectly content with a small latte consisting of a single shot of espresso. I actually put the double shot cups in a drawer, because I didn’t think I would be using them. I was pulling drinkable espresso after a few hours of trial, but my shots were coming out way too fast (15-20 seconds), when I knew perfect shots should be around 30 seconds from the time you push the button. A helpful user online told me to ditch the single shot cups and switch to double shot, because of how finicky the former cups seemed to be. So I switched over to the single-walled double shot cup, and my first pull was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. It poured like golden honey, ran a perfect 30 seconds, and had amazing crema. It was beautiful and I wanted to cry.Apparently, shots pull more consistently in double shot cups than they do in single shot cups. Note that I’m talking about the size of the cup (single vs double shot) and not the double-WALLED cups, which are garbage and meant to be used with pre-ground espresso.Anyway, do yourself a favor and just use the double shot, single-walled cup. If you only want a single shot of espresso, move the cup over so you only catch liquid from one of the cups. You will waste coffee, but it will be so much, much more consistent and better-tasting than if you use the single-shot cup. I now pull nearly-perfect shots every time, where before I was doing 2/5 if I was lucky. Best piece of advice anybody gave me.
analoguebubblebath –
First and foremost, this is an absolutely fantastic home espresso machine for the price. It definitely takes some practice to learn how to get the most out of and find the sweet spot (which i’ve learned always differs depending on the type of beans & grinder you are using). But now after 3 months and a LOT of researching/learning/practice/more practice, I am now consistently making absolutely fantastic espresso drinks. If you are new to the world of espresso, or have some knowledge, I wanted to write about my experience buying this machine 3 months ago knowing little to nothing about espresso, to now consistently pulling absolutely delicious espresso drinks on a daily basis with this machine. Here we go:I waited 3 months after purchasing this unit to write a proper review, and I wanted to give a lot of information I have learned and discovered to help others looking into buying a home espresso setup. I honestly knew little to nothing about espresso before purchasing this machine, and have done A LOT of research, reading, testing, and barista questioning in order to learn how the art of making quality espresso is done. I now make 2-3 espresso drinks a day with the Infuser and am EXTREMELY satisfied with its performance. It’s not easy to make a high quality espresso by any means, but once you figure out how to manage all the important espresso variables (type of beans, grind coarseness, dose, tamp pressure), this machine produces truly remarkable results that any professional barista will be highly impressed with (yes I did receive this feedback).The most important aspects of making this machine work well (and any espresso machine for that matter) are having a quality grinder and fresh, quality beans.When I first got this machine, I was under the impression you wanted to grind as fine as possible for making espresso. I set my Infinity Burr Grinder to its finest setting, using some peet’s espresso beans, and immediately the machine clogged up, not producing any espresso. I tried again, dialing the grind a little coarser, and again the machine clogged up. Same thing with the third time, although this time I was able to produce a few drops of espresso. After about 5 tries I was able to pull an actual shot of espresso which tasted incredibly strong to me but good (at this point in time I didnt really know what to look for in a quality shot of espresso).Long story short I realized the beans I was using were INCREDIBLY oily and played a huge factor in easily clogging up my machine. Next I purchased some Blue Bottle espresso beans, which got along with my machine MUCH better. Now I was making some great progress, tasting more like espresso, but still not close to what the baristas at Blue Bottle were serving.I went through a lot of beans & brands playing with the grind coarseness, and soon became familiar of the “sweet spot” settings on my grinder where the espresso came out tasting best. I was now becoming more familiar with what a good shot of espresso was supposed to taste like after spending a bunch of time at Four Barrel & Blue Bottle cafes in San Francisco. I also learned to start timing my shot times and that also helped me immensely improve the quality of my espresso (typically between 24-30 seconds depending on the type of beans you are using).So now I soon learned my Capressa Infinity burr grinder did not have nearly the adjustability I would need to lock in the perfect grind setting for espresso, so I decided to upgrade to the Breville Smart Grinder. The Smart grinder ended up being a much better grinder, but again long story short, it also seemed to lack the real “fine tuning” ability that I was learning is truly needed with espresso. After using the Smart Grinder for 3 weeks, I decided to pull the trigger on a much higher quality grinder, the very highly recommended Baratza Vario. After getting familiar with the Vario by some trial & error, I must say this was the ultimate step (and proved to be most important) towards producing amazing quality espresso. I’ve also ground for drip coffee with it a few times and the taste was truly amazing compared to both of the other grinders I had tried.So, back to the Infuser. After much more research into the art of espresso, I purchased a gram scale in order to weigh my doses of coffee & amount of liquid being extracted from my shots, which also have helped a LOT in improving the quality of my shots.Now after a couple solid months with all of the above in my home espresso setup, I believe I have dialed in this machine to its maximum potential, and it is really producing fantastic results which I get excited about drinking every morning as soon as I wake up.Some notes I would like to share which I have discovered that may or may not relate directly to this machine, or to every espresso machine:-The type of beans used almost always require a different coarseness setting in order to pull the perfect shot. For example, beans like Four Barrel & Blue Bottle always require much more fine grind settings, where beans like Stumptown & Barefoot require much coarser grinds. This seems to be hard to get used to, but now that I have tried many different quality espresso roasts and have narrowed down my favorites (Sightglass is #1, Stumptown #2, Barefoot #3) I know what setting to use ahead of time and I can almost always nail a perfect shot on command.-The milk steamer does a great job, but now after trying so many quality cappuccinos & lattes through the area, I feel like this steamer does the milk more on the creamy side. I believe I understand the technique for creating quality microfoam to use for cappuccinos & latte’s, and im using the same Clover Organic whole milk that almost all cafe’s use, and mine always seems to turn out a bit sweeter & creamier. It seems hard to get the microfoam as velvety thin as Sightglass/Four Barrel/Blue Bottle does, and because of this, my cappuccinos dont have quite the “intense coffee bite” but its getting pretty close. I believe this is as good as I can ask for again using a $500 home espresso machine.-The hot water dispenser is great. One trick I figured out a while back was when I pulled OK shots and didnt want to waste them, I would just instantly make them into Americano’s, since its a bit harder to taste a bad shot in an Americano than it is in a Cappuccino or Latte.And thus has been my experience with the Breville Infuser since purchasing about 3 months ago. I’m sure I will be updating this review further as time goes on, but so far it has been an incredibly positive experience and I would HIGHLY recommend this machine to anyone looking for a semi-automatic machine in this price range. Hopefully this was helpful and not just me rambling.
Michael J. Garrison –
I had the Breville Roma for 3 years and replaced it with the Ascaso Basic which lasted about 18 months. I looked at the Ascaso Arc, Gaggia Classic and the Breville Infuser. After doing much more reading than I should have, I saw a video by Seattle Coffee Gear comparing the Infuser with the Ranicilo Silvia. The Silvia is $200 more and could not out brew the Infuser. I ordered the Infuser and from the day it arrived have enjoyed espresso the way it should be enjoyed: satisfied with each pull.I use a Compresso Infinity burr grinder with my Thanksgiving Coffee Southern Italian whole bean coffee. I discovered this amazing coffee on a trip to Eureka, CA. I am from Seattle, have explored the large and the craft roasters that this area has to offer. Nothing tastes as rich, as smooth and potent as the Thanksgiving Coffee Southern Italian. After taking my first sip at the Eureka Co op, I knew that I had found something quite special. Unfortunately my espresso machine could not replicate that experience. Then the infuser arrived. Each shot has been wonderful. Yes it took a few to ‘dial it in’, but since then life has been good.The machine is elegant in design, very efficient with an Aussie cheekiness that makes it fun to operate. It is by far the cleanest machine I have owned. The espresso area of the kitchen counter no longer looks like the aftermath of cutting up a log with a chainsaw. The drip tray with its pop up reminder to empty it, the light that tells you when it is time to clean the machine and the advice I got from Breville support BEFORE I bought the Infuser to use white vinegar for cleaning, all add to the experience.The Infuser appears to be well built. It is not cheap, but when you drink as much espresso as I do (3-5 double shots a day. 7 days a week), it is well worth the money. Amazon’s price and delivery were the best I found on the web.
Koalabear14 –
I’m 35 and never really enjoyed coffee. That was until I tried Starbucks’ brown sugar shaken Oatmilk espresso on a whim one day. I was obsessed, but at $7 a pop… no bueno.I decided to figure out how to make it on my own and to save $7 a couple times a week, I bought a $600 espresso machine. The math works, k?There’s been a learning curve because I don’t know anything about coffee, but it’s been fun. The machine is fairly easy to use, compact and comes with almost everything you need. I’m a bit on the fence if I should have splurged for one with a built in grinder, but I’ll be purchasing one of those next.The quality seems good and I hope it lasts me quite a while.
L. ThomasL. Thomas –
Let’s be honest; it’s hard to take the time to write a review. But since I virtually love everything about this machine, I felt the need to give credit where it is due. While many coffee sites called this a “low end machine”, $600 was a lot for me. I did a LOT of research, and it came down to this Breville and the Gaggia Classic Pro. I chose the Breville for the looks and a few extra features I was looking for.I’m only going to comment on the machine, because I believe the ability to make a good espresso drink is there, for me to get right. This machine has all the necessary features, and so many cool extras – warming tray on top for cups (though it is only slightly warm), a large water reservoir, an “empty me” flag when the drip tray gets full, a gauge to show you the strength of the shot, and the machine draws the water out of the finished shot to make it easy to knock out the puck. And my favorite extra, though it seems small – but ingenious to me – is that the grind tamper has a magnetic end and attaches to the roof of the machine for storage. So convenient and smart. Lastly, behind the drip trip is a little storage tray for cleaning tools, drip coffee baskets, etc.Because caffeine and I don’t always get along well, I ordered a second bean hopper directly from Breville, to hold decaf beans and store in the fridge and it was only $21. I paired this machine with the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which is awesome, and now I have an awesome combo system, that doesn’t have to big a footprint. I am forever a Breville fan.
Brandon –
We purchased this machine in exchange for the Duo Temp and I’m so glad we did. There’s a bit of learning curve when it comes to grind size and getting good pressure from the single wall baskets. Be patient and enjoy the learning process. Once you’ve got it figured out, you’ll enjoy the brewing process every time.I also recommend purchasing the Breville grinder too if you purchase this. You could just get the Barista Express for around the same combined cost, but either way use a good grinder. Don’t cut corners there.
