Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine BES870BSXL, Black Sesame

MaddleUnited States

Best Entry-level Home Espresso Machine

I absolutely love this machine. With as many lattes as I drink, this will easily pay for itself within a year, inclouding the cost of beans, milk and cleaning products. Notes: Make sure to keep up with all the regular maintenance. Ever day after I've made my coffee, I wipe the steam wand, purge it, then wipe again. Make sure to get into all the crevices around the tip and you'll never need to use the pin to clean out the tip. Once I've done that and poured my steamed milk, I purge the showerhead by pulling one shot into the empty mug (no filters). This keeps the showerhead clean of coffee debris and keeps the coffee tasting pure. REMEMBER TO CHANGE YOUR WATER FILTERS. The filters should be changed every 60 uses or 2 months, whichever comes first. This wolill reduce how often you need to descale the machine, prolong it's useful life and provide better tasting coffees. You will still need to descale the machine every so often. The manual included is very helpful for keeping up with the maintenance (as well as pulling shots, making drinks and other useful tips) and you can also find instructions on their website should you misplace the manual. Gold tone makes pretty inexpensive replacement filters specific to this machine and they're available here on Amazon. I use them and am pretty happy with the results. Do not let the water run out. Ever. This could cause serious damage to the machine. If you forget once or twice, you'll probably be just fine but check the water reservoir at least 1-2 times per week. Clean the machine parts at least once a week. You may need to empty and rinse the drip tray 1-2 times a week (depending on frequency of use) but take it out and hand wash at least once a week. This is a good time to wash the tools and tool bin as well. Also, dont forget to take the coffee filters out of the portafilter and wash those as well. Over time, residue can build up underneath there. Also, the spouts in the portafiler twist off so you can clean them better. Clean out your parts, get in those crevices regularly and you'll be just fine. Don't forget to clean the hopper and grinder. You should clean it out every time you switch to a new bean or at least every few pounds of coffee. The instructions in the manual are pretty easy and straight forward. I also use a clean, dry towel to wipe any remaining coffee and oils from both the grinder parts and the hopper. Do not wash in warm water as you could risk it not drying well and rusting or not being lubricated enough and over heating. Just use the included brush and clean, dry paper towels. You could also vacuum out residual coffee from the grinder to assist in cleaning, but I don't usually need to. Also, remember that the stainless exterior is stainless plating. This means it can wear over time and not look as nice. The best way to handle this is to wipe it down with a damp cloth (once daily then more detailed once a week) and follow it up by drying it with a clean towel. This will prolong the exterior appearance. Also during your weekly cleaning, be sure to look under where the coffee and steam come out and clean around there. Milk, coffee and residue steam can splatter and build up so be sure to clean it as well. The weekly cleaning sound intensive but really takes maybe 5 minutes. Common issues: Keep in mind certain o-rings will need to be replaced over time. This is noted by Breville in the manual and on the website. There are two main places where you need to replace these: around the tip of the portafilter (where the spouts connect) and where the portafilter connects to pull shots. Another common issue is that the machine will make a loud "buzzing" sound and/or leak water out of the bottom of the machine. This is a common issue and, when it does occur, usually happens around 6 months to a year. This generally occurs due to a broken solenoid valve. If your product is still under warranty, take a video and contact their customer service. Maybe suggest it's a solenoid valve and they are usually very good about fixing or replacing the machines and parts. If it is no longer under warranty and they will not resolve the issue (because sometimes they still will after the warranty period), there are many repair services that can fix this. If you are especially handy and brave enough to fix it yourself, you can usually find the replacement parts fairly cheaply online (not just the valve, but really ANY part that may need to be replaced). Again, if it's still under warranty do not go this route, as it will void any existing warranty. Also, if you don't know what you're doing, you could do more damage than good. All-in-all, this is an amazing machine for this price point. There is a reason this machine is so popular and highly rated. There's a lot of customization available to you and it is a very good quality machine. I would not suggest any product below this machine and price point for your first machine as you'll likely be very disappointed in the results. Eventually you may want to upgrade to a more robust multi-thousand dollar machine, but this is great for the majority of consumers and is super user friendly. Use higher quality beans directly from the roasters and learn how to use the machine and make drinks and you'll be very happy with it. The quality is truly amazing for such a low cost espresso machine. Side note: Whole Latte Love on YouTube is a great resource for additional reviews, tips and tricks and maintenance for this machine (and many more). It's also a great resource on how to pull shots, steam milk, pick types of milk and make many different types of drinks when you're just starting out or want to up your coffee game.

