Breville Infuser BES840 Questions & Answers (page 2 of 3)

the pump should be ok. i think its a buzzing sound from the solenoid, you must replace it

You need a new double wall basket. The coffee oil block the basket...

I would contact Breville asap if I was you, they are good with their warranty if you read the feedback herein. If the warranty has elapsed, you still have some 'statutory rights' under Australian Consumer Laws, lib.

You might need to use more grounds, if it isn't full enough it won't build up pressure. I use the finest grind option as well in my breville grinder, if grinds are too course the water will just flow through. I know you said you tried varying degrees of tamping but you do need to press quite hard. If you still can't get a crema use the double wall basket for the grinds, it will slow down the water and work, but it makes the basket a bit sloppier to clean out. With all this being said, my machine doesn't get great pressure. I was a barrista for 4 years and wish there was some other more commercial feeling machine available for home!

Mine does this too, I just manually turn it off after about 17-20 a Seconds.

The flow meter inside the back or the machine is probably faulty, its inline with the water pump and has 3 wires sending signals back to the control board. its easy to replace

Try adjusting the grind a bit courser.

if the coffee runs through in about 30 seconds, and it looks and tastes OK with decent crema, I'd suggest the gauge is broken. If it's still under warranty can you get the shop to take a look?

So far these are my observations.

Pressurized single shot basket- barely reach espresso zone-little crema

Pressurized double shot basket- pre-infusion stage-barely any crema

Unpressurized single shot basket-able to reach perfect espresso stage-perfect crema

Unpressurized double shot basket- no movemen-no crema.

"Unpressurized single shot basket-able to reach perfect espresso stage-perfect crema "

I don't understand your comment above- it sounds like the gauge is working. If that's not what you mean and the gauge is not moving at all altho you're getting good crema, you need to bring it in for service to get the gauge fixed,

The only other thing i can think of - is it possible that SB ground your beans way too coarse. It should be like fine sand,

Not sure as I haven't tried to use the program function. But for a longer coffee, the experts recommend that you use a bit of hot water first, then add a standard double-shot. I think if you try to run the extraction for too long, to make a taller drink, you extract too much bitterness.

I would go back to sales or ring breville- should be under guarante

Try resetting the program for the 2 cup button. It may have been set by accident to a v. short pour.

If you can't service it yourself, you really need to have it serviced. "Pump goes on all the time when the machine is on" does not sound good. Cleaning won't help a leak. Most important is to find out where the leak is coming from. I'm not intimately familiar with your model, but I believe a normal BES840 should have a clear plastic nozzle on the right side at the very bottom, that ejects water after a steam, etc. It's an overpressure valve. If the drip tray is not fully inserted, or missing, then of course water will leak onto the counter the machine is on. Doubt thats the source of your leaks, but it doesn't hurt to check.

First off, are you sure you have a leak? Some people have reported leaks when they see water under the removeable trays, but the overpressure valve shoots water into the back of the tray as long as there is pressure left, this can trickle in for a while after operation. If you move the trays during that time, water will end up under the trays, I have had mine since 2013 and have never had a leak per se, besides what i just described which is normal and not a leak.

Does this happen when the machine is cold when you add water to the tank? but not sure what you mean by between water tank and cooling? what is cooling? If its the spring seal that allows water into the machine from the water tank, maybe self fixable. Your best bet is to look on google and youtube.

water tank leaks & empties all over the counter: we have had identical problem twice - we believe it is an engineering flaw that Breville refuses to admit; the first time we had to ship it back to Breville for service; now, 6 months later it is doing it again - we called Breville support they shipped an O-ring; but that did not fix the tank leak; so we shortly will be shipping it back a second time

Look into what can cause low extraction pressure:
- What beans are you using - whole and fresh, whole but older beans, or pre-ground - it's harder to get good pressure with pre-ground and older, more stale beans
- Grind size and amount - if the grind size is too large, then water passes too easily through the coffee in your portafilter, the same goes if you don't have enough coffee in the portafilter, usually a finer grind will get you better pressure
- Tamp pressure - how are you 'packing' the ground up coffee in your portafilter? Tap the portafilter to better distribute the grind, then Tamp with good pressure - that compresses the coffee, packs it, so then it's harder for water to pass through, you'll therefore get better pressure through the grind
- For pre-ground coffee you can get double-walled portafilter baskets to get better pressure too
If you've done everything you can above, then the machine could be broken and you will need to contact Breville whose service is very good when it comes to their Espresso machines.