JR Fitz –
A great machine! I have had this one for about 3 months and am very pleased. It replaced a Saeco Aroma that I had for 10-15 years that finally got to the point of needing replacement. The Breville is quite well engineered with quality construction and cool features. My primary use is making a couple of lattes every morning and the large wand for foaming milk is perfect. (I use the larger cup that came with the Saeco in order to two at once. The cup that came with this unit works great for one).Probably the most appreciated feature is the pressure gauge which allows one to develop a consistent output with different type of beans.The ability to program the timing of the buttons is quite useful as well, as is the large water compartment. The only negative is that the well written manual refers to a “beep” when programming to confirm actions. Neither my wife nor I could hear it. Not a biggy since it appears that flashing lights are feedback as well.I should also add a comment re Amazon service. This is my second order of this machine. The first one arrived and the pressure gauge did not seem to work. I called Amazon customer service to ask if this was a problem they had experienced before. They had not, so suggested I return it since this was within their 30 day window. I did,, credit was issued as soon as they received it, and reordered. In hindsight, I am not sure if I was getting within the range for the gring and pressure I was using.Year later update – no change, still a well engineered machine, perfect for home use. Easy to clean, easy to use, no problems whatsoever!
Amazon Customer –
I’ve owned this machine for 2 years now. I didn’t know much about espresso before this machine and have been doing all my learning with the infuser. It’s a great machine to learn since it’s very easy to use. Espresso definitely has a learning curve and is frustrating at times but having a machine that warms up quickly and is fairly consistent is great so that you don’t have to worry about the machine and instead focus on your technique and grinder. I’m sure it won’t last as long as a more expensive “prosumer” machine but as a learning machine it’s great and should last long enough until you’d want to upgrade. As long as you perform the recommended descaling and cleaning process you’ll be happy with this machine and it’s longevity. However, if you live in an area with hard water like I do, I’d recommend not waiting until the machine tells you to descale and perhaps do it every couple of months instead.If you’re not that serious about espresso. This could also be a good machine. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the coffee this machine has made. This machine’s coffee is so much better than my office coffee.I got this machine in the black Friday sale of 2021 and was able to get 100 dollars off the normal price so if you’re thinking about getting this machine but think it’s too expensive you could try waiting for black Friday and perhaps it goes down in price again.
LyndonL –
If 4 stars = “I like it” and 5 stars = “I love it” then I have to go with 5 stars because once you get the hang of the Breville BES840XL, it’s a great machine. As a number of the other reviews have said, though, there is some trial and error involved before you finally get it working the way you want and getting there is frustrating.After the La Pavoni unit we’d had for 10 years died a couple of months back, I did a fair amount of research on rival models as well as the 860XL as a replacement but kept coming back to the two Breville models. The built-in grinder would have been really handy but concerns over leaks over time reported by owners in the seal between the dual boilers (not to mention the price difference) prompted me to go with the 840XL “Infuser”.First off, it’s a beautiful-looking machine and it looks great on the kitchen counter. Also, Breville’s packaging is Apple levels of gorgeous. There’s a handy storage tray behind the spill trap for all the bits and pieces, including pins to unclog the foaming spout, etc. .It’s also really easy to operate and I love that you can re-program the one- and two-shot volume to draw your own size of shot. When it gets dirty, the “Clean Me” light comes on and you initiate the self-clean program with the supplied detergent tablets.And, most importantly of all, it makes great espresso. Night and day better than the La Pavoni Lusso we had before which was really inconsistent in the quality of shot and has no programmable shot option so everything is manual. Also, the La Pavoni’s steaming spout was designed in such a way that build-up inside the spout (which was almost impossible to clean properly) would really diminish its ability to froth the milk properly. The Infuser has a completely different design and it’s awesome, giving you complete control.It took time to master The Infuser, though, and it was frustrating trying to get any consistency out of it. And that was knowing going in, based on other reviewers’ experiences, that a lot of it was in the tamping and volume of ground coffee going into the basket.I would say now, based on my experiences, the beans and the quality of the grinder (see below) might be the biggest determining factors — I would never have guessed just how *much* difference there can be between different types of beans when it comes to tamping pressure and volume. I did a lot of experimenting early on — even resorting to extracting two singles instead of one double because that was the only way I could get a decent extraction in the middle of the unit’s “Espresso Range” putting the grounds in in three stages and tamping down each time in between — but once I’d upgraded to a better grinder, I was set.Now that it looks like I’ve nailed the process, I couldn’t be happier. And my wife, who has incredibly discerning taste buds, especially for coffee, has really noticed the difference.*****************UPDATE May 2014My old Krups burr grinder died last December so I decided to make the investment in a Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder and I have to say that The Infuser is a LOT more consistent now than it used to be. Not entirely — I find that the strength of the extraction changes over time between cleaning cycles so that more tamping pressure is needed — but I no longer need to mess around with two single pulls or staged tamping.I just grind the beans, tamp them down and let The Infuser do its thing. One small issue that has cropped up in the last few weeks is that water leaks down the steaming wand where it joins the underside of the unit but that has not had any effect on the function of the machine.Still very happy.*****************UPDATE August 2014The leak in the steam wand worsened over time to the point that the unit had to be replaced but I give a HUGE thumbs up to Breville customer service here. They responded quickly to my initial support request and had arranged to replace the machine free of charge within 48 hours.Not only that but they offered to ship the new one to me in advance of the return of the faulty one (they placed a temporary charge on my credit card as insurance) enabling me to only ship the old one back after the new unit had arrived. Excellent service all the way around.I note that this machine prefers the beans to be ground slightly more finely than the previous one so another reason to invest in a grinder where you can customize the grind.
LynerLyner –
BluemantaBluemanta –
As a hobbiest Batista I was looking for a decent esoresso machine that would enable me to extract good shots from my beans. In my research I compared between this Breville and the Rancilio Sylvia. I did not see any major difference except these 2 that convinced me to go with the Breville:1. The pressure gauge on Breville really helps taking out the guess work and pulling the perfect shot2. Breville is priced $100 less than the Rancilio SylviaI had this machine for over 6 months and am very happy with it.It took some time to learn the sweet spot in terms of grinding, amount of coffee, damping etc but once I found it, every shot is no less then perfect.The frothing is a bit slow but that is the case with every single pump 15 bar machine. For me it’s not a big deal because I actually enjoy the ritual of making latte. I practiced for long time with Latte art and am finally can draw nice Rosetta and hearts ;-)The pressure dial let you know how the shot you are pulling is going to be. It has a perfect-shot area which would guarantee the perfect shot. If the dial is too far to the right it means you are going to get burnt coffee just like Charbucks. If the dial is too far to the left, your shot is going to miss flavor and aroma. You manipulate this by tuning the grind level, amount of coffee and the damping pressure. Give your self ample time to experiment. It’s well worth it.Very important – a burr grinder is a MUST.The machine is made of nice stainless steel and has a decent sized water tank. Just make sure you replace the water filter every 2 months and this machine will work for long time.One annoying feature that I didn’t like is that in order for the machine to comply with green energy, it shuts off after a while. Well this defeats the purpose of the warm surface on top of the machine which is supposed to keep the espresso cups warm as it helps the crema stay longer. I think they should have given an option to chooseOther than that, it’s a great machine.
emaxon –
I’ve used an 840XL daily for 8 years in a small office after buying it used and leaky. All it took to fix was a new water tank seal and a few rubber o-rings for quick release tubing fittings inside. It *still* works perfectly with very infrequent (tablet) cleanings despite being fed straight Detroit area tap water, and produces a MUCH better shot than any of the super automatics I’ve tried and owned. I’d have kept it forever, but it was taken by a former co-worker. THIS machine appears to use an updated water tank seal (larger in diameter?) and works exactly the same. The newest Breville models use a lever style tamper, the only departure from this… I *prefer* the magnetic handle tamper, enjoy using it free-hand. At the current price here, what could possibly offer better bang for the buck?
photoguy12 –
I had a Starbucks Barista (made by Saeco – great brand BTW) espresso machine for 15 years. It was a great workhorse for beginners. I decided to upgrade to this Aussie-made machine. Australians, it turns out, are very serious about their coffee.The machine has a pressure gauge that will help you know if you are over or under extracting your coffee. Too coarse grinds and the water will just run through, giving you a weak brew. Too fine or too packed grinds and yo will get a tiny amount of dark, over extracted, bitter coffee. It takes a few trials until you get it right . Once you’ve master it, you will really appreciate your espresso and the art of making coffee. The difference is astronomical!!! I kid you not. You will REALLY appreciate the difference.The machine comes with all the accessories you will ever need without having to spend more money in maintenance and cleaning. Generic water filters and descaling products can be purchased online without much expense from other retailers.I LOVE this machine. I really look forward every morning to hear it hum every time it turns on.However, here is the downside and why I gave it only 4 stars.The manufacturer recommends to purge the group head often to remove coffee grinds from it. Also, the machine will purge water in to the drip tray with every use, which uses a fair amount of water from a relatively small reservoir. Although the tank will take 64 oz., it will go empty in no time with regular use. If there are 3 or more coffee drinkers at home you will be refilling the tank 2 to 3 times a week. There is no option to connect the machine to a water line, without an industrial model. This would have made it a super espresso machine. I still recommend it for serious coffee drinkers. You will notice the difference.
GEGJr –
Have had it slightly more than a year. It is an excellent machine. Has what I consider to be a medium sized water reservoir. Has gauges to let you know if pulled shot is within pressure parameters so you can adjust your tamp, grind and dose. However, if you prefer you can use pressurized single and double dose holders for pre-ground coffee. I bought a more advanced machine because I enjoy the challenge of pulling a manually dosed, tamped and ground shot. I typically pull a double shot and have noticed that pulling a single shot is not as precise as a double shot. The frothing wand is good and is articulated although a little under pressurized but that can be a good thing for someone who is learning to froth milk. The reasons I gave a 4 rating instead of 5 is for these reasons: 1) hot water dispensing area does not have enough height for grande (16oz) or venti (20oz) cup sizes. I typically drink Americanos so this is an inconvenience; 2) It is noisy when turned on and I have live in ranch with master bedroom sharing wall with kitchen where machine sets so I can’t turn it on until I know wife is up. Personal problem I know but thought it worth a mention; 3) even though there is built in pressure guage there is no timer, the correct pulled shot should be within certain number of seconds at certain pressure. I have to use a separate timer; 4) top of machine is cup warmer but it doesn’t get hot enough for me so takes long time to really heat up a cup or the dosing cups for the portafilter; 5) only comes with one portafilter; 6) there is no adjustment for temperature of water coming from hot water dispenser. I’ve measure the temp it is only about 170-180 degrees. All in all I would recommend this machine for someone that doesn’t want a completely automatic machine and enjoys being his or her own barista.
