Nice coffee machine, not sure if Breville are discontinuing this model with the release of new touch oracle BES990BSS. But at RRP $3500 for the touch model it's hard to justify the cost when you can pick up this BES980 for less than half the price. The specification is basically the same from what I gather, just the introduction of the new colour touch screen is new.
I am not sure if Myer got any extended warranty scheme such as Good Guys, Binglee, HN…etc. I bought BES870 from Binglee sale on ebay few weeks ago. Then went to the shop and bought the 4 year extra warranty separately when picking up.
They have a formula for different appliance type based on price to calculate the extended warranty.
I know some people argue that extended warranty is useless but for an appliance that price, which has lots of parts that would easily wear off due to heat that generates. That extended warranty will give you a piece of mind.
The touchscreen model is a complete joke.. It's not even a nice screen… It's laggy and horrible
not sure if Breville are discontinuing this model with the release of new touch oracle BES990BSS.
From what I was told by the Breville rep at Harvey Norman (demoing the touchscreen version), there are no plans to discontinue this model - they will be sold side-by-side with the touch screen model being available for those that want the extra features that the touchscreen model offers, which is really just the ability to save presets for different people.
The coffee from this machine is surprisingly good, but reliability is a concern as the more automation there is the more parts there are to break.
breville is very good with their customer support. I've been helped with for free of charge on many appliances long after warranty has expired. As long as you act professional and polite, their customer services is more than willing to help.
If you're gonna spend 3.5k might as well get something like a Rocket Giotto.
Who's going to spend 3.5k? You'd never buy this at RRP!
Would look better on your bench too!
I would get this model but since the Touch has been released I would much rather it when it goes in sale
$1,600,00 for a frothy cap lol
Have been looking at these for some time. Have heard theses machines need regular servicing? Any owners here?
I've had one of these for a few months, no complaints, and at $1600 I would say it's worth it. I paid $1700 for mine as got sick of waiting for the $1600 price to be available. Without a doubt, it's a lot of money to spend for consumer-level coffee, and there are some pro-level machines you could purchase for $1600 from the right vendors that of course make excellent coffee, if you know what you're doing.
What I value (and my wife in particular values) is the convenience of getting a good cup of coffee without needing to pretend you're a barista for a few minutes, stuffing around with tamping, scales, timers, thermometers, etc. Who's got time for all that when trying to get ready for work or stopping your toddler from drawing on the walls?
In saying that, I do enjoy good coffee, and that's why I bought this machine. I was previously using an Aeropress and Smart Grinder Pro.
There's two comments I would make:
I believe these only ship with the two-shot basket - ie. the auto-grinder will always grind two shots worth of beans, even if you only want to make a one-shot beverage. I've heard over on CoffeeSnobs that you can call the Breville Customer Service wizards and ask them to send you a one-shot basket for the portafilter and they will do so free-of-charge, but I haven't done this personally.
It can be inconsistent in pulling 60ml for two shots automatically, often ending up at 80ml or even 100ml if it goes the full 30 seconds. I often find I have to stop the shot extraction early, but that's not really such a huge deal. The manual says there is a way to change the automated system from delivering time-based shots to volume-based shots, but I really haven't bothered to do this because it doesn't cause me any problems to stop the shot at 23-27 seconds as opposed to letting it go to 30 seconds by default. You can play with the grind to attempt to remedy this, of course, but once you've dialled in your grind and pull a decent 60ml double shot, you would think the very next double shot - with no settings changed, same beans etc - would also do 60ml automatically. I have found this isn't always the case.
You can change almost all of the default settings, from grind consistency, tamp pressure, pre-infusion time, boiler temp, milk temp and consistency, etc. It's pretty good and I've had no mechanical issues in my short time as an owner. Only done one deep clean cycle.
Recommended.
single baskets are worthless. You are better off dumping/saving the other half or drinking a double shot.
grind needs adjusting throughout the day. Beans change with the change of weather. Also one batch of beans can be different from the second batch, even if its from the same brand/supplier. You have to keep it dialed in to get consistency
10:00 am - machine on, warm up boiler, wait a bit, run steam through wand to pre-heat, pull a seasoning shot and discard.
10:30 am - make a double-shot. 60ml, tastes great.
10:33 am - make a double-shot. Same grind, same beans, same water and boiler is holding steady, same machine. 90ml, tastes blergh.
See what I'm getting at? I don't disagree with you - the grind needs to be adjusted from time to time. Beans don't change dramatically in 3 minutes time, though. There are other reports of this inconsistency for this machine over on CoffeeSnobs.
that is indeed strange.
what does the puck look like after the second shot? some holes(channeling)?