Thankyou David,
have tried all of the above, but have read reviews from many others about this model and they are all experiencing the same problem- pressure gauge stopped working.
Fault with mode, so will have to get serviced.

Either the pressure gauge line gets clogged, or the gauge itself has failed.

sounds odd. the rubber disc should be inserted in the filter basket, the tablet placed in the center of it, it takes some time to complete the cycle and then the light goes off. If you hit the right keys to start the clean cycle, i think the clean cycle light starts flashing. if it is not, then you have not started the clean cycle. Otherwise call the manufacturer

If you're talking about the shower screen, if it has not been cleaned and it looks all black on the inside that's baked on oils from coffee going through there. get a brush and clean until shiny. also clean around the seal area, change the seal if worn. Otherwise run a whole tank of water through the machine to see if the particles stop, maybe remnants from descaling. The only other thing i can think of is your charcoal filter broke and particles of charcoal are going through somehow. The water path through the thermoblock is stainless steel so there should be no paint or other black coating subject to flaking off. I've been using mine for 4+ years and have never had this problem.

Presuming you are referring to the metal plate behind the chromed steel shower screen, and not the shower screen itself, then I did notice it is black metal. Not sure why its black, but possibly, if its paint, you may have used something too harsh to clean it. See if there are specs of silver or another color on the black metal, and that may be a clue as to where the black specs are coming from. As I really don't think its from a filter or coffee grounds, from the sound of it.

the official size of the porta is 54. the supplied breville tamper is 53-54 but beware - the tamper is tapered meaning its narrower at the battom and then it goes wider. if you are buying a better tamper you will to get slightly smaller than 54, like 53mm. i don't think 54 will work.

Maybe your grinder is faulty. Grind a small quantity of beans at a fine setting and another small quantity at the coarsest setting and feel each with your fingers. If they feel the same then it would appear to be a fault with the grinder. The beans ground at the coarsest setting should feel a lot more gritty than those ground at the fine setting.
Is the brewing filter cup clean? Can you see light coming through the small holes? Have you tried both the one cup and two cup infuser cups in the porta filter? Maybe also run a cleaning cycle with the infuser - did you get cleaning tablets with your machine? Could be a build up of oil from the ground beans.
Apart from that phone Breville.

Thanks. I did clean it with the cleaning tablet. That helped.
Didn't think to do that because the cleaning light did not come on, and I didn't think it needed it.
Thanks for your help!!!

I had a breville smart grinder for several years. there are actually much better grinders for the similar price (not many but a few, like ascaso i1 steel with the 250w motor). I have the ascaso with an infinitely adjustable worm gear and no dial or display or other inaccurate gadgetry as I only use espresso grind. If you can return your breville, spend a hundred or 2 more and get a better grinder (ascasoc i1, lelit fred, baratza vario or sette). My breville could not produce grinds anywhere near as good as these grinders and it is inconsistent, you can't trust where the dial or marker is at. The grinder is far more important than the machine. Its much easier to get a great shot with a $100 machine and a $400 grinder than a $400 machine and a $100 grinder.