analoguebubblebath –
First and foremost, this is an absolutely fantastic home espresso machine for the price. It definitely takes some practice to learn how to get the most out of and find the sweet spot (which i’ve learned always differs depending on the type of beans & grinder you are using). But now after 3 months and a LOT of researching/learning/practice/more practice, I am now consistently making absolutely fantastic espresso drinks. If you are new to the world of espresso, or have some knowledge, I wanted to write about my experience buying this machine 3 months ago knowing little to nothing about espresso, to now consistently pulling absolutely delicious espresso drinks on a daily basis with this machine. Here we go:I waited 3 months after purchasing this unit to write a proper review, and I wanted to give a lot of information I have learned and discovered to help others looking into buying a home espresso setup. I honestly knew little to nothing about espresso before purchasing this machine, and have done A LOT of research, reading, testing, and barista questioning in order to learn how the art of making quality espresso is done. I now make 2-3 espresso drinks a day with the Infuser and am EXTREMELY satisfied with its performance. It’s not easy to make a high quality espresso by any means, but once you figure out how to manage all the important espresso variables (type of beans, grind coarseness, dose, tamp pressure), this machine produces truly remarkable results that any professional barista will be highly impressed with (yes I did receive this feedback).The most important aspects of making this machine work well (and any espresso machine for that matter) are having a quality grinder and fresh, quality beans.When I first got this machine, I was under the impression you wanted to grind as fine as possible for making espresso. I set my Infinity Burr Grinder to its finest setting, using some peet’s espresso beans, and immediately the machine clogged up, not producing any espresso. I tried again, dialing the grind a little coarser, and again the machine clogged up. Same thing with the third time, although this time I was able to produce a few drops of espresso. After about 5 tries I was able to pull an actual shot of espresso which tasted incredibly strong to me but good (at this point in time I didnt really know what to look for in a quality shot of espresso).Long story short I realized the beans I was using were INCREDIBLY oily and played a huge factor in easily clogging up my machine. Next I purchased some Blue Bottle espresso beans, which got along with my machine MUCH better. Now I was making some great progress, tasting more like espresso, but still not close to what the baristas at Blue Bottle were serving.I went through a lot of beans & brands playing with the grind coarseness, and soon became familiar of the “sweet spot” settings on my grinder where the espresso came out tasting best. I was now becoming more familiar with what a good shot of espresso was supposed to taste like after spending a bunch of time at Four Barrel & Blue Bottle cafes in San Francisco. I also learned to start timing my shot times and that also helped me immensely improve the quality of my espresso (typically between 24-30 seconds depending on the type of beans you are using).So now I soon learned my Capressa Infinity burr grinder did not have nearly the adjustability I would need to lock in the perfect grind setting for espresso, so I decided to upgrade to the Breville Smart Grinder. The Smart grinder ended up being a much better grinder, but again long story short, it also seemed to lack the real “fine tuning” ability that I was learning is truly needed with espresso. After using the Smart Grinder for 3 weeks, I decided to pull the trigger on a much higher quality grinder, the very highly recommended Baratza Vario. After getting familiar with the Vario by some trial & error, I must say this was the ultimate step (and proved to be most important) towards producing amazing quality espresso. I’ve also ground for drip coffee with it a few times and the taste was truly amazing compared to both of the other grinders I had tried.So, back to the Infuser. After much more research into the art of espresso, I purchased a gram scale in order to weigh my doses of coffee & amount of liquid being extracted from my shots, which also have helped a LOT in improving the quality of my shots.Now after a couple solid months with all of the above in my home espresso setup, I believe I have dialed in this machine to its maximum potential, and it is really producing fantastic results which I get excited about drinking every morning as soon as I wake up.Some notes I would like to share which I have discovered that may or may not relate directly to this machine, or to every espresso machine:-The type of beans used almost always require a different coarseness setting in order to pull the perfect shot. For example, beans like Four Barrel & Blue Bottle always require much more fine grind settings, where beans like Stumptown & Barefoot require much coarser grinds. This seems to be hard to get used to, but now that I have tried many different quality espresso roasts and have narrowed down my favorites (Sightglass is #1, Stumptown #2, Barefoot #3) I know what setting to use ahead of time and I can almost always nail a perfect shot on command.-The milk steamer does a great job, but now after trying so many quality cappuccinos & lattes through the area, I feel like this steamer does the milk more on the creamy side. I believe I understand the technique for creating quality microfoam to use for cappuccinos & latte’s, and im using the same Clover Organic whole milk that almost all cafe’s use, and mine always seems to turn out a bit sweeter & creamier. It seems hard to get the microfoam as velvety thin as Sightglass/Four Barrel/Blue Bottle does, and because of this, my cappuccinos dont have quite the “intense coffee bite” but its getting pretty close. I believe this is as good as I can ask for again using a $500 home espresso machine.-The hot water dispenser is great. One trick I figured out a while back was when I pulled OK shots and didnt want to waste them, I would just instantly make them into Americano’s, since its a bit harder to taste a bad shot in an Americano than it is in a Cappuccino or Latte.And thus has been my experience with the Breville Infuser since purchasing about 3 months ago. I’m sure I will be updating this review further as time goes on, but so far it has been an incredibly positive experience and I would HIGHLY recommend this machine to anyone looking for a semi-automatic machine in this price range. Hopefully this was helpful and not just me rambling.
Gary –
So how’s my Breville doing after 5 years. Not bad. Most often it gets used once a day and the only problem that has developed is with the automatic shot cut off. Everything else works perfectly. When I select either the single or double shot it just keeps running, so I have to shut it down manually with the off button. I’m going to live with that until the machine fails completely and then decide on a replacement.====================================================I broke my Rancilio Silvia after 5 years of good service. The Silvia is a well established leader in the home market so my comments on the Breville BES840 XL are all based on pros and cons compared to the Silvia.I’ll start with the Breville cons because there are not many============================================================* Portafilter on the Silvia is the professional standard 58 mm while the Breville is 54. If the shot quality is comparable that should not matter too much. The Breville porta-filter seems less substantial. My expensive 58 mm tamper is now useless.* Dry used puck discharges cleanly from the portafilter on the Silvia. On the Breville it most often does not break cleanly, so some of the used coffee ends up being washed down the sink.* Silvia vents partially back to the water tank so you rarely have to empty the drip tray. You have to empty the Breville but it does have a clever float up reminder when the reservoir is full.Breville Pros==============* Breville has lower price and is better looking. They have about the same footprint.* Breville is semiautomatic which enables uniform performance with less attention to detail than the Silvia requires. Push a button and you get one or two shots delivered automatically without having to stand over the machine. Toggle switches on the Silvia held up well but seem 19th century compared to the Breville. I broke my Silvia by having it come on with a timer. Having left the brew toggle in the open position the water reservoir emptied and the motor burned out. This can’t happen with the Breville since it comes on in the off position, and you have to push a button to operate it.* Breville has a PID controlled thermocoil boiler which means the water temperature is always perfect. With the Silvia you never know where it is in the heat cycle and for best performance you should wait for the light to come on and then go off. You can find online instructions on how to install a PID control on the Silvia but its a technical challenge I never seriously considered.* Both have the non-pressurized professional portafilter inserts but the Breville also has a set of pressurized, so that if someone gives you a ground bag of coffee for a gift you have a way to brew it.* The bottom of the Breville portafilter is plastic you can clean. The Silvia is non stainless steel that discolors and impossible to consider clean.* The Breville has a separate hot water delivery outlet. Great for pre-heating a cup or adding water for an Americano. Much more convenient then the typical Silvia method of delivering hot water through the steam wand.* Breville steam wand has a plastic ring making it harder to burn your fingers and the wand has a greater range of movement.* Breville supplied with a real tamper. Silvia comes with a toy that has to be replaced.* Breville has a built in carbon water filer and the water tank level is visible from the outside.* Maintenance of the Breville is supported by gauges and supplies. Silvia expects you to figure it out.* Infusion or slow ramp up of the water pressure on the Breville is a feature of much more expensive machines. This combined with the built in pressure gauge reduces the learning curve for producing the perfect shot when you change coffee beans.Most important, how does the espresso compare. When I made the changeover I used the same beans with my Rancilio burr grinder. The crema produced was the same and the flavor comparable, but I give the edge to the Breville. In fairness the Breville had the advantage of being clean while the Silvia could have had some flavor reducing residues lurking inside.The Breville is a step up in every way for the average Joe that wants to reduce his Starbuck’s bill. Perhaps a seasoned aficionado would find merit in the Silvio. I’ll leave that for them to explain.