The puck consistency looks the same, and feels the same when I poke it with my finger out of disdain. It's a bit darker which I attribute to having more water flow through it.
I think you're on the right track though - the machine markets itself as being automatic, but as with any machine it has tolerances when mechanisms interact with each other, and you can notice following the auto-tamp function that the tamp doesn't extend fully to the edge of the basket. It does a good job, don't get me wrong, but it's a machine at the end of the day. I find it tends to leave a ~1mm ring of ground coffee around the edge of the basket which appears to 'ride up' ever so slightly from the otherwise well-tamped basket. Does that make sense?
It is my belief the water flow may sometimes channel towards these outer edges and cause the increased flow rate through the coffee.
I don't find it debilitating to my enjoyment of the coffee, just a mild frustration that would be considered very much a first world problem.
I've had one for about 3 years - paid about $1840. Early on I had it replaced due to a pump problem. It's gone ok since then. I roast my own beans so I'm using good ones. I can make a very good coffee with it and it's very easy. I do think the milk steaming is not what it once was, but I can't replaced the rubber seals in the wand (I'm sure it came with a spare set), so that may help.
I think if I was to buy in this price range again I might go for the BES920 & Smartgrinder when they come up around $900. Not quite as auto, but could make as good a coffee in the right hands.
There is a guy that repairs machines over on the coffeesnobs forum and he said that the pre-infusion stage is actually quite hard on the pump, so it's common that it fails on this machine.
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I have Breville BES920 which I absolutely love, bought one of these for my parents who currently use an old pod machine and microwave their milk. So I'm hoping the more automated BES980 is not too daunting for them. The one I saw demonstrated in store produced a surprisingly a decent result, they just poked the steam wand anywhere into the milk jug and didn't appear to spin the milk much at all. But something resembling late art was produced with what appeared to be not much skill required. Fingers crossed the old pod machine goes!
A Grand too much for little cheap me. Id buy at $600 and wish they got this low.
$600 i can justify to the Wife.
I have 3 machines. Jura that grinds and auto tams as well as froths and 2 pod machines. Im also an avid coffee drinker and poster on coffee snobs and you know what…
Hate to say it but pod coffee tastes bloody good. Get one that take a common coffee pod like aldi or map and your set. I saw a caffinity/map machine at cosco with frother for $48!
But here are some tips, steam frothed milk tastes best over heat and wizz.
Pods stay fresh, coffee beans in a machine dont.
Machines like this are awesome but when something goes wrong, ohouchiechoowowah! its a gonna hurt $$$$
Im very happy with my Jura (swiss made) but Ill stick to a pod machine when it dies after I cry myself a river of tears!
Please ignore my ignorance, but when I look at the deal it is 20% off $2499 making it $1999. How do I get this for this price. I tried the PayPal option but was not allowed to add a voucher code
Thanks in advance
My bad, looks like only on from 4pm. Will try later…
You need to apply the voucher code "CMYER" before you purchase at checkout page. You will only see the discounted price after you enter the code.
Says code cannot be applied, I am using PayPal so I get to the code option on checkout but code is not working. Is there something I am doing wrong. Possibly an issue with me doing this from my mobile phone instead of laptop. This is the actual error: This code can't be applied to your order.
It's still working, l suggest you try again, paying with PayPal should not make any difference. I was able to apply the code now without any problem.
Tried again on my laptop, same issue. I click buy it now, at the bottom there is a play to add voucher. I enter CMYER and apply, and it says… This code can't be applied to your order and the price remains $1999.20 down from the original $2499. Please advise
Tried again on my laptop, same issue. I click buy it now, at the bottom there is a play to add voucher. I enter CMYER and apply, and it says… This code can't be applied to your order and the price remains $1999.20 down from the original $2499. Please advise
Not sure what you're doing wrong…
Are you buying through eBay right? Can you see the discount code "cmyer " is listed just above the "Buy it now" button? The code wouldn't work if you were on the Myer website. Just click on the image or the "go to deal" at top of the page, that takes you directly to the eBay page of the oracle being sold by Myer on eBay.
You can only use one voucher code, if you enter more than one it will give you an error.
Not sure what else you could do wrong, the code is still active….
Yes I can see the 20% but is that not the 20% off the $2499 bringing it down to $1999.2 and it is already applied, which is what it is showing? How do I get it to 1599.36?
Sorry, when l look at the eBay listing the price is discounted 20% to $1999.20 and there is a further 20% off with code CMYER. Ends 17 July. T&Cs apply.
Not sure why you can't see it, sorry l couldn't help!
You can't add extra warranty with these can you?