You have to play with bean, freshness, grind fineness and tamp pressure (and amount/weight of coffee) until you get it right. Those are the 4 variables. 18-20g of freshly ground coffee in the non pressurized basket (the one with a hundred holes all across the bottom (don't use the one with 1 hole), tamped at 30lbs which means push down hard, should pour at about 25 seconds for a double shot. You can have a fairly coarse grind that is tamped hard that will produce the right result. The same grind not tamped hard enough will have low pressure on the gauge and run like a tap - too fast, like 6-8 seconds for a double shot volume with no flavor or deep color or crema. The point is you do not want to use talcum powder fine coffee to get great shots. This is not what produces flavor, it is more likely to choke your machine as you have noticed. Better to start coarser, with freshy locally roasted beans and play with tamp pressure. You will probably get a good result with much less "fine" grind than you are using now. Increase fineness incrementally with constant tamp pressure until you get the gauge at 12 or 1 oclock, which should result in a double shot in about 25 seconds, i,e a solid stream but not a huge flow and not drop by drop (too fine, too much tamp or coffee). Also, run a empty shot or 2 with the portafilter in the machine to heat everything up, and if you have time, turn machine on for 20 minutes so that the machine internals is really warm (steady temperature is the 5th variable, a bit more complicated to achieve it has to be at the right value, ideally 93C, and you can play a bit with PID setting on this machine - look at the manual).

Finally bean freshness has a huge impact. Ideally you want beans that are freshly roasted which usually means within a few days at your house. The day I got freshly roasted beans ground with an ascaso grinder, i got luscious thick caramel colored crema out of my infuser. It makes such a big difference that I am trying to roast beans myself. Unroasted/green beans can be kept for months and some say years with minimal deterioration, which makes roasting yourself ideal because you can keep unroasted beans in your basement for a long time and cook up a batch every couple of weeks. Roasted beans lose a large amount of volatile compounds like those oils that cause flavor and crema with a couple of weeks. And its important to note that the fresher the bean, the coarser you need to grind, the older the bean the finer, to get similar results. THat's why its an ever changing thing with coffee, you have to make fine adjustments all the time.

I too was frustrated with the infuser for a long time until i learned these basics that I share with you today, that have made me a lot more passionate about coffee. I never thought I could make a better latte than a coffee shop with a 20K$ machine. But I do every day now. I like the steam wand on the infuser. Its powerful enough and its straight steam, not the turbo wand that a lot of cheap machines have. It gives me microfoam every day that's luscious creamy goodness. I don't know the scientific explanation, but injecting steam into milk properly not only gives you lovely microfoam, but it also, more importantly, removes the acidic aspect of milk. what a difference. I can't go back to simply heating up milk, its jsut too acidic. I start with full fat milk (3.5%) and end up with 2% my guess after steam injection. Learn the proper way to get microfoam - youtube is your friend. Its easy to master, just takes practice.

Hope this helps.

Hi Eryn,
I have experienced that problem too but usually the cup comes off but the (packed) coffee remains in the portafilter.
I think your problem (and mine) could be the result of having too much coffee in the cup which causes the coffee to come in contact with the inside of the portafilter and stick to it. Do you tamp the coffee firmly and do you ensure there is not too much ground coffee in the cup by using the 'razor' tool?
If this does not make any diffeernce there could be a problem with the cup. Run the machine with the cup with NO ground coffee in it? Does it still get stuck? If so the cup has a problem and Breville must replace it. One more thing. Is the cup difficult to remove from the portfilter? It should be fairly tight and hard to remove without a lever. It should NOT fall out when inverted. If it is NOT hard to remove then it is faulty.
Other than that give Breville service a phone call. A word of warning their first question to you will be "what sort of coffee beans are you using" (their favourite question). They will try and get out of any problems by trying to pun it down to you not using freshly ground coffee beans (ie NOT beans purchased in a supermarket). Mind you the it is much easier using freshly ground beans and they give a heaps better flavour. The bag of coffee beans will have a "roasted on" date stamped on them but if you buy direst from a roasting company you will know they are freshly roasted. I have experienced that beans even 4 weeks after the roast date do not taste quite as good. I would not have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself (I purchased 500grams beans and they took me 4 weeks to use).
If you phone Breville tell them that it gets stuck even without any ground coffee in it. They cannot dispute that there is a problem.
Good luck and post your results.

My name is not Carm This message seems to have been sent to wrong person

Turn the steam function on for a few secs, then check the water temp.

Machine was broken got refund