Jeffrey Freeman –
I bought this bad boy in January so I can say I have been using it HEAVILY for about 6 months. It’s great. So there are some things I love, and other things Not so much.The AMAZING!!!I started out the Infuser w/o a grinder so I was at the mercy of the grinds being received from Trader Joe’s espresso blend to Lavazza in a pinch. I was happy (ignorant fool). The lattes I was brewing every other hour could have been a bit hotter, but tasted great using the double walled basket they included. The grinds I was using sucked to be honest but the machine pulled shots and pulled them well. The pre-programmed double shot button is effortless along with the steam wand instead of a pannarello wand (they are annoying to clean) were the deciding factors between this machine and the gaggia. Now present day, I’m using the smart grinder from breville, paired with one of my favorite coffees DeathWish and the breville Infuser KOs my senses and sends me strait to Havana. I enjoy my ritual every morning pulling shots fit for the gods. One of my favorite features is the front gauge. It really helps dial the grind and let’s you know ahead of time to put a little more muscle in ur tamping or not to over-tamp.The not so amazing…Make sure you keep an eye on the drip tray, it fills rather quickly. Also a low water feature or the machine not running with low water would be nice. My father has run the machine with no water before… 👎🏻 And on that note the water take is a grayish smoke color and makes seeing the water level a bit tricky when just waking up. I like my coffee hot hot hot and the Infuser makes it Hot Hot. Not a deal breaker and certainly not cold, but I feel I have to mention it. The steam wand and hot water knob combo is annoying. Turn it one way, get steam! Turn it the other way, get hot water a cool feature that is annoying. It’s hard to know where steam ends and hot water begins from the dial not having a click or stop between the two. A button for hot water would have EASILY solved this issue.Over all a great machine and my favorite thing in my kitchen. 9/10 Jeff Goldblum’s
justme –
—UPDATES 5/25/15—1. Used this every day for over a year. Solid buy, would do it again. No breakages. I do follow the cleaning instructions religiously.2. I was wrong about the machine only delivering 1 or 2 ounce cups. This morning I finally read the instructions on how to “program” the machine and made myself a 4-ounce cup of strong coffee, similar to what you find in europe. Divine! I got everything ready as usual. Hit the program button. Hit the “one cup” button. Let it fill up about four ounces. Then hit the “one cup” button again. The “one-cup” is now programmed to deliver about 4-oz of coffee. Brilliant!—Original Review—I found it difficult to research espresso machines:- Price range is huge, from $50 to $5000.- Reviews come from a bewildering range of backgrounds: coffee-snobs & anti-snobs, professional baristas & novices.After reading reviews for a couple of days, I selected the Breville 840XL.I’ve had the machine one month.I am no barista, so this review is geared towards the novice explorer.General Observations:- The pressure of the water/steam is controlled by the machine. It is amazingly repeatable & scientifically-precise.–> i.e. the pressure gage on the machine responds to even tiny changes in grain size or tamp-pressure.- The temperature of the espresso is also very controlled, and it’s not as hot as your regular cup of Joe.- It’s taken me one month to find & consistently reproduce a cup that I enjoy. It was worth the wait.- My guests & visitors have all been amazed by the shots. They unanimously say they’re the best they’ve had.- This machine serves exactly one-ounce or two-ounce shots. It will not make a pressed cup of coffee like you get in Europe.- It’s strong. I mean really strong. Like I-feel-it-in-my-brain strong.–> i.e. after two older guests got hot flashes and a third got heart palpitations, I stocked up on decaf beans.Specific Tips:- Buy a burr grinder first, learn how to use it, clean it, etc. (I bought the Breville & am happy with it.)- Buy the Breville milk frother second, learn how to use it, clean it, etc.–> It’ll change your life.–> Way easier than wand-frothing: faster to make, easier to clean-up.–> The Breville milk frother makes Angelina’s-style hot chocolate easily, which makes it worth the 120-bucks right there.—-> Guys, if you don’t know what that is, then look it up & make it for your girl. & beware the consequences!—-> Only change from the instructions: don’t drop room-temp chocolate into the frother, nuke it first & use a spoon to drop it into the hot cream.—-> …but, I digress.Bean Selection–> Consensus from Amazon-reviewers is that Lavazza Super Crema whole bean is the ideal. My guests seem to like this bean the best.–> Personally, I prefer Starbucks Sumatra. These beans are very oily.–> NOTE: if you decide that the bean you like best is an oily bean, then you’ll need to clean the grinder weekly. Takes five minutes and gets less messy as you get the hang of it.Grinder- Follow the darned grinder instructions!–> Start at the coarse end of the espresso-spectrum, work your way towards fine.–> Only go as fine as you need to get the results you want. Middle worked best for me.Espresso Machine Pressure Gage- Watch the pressure gage carefully for every shot. But defer to your palate. The machine can’t tell you what tastes best.- I find that the best tasting shots come at lower pressures. I go with the lowest possible pressure that still produces a nice crema.Water Source:- I use a five-gallon water-dispenser to fill the espresso-machine’s tank. TDS reading is about 4, which is almost distilled.- Rationale: for five hundred bucks, I don’t want to fill it with rusty-calcium well water & then have to decalcify every month or have it break. You can get a TDS meter for about twenty bucks on Amazon. Buy one. Test your water. Only use water with a low TDS reading. Don’t assume bottled water has a low TDS. I’ve seen it as high as 200.My Patronizing Opinions:- Many people point out that this machine is Barista-Child’s-Play, since you control only four variables: bean, amount, fineness, and tamp-pressure. (Not temp or pull-pressure.)- I took a rigorous scientific approach and it still took one month to find the right combination.- Other reviewers bought this machine & made an espresso they liked on the first pull.- Pay attention to the process and you will begin teaching yourself how to be a barista.- Be willing to work with the four variables for several weeks to get it right.Transition from Coffee-Drinking to Espresso-Drinking:- Until now, I’ve made a brutally strong batch of French-pressed coffee each AM.- When I go to Starbucks, I get either a triple-tall Americano or a four-shot Grande Americano.–> Either way, each would last about 2-hours each AM.- This machine makes only one thing: a single-ounce or a two-ounce shot of espresso, like in Italy.- The Italians drink it straight, right there, standing up, within five minutes. I’m guessing that even an Italian would rate this espresso as authentic.- This machine forced me to depart from my old ways: It’s a smaller cup & I have to drink it within 15-minutes or so before the flavor goes sour.–> I’m aware that the ideal Americano has the hot water in the cup prior to the shot, to preserve the crema. Will do that eventually. Right now, I still taste each shot first.Conclusion:- This machine is a safe bet for your first real espresso machine.- Be willing to work at it- Be aware that drinking shots of espresso is a very different experience from regular coffee-drinking.- Cappuccinos or lattes are also a safe bet. But, they get cold quicker than those made at Starbucks. Maybe Starbucks makes shots at a higher temperature?Biggest surprise so far the joy it brings to guests. Let them watch you make one, then ask them to play the barista. They have so much fun! Go all the way & buy a burr-grinder, knock box, & tamping mat.There’s a documentary on Netflix on the history of the cappuccino called “Perfect Cappuccino.” Content aside, this 1.5-hr documentary will give you plenty of opportunity to see professional baristas making espressos & hear their theories on how to pull a good shot. Watch it after you buy it and you’ll really appreciate how much they put in, how they tamp it, and how it looks as it comes out. Personally, I enjoyed the documentary — I found the narrator’s views compassionate & well-balanced. Other reviewers found her anti-Starbucks.Lastly, if you buy all three pieces of equipment at once, then you’ll be on instructions-overload. I staggered the purchases by two weeks for each machine: Burr Grinder, then Milk Frother, then Espresso Maker. This may sound silly, but many of the reviewers say things like: “I Couldn’t get a pressure reading on the espresso machine, so I cranked up the grinder to super-fine and then grinder wouldn’t work.” All of that is covered in the grinder instructions. But if you get all three things at once, you’re going to try it blind (come on, admit it) and only go to the instructions for each machine as a last resort.It’s only been one month. Perhaps in another month, all of my advice will be different. I’m still on the left side of a steep learning curve.Good luck!
Mike P –
I bought this over the Gagglia as it seemed to have more modern technology and user friendliness.I bought over the 870XL as its built in grinder was reportedly not all that great… plus I had the $100 capresso infinity 560.I was told that grinder would fail miserably and only work with pressurized basket, can’t grind fine enough, etc. This turned out to be completely incorrect! The 840 works very well with medium roast beans with the 560 on the 2nd from most-fine with light tamping, or 3rd from most-fine with heavy tamping.You can push down harder or lighter, OR put a bit more or less coffee in to also adjust the pressure to get it so that it is in the “ideal” zone, so you really do not need a 500 dollar grinder with thousands of fine settings in my admittedly novice opinion.The dual-wall or pressurized basket is for using preground coffee, which is not recommended. It works with rougher grinds and the basket itself provides the pressure resistance for the brewing. The single wall one with lots of holes on the bottom is what you would ideally use, which uses the coffee puck itself to resist the pump and thus allow the pressure to build up.Note that espresso is best brewed at 9 bars of pressure. So having a 15 bar pump vs a 50000 bar pump is sort of irrelevant. Don’t let that be a major selling point that the Gagglia has a 17 bar one.As stated, the little pressure dial is GOLD as it lets you “dial in” your shots, which basically just means getting some combination of grind size, amount of coffee, and tamping pressure that results in the shot being extracted in the ideal zone.It comes with a little charcoal filter which is nice, but you are better off getting a pourover filter which can remove some of the calcium and soften the water some. I use an undersink filter for my water anyways and this will definitely improve quality and lessen the scaling or need for extra filters.All in all, I am very happy with this machine and thrilled that my existing 560 works so well with it… I was afraid I’d need to shell out a ton of cash for an uber grinder as almost all the forums say, “spend more on the grinder than the maker”.
Amazon Customer –
We have had this espresso machine for over a year and we absolutely love it. One thing we love is that it’s small enough to be packed in a large box (along with our external grinder and other equipment) and taken on trips. Lattes in the morning on family trips has been a huge blessing for all of our family members as opposed to someone being sent out as the sacrificial coffee getter every morning. I guarantee you this machine has paid itself off twice over this year. We use a chefwave external grinder on the 2 or 3 setting depending on the freshness of the beans and that gets the pressure just right. We love how you can monitor your shot with the pressure gauge. I do wish the steam was a bit more powerful. It takes about 2 min to get the milk steamed for a latte. But this is a trade off that’s worth it to me for the size of the machine. It hasn’t really held us back.
Simone –
First, I like this machine. I’ve had a BES820 for several years. A small piece of tubing or connector broke a number of years ago, but a local repair shop that was able to buy parts from Breville at the time fixed it, and it’s been a champ since then. So, I got another for our vacation home. So far so good. But now the BES820 has broken again, and I’ve learned that due to a change in policy, it is NO LONGER REPAIRABLE because they won’t sell parts to repair places. This is a ton of resources to go into the waste stream because the company has decided that they want you to purchase more of their machines. So I’ve gone from being a devoted Breville user to now being a sworn anything-but-Breville espresso drinker. Super disappointed in this company.Updating: I learned that they have a policy where they (Breville) will fix machines for a flat fee of $249. I presume that one pays one’s own shipping costs to return the system to the company. If they can’t fix it, they will replace it. [Hopefully parts would also enter the recycling or refurbishing waste stream rather than landfill in such a case.] However, we opened our broken machine up and discovered that an electrical wire connector had just vibrated off. So it was an easy fix and free. I am of mixed mind on this. Good that it’s repairable, definitely. I still find it disappointing that they won’t make repairs easier/cheaper to carry out because they do not sell parts to outside parties. I would be so mad if I had sent the whole rig back to the company and paid $325 (for flat fee plus shipping) and it was just for a loose wire that I could fix with no tools or parts. In any case, while it gets complicated fast under the hood, it’s still worth looking inside to see if it’s something super obvious and easy to fix. Or you can contact them through their web page to inquire about repairs through them.
Karla Smith –
I got this for my husband for Christmas. He loves it and has been making espressos and lattes daily. This product makes espresso making very easy and simple. The pressure gauge is very handy for dialing in your grind. They really thought of all the little details needs for a good quality machine. So glad I made this purchase!
Dave –
If you just want to make espresso drinks at home and want something quick and easy, there machines a lot less than half the price to use with pressurized filters and that have an easy to use steam wands. But if you are ready, or plan to soon, move up to professional style non-pressurized filters, then this is a great machine for the beginner up through intermediate user at a very good price.One thing I want to say upfront, ALWAYS run an empty shot before making your espresso. The first shot runs about 20 degrees below the optimal 200 degrees and will result in an under-extracted espresso. It is also good to heat up your grouphead, portafilter and cup. It makes a very very good espresso that probably can only be beat by a $2.000+ machine. I used a non-pressurized filter on my previous machine, but noticed that the shots with the infuser brought some of the subtle tasted characteristics from my coffee beans. It is important to use a good quality conical burr grinder in order to grinds that are fine enough to use with a non-pressurized filter. I use the Breville smart grinder pro. I think this is a better way to go rather then getting the Breville Barista Express with the built-in grinder, for numerous reasons. One is that it is more flexible than the built-in one, which only has 30 settings. The smart pro has 60 settings so you can use it to get coarse grinds for a French press and other coffee makers. It is also much easier to clean and allows you to upgrade to a more advance espresso machine without having to buy a new grinder.The steaming wand works very well after a small bit of practice. There are some videos on youtube that are helpful. After some research it seemed the best milk to use is grassfed whole milk. So I bought organic grassfeed whole milk, and wow it is the way to go. It tastes great and easy to get an excellent microfoam. I highly recommend that you give it a try.The pressure gauge looks cool, but is totally unnecessary. I wish the tamper were a heavier all metal construction, though this lighter one is needed to use the magnetic holder, which is convenient. The tamper words oaky, so I will just have to get used to it. Overall this is a great machine at this price.update: 13December:thought I would address of common complaints I’ve noticed in some reviews. One being that it uses too much water and that the drip trays fills up to fast. Both are due to the fact that the steam wand purges (through the back of the tray) hot water after use, which is good so that if you pull another shot the water won’t be too hot. To me, it’s not a big deal to refill it. As far as the tray filling up, just do what I do … empty the tray each time you use it. It is very simple and only takes a few seconds. A plus is that the tray design is very easy to remove and install .. it is really no big deal at all.
