BES830XL Die-Cast Programmable Espresso Machine

I love my machine.

If my house were robbed and they stole my Breville 830, I would replace it with another Breville 830 (I''ve only had the machine for 4 months...I reserve the right to change my opinion if it fails me in the first 2 years).

BES830XL Die-Cast Programmable Espresso Machine

Every morning I stumble over to this very beautiful piece of machinary, and push that round "start" button and savor the anticipation of coffee drinks better than I get at the local overpriced coffee drive-through.

I can''t comment on reliability apart from "mine works just like new and I use it twice a day". At four months old, that''s expected. Ask me in 2-3 years. My last machine was a gift from my parents in 1991. It finally died of total system collapse (i.e. "old age").

This machine makes great espresso WITHOUT having to be an expert.

I had my heart set on a LaPavoni Europaccola, but after reading the blogs , I knew that I''d never devote the hundreds of hours to learn how to exactly tamp the coffee, say the magic spells and do the special espresso dance necessary to pull a great shot out of such a machine.

SO maybe this machine doesn''t produce the AMAZING espresso that experts get from a LaPavoni. But even a half-awake idiot like me can dump coffee into the Breville basket thingy and push the big round button at 6:01am and have truly good espresso by 6:02am.

GREAT:

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The machine is BEAUTIFUL to look at. It looks more expensive than $500. In the past, when I''ve looked at a lot of machines in stores, seen the price , and thought "they want HOW MUCH for THAT?" Not this machine.

Well-built. The brew head "assembly" is definitely made to last. It weighs about 25 pounds, so it''s not some flimsy piece of junk.

So easy to make excellent espresso. The included filters have some sort of a pressure thing in them so you get exactly the right pressure for good espresso. If you''re an expert, you can use the single walled baskets.

Buttons are easy to program if you prefer your shot size to be larger/smaller than standard.

Steam gets generated pretty quickly, & Steam wand easy to clean.

I love the 2+ litre water tank (although it seems to go through water pretty quickly).

Average to not-so-great:

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The hot water spout is semi-lame. you run out of hot water real fast.

The drainage try fills up pretty quickly, and it''s a bit plasticy underneath the nice metal cover.

BE CAREFUL not to use overly finely ground coffee with double-walled filters. The coffee will get stuck in between the walls and then you will be most unhappy. Note: I put the "ruined" filter in a pot of boiling water for several hours, put it in the Breville, and then ran hot water (no coffee) thru it until the gunk got blown out.

I find the "huge solid steel cup warming tray" is useless it takes about a half hour to get the cups warm. Unless you leave the machine on all the time.

Because the coffee filter assembly is such a big hunk of solid metal, the first shot of espresso can come out a bit lukewarm. Manual recommends running hot water through it. I don''t bother. I just make my first one a double.

For $500, i think the warranty should be longer than 12 months....even if it''s "parts & labor" for 12 months and "parts" for months 13-24.

This particular model (830XL) was out of stock at most dealers. I was tempted to get the older model, 820XL, but found negative reviews regarding its pressure guage breaking down often. I wanted to avoid that so I waited and found a seller that had the newer 830XL in stock. Item was well packaged and was delivered ahead of schedule.

I ran my first espresso, and it came out decent with a good amount of crema. I tried again using a different grind size. I can see the pressure guage showing optimal pressure for the 1st run, and slightly higher for the 2nd run. On the third run, the pressure guage stopped working and the espresso was muddy and terrible. I made sure everything was clean and water tank was full, etc. I tried both manual and automatic modes. I tried going back to initial grind size. I have a pretty good coffee grinder (Rancillio Rocky) that gives out very consistent grind size. I tried everything I could think of, but the pressure guage never worked again and the espresso was not the same as the first two that came out.

They emphasize that this machine is die-cast. I was expecting a solid build quality. It''s beautifully designed, but I don''t know how much of this machine is actually die-cast. A good part of this thing is also plastic with something silver on the surface. I can cause the machine to flex slightly by applying some pressure from the sides when I try to move or shift it. It didn''t feel as solid as I was expecting it to be.

I really wanted to like this espresso maker. It appears Breville did not do so much to address the common pressure guage problem found in the previous model. Thank God I bought this from Amazon; I just arranged a return with the Seller without any trouble.

I''ve purchased a Rancilio Silvia since. Very satisfied with the Silvia. Check her reviews.

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This may be a long review and I hope I am allowed the space to get all my thoughts in it since I have a lot to say. After a lot of research on the Internet and reading various reviews from posts and watching many YouTube demonstrations, I decided on the Breville 830XL. Yes, there were a lot of negative and even nasty comments, but the favorable comments outnumbered them by far. I received my first 830 XL on 14 Apr 2012. I was surprised that it was much smaller than it appeared in the advertisement and YouTube reviews. However it was very heavy, 10.3 kg (almost 23 pounds, net weight) and looked good and impressive on my kitchen counter. I had it ready within an hour for my first brew, even after spending time cleaning it and flushing the system out with its first hot water "brew." The coffee came out tasting not bad considering what other reviewers said about using cheap coffee and throwing away the first brews to get rid of the metallic taste of new metal. However I could not get the pressure gauge to work at all! Even after getting lots of advice on line, using a blog at "getsatisfaction.com", was I able to get the gauge ALMOST in the optimum pressure area of the dial. But this only worked using the double filter and tamping the coffee down with all the strength I had. I also went through various grinds and four different coffees, even fresh Starbuck coffee that was given an espresso grind just before my brewing. I emailed Breville and they agreed to send me another machine. I had the new machine in four days.

