Breville Dual Boiler with Smart Grinder BES920 / BCG820 Questions & Answers (page 3 of 5)

Sorry I am fraid it needs repair. Sounds like a typical problem. That’s a real shame. The same brake down happened me. After a couple of months use. Still in warrenty no cost to fix, it took about 4 weeks.

lol yes it's broken. Just buy another and you will be ok :D

i would really like to help you friend :)

Yes i will help you lol!

Hi Jason,
I would say you have the grind settings wrong. you should be going finer i.e lower than 11 rather than going up to 25. what your doing is going coarser and in that case it will pour out like a tap. the grind also depends on the freshness of the coffee beans. with older beans you generally need to grind finer to get a decent extraction. if you have very fresh beans then 12-14 would generally work well. I highly doubt its an issue with the machine. easiest way to tell is do a blind shot using the blank rubber they supply and if the pressure gets up to 9-10bar then machine works as it should. if you dont thenit could point to a machine issue. best of luck

Hi Jason
I believe that Chancho have answered your questions.
The variation of quality of beans and its freshness will affect your shots. How much pressure you tempt also affects your flow and quantity of coffee extracted. If you lower you grind to 11 or 10, and still only get 15 to 20 mls, you may be over tempering or may have too much grind in the basket.
Try buying from one of your local cafe or deli and check the roasted date( not the use by date). I try to buy mine within 4 weeks of roasting, i get another 2 to 3 weeks out of it.

Enjoy the journey.
Cheers

Hi Jason. As the extraction is the same no matter what your grind I would suggest:
1. Checking your dose. There may be too much coffee soaking up/blocking the water. My advice would be don't use the single dose basket, they don't allow for proper water flow and extraction. The double basket is 18g, so if in doubt use some kitchen scales. Aim for somewhere between 18-19g. If you don't want 2 shots you could always save the spares in a sealed container in the fridge for iced coffee.
2. The buttons are programmable. You can set them for whatever water amount you like. Check the manual.

push the button and it will show the shots. my good friend

Sorry, which button? As I said, the instructions provided for BE900 (as above) doesn't work

Please contact customer service or buy a new BES920. Thank you

Overheating is most often caused by scale on the boiler probe. In a commercial environment I'd normally have an on call tech come out and give it a clean. Does the BES920 have a descale function? If so, give it a try. If not, get in contact with Breville and explain the issue.

Turned out to be the "Triac" board that controls the temperature. Got this fixed and the seals started leaking again.

Possibilities.
1/ Have you programmed in your own settings, including setting the clock? If so, try this inconvenient but simple test. With the machine off, turn the off the wall switch, unplug, plug in turn on at wall, and turn machine back on. If it has forgotten your user settings(including the time, you have a faulty PCB (programmable Control Board) which will need replacing!
2/ Is there water in the drip tray after the machine has stood overnight, possibly a minor leak. which partially drains the boiler tank and allows a small amount of air to enter the boiler, as the tank heats the air is compressed confusing the PCB, causing it to believe the need for pressure to displace the lack of pressure is the result of normal operation, so the pump kicks in. On simple check, when the machine is at operating temperature, all lights are on, and the LCD reads 93 Celsius, very gently open the hot water outlet. If you notice a spurt of air, you have a leak in the system. The very first this occurred, may simply have been the result of the whole system purging itself of air the first time round.
Let me know if this helps!
Best of.
Caffiend.

Hello, I have the same problem. Did you get a solution for this? Thanks, rold

I am still waiting for an answer. I was hoping breville australia would be able to help me

I had the same problem and sent the machine to service center. It seems to be due to a bug in their stock firmware. Mine got upgraded and the problem seems fixed.

Hi, that sounds a serious problem that I haven't come across before. The only thing I can think of is maybe scale has built up in the boiler and is blocking the pipes. Sounds as if it needs to go in for a service. Good luck...

