The most common failure for Breville coffee makers under warranty is the burr grinder.
Next is the boiler/pressure valve for espresso units.
If your credit card doubles the warranty, you should find the faults in six months.
Otherwise, you have a 50/50 of this being a great deal.
Thanks for this, I just can’t decide on an espresso maker. All seem like a blood sacrifice and you just dont know if they will last…I just can’t justify so much money for something that could fail so quickly. Sticking with my perculator…
I bought this for the house the last time it came up on Woot, and it has been fantastic. I replaced an old Mr Coffee espresso machine we had.
Our old machine was very basic and we tended not to use it because it was very difficult to use in any sort of consistent way, and without an integrated grinder we would always end up grinding too much coffee and would just toss it out. It also left a lot of parts to clean.
The Breville was a game changer. We typically just make “Americano coffee” and it takes no time and is super easy to do. Just grind, tamp, brew then slid mug over an inch and turn on hot water dispenser and it dispenses a metered amount of water. Done. It is fantastic and tastes amazing.
That gage, which i thought was just there to look pretty, turned out to be clutch when setting your grind size.
I am super happy with this purchase.
Bought mine new about 7 years ago, still making great coffee, burr grinder failed (nylon gear stripped out) and I replaced it with a stand alone burr grinder which works great. I still have a cappuccino daily and this machine has paid for it’s self many times over. If I were to do it again, I would consider a stand alone machine, a grinder, and a frother. As you can see, that adds up to over the cost of this machine though and this is a good deal. Buy a package of water filters and cleaning tabs in bulk. When you’re done frothing milk, make sure to clear it out by running a bit of extra steam. I also tend to run a pre-coffee water run to make sure it all comes to temp during the coffee cycle.
ENJOY
These kind of machines are a step up form the K cup crowd but after they break, you can’t fix them and they become landfill. This isn’t a true espresso machine either as it relies on pressure from the portafilter, not from the actual boiler. Still . . .
Good machine if you are not too particular.
and want them to make their own.
Consistently decent performance
Not particularly expensive or particularly inexpensive
Grinder not particularly good.
Bean storage not particularly attractive, consistent with combo machines.
Not particularly hard to clean.
Not particularly hard to use.
Not easy to figure out what it is doing.
Not particularly serviceable.Proprietary everything, filter , portafilter
Dialing in a bit vague
Acceptable, but not destined to be an heirloom
If you are getting started it will help you have a cup of coffee while you are figuring out what you want.
May be all you need
and are not too particular.
At this price point its ok but really, if you want a real espresso, buy a real machine. Real machines are easy to fix, will always have resale value and make a superior espresso.
YMMV
I think what you are referring is pressurized vs non-pressurized baskets. This machine comes with both. It gives you an option to manually dial-in your shots, which means the pressure comes from the boiler. Don’t mislead people please.