Andrew –
First I will say that I’m relatively new to the art of espresso making. I started off with a boiler machine and quickly realized that I could never achieve real espresso without a pump machine. IMHO, a boiler machine makes really strong coffee but not espresso.After reviewing they various machines I was about ready to give up on ever thinking that I could find an affordable, good machine. Every machine no matter what the price point had discouraging things said about it.I finally decided to take a risk and try this machine. Espresso making has quite a learning curve but this machine accurately controls 2 of the 5 variables: brew pressure and brew temp. the dose, grind and tamp are up to you.The other thing I like about this machine is that it has a razor tool to trim the puck to set the dose to the same level time after time. Essentially 3 of the 5 variables are now controlled which makes it easier to make consistent shots.I started off with some freshly ground, locally roasted coffee and had them grind it for what they recommended for pump machines. This was a number 3.5 on their machine. I also had them grind some at 3.25.Upon trying both of them the 3.25 was better with an extraction time of about 20-25 seconds. The 3.5 setting on their grinder yielded a 15 second extraction time. I think I will have them drop the grinder setting down to 3.0 the next time and test that out and I should be exactly where I need to be in the 25-35 second range.I know there have been some negative reviews on this product but based on my experience this machine is a great machine for the $500 price. It’s only day 4 but I will keep you updated.
Lisa F –
I love everything about this machine! Ease of use, ease of cleaning… the steamer…how it looks at my coffee bar, and the taste of the expresso! If you spend on this machine, spend on quality expresso beans! We opted for this machine because we love Breville, and we wanted to buy the Breville grinder separately rather than have it in the machine ( just in case a repair or replacement needed to be made as the grinder is usually what breaks) Both work great! Very happy with our Breville!
Binder_MDBinder_MD –
The INFUSER is ideal for those who want to control the espresso as much as possible. This machine replaces a 10-year-old mostly manual Saeco Aroma, which made the richest double shots. The INFUSER has semi-automatic and manual functions/controls. It is programmable to the amount of espresso dosed and has an 8 degree C temperature range. The pressure gauge provides feedback regarding the combination of size of the ground and amount, ultimately determining the pressure. Incremental changes in ground size will allow you to adjust the espresso for maximum flavor and taste. The machine seems well-built, although I have only had it for a week.1 week update: It took a few days to adjust my coffee grind and amount to The INFUSER. I use the single wall 2-cup filter. My coffee is STONE STREET Rainforest Espresso and Miscela Privata mixed 1:1. The coffee will affect the final result of grind and amount (the TWO variables), as well as the taste (of course). The Miscela is oily dark brown, and the Rainforest is drier, medium-dark brown. The grind is set on 4th smallest on a Rancilio burr grinder. 18 grams of coffee in the 2-cup single wall, tamped firmly. [I use a dosing funnel specific for 54mm.] I don’t need the RAZOR tool now because the tamped grind just fits in the filter. During extraction, the pressure dial moves near the upper limit of “normal” infusion pressure, and the resulting crema is excellent. However, I needed the RAZOR tool when I was learning how to properly use this machine for MY coffee. I will now report that my INFUSER espresso is not BETTER than the Aroma’s, BUT it is CONSISTENTLY as good as the BEST the Aroma was able to produce. Once you determine how to best make a cup, this machine will produce highly consistent, rich espresso. It will pull out the BEST the beans have to offer!I have not yet used the program function to adjust pour amount and water temperature. I am already so impressed with this machine and feel it compares well with higher priced machines. I plan to take extraordinarily careful cleaning steps and will follow up here in 6 months.
Mitchell Honan –
I love this machine. Easy to use after some practice, and very dependable.
Amazon Customer –
1) Take the time to dial in the machine, that includes reading the manual. Failure to do, so will result in poor quality shots.2) Make sure that you have a good grinder paired with this unit. Using pre ground coffee is not doing your machine any justice.3) Good coffee makes all the difference, the fresher the better.Makes consistent great shots at a fraction of what it cost you from a coffeehouse. Not quite a plug and play unit, but making those epic shots can be had and once that’s achieved, your in heaven.***Update***Since purchasing this unit in early December of 2020 I’ve recently had the Decale/Clean light pop on. So I followed the instructions to the letter. Problem was no water comes out of the filter basket. After allot of research online, Breville has failed to update the instruction book. Not to worry, it’s not nearly as bad as your thinking.Newer Infuser models BES840XL made in the last year DO NOT come with the rubber cleaning disc with a hole in the middle. Don’t be alarmed, this is a update that is actually better. With no hole in the cleaning disc (You still put a cleaning tablet in the center of the rubber cleaning disc), the water now cycles back and comes out in the drip tray. This newer way forces the cleaning solution to clean more of the machine. After the cleaning cycle is complete. Run the machine like you normally would without coffee a few times. Collecting the water in the jug provided. Also run the hot water and steam wand a few seconds. After that your set to go.
Karen –
I have been looking at a new espresso machine for over a year. I read reviews, compared prices and could never bring myself to pushing the Add to Cart button. Then I came across this one on a daily deal. It just seemed to be right for me, and my old Cuisinart was over five years old, so I did it. I am so glad I did. My old machine was just a basic machine with dual walled baskets. The Breville comes with both dual walled and single walled baskets so you can actually learn to make espresso. It also puts out a measured dose of water. I quickly learned that I had been under extracting on my old machine, which translates into using more coffee for the same amount of espresso. I am using one third less coffee for my daily Americano, so eventually this machine will pay for itself.This machine is well designed and seems well built. I have been using it for just a few days, but I have no reservations about giving it a double thumbs up. I am now a barista thanks to this machine. I have fine tuned my grind and with the pressure indicator on the front of the machine I can see that I am using the right amount of tamping to get a full flavored creamy shot (double!). The steam wand is well built with a swivel ball attachment to the machine to allow you to swing it out and up to get it into a taller cup. The machine heats up quickly and puts out both hot water and steam in just a few moments. The accessories that come with the machine are quality. With a shiny stainless head on the tamper and a heavy stainless pitcher plus a tool to shave the top of the coffee dose for a perfect shot you have all you need to make coffee that you love.
Excellent gracias –
Excelente gracias la recomiendo muchísimo 💯💯💯💯
Richard –
I honestly thought buying this would be exactly the same as buying the Barista only without the grinder.I wanted the grinder to be separate because1) I may not like the grinder and couldn’t swap it out without the expresso machine going with it.2) The grinder or expresso machine might go bad before the other and then I’d need to replace both even though only one was bad.Anyway mine is way louder than his. Maybe there is just that much variability and it has nothing to do with the model or maybe this really is that much louder. We bought them only a couple months apart and his pressure gauge has it’s rivets in a different spot from mine so parts might be different…But it makes a good cup of coffee! And I think I would stack my Baratza Sette 270 grinder up to his any day!
SD –
Original purchase of this model was in February 2014, after giving up on an expensive (for home) Rancho Sillia which did not live up to the hype, and on the last run, too expensive to fix. (heating element). With The Breville I had the opposite experience, and in fact it was initially recommended by the rancho Sillia repair company. The original 2014 model of the Infuser (breville) was fine until the pressure dial which is very useful in diagnosing if your beans are right, the tamp is right, etc just stopped working. That’s when I ordered the revised model of the same machine (but subsequently learned the gauge problem was easily fixable by running white vinegar and water through the old machine. I decided to keep the newer version anyway because I liked the opportunity to adjust the temperature that is part of the newer version (but not in the original).The newest version of this model has other adjustments that can easily be made. (I didn’t notice if that was possible in the older version). For example if you want the double espresso button to just make 60ml of espresso, and not what comes out with the factory setting, it’s very easy to adjust this.A great purchase. Highly recommended.
Sad but true –
This is probably the best starter espresso maker, but a few tips will get you on your way to a good espresso machine experience:1) Descaling should NOT be dependent on warning lights. Descale especially if you have hard water preemptively every month, with or without a cleaning warning light. Same on purging the grouphead. The manual does not tell you this, but online Breville recommends descaling once a month (without mention of hardness or warning lights)! Thermocoils are extremely sensitive to calcification which will ruin this machine….UPDATE 5/30/19: Found an important error on the Manual which could potentially ruin your machine/warranty: Breville Manual descaling instructions are ambiguous with regard to the amount of diluted descaling solution which you run through this machine. In one part of the instructions they tell you to “fill the water tank” with the descaling solution, yet in a further section of the same instructions they suggest you will only have half of the one liter diluted solution left once you run it through once, which can only mean that they did NOT intend that you “fill the water tank” to the top (with diluted descale solution included?) as they indicate above, but that you only pour the ONE LITER of the diluted descaling solution into the water tank. This is a huge error which needs to be corrected on their manual, along with the frequency of descaling, which, again, should be every month independent of the warning light as Breville online clearly states and is not mentioned in the manual. BREVILLE TAKE NOTE!2) This machine will use a lot of water, and drip tray will be filled faster than others.3) Keep a flat head screwdriver handy to switch portafilter baskets, you will need it and Breville didn’t think of it (they thought of just about everything else!).4) Use the Razor tool to level the coffee after first tamping. Great tool.5) Get yourself a plunger milk frother (Bodum or other) and forget about the steam wand. It’s faster, failproof and doesn’t add steam to the milk, which leaves it creamier.6) Use only freshly roasted coffee beans (no more than a few weeks after roasting) and use a conical burr grinder. Don’t go with the “Use by” date on the coffee beans, use only “Roasted on–/–/–” coffee. This will require some due diligence and $$, but it’s worth it.Give yourself 2-3 weeks to master the right combination of coffee and “barista” techniques that will produce the perfect shot for you and stick to it, experimenting only with different coffees. This machine is very forgiving on everything but the descaling process, so heed my advice and descale on a monthly basis!
