Breville BES920XL "The Dual Boiler" - My Experience - Page 2

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
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doublehelix
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#11: Post by doublehelix »

+++1
The 920xl is a great machine-- I also have a Strega and these two machines will let you explore most of what your coffee will offer.

Bak Ta Lo (original poster)
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#12: Post by Bak Ta Lo (original poster) »

Changed the title of this thread, as a place to post all my musings on this machine as learn more about it.

Here is my one month in update:

A few notes I have kept as I notice different things.

I ran a cup of brew head water without a portafilter, just a cup full of brew boiler hot water. It has a slight plastic taste, very slight. I wonder if this will fade with more use.

I sometimes get the issue with the coffee puck getting sucked up into the dispersion screen, but only when I change to the 20g VST, stock basket does not do this.

I have found there is a cool trick to a pressure profiled shot. Hold down the manual shot button and pressure slowly increases from 1 to 9 bars over long ramp up, then use the previously mentioned hot water tap trick to drop pressure at the shot end down to 7 bar. I will make a video to show this.

Still think I can learn more and get more out of the machine as I keep playing with it.
LMWDP #371

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Bak Ta Lo (original poster)
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#13: Post by Bak Ta Lo (original poster) »

Slow ramp pressure build with reduced pressure at the end.
Note that using the hot water tap let me drop the pressure from 10 to 9 to 7 bar, but that is the limit. Any more water tap opening past that causes the three way valve to open and stops the shot. You cannot progressively open the water tap to lower pressure any lower than 7 bar.
LMWDP #371

BobStern
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#14: Post by BobStern »

Bak Ta Lo wrote:Here is my one month in update:

I ran a cup of brew head water without a portafilter, just a cup full of brew boiler hot water. It has a slight plastic taste, very slight. I wonder if this will fade with more use.
I don't notice that myself, but you might see whether either of these approaches help:

(1) If you have a source of drinking water that is filtered to remove calcium and other minerals, try removing the water filter holder in the water tank.

(2) At the beginning of each day, you can get rid of yesterday's water by running water through the portafilter until the LCD displays "Add Water", then fill the tank, then dispense another 300 mL of water through the portafilter.

Bak Ta Lo wrote:I sometimes get the issue with the coffee puck getting sucked up into the dispersion screen, but only when I change to the 20g VST, stock basket does not do this.
Is that equally true with the factory and bottomless portafilters?

Bak Ta Lo wrote:upon a casual inspection the holes in the basket look similar in quality to my VST baskets.
Based only on visual inspection without magnification, I think the hole outlets are larger in the VST. I suspect that the Breville holes are cylindrical and that the VST holes are conical. VST advertises "wide outlet angle prevents clogging".

wearashirt
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#15: Post by wearashirt »

Breville has been a great company so far. I hope they come up with a 2gr commercial machine soon. :)

mrjag
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#16: Post by mrjag »

Bak Ta Lo wrote:Slow ramp pressure build with reduced pressure at the end.
Note that using the hot water tap let me drop the pressure from 10 to 9 to 7 bar, but that is the limit. Any more water tap opening past that causes the three way valve to open and stops the shot. You cannot progressively open the water tap to lower pressure any lower than 7 bar.
Ive heard of some machines being able to do this, but mine stops the shot as soon as the hot water is engaged. Any thoughts on what could be adjusted internally to bypass the shutoff?

EspressoForge
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#17: Post by EspressoForge replying to mrjag »

It's just the machine, notice his for some reason (likely variability in assembly tolerances) doesn't light up that hot water is on when he opens the tap. My light comes on right away too, and it's that microswitch that will disable the shot. Mine also can be closed but the microswitch not fully engaged and will prevent shots from being pulled.

Holding the brew button at the beginning is the variable time pre-infusion feature. You can set the pre-infusion pressure to be lower as well if you want to stay around 2-3 bar for longer.

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Bak Ta Lo (original poster)
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#18: Post by Bak Ta Lo (original poster) replying to EspressoForge »

Interesting, I just assumed all the machines had the same amount of "play" in the hot water tap before that switch engages. My has a VERY small band to play with, you can see I adjust the knob just a few MM, barely turning it all. I use the visual cue of the pressure gauge, I watch it going down towards 7 bar as I turn the knob, because I found that is the exact point the switch always engages.

Holding in the button is not exactly the same result as the standard behavior of the programmed programmed pre-infusion pressure feature. When you just "press and release" the manual button for a shot, it follows the pre-infusion profile programmed in the memory, time in seconds at a certain pump pressure %. But, if you press and hold down the manual button notice it does a slow ramp up to the pump pressure programmed in the memory, and only jumps to full pressure when you release the button. This allows me to draw out the preinfusion time as long as I want, before going to full pressure. I wish that it could be set to a lower percent for the preinfusion stage pump pressure. The lowest setting available is 55%, but if I hold in the button I can pull the entire shot at a lower pressure than normal, like a full shot at no more than 7 bar.
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TheJavaCup77
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#19: Post by TheJavaCup77 »

I can go as low as 3 bars before tripping the microswitch...
below that and it will stop the shot
It could be as complex or as simple as you want. It's the choice of the barista.

Bak Ta Lo (original poster)
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#20: Post by Bak Ta Lo (original poster) replying to TheJavaCup77 »

What is your favorite profile so far? Are you running a long or long short PI? Do you do a falling pressure profile from 9 to 3 bar for most shots?
LMWDP #371