Breville the Barista Touch BES880 Questions & Answers

Answering my own question, just in case anybody else comes looking.

It's buried in the manual, and not really obvious, but it is there. So you select your brew and you press the Brew button for a couple of seconds. You're now in manual mode and you can press it again to deliver a dose of hot water through the portafilter a few times so it's nice and hot. Already delivering a perfect cup on the first day!

Hi Karen.
Try a Factory reset. Go through the start up process as per instructions. When done check the Temp on hot water after that.
I find that all problems reset after a factory reset.
Peter

Thanks Peter. I've done the reset. The hot water is 60 Celsius and when I make a cappa the temp before milk is added is 25 to 30 degrees. Are these temps correct.

I just measured a cup of straight hot water, no coffee, and I got 60.5 C.

Try in settings return to factory settings. Go through the standard start up from new settings. Hopefully that should reset Descale fault display.

I set the grinding at 15, and single wall Portafilter Basket, grinding beans to the basket as full as possible, press hard, fill and press three times and make the basket little bit more over the specific level, the point is to press the coffee hard, hope it would help.

Thanks Flyhorse. I tried what you suggested. I actually went back to the factory grind setting of 17 for an espresso. I didn't use the razor trimming tool this time which means my 1 cup single wall filter basket would have been consider too full if following the Breville instructions. It did though mean this time instead of under extracting.....it was possibly slightly over extracting.

I will keep playing with it of the next few day. Certainly putting more in the porta filter that Breville instructions suggest is making a difference. Just about finding the perfect balance now I guess. Thank you again.

Did you fix/figure out the issue Johnny? I've nailed the extraction in terms of volume but it still comes out watery lacking crema.

there is only one boiler, either used for make two cups of coffee or froth milk for two cups, you can't do both at the same time, but you can continuously make coffee, hope it helps.

Hi Tony i've only been using mine a few days so i'm not yet in auto pilot and still in discovery play mode so that may actually be helpful.

I found this as well with on first-few cups. I kind of peered down underneath to get the exact positioning right to the black insert line as I kept missing it but i've realised its just a little more to the centre and not as far left than I somehow seemed to naturally expect but now i've quickly gotten used to where it should be and its easy. It is a firm move to the right to lock it in place but I quite like that as i've come from a really flimsy plastic type of machine (despite being expensive) so this feels solid and as it should be to me. Again I got used to it quickly and I found I need to keep a firm grip but now it also pretty much guides me into lock.

I can tell you good quality beans within the 3 month roasting makes a huge difference from what Ive tried out on different machines over the years. Just buy a small bag from a local barista if you have one and try it. The other thing is making sure you pack it down after grinding and before the brewing and brush away any little specs from the top and locks. It's not necessary to apply a heap of pressure but I think more that the pressure you apply is consistent. Also not reusing it to get an extra shot out of it. The test for me is afterwards if it only takes one tiny little tap with the grounds pretty much holding the shape when you empty it and factory settings was perfection so give a reset to that a go as well.

I think if it's not performing this way go back to Breville straight away and double check with them. They have been excellent with tips on previous products I have bought.

Check the brewing temperature. I had the same issue as you and then realised the brewing temperature was approximately 70deg C when it should be 90+! This was causing under extraction no matter what I tried.

The machine is Really bad. Temperature of extraction is very low. It will make not a coffee... it will make bull shi.....