Better steam tip for Breville Dual Boiler

#1: Post by **Simon345** » November 2nd, 2015, 2:15 am

I have a BES900, and am frustrated by how slowly it steams. Has anyone had any success with replacing the steam tip to something that still allows you to get a nice microfoam but in less time? If so, would greatly appreciate details on :

1. What was the replacement steam tip?
2. Where can it be bought from?
3. If possible, some before + after timing details, ie 8oz of milk with original steam tip was x, and with the replacement was y etc..

The closest that I have come from reviewing various discussions on HB etc... is as follows, so my question for LukeFlynn re: the replacement tip that he used is whether the 'half the time' was measured or just gut feel ?

Schomer on the Breville Dual Boiler

#2: Post by **LukeFlynn** » November 2nd, 2015, 11:57 am

I briefly replaced my steam tip with the 4 hole vivaldi steam tip. For the first few hours I thought hey this could work.. but it sucked. The 900 just doesn't have the pressure build up for a larger tip. The 920 however, has adjustable steam temperature which might work better for tip replacement since you can alter the steam pressure that way.

#3: Post by **NightFlight** » November 2nd, 2015, 12:10 pm

I was going to buy a vivaldi tip and thought that I would just try enlarging the 3 holes on the stock tip first. I will see how that works out when I finally get around to it.

November 2nd, 2015, 12:11 pm

That's something I've thought about doing.

#5: Post by **NightFlight** » November 2nd, 2015, 12:12 pm

Great minds think alike.

#6: Post by **sqroot3** » November 2nd, 2015, 3:42 pm

this deserves to be repeated...from a previous discussion

mcknightp wrote:Hi everyone! Sorry, long time no talk.....just wanted to clarify on the steam tip discussion.

What Peter has said is completely correct. The number of holes, diameter of the holes needs to be matched to the steam "system". This is not just about pressure, as ours runs at almost 2bar, its heavily influenced by rate of flow as well. If you make those holes larger in diameter, or have more of them ie increasing their total area, then there will not be enough velocity to drive the milk past the tip & you will get localised boiling of the milk around the tip.

The LM tip will not fit unless you make an adaptor to match the two differing thread systems. In addition the LM holes are too large for the capacity of the BDB steam boiler system.

Trust me, I've done a lot of my own experiments on this when I owned Lineas & Synessos making custom tips to optimise for small jugs & larger jugs in commercial environments.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Phil

#7: Post by **LukeFlynn** » November 2nd, 2015, 4:00 pm

After owning the BDB for 3-4 months, I accepted that I will just have to live with the fact this machine was designed to cater to people who really aren't as espresso savvy as we are here (such as the inclusion of Dual wall baskets). That's not to say it's a bad machine, the temperature stability is where this machine really excels though. Steam performance (speed really), for lack of a better word sucks. That said.. the tip produces great microfoam with basically no work. They've worked on that though, as I said earlier, the 920 has a programmable PID (All the way up to 285 I think) on the steam boiler.. whereas the 900 is still pid controlled just not programmable.. It might be possible to hack the firmware (Or perhaps buy the 920's computer and slap it in the 900?) but I don't want to brick my machine without some sort of backup plan.... AND I don't know where to start.

#8: Post by **pcrussell50** » January 8th, 2016, 9:03 pm

I feel l ought to pitch in my experience with the Vivaldi tip, which I've had for a few days: for the two-to-three ounces max that I ever do at one time, the performance has been hugely faster than the stock tip. I've never tried to steam 8 oz as I like cortado concentration, and 8oz would be as much milk as I use in a week. But I can visualize how the small boiler might not be able to keep up with four 0.9mm holes for long enough to steam 8 oz.

IME so far, if you're a cortado, machiato, small-cap type like me (when I do milk drinks at all), the Vivaldi tip is a hot rod novelty.

-Peter

#9: Post by **Zanderfy** » January 11th, 2016, 10:10 pm

Sorry to revive a semi-dead thread, but do any users of the BES 920XL have any experience with this steam tip and maxing the steam temperature in the interface? I would love to know if the machine (and tip) could handle upwards of 6-8 oz.

#10: Post by **wearashirt** » January 12th, 2016, 12:49 pm

Yeah I think it's really the power of the machine that makes it slow. But you're right -- you can still make milk sweet and frothy so don't sweat! But when you try and bring it to a pop-up gig, that's when you'll die for for steam power.