justme –
—UPDATES 5/25/15—1. Used this every day for over a year. Solid buy, would do it again. No breakages. I do follow the cleaning instructions religiously.2. I was wrong about the machine only delivering 1 or 2 ounce cups. This morning I finally read the instructions on how to “program” the machine and made myself a 4-ounce cup of strong coffee, similar to what you find in europe. Divine! I got everything ready as usual. Hit the program button. Hit the “one cup” button. Let it fill up about four ounces. Then hit the “one cup” button again. The “one-cup” is now programmed to deliver about 4-oz of coffee. Brilliant!—Original Review—I found it difficult to research espresso machines:- Price range is huge, from $50 to $5000.- Reviews come from a bewildering range of backgrounds: coffee-snobs & anti-snobs, professional baristas & novices.After reading reviews for a couple of days, I selected the Breville 840XL.I’ve had the machine one month.I am no barista, so this review is geared towards the novice explorer.General Observations:- The pressure of the water/steam is controlled by the machine. It is amazingly repeatable & scientifically-precise.–> i.e. the pressure gage on the machine responds to even tiny changes in grain size or tamp-pressure.- The temperature of the espresso is also very controlled, and it’s not as hot as your regular cup of Joe.- It’s taken me one month to find & consistently reproduce a cup that I enjoy. It was worth the wait.- My guests & visitors have all been amazed by the shots. They unanimously say they’re the best they’ve had.- This machine serves exactly one-ounce or two-ounce shots. It will not make a pressed cup of coffee like you get in Europe.- It’s strong. I mean really strong. Like I-feel-it-in-my-brain strong.–> i.e. after two older guests got hot flashes and a third got heart palpitations, I stocked up on decaf beans.Specific Tips:- Buy a burr grinder first, learn how to use it, clean it, etc. (I bought the Breville & am happy with it.)- Buy the Breville milk frother second, learn how to use it, clean it, etc.–> It’ll change your life.–> Way easier than wand-frothing: faster to make, easier to clean-up.–> The Breville milk frother makes Angelina’s-style hot chocolate easily, which makes it worth the 120-bucks right there.—-> Guys, if you don’t know what that is, then look it up & make it for your girl. & beware the consequences!—-> Only change from the instructions: don’t drop room-temp chocolate into the frother, nuke it first & use a spoon to drop it into the hot cream.—-> …but, I digress.Bean Selection–> Consensus from Amazon-reviewers is that Lavazza Super Crema whole bean is the ideal. My guests seem to like this bean the best.–> Personally, I prefer Starbucks Sumatra. These beans are very oily.–> NOTE: if you decide that the bean you like best is an oily bean, then you’ll need to clean the grinder weekly. Takes five minutes and gets less messy as you get the hang of it.Grinder- Follow the darned grinder instructions!–> Start at the coarse end of the espresso-spectrum, work your way towards fine.–> Only go as fine as you need to get the results you want. Middle worked best for me.Espresso Machine Pressure Gage- Watch the pressure gage carefully for every shot. But defer to your palate. The machine can’t tell you what tastes best.- I find that the best tasting shots come at lower pressures. I go with the lowest possible pressure that still produces a nice crema.Water Source:- I use a five-gallon water-dispenser to fill the espresso-machine’s tank. TDS reading is about 4, which is almost distilled.- Rationale: for five hundred bucks, I don’t want to fill it with rusty-calcium well water & then have to decalcify every month or have it break. You can get a TDS meter for about twenty bucks on Amazon. Buy one. Test your water. Only use water with a low TDS reading. Don’t assume bottled water has a low TDS. I’ve seen it as high as 200.My Patronizing Opinions:- Many people point out that this machine is Barista-Child’s-Play, since you control only four variables: bean, amount, fineness, and tamp-pressure. (Not temp or pull-pressure.)- I took a rigorous scientific approach and it still took one month to find the right combination.- Other reviewers bought this machine & made an espresso they liked on the first pull.- Pay attention to the process and you will begin teaching yourself how to be a barista.- Be willing to work with the four variables for several weeks to get it right.Transition from Coffee-Drinking to Espresso-Drinking:- Until now, I’ve made a brutally strong batch of French-pressed coffee each AM.- When I go to Starbucks, I get either a triple-tall Americano or a four-shot Grande Americano.–> Either way, each would last about 2-hours each AM.- This machine makes only one thing: a single-ounce or a two-ounce shot of espresso, like in Italy.- The Italians drink it straight, right there, standing up, within five minutes. I’m guessing that even an Italian would rate this espresso as authentic.- This machine forced me to depart from my old ways: It’s a smaller cup & I have to drink it within 15-minutes or so before the flavor goes sour.–> I’m aware that the ideal Americano has the hot water in the cup prior to the shot, to preserve the crema. Will do that eventually. Right now, I still taste each shot first.Conclusion:- This machine is a safe bet for your first real espresso machine.- Be willing to work at it- Be aware that drinking shots of espresso is a very different experience from regular coffee-drinking.- Cappuccinos or lattes are also a safe bet. But, they get cold quicker than those made at Starbucks. Maybe Starbucks makes shots at a higher temperature?Biggest surprise so far the joy it brings to guests. Let them watch you make one, then ask them to play the barista. They have so much fun! Go all the way & buy a burr-grinder, knock box, & tamping mat.There’s a documentary on Netflix on the history of the cappuccino called “Perfect Cappuccino.” Content aside, this 1.5-hr documentary will give you plenty of opportunity to see professional baristas making espressos & hear their theories on how to pull a good shot. Watch it after you buy it and you’ll really appreciate how much they put in, how they tamp it, and how it looks as it comes out. Personally, I enjoyed the documentary — I found the narrator’s views compassionate & well-balanced. Other reviewers found her anti-Starbucks.Lastly, if you buy all three pieces of equipment at once, then you’ll be on instructions-overload. I staggered the purchases by two weeks for each machine: Burr Grinder, then Milk Frother, then Espresso Maker. This may sound silly, but many of the reviewers say things like: “I Couldn’t get a pressure reading on the espresso machine, so I cranked up the grinder to super-fine and then grinder wouldn’t work.” All of that is covered in the grinder instructions. But if you get all three things at once, you’re going to try it blind (come on, admit it) and only go to the instructions for each machine as a last resort.It’s only been one month. Perhaps in another month, all of my advice will be different. I’m still on the left side of a steep learning curve.Good luck!
Silverface –
I have had this machine for 5 years. I’m on a fixed income and it was a major purchase.I should have returned it, but repacking & shipping was too much hassle and I delayed it too long (I’m disabled and kept trying to get it to work right, letting the warranty expire rather than returning it. That part is my fault.). The fact, though, that it rarely works and even then only by using methods NOT approved by Breville is NOT my fault!I have replaced the silicone seal twice, thoroughly cleaning the “guts”. I clean the thing religiously – and one time out of 5 it will reach the very bottom of the espresso pressure reading on the meter, resulting in a weak cup of espresso and a thin, wimpy amount of crema around the edge of the cup.Plus – the ONLY way it sporadically works is with q grind resembling confectioner’s suga – a brown powder (and this was with the THIRD grinder I had to get – actually a gift from my son – a $500 Rocky, on its #8 setting, FAR below what they recommend for espresso.As far as tamping goes – I’m 6’2 and weigh 223lbs – I have to use nearly enough weight to lift myself from the floor. I think 30# of tamping pressure is a misprint and they meant *300*. AND I have to use the not-recommended “twisting” motion or it never hits even minimal pressure.There is no rhyme nor reason for the few times it works properly. I filter my water before filling the tank AND change the internal filter, clean the parts, and as mentioned have changed the silicone seal. It doesn’t leak, so internal connections are OK. My coffee is vacuum-sealed and ground fresh every “try” (and I’ve tried pre-ground with the other baskets.My son (who got me the current grinder and worked as a barista) was going to replace the filter basket with a better one – but this Breville uses a small, non-standard size (which also doesn’t fit the filter basket holders on any grinders) – so you have to hold the basket assembly while you grind or guess at the amount, grinding into another container.I’ve given up. I can’t afford a decent espresso machine, am not going to donate an inconsistently-working machine to charity. So I use a $35 manual Aeropress – which makes a much better cup of semi-espresso.The Breville sits on a counter and is rarely used as a milk steamer – I guess until I can get someone to take it awayA truly unfortunate waste of money that I wish I could afford to replace. NOT recommended.
M. Varela –
I love this machine, and I cannot get enough of it. Though it is not a cheap device, it is the most economical choice for those who want the most “bang for their buck.” The BES840XL comes with a multitude of accessories, including a magnetic tamper, spoon, cleaning device, cleaning tablets, and single wall and double wall filters. There is a storage space underneath the machine for these accessories that keeps them handy and out of sight.While I cannot say anything about those who have had physical issues with their machines, I can about the ones who cannot figure out how to use it and blame the machine.I read a review stating that the writer could not get the gauge to move into the desired espresso range, and I believe that the review was unfounded. Moreover, I read a review or two expressing concern over the complexity of the machine. Granted, a faulty pressure gauge may be an issue, but grind and tamp may be issues as well. I too could not get the gauge needle into the desired zone at first, but then I read the instruction guide. I switched to a finer grind and a lighter tamp to reach the desired pressure level. Unfortunately, I think the grind I am using is too fine; I have great crema, but a more acidic and bitter taste. I believe if I lessen the fineness of the grind and increase the tamp pressure a little, I will have the perfect shot pull. As far as difficulty is concerned, that is what I love about more expensive machines. I do not shy away from a little work and prefer to gain skills in even the simplest tasks. I was bored with my cheaper machine that did not have the pressure to create crema and could not be adjusted to create a shot of espresso close to that of a what a real barista at a coffee shop could produce. I am a novice, but reading the manual and researching a little online has helped me to be close to perfecting the art of espresso making.My only concern with this device is the reviews I read on faulty hardware and sub-par customer service. I cannot comment on either because I have not had the machine long. However, I do believe that a 1 year warranty for such an expensive device is a bit inadequate. I will update my review if I have any issues. Currently, I think this is an excellent buy.
J. Buck –
Like others here, I did a lot of research and narrowed things down to the Rancilio Silvia, Breville Barista Express, and the Breville infuser. The Silvia is probably the robust and long-term reliable machine with the highest quality components. What deterred me from purchasing this machine is the general consensus that it is overpriced and lacks the new technology (PID for example) that can be found in other sub $1000 machines. The Barista express was initially my first choice but the grinder is widely reported to be unsatisfactory relative to the machine’s capabilities. The infuser is the same machine but without the grinder. I put the savings toward a Baratza Sette 270 grinder. Infuser + Sette are close to the price of the Silvia alone.I also found an interesting video about the pumps used in many of these espresso machines and how easy it is to replace them. Can’t post a link but it’s pretty easy to find. I would have thought that you get an increasingly more robust pump the more you pay but this seems not to be the case until you reach really high-end equipment. Equipment failure was a big factor in my selection process but I ultimately decided that none were more likely than the other to have some form of failure during the course of ownership. The electrical and mechanical components in these machines seem very similar and in the case of the pumps, very similar if not identical. The more basic the machine (Silvia) the more reliable it probably becomes.A couple of additional thoughts- the machine is very, very nice looking. As others have mentioned, I was actually surprised at how nice the fit and finish of the machine is and it portrays an overall high quality look and feel. Nothing weird about it’s design. The steam wand works great, the magnetic tamper storage is awesome, the portafilter is heavy duty, the hot water dispenser will turn an espresso into an americano very quickly, and my wife loves using the machine as much as I do. Very happy with the espresso and coffee drinks served up by the Infuser. For context, I would consider my wife and I pretty serious coffee snobs. We’ve been home brewing for ages, and home roasting for a few years as well. Previously, for espresso, I was using a Rok manual press which just wasn’t cutting it.
