Breville Dual Boiler - Something I may be doing wrong?

[Omie Jay]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is well and possibly can assist a newbie home-barista such as myself.

I recently bought the dual boiler, last night I did all the start up preparations of operations etc. my hardness test trip came out as being 1 (I assume this as the first square out of 5 changed colour). Today [29-05] I started up the machine, standby mode being default set to '93' Degrees Celsius. There are no other adjustments or changes made to the coffee machine.

The Baratza Sette 270 macro and micro settings have been adjusted to the finest level (at first, the macro was adjusted to 5-7). I weighed 18-18.1 grams of coffee beans, sent it through the Sette 270 and made sure the same amount went into my portafilter, I am using the single wall double cup basket. I used the tools I bought to make sure that the coffee grounds are well distributed and leveled. I placed the puck on top in most cases, and in 2 cases I didn't.

I possibly had 6 tries this morning, in all cases the coffee came out too fast too thin, 25-30 seconds gave me over 100-140 grams of liquid. In most cases the pump pressure did not touch 9, most were below 3 and once it came out to 8.. One observation I did make is that, when I do not put the puck inside the portafilter, then pressure did not move beyond 2 or 3.

I thought there is something wrong with my machine, so I placed the rubber puck thing that came with the dual boiler and ran a test, the pump pressure hit well above 9, so it led me to believe there is nothing wrong in the section of the machine.

Equipment:

- Breville The Dual Boiler
- Baratza Sette 270
- Normcore 58.5mm Puck Screen
- Normcore 58.5mm Coffee Distribution Tool
- Normcore Portafilter Dosing Cup 58 mm
- Normcore Portafilter Holder
- Normcore 58mm Magnetic Dosing Funnel
- Normcore WDT Distribution Tool V2
- Normcore 58.5mm Coffee Tamper V4
- Brewista Smart Scale 2

Coffee Beans used: 'Lavazza Medium Roast Smooth And Aromatic Coffee Beans'

I am not sure if I should change any settings on the machine? Any help will be grateful.

Please let me know if you require further information, happy to provide this.

Thank you!

[CSME9]

If the gauge reads 9 bar with the blind filter and much less with the regular basket I suspect the prepackaged lavazza beans are the culprit. Recommend grinding much finer since those beans are likely not very fresh. Or buy locally roasted fresh beans and trying those.

[Omie Jay (original poster)]

Hi CSME9,

Thank you for the reply, ok that might be something I can try - I have another two (2) types of coffee beans in the house. What I will do is try both, and see what the results are then post up the outcome.

But happy to hear other comments on my issue.

[Jeff]

Welcome to H-B!

There are generally two reasons for such a disappointing result, stale coffee and too coarse a grind There are some others, but those are the ones I'd check first.

Some people believe that many of the commercial pre-packed coffees, even from the well-known Italian brands, can go stale within a day or two of opening the bag.

My guess is that you're not grinding fine enough. The grinds should feel much finer than "table salt" and usually a bit finer than ordinary sugar. Usually not as fine as powdery flour. It sounds like you can go finer on the macro setting on your grinder. Baratza grinders tend to overlap by 1/2 on macro steps so I might try returning the micro lever to the middle and going down two steps in macro. There are also shims for the Sette if you can't grid fine enough.

Here's one of many threads on getting used to a Sette - Where is your Baratza Sette 270 set for espresso?

[BaristaBob]

Yes...welcome to H-B. I think Jeff has you covered on this problem. I've been using the BDB for 7 years now and it makes great espresso and steamed drinks. You will enjoy the experience. If it's a new machine, steam leaks around the o-rings might be a thing of the past.

I know a little about the roasting scene in Sydney, as my daughter and Aussie son-in-law live in Bondi. When you have a chance try some Pablo and Rusty's or Little Marionette, or Coffee Brothers if you like darker roast.

Let us know how it goes!

[Omie Jay (original poster)]

Hi BaristaBob,

Thank you for welcoming me! I appreciate it, the community is great!

Just an update - As advised, I tried the other coffee beans that I had in my house, made by a Melbourne roaster, however I still had the same issue where the grams out is way more than the grams in the basket. So I started to look at the link that Jeff sent through (thank you!), because I am a newbie at this, I didn't understand what shimming the grinder meant, so went on a war path to understand this and decided to shimm my grinder, and the great thing is (not sure if normal) but Baratza actually provides you the shimm and tools to adjust the Sette, once I did this, the beans were ground finer which assisted in better more stable shots...

Question - On some shots, the pressure reaches 10-11, is this a bad thing? from my understanding, the pressure should sit at 9, I could be wrong on that.. Could it be that I am tamping way too hard? the Normcore tamper v4 that I has has a 25lb spring, it did come with a 15lb spring, so not sure if I should change this to lessen the pressure on the tamp.

Any thoughts?

[BaristaBob]

Hi BaristaBob,


Question - On some shots, the pressure reaches 10-11, is this a bad thing? from my understanding, the pressure should sit at 9, I could be wrong on that.. Could it be that I am tamping way too hard? the Normcore tamper v4 that I has has a 25lb spring, it did come with a 15lb spring, so not sure if I should change this to lessen the pressure on the tamp.

Any thoughts?

Glad to hear you are making progress. I've heard many of the newer BDB machines are set to 10 to 11 bar max pressure. If you want to check yours, place the blind in the basket and run a clean water backflush. This will tell you, but it sounds like your machine was set to 11 bar. Yes, 9 bar is traditional standard, but it's not a big deal. Grind until you hit 9 bar initially, and then as the puck erodes, you will see the pressure decline...this is quite normal. You can pop the top and adjust the OPV to a max of 9 bar if you wish. There are tutorials on YouTube to explain how.

About tamping, I seriously doubt you would see a difference in the extraction rate whether you use the 25 or 15 lb. spring. As long as your grinds are fine enough, 15 lbs. of pressure is sufficient. My Force tamper is set to 22 lb. and is very consistent tamp to tamp, which is the most important thing.

[Omie Jay (original poster)]

Hi BaristaBob,

Thank you for the advice, and I appreciate the knowledge and wisdom, I've actually learned a lot throughout this experience.

Right, so I did I did place the blind in the basket yesterday and it did go up to 10-11 bars of pressure, so then I would assume this is how my machine has been programmed as today, as I said the bars reached 10-11, so this is perfect.

Regarding tamping, understood - so the consistency is more of a key element then the actual pressure. If you are performing this daily on 22lb then I guess my 25lb shouldn't be an issue.

The coffee this morning was great actually OK, ratio of 1:2-2.5 - but of course there a lot more to learn on my side + trying out different coffee beans..

If I encounter any more issues, I will be sure to post this up!

Thank you!