Just as a data point. I purchased an Oracle on Craigslist that was listed as broken for $100. It wouldn't reach temp. I troubleshot by turning it on for 10 minutes, then off and draining the boilers. The steam side water was luke warm and the brew boiler was hot. I figured it was the thermal fuse. I replaced the fuse, made about 4 doubles and then the fuse blew again. Figuring that this was a bigger issue than a one time fuse blow, I emailed breville support who eventually gave me a case number and referred me to the breville support phone number to execute the repair. Cost was $509. Shipping was included and I don't believe that they changed any tax. The next week I got an email from Breville that appeared to be a receipt for a $0 BES980XL. Shortly thereafter I got a UPS email that I was receiving a package from GEODIS/BREVILLE. The next day I had a brand new Oracle at my doorstep.

I hadn't checked this earlier, but Breville has a remanufactured sales website and while some machines were in stock, the Oracle wasn't. Had it been, maybe I would have gotten a refurbished unit. If that's a priority to you, might want to see what they have in stock before you send yours in for repair.

$609 out the door for a brand new Oracle, can't ask for much better outcome than that!

tjb1013 wrote:Some of the things were fixed!

Some of the things were worse. Water pours out of the steam wand ball joint *and* the hot water faucet. I still seem to have runaway temperatures.

Breville will send me a new one after they get this one back. Trouble is there is no inventory and I may have to delay a trip waiting for it to arrive.

The new machine was delivered a few days after I left on my trip. I was gone for almost 12 weeks.

Picked it up from a neighbor this morning. Brand new, only noticeable difference was that 1. It worked, and 2. A new water filter contraption, a white plastic obelisk thing. I'm making my own water now, so I believe immaterial to me.

Had a good coffee this morning.