Tom thomasUnited States

Long-term review x4: THE END

6 year update: Well, it finally happened. It broke beyond my ability to repair! Bad smell and funny sound happened while pulling a shot. Opened machine and could pretty quickly see one of the solenoids was burning up. Not sure what the cause of it is -- part failed? Triac failed and sent too much current to it? Water damage from leaking tubes? Bought a new solenoid for $20, but after replacing it the machine was leaking from pretty much every tube I had to disconnect. I couldn't be bothered to wait anymore and find a supplier for 5 o-rings of the right od/id size, so it's done. Bought a new Breville, this time upgraded a dual boiler one. New machine works great! This one did for many years too, so I'm still 5-stars happy with it even though it gave up the ghost. It was repairable for probably another $10, unless the triac was bad too; couldn't find a replacement for that triac. Anyways, wholly recommend this machine. It's a good value and makes good coffee, and is as reliable as can be expected! 5.5 year update: Still love this machine. Still working great. I like to read negative reviews on things I'm going to purchase, and have been surprised by some of the negative reviews. One of the higher upvoted reviews talked about the maintenance this machine requires. Yes, it does require maintenance. It's not a pod-style machine where the maintenance is nothing. There is a tray that you have to empty *and clean* pretty regularly. It gets a fine coffee buildup from the cleaning process, and will get pretty nasty if you don't clean it. The same with the water tank, the filter in the water tank, the two different cleaning cycles indicated by the lights, and the dried milk on the steam wand. It's not a one-button leave-it-dirty-AF thing like your microwave crusted in tomato sauce and butter splatter. If you don't clean it, it may break. Don't buy it if you can't take an extra few minutes to check water levels, wipe down the steam wand, clean the group head with a paper towel, or wipe the coffee oil out of the filter. If you can do that, I can't recommend this enough. At 5.5 years of at least 2 2-cup espressos daily, it's still going strong, still only one replacement gasket in it's life. 4.5 year update: We did have to replace the gasket, which was pretty easy. Barista Express didn't have the gasket in stock, but there are a number of compatible ones on Amazon. $8 or so. Otherwise still making the same great espresso on day 1600 as it did on day 1! Update: Checking in at 3.5 years. This thing is still going strong, supplying my wife and I with delicious daily lattes. That's roughly 2500 quad lattes without breaking down! The gasket around the group head did pop out recently during one of the cleaning cycles, but didn't need replacement -- we were able to detatch and put it back together. The price has gone up 30% but it's still a steal. Back-of-napkin math: 1 cup milk per drink 20 grams of ground beans per drink 1/2 gal of milk costs $3.50 in my HCOL area 1.14kg of espresso beans is $15 That means each drink is 40 cents of milk and 26 cents of coffee beans. Maybe 10 cents of electricity? Another 4 cents of occasional vanilla or caramel flavoring? Our 2500 drinks have cost $2,000 plus the $500 for the machine, vs $12,500 if we'd walked to the nearby cafe every day. What a bargain! We've had this now for 1.5 years. It is absolutely the best $500 I've spent in recent memory. It makes a fantastic espresso shot for us plebs. I'm sure true aficionados can find many faults, but for the Starbuck-going average Joe this will make an espresso on par or better simply because you can choose the beans. No plastic waste or expensive custom cups, and you can actually control all the little variables like grind and time and pack density. I get up 10 minutes earlier and prep our morning coffee, saving the $10/day Sbuck habit for two. I haven't done the math, but the cost of milk, beans, and electricity is probably less than half that. 100 days and it pays for itself, 450 days and we're $2200 richer than the alternative.

Pam C.United States

Go ahead.... spoil yourself!