As I was setting this second machine up, I already suspected my problems were over because I noted the portafilter had much more resistance when turning it to the right. The previous machine went to the lock position almost without any resistance at all. Had I been familiar with espresso machines, I should have known this was the problem. Sure enough, my first brew of Starbucks sent the gauge into the optimum area at about 11 o''clock. I did note that my other coffees continued to have poor pressure results even with this new machine. I believe this is because the coffee I had been using with my older drip machines was not espresso ground and was old and scale. So the first thing new espresso owners should know is use only fresh, espresso ground coffee.

(Note: the above comments were written on 30 Apr 2012. It is now 12 May 2012). Here is what I determined by this date. It seems that PACKAGED espresso ground coffee will move the gauge only to the bare minimum optimum area, and this is using the dual walled filter. Fresh espresso ground bean coffee will move the gauge well into the optimum area using the single walled filter. So far, I have only used Starbuck coffee, buying the bean bag in their shop and having them grind it to espresso size, which is one grind courser than a Turkish grind. They don''t charge extra for this grinding....at least in the shop I was in. My intentions now, are to buy my own burr grinder and experiment with other coffees and other subtle variations of the espresso grind. Having my own grinder will also allow me to grind smaller amounts of coffee while keeping the remaining beans doubled sealed in the refrigerator to keep them fresh and from absorbing odors. Yes, I know some coffee aficionados say NOT to put coffee in the refrigerator, but I think by the time the limited amount of beans are ground, they will be warmed off enough to use.

To sum this up, you have to really like your coffee to go through the procedures I did. There are also other time consuming matters you have to be aware of. You no longer have the luxury of getting up in the morning and having you pre-programmed coffee waiting for you. You have to prime the machine with hot water to clear the old coffee grinds out and to warm up the components and portafilter. I learned to use my coffee cup to collect this warm water because it serves to warm my cup as well. You then remove and dry the portafilter and fill it with the ground coffee, tamping it down. After the coffee is made I quickly empty the portafilter and drain water into another cup to clean the shower head of grounds. After finishing my coffee, I clean the machine with a damp cloth, empty the water and empty the drip tray. There will always be a lot of water in the drip tray. Now, I did not even mention steaming the milk since I drink my coffee black!

Conclusion. If you buy this machine, make sure the portafilter is snug when you lock it in, even when not filled with coffee. When you make your coffee for the first time keep an eye on the gauge to see how high it gets. If it stays out of the optimum area, try packing the coffee harder and/or use a double walled filter. If this does not work and you suspect your coffee is old or dry, get freshly ground coffee and go the help blogs on the Internet.

Sorry for this long review. In my former life, before I retired, I was required to write "after action" reports on everything I did and I cannot get out of the habit.

Added on 5 June 2012. I just wanted to mention that the plastic spoon/damper that comes with this machine is almost worthless. A simple coffee measure works better and the damper part does not give you the leverage needed to damp the coffee properly. I bought the "ruby" topped tamper for about $15 and this works much better. I now get perfect crema each time!

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I''ve had this machine for about 3 weeks now. This is my first espresso machine so I don''t really have any others to compare it to. The machine comes fully assembled and ready to use out of the box.

It heats up quickly and makes a great Espresso every time, I have been using the pre-programmed settings for the single and double shots and it comes out great with a nice crema.

Used both a medium espresso grind as well as a preground coffee that I originally bought for a drip coffee machine, both types made great espresso.

The milk forther is very nice, easy to use, and quick to steam.

As one of the other reviewers mentioned cleaning is a breeze for all components which is a huge plus.

Got this refurbished on buy.com for $150, which is an amazing deal for this machine.

Haven''t had any issues with any of the components so far.

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I purchased my Breville BES830XL online, as an open box floor model. It has functioned fine out of the box, and has given me no mechanical problems.

The only issue I have with this machine is a design flaw, which I have successfully worked around. The stock filter basket is a double-walled pressurized filter basket, meaning that once the coffee passes through the standard porous bottom of the filter, it then is forced through a SINGLE hole in the very bottom of the filter. While this ensures that you have crema on your shots every time, does not yield a quality shot. Perhaps Breville is aiming at people who want to own espresso machines more than they want good espresso. I dunno.

The work-around is simple. Seattle Coffee Gear (no, I don''t work for them) offers a NON-pressurized filter basket () which is retro-fit to this machine. With some experimentation with grind/amount/tamping, you can make a GREAT quality shot of espresso using this Breville, but you need the non-pressurized basket.

Since the modifaction, my machine has been making great espresso for me almost daily for two years. It now has performance to match its devilish good looks.