Yesi Ibarra –
I’ve had it over 2 years now and still use it EVERY day.I rarely drink coffee but love that I can use it for hot water to make matcha or tea, I can froth milk for hot chocolate or chai, or serve special coffee drinks for guests.I see others reviewed on damages, but I have been diligent to schedule cleanings (changing filter and using the cleaning pill things) on my calendar without fail every other month, as well as cleaning it after each use.So long as you take good care of it, it should last a long time. Like I said, I use it every single day, sometimes multiple times a day.
Perfectrancenow –
Would I recommend buying this? Absolutely. But here are some things you should be aware of.If you follow the instructions on how to properly pull a shot, pre-warm your cup, and steam your milk, it uses about 1/4 of the tank. Sometimes even 1/3 of it. After you steam, hot water is released into the back compartment in order to get the temperature back down.If you buy this, please only use filtered water. Invest in replacement Breville filters for the tank, and cleaning tablets for the portafilter. Remember, these are sensitive mechanical parts. And if you follow the basic care instructions in the manual, your machine will take care of you if you take care of it.When using this machine for morning coffee, you need to turn it on and let it stay on for 20 minutes. It needs to have time to get hot. Make sure your tank is full, and empty out the drip tray – the drip tray gets almost full after each use.Right now, I want to steam my milk before pulling a shot. But that seems pretty difficult. I might be forced to pull the shot, and then do the milk.I’ll try to add more feedback later. You’ll also need to invest in a burr grinder. And I would recommend either an espresso dosing cup. Or a dosing rim to screw onto the top of the portafilter. Get a burr grinder that will accept a 54mm portafilter. Get a coffee scale (Hario coffee scale) and weigh out about 19g of fresh beans. Do yourself a favor and invest in a very heavy tamping device. And when you tamp using the dosing ring, don’t be shy about it and throw your body weight into that tamp. You’ll have a beautiful shot with the non-pressurized double shot basket.Your total investment in the machine, grinder and accessories will run you about $700. Go with the Breville as opposed to some Italian or other European crap which you can’t get parts for and work on it on your own. Buying European = sticker shock and many problems down the road. If you take my advice- use only filtered water, expect that you will waste a lot of water, buy lots of extra tank filters and backflush cleaning tablets, you should be good to go and go a long time before it needs to be de-scaled. If you take care of it (not a lot of time needed), the machine will basically pay for itself after about 100 double shots. And you can easily use this for 5 years. If you take care of it.Be patient when you start off. The instruction manual is very intuitive. Do a little at a time. Put your filter in the tank and follow the instructions. Just start out by pulling the shots. Even imperfect shots far out-preform keurigs. Be patient with the instruction manual. It is your friend and will protect your investment.Think about it — if you set this machine up for success, you will save SO MUCH money compared to the high end coffee shops. Plus you have more time to pull a beautiful shot, as opposed to the ones that the shops pulled that are definitely half-assed because they’re trying to move at the speed of lightning.Get your grinder, your Hario coffee scale, and dosing ring that clicks into the portafilter. Look in the manual and learn how to program how long you want the double shot to run water through the portafilter. If you read it, it’s actually quite easy.It doesn’t take much time, but once you get the hang of it, you will be shocked on how beautiful the shots are and the flavor complexities you’ll pick up using the non-pressurized double shot basket.I hope this helps! And again, stay away from anything from Italy. And anything where a portafilter isn’t being used (as opposed to a spout, bad shots, and hard to clean internals for 5x the price).If there’s anything else I can think of, I will add on. This investment will save you loads of money down the road. And you can take pride in doing better job at home.
debb2002 –
I spoke to retailers, watched videos and spent weeks reading reviews. Negative reviews were few in comparison to the rave ones and seemed to be operator error related or unit defects that just happen. The rave reviews, most like mine, based upon a few days of initial use. (I’ll update routinely to post on consistency and quality.) Note that Seattle Coffee Gear gave this a two thumbs up and they know their stuff. I purchased the unit here on Amazon, “used” but in new condition and it arrived just as stated…like new. It took me 2 days of grinding, pulling, steaming and watching Breville and SCG videos, but finally pulled consistent espresso shots, loaded with crema and textured milk that poured like wet paint. I was thouroghly impressed with the unit operating and functioning exactly as the user manual stated. There were no surprises. The design of the machine includes space, storage and appearance. You’ll be proud to have this on your counter top. For those considering this machine, know that it is built well with all external parts made durable to the eye and touch. Breville considered the experienced user as well as the novice. They write a fantastic user manual and have excellent user videos on their web site and on You Tube. Their customer service is outstanding. I know this because I also own a Breville Gourmet Once Cup, a Smart Grinder and a You Brew. Any questions or concerns are prompty answered by email and you can talk to folks on the phone. They really seem to care about their reputation and the folks that buy their products.Dont expect to buy, open and pull the perfect espresso in minutes or even hours unless you already know what to do.Do expect to be excited, frustrated then thrilled to (as a beginner learn how) to grind, dose and extract. You’ll invest beans, milk and time, but the result will be well worth it.Buy this machine with confidence.One week later – I spent the week refining my grind and texturing and am now “playing’ with latte art. This machine in conjunction with the Smart Grinder are proving to be the perfect combination. The consistency of performance and results is outstanding.
Terri –
It took me a bit to get my beans ground to the finest in order to reach the perfect brewing range, but I now have it mastered and my whole family stops over for their favorite coffee drinks!! The machine is easy to use, easy to clean and works great!!
LyndonL –
If 4 stars = “I like it” and 5 stars = “I love it” then I have to go with 5 stars because once you get the hang of the Breville BES840XL, it’s a great machine. As a number of the other reviews have said, though, there is some trial and error involved before you finally get it working the way you want and getting there is frustrating.After the La Pavoni unit we’d had for 10 years died a couple of months back, I did a fair amount of research on rival models as well as the 860XL as a replacement but kept coming back to the two Breville models. The built-in grinder would have been really handy but concerns over leaks over time reported by owners in the seal between the dual boilers (not to mention the price difference) prompted me to go with the 840XL “Infuser”.First off, it’s a beautiful-looking machine and it looks great on the kitchen counter. Also, Breville’s packaging is Apple levels of gorgeous. There’s a handy storage tray behind the spill trap for all the bits and pieces, including pins to unclog the foaming spout, etc. .It’s also really easy to operate and I love that you can re-program the one- and two-shot volume to draw your own size of shot. When it gets dirty, the “Clean Me” light comes on and you initiate the self-clean program with the supplied detergent tablets.And, most importantly of all, it makes great espresso. Night and day better than the La Pavoni Lusso we had before which was really inconsistent in the quality of shot and has no programmable shot option so everything is manual. Also, the La Pavoni’s steaming spout was designed in such a way that build-up inside the spout (which was almost impossible to clean properly) would really diminish its ability to froth the milk properly. The Infuser has a completely different design and it’s awesome, giving you complete control.It took time to master The Infuser, though, and it was frustrating trying to get any consistency out of it. And that was knowing going in, based on other reviewers’ experiences, that a lot of it was in the tamping and volume of ground coffee going into the basket.I would say now, based on my experiences, the beans and the quality of the grinder (see below) might be the biggest determining factors — I would never have guessed just how *much* difference there can be between different types of beans when it comes to tamping pressure and volume. I did a lot of experimenting early on — even resorting to extracting two singles instead of one double because that was the only way I could get a decent extraction in the middle of the unit’s “Espresso Range” putting the grounds in in three stages and tamping down each time in between — but once I’d upgraded to a better grinder, I was set.Now that it looks like I’ve nailed the process, I couldn’t be happier. And my wife, who has incredibly discerning taste buds, especially for coffee, has really noticed the difference.*****************UPDATE May 2014My old Krups burr grinder died last December so I decided to make the investment in a Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder and I have to say that The Infuser is a LOT more consistent now than it used to be. Not entirely — I find that the strength of the extraction changes over time between cleaning cycles so that more tamping pressure is needed — but I no longer need to mess around with two single pulls or staged tamping.I just grind the beans, tamp them down and let The Infuser do its thing. One small issue that has cropped up in the last few weeks is that water leaks down the steaming wand where it joins the underside of the unit but that has not had any effect on the function of the machine.Still very happy.*****************UPDATE August 2014The leak in the steam wand worsened over time to the point that the unit had to be replaced but I give a HUGE thumbs up to Breville customer service here. They responded quickly to my initial support request and had arranged to replace the machine free of charge within 48 hours.Not only that but they offered to ship the new one to me in advance of the return of the faulty one (they placed a temporary charge on my credit card as insurance) enabling me to only ship the old one back after the new unit had arrived. Excellent service all the way around.I note that this machine prefers the beans to be ground slightly more finely than the previous one so another reason to invest in a grinder where you can customize the grind.