You need to unscrew it out all the way. Even 90% of the way out will not start the emptying of the boiler.

Did you get a solution for this as it seems that our new machine has the same problem

I just turned it off for some time. Back on again later, let it heat up for about 5-10 mins then ran some steam through and it worked fine. The beeping is when the steam boiler isn't up to temperature, and can't generate steam. Mine was trial and error, turned it on and off a few times, it may have been the following morning when it decided to work, and not a problem since. Hope you get yours up and running!

Hello, I just had the same thing... continuously pumping, no steam, only 3 beeps. Don't panic, It's just an air lock.
All I did to remedy was to gently open up the de-scaling screws on the front of the machine. I heard a little hiss of air from the left hand side screw. That was the air lock releasing. Everything worked well after that.
It does take a minute or so to re-pressurise and get up to operating temperature.

I had the exact same problem and although Breville would not admit to it being a 'procedure' or manufacturing fault with the machines' functionality, they paid for a service centre to assess my machine. The repairs amounted to almost $200.00 (without the service call)!!! Breville did not pay for the repairs. Very disappointing seeming as though before the descale the machine works perfectly and after the descale procedure (which has now been revised by Breville), the machine is dead!!!!

This is unacceptable and I will be selling my machine and off to another brand!

Absolutely agree with you LouMary. Fortunately, I found my receipt and discovered that I'd bought the extended warranty and that Im still within the window. I'll be getting it repaired and will report back with the failed component. After the warranty elapses and the machine dies again, I will move onto a more (albeit expensive) robust machine. I dont see the sense in spending $1200 every couple of years when I can spend 3x that and get a machine that will last decades. Don't get me wrong, the BES920 has been a great machine and given us faithful service for 2.5 years. But such a fickle failure during a simple descale is not worth risking another $1200 on.

I had exactly the same thing happen to my BES920 today. Attempted first descale after being reminded several times. Machine is 18 months old. Used Clean Machine Activated Descaler. Followed the EXACT procedure for descale per the manual. And what happens? The machine trips the safety switch at the 18 min mark on the descale countdown. Tried a second time and it happens again. I'm not going to risk it a third time as it looks like my heating element survived the stress as the machine appears to heat up fine in regular mode. Now all I need to do is figure out how to get the partial descale solution out of the boilers from 2 failed attempts. How annoying Breville!

Bit late... My two cents however, my machine has been pretty good, I rely on it daily for 3 years, it has its quirks but I haven't missed out on an espresso. In regards to noticing a lot of faults after descaling... not many people who didn't have issues would get on here and write about it so you're looking at a sample of people who are communicating because they've had issues... not the people who continue merely enjoying their BES920 everyday without issue. That said, they are a complicated machine and maintenance costs should always accounted for when first making the purchase.

I had this problem: tank was full and I was ready to descale, but LCD said "Fill Tank". I removed the tank and used a magnet to move the tank level float up and down a few times. There were air bubbles trapped around the float. I re-installed the water tank and pushed the button. The descale program started normally.

Either the machine hasn't heated up enough or worst case scenario is the fuse in the steamer boiler needs replacing (that's what happened to ours). Contact Breville service centre ASAP.

Hi Fadia
The grinder number varies with different coffees and so on
First aim to complete the extraction in 25 to 30 seconds so set the timer accordingly and leave it alone. . When filling the basket tap it down to settle the grinds. Level the grinds to the top of the basket using your finger or a straight edge. Tamp the coffee grounds trying to standardise the pressure at about 30 pounds. Use a bathroom scale if you need to at first. now use the razor to get the right level in the basket, discarding any excess grounds. Polish the levelled and tamped and levelled grounds by just gently revolving the tamper on the surface.

Having done all this now adjust the grinder number so that the 25 or 30 second extraction gives you the right amount of liquid in the cup.
Too much, make the grind finer.. coffee just drips out, make it courser.
This machine can make an excellent coffee. Let us know how you go. John