JonathanMauterer –
I’ve been back and forth for a few years on what machine to get.. I’ve always felt pressured towards the Gaggia Classic or a Rancilio Silvia. I’ve borrowed them both from friends, and they were great machines! The Silvia reallllly felt nice and I like the look of it. The Gaggia got the job done.But… the Breville does it better.People will talk about the thermocoil and lack of brass in this machine as a flaw, but will then go on to mention how you should really install a PID to control temperature fluctuations on the other machines… This machine is PID integrated and will control your temperature so much better than any thermal capacity of parts in the other machines. You’ll get consistent results and great output with minimal fuss or attention to detail.The pressure gauge is nice. It’s not a needed feature, but it’s certainly nice. It gives you an immediate heads up if something is totally off with your shot (bad tamp, bad grind, out of water, etc.) but the gauges are pretty void of real helpful information and you don’t get any numbers to associate, only the indicator colors.The steam wand is soooo usable. I’m bad at milk. I’m bad at milk on powerful steaming machines, and I’m bad at milk with big bulky wand covers and no output. I spent a half gallon of milk working on technique with this machine, and was able to get comfortable with this wand. It’s not super powerful, but this helps me a bit if I start to goof. It definitely helps a ton for the times I don’t get the wand right where it should have been and it tries to blow the biggest splashing bubbles all over my counter/machine/face. It is powerful enough to stretch and heat, but forgiving enough that you’ll be able to work on your technique if that’s a concern for you.So far I’ve only put this machine through 2 bags of espresso and 1 bag of a single-origin from local roasters but have been able to pull proper many great shots. Obviously a good grinder is key, but even then you may need to make some slight adjustments to your espresso machine depending on your beans or other situations.. the Breville lets you do this. It’s not quite as free as a manual machine, but you can program extraction time, or stop a shot at any point with the press of a button (you can stop shots with the others as well, but timers? nah.)All of that being said, I do have a complaint…. Water consumption! It feels like this machine dumps as much water into the drip tray from the 3-way as it does into the shots pulled for that cycle. Obviously this is not literally the case, but I have to empty the drip tray OFTEN. I plan on measuring the amount of water per shot and milk steaming this machine dumps, because I have a feeling it’s a substantial amount relative to tank capacity. You’ll need to keep an eye on your tank if you pull shots regularly and make sure to fill it often.TLDR: Long positive reviews are posted all around from so many about this machine because it really is worth it. It’s good for the average Starbucks convert AND for someone breaking into the third wave coffee scene on a budget. If you’re wondering if this machine is as good as it sounds, my opinion (from my currently short-term use) is YES, the Breville Infuser is definitely as good as it sounds.
brobzzz –
I really fear this won’t last for the long haul. I’m certainly enjoying my coffee right now and I feel that this extractor really pulls the flavor out of the beans; so much so that I actually find that the beans that I use are toonow bitter despite the amount of milk that we use (do I now need to find a new supplier of beans?) I find that the pressure gauge flutters all over the place and is very sensitive to how much pressure you actually apply when tamping. I find now that a double shot is too strong despite how much milk I froth with lol. I don’ t appreciate that that portafilter locks into a plastic/composite housing. I feel this should be either stainless or at least aluminum. You have to pre-warm everything to make sure that you get a nice hot shot: cup, portafilter. It produces an okay amount of steam but it takes a long time; do your steaming first. I’m scared the pump will fail some day. I tend to over tamp/ over extract and the little pump strains to fill my 2 oz. Its got a little tool tray at the back for extra parts but I’m afraid to actually put anything in there for fear that it will fill up with water which has happened to me in the past. It’s good for now. Only time will tell if it’s great. Will update hopefully. It’s fussier than some machines but I think that goes with the level of machine this is. Using a Capresso infinity burr grinder on between finest and second finest setting. Perhaps that ‘s the issue as coffee snobs drone on about in the elite coffee forums. Best thing in the world is what YOU like best.
Tom L –
I used to work for Farmer Brothers coffee and we were spoiled with a very high end employee café with unlimited usage of their commercial grade 3 portafilter machine, precision grinders with pressure controlled tampers, etc….Anyway! After leaving the company for a new position I was Jonesin’ for espresso based drinks for a while and the French press and occasional $10 per visit coffee shop visit wasn’t cutting it anymore so I started to do some serious research on a high quality machine that would not break the bank.This machine pulls a shot just as well as that $20,000+ commercial drink did (or at least the end result tasted just as good to this non-pro cupper’s tastes) and froths micro foam milk for my capps just as well too for literally a small fraction of the price. I was previously never aware of a “double walled” portafilter and while I’m in lazy mode and just want a tasty espresso with good crema I’ll use the double walled portafilter for a perfect espresso with tons of crema. When I want to work on the barista skill I’ll use e standard portafilter (I.e. the one with more holes on the bottom).This BXL heats up to proper temp in almost 10 seconds which is basically instant considering prep time is at least a minute. It has the ability to change the shot temperature and the duration but I haven’t messed with either of those and I’m just using the default although I have been meaning to adjust the shot duration as it seems to pull slightly on the long side.The water tank has a nice filter option but I would buy the cheaper 3rd party filters that combines both a charcoal filter and a water softener so that way all you have to do is use tap water (don’t ever use RO, Zero, or distilled either unless you add Several drops of Concentrace).The cleaning reminder is handy and to protect your investment I would do the descale and cleaning when the reminder light comes on, at the very least to stop the blinking that becomes (probably intentionally) irritating after ignoring it for a week!Have read some reviews about leaks and yes even saw the high end commercial grade machine have this problem and need maintenance but I’m not sure if the water problem might be from others removing the tray too early. It seems to exhaust some of the residual water/steam into the drip tray even after the flush so I’ve just been waiting until after cleaning and turning off the machine and hearing no sounds coming from the machine and then I’ll pull the tray and almost all of the water then is in the drip tray.I settled on this unit based on research, some knowledge, and from past experiences with De’Longhi’s horrible and literally non-existent customer service that just blatantly ignore 3-4 emails and voicemail attempts to reach customer service. I considered another lower end $100 range machine that has the forced (too high) 15-bar range which was good for me at e time as a starter unit that my wife find deeply discounted in the $50 range, but figured I wouldn’t be satisfied with the results so thought it was time to invest a bit more into a higher end unit as you get what you pay for.I’ve only had this unit now for around 3 months so I cannot comment yet on build reliability but I’m hoping/expecting with proper maintenance and care (and a little luck) this unit will last in the 7-10 year range with daily usage.
RJayRJay –
On 7th year! No problems! Excellent espresso machine! Good milk steamer for making latte art. I upgraded from my DeLonghi EC-155 because of the weak inconsistent steamer. What a wise decision! This machine (owned for 4 months) has so many more useful features compared to Rancio Silvia V3, at less cost. Coupled with an burr grinder of at least a Baratza Encore ( or more expensive ) quality, I’m able to use the single wall filter basket for a perfect espresso with rich crema. The PID temperature control and especially the pressure gauge are a must—the pressure gauge gives you feedback to adjust your grind, tamping pressure or coffee volume for consistent espresso. The milk steamer gave me that ‘wet paint’ steamed milk the first shot- the finish required to make sweet latte art. If you are new at this, it does take some practice though—but feel confident that it is your learning curve that must improve, and not the weakness of this machine.I get compliments on the results and it tastes as good as the best coffee houses in the big cities- and far better than Starbucks and run of the mill shops. Mainly those shops don’t take the care that you will. And you will savie so much money making your own!Making espresso lattes is so much more rewarding than a totally manual machine: features like sucking the used puck dry of water and auto flushing the steamer to cool down the unit for the next espresso are powerful advantages over a fully manual machine like the EC 155 or a Silvia.Cleaning is easy and it’s very well thought out. Highly recommend for a espresso – steamer in this price range of $500. Solid construction and gives you everything, like SS milk cup, dual and single wall baskets, cleaning tools and water filters, cleaning tablets. Easy to buy filters and tablets on Amazon.Five Stars!!!!
James Petersen –
I thought I would check in almost three years down the road while I’m sipping my cappuccino. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. I have never had any problems with this machine. It looks and performs as it did when I took it out of the box. It pulls consistent and dependable shots every time and with good beans (I usually try to mix Italian roast from Peet’s mailed monthly with a dark bean from Ka’u Coffee Plantation on the Big Island.) and a good grinder, (I use the matching Breville grinder) The coffee produced is excellent. The first time I made a double for my piano teacher, a die-hard Starbuck’s fan, she said “OMG! is this what coffee is really supposed to taste like?” (She now has her own double-wall glass cup that she leaves at my house.) I’ve had a few espresso machines and tasted the product of many more and in my opinion, this is the best one under $1000.A few tips:• It’s a good idea to buy a second portafilter. It makes things go quicker• I’ve not yet had the cleaning warning pop up. This is probably because I always use filtered water.• I repeat myself: always use filtered purified water. No matter what machine you use. Trust it. You’ll thank me.• It will take a while to get the amount, grind, and tamp down. This is true of any machine. Just keep with it.• I usually set my grinder to “14” and tamp with quite a bit of force. The pressure gauge gives pretty good feedback about grind and tamp.• a solution of “Rinza” is really good for cleaning the steaming wand. Just put it in the frothing pitcher and let it soak for a while.• the tip of the wand unscrews easily for more serious cleaning.• Take a look at the documentation. You can adjust both the duration of the flow and the temperature. It makes a difference.•This isn’t a machine tip but right now, I’m having my cappuccino in a Yeti stainless insulated high-ball size container with a lid. Why? because it’s just the right size and it keeps the coffee hot for a very long time.I don’t really have any negatives but I would like a larger reservoir and the little storage compartment isn’t that useful but what the machine does really well is to consistently make very good coffee while looking quite nice on the counter.–Seven years along. It’s still making espresso and cappuccino that is at least the equal of anything I had in Italy last month. Just be sure to run a cleaning cycle when it tells you to. You just can’t go wrong with this machine if you take care of it. I always use filtered water.
Armiof1 –
I’ve had this machine for about 8 months and it is a great machine for the money. Easily better than the Gaggia Dual Boiler and hands down beats the equivalently priced DeLonghi. It also comes with everything you need to get, except the cups and coffee (for which I highly recommend fresh roasted beans). If you’re looking at other machines then expect to spend at least another $20 on a tamper (usually about $50), $20 on a milk jug and thermometer for steaming milk, and cleaning supplies.This machine has a small thermocoil (not a thermoblock which is far less efficient) equivalent to a single boiler, so you cannot brew and steam at the same time (not a huge issue, just a matter of timing). I typically have to steam first, then I pull my shot while concurrently keeping the milk in motion to keep it from separating.Speaking of frothing, this machine does require a little technique, and it is slow, but it produces that magical wet paint you look for in frothed milk. To pull a great shot you need a decent grinder. I use the Baratza Encore (which I immediately calibrated to the finest setting and modified it to make the grinder stepless). I have had virtually no problems with it, but that will be the next item to be replaced.As far as shot quality, this machine is great…for the price. Keep in mind, this machine is $500. Yes, you could buy a Gaggia Classic or Rancilio Silvia, but they have their own limitations and quirks; mainly most people that buy those machines mod them heavily to get them to perform just right. If you have the time, money, and inclination then they aren’t bad choices, but it’s not something I wanted to deal with.I’ve found over 8 months that this machine prefers light, dryer roasts to pull a consistently great shot. It doesn’t work as well with darker, more oily espresso beans. The shots tend to lack a consistent crema and actually end up a bit more on the watery side compared to that nice, syrupy, sweet drink known as espresso.Keeping all of this in mind, the reason I gave it 5/5 stars is because it is truly a great machine, in relation to the price of the machine. Yes, you can get a better machine, for about twice the price. With this machine you can make your starbucks drinks, plain lattes, simple shots, and even Americanos. I highly recommend this machine as it has been great and extremely dependable.
Kristy –
I bought this for my kids for Christmas. They love it works great. Have never had any problems with it.