First off, this looks amazing! Secondly, it works perhaps better than it looks! I've had to call Breville's customer service twice. Both times they were professional and tried to be as helpful as they can. Allow me to explain: When extracting espresso, I've had to set the grind to the finest setting and press the grinds down WAY more than the 35-40lbs typically claimed for the perfect extraction. The first time I called, I was concerned about this. The rep said perhaps my beans weren't fresh and/or it was as a result of putting my beans in the freezer. I'm using the freshest beans and no longer put them in the freezer but still have to press down pretty hard (50lbs of pressure perhaps) to get the espresso extraction indicator needle to move into the "ESPRESSO RANGE". Nonetheless, I am able to consistently produce perfect espresso for my drinks (my favorites being the easy Americana and a drink I call an "A-Mikie-cana" - 2oz espresso, 2oz hot water, sweetened to taste with half and half to lighten the strong coffee). When making an Americana, I turn the STEAM / HOT WATER dial to dispense hot water prior to extracting the espresso. The machine automatically stops at the perfect amount of hot water out of the dedicated Hot Water outlet to make a double-shot American (for my taste). Frothing/steaming milk is effortless with the 360* swivel-action steam wand. I no longer have to stand and hold the stainless-steel frothing pitcher as I can set it on the drip tray until I need to begin the frothing action. I use both a small and large pitcher (depending on how much milk I need to froth). I can pivot the wand out of my way when I need to as well. The rubber looped handle keeps fingers from getting burned! The Grind Amount dial works well. Though I typically do 2oz double-shots, I select the SINGLE Shot button twice! After the first dosing, I tap the portafilter down to settle the grinds then tamp them down lightly with the handy removable tamper, I then dose another SINGLE grind on top (again tapping the portafilter to settle the grinds then pressing them down (harder) with the tamper - I find there's less mess and waste from grinds spilling over as is typical when selecting a DOUBLE). The removable drip tray is convenient and easy to clean. When I first saw the "EMPTY ME" floating indicator on the tray, I thought it was silly. I rely on it now. One of my favorite aspects of this machine is how quickly it is ready to make coffee! 34 seconds after hitting the POWER button it's ready to dispense hot water or extract the perfect espresso! (I timed it :-) Everything about this machine screams quality. It automatically lets me know when it's time to clean the Group Head. I've owned a couple different espresso machines (my last one I bought at a yard sale for $5 and used it for 6 years). I had never owned an expensive one before now. I decided to spoil myself and go Top Shelf. After some research and reading reviews, I choose this model and saved a few $$ by buying a refurb'd unit. NO REGRETS. I use it EVERY DAY. Sometimes a few times throughout the day. All of my friends love the coffee I serve. One self-proclaimed coffee aficionado (fancier term than "coffee snob") told me he doesn't even enjoy the coffee he makes for himself at home now after drinking one of my Americana's (either a double-shot or a quad-shot - depending on cup size). Be sure to find the right beans for your coffee. Ones that have been over roasted (evident as they are extremely oily) will tend to clog the burr grinder (fact) and be too bitter (IMO). Buy once... Cry once! Why keep buying cheaper models that never produce top shelf espresso drinks then buying another in hopes of finding caffeinated euphoria? This is pure heaven baby... ENJOY! * Breville's small knock-box (avail on Amazon - BES001XL) is the perfect size and a must-have to knock the coffee pucks out efficiently from the portafilter.

DAN CRESSWELLCanada

Great espresso machine with built-in grinder for the money.

I've had this almost two years now, so I figured it was time for a proper review. If you don't want to read my in depth review but just my quick opinion and are in the market for a semi-automatic espresso maker (with grinder!), you can't beat this machine for the money it costs (especially here compared to a department store). It comes with a satisfactory grinder (anything better itself will cost you hundreds of dollars on its own), and an easy to use (and learn) espresso maker which makes good espresso, latte's, etc. (assuming you don't use garbage beans of course). Its been nearly two years and I've yet to have a problem and still works just as good as it did the day I got it. I'll start with the cons, because there aren't many and they are very minor, picky issues. The grinder: I find the size setting to be slightly misleading. I'd assume you could use the full range of grind sizes, but anything less than a 4 you'll have trouble pulling a shot with the proper pressure. Over time I've found I've needed to reduce the grind size more and more, but that could be to poor (lack of) regular cleaning habits because I'm lazy. The pressure gauge. There's an "espresso range" on it which you may think anywhere in that is OK. Its not. To get a good pull you'll need to make sure it starts around at least "12:30" and ideally about "1:00" if you treat it like a clock (pointing straight up would be 12:00). Once you get a feel for the grind and how much tamp pressure to use, you'll be able to do this with regular ease after a couple weeks of use (assuming you mainly stick with one type of espresso). The port-a-filter. Its not standard sized so it may be hard to replace. No big deal. Those interested in this probably have more "professional" machines anyways and aren't in the market for this. Now onto the good things: If you've never used a steam wand before, this is probably a good machine for you. Enthusiasts may say its not good or powerful enough, but its great to learn on. Its not a "double boiler" machine where you can froth milk and do the espresso at the same time, but for starter home use its great. Those double boiler machines start at 2-3 times the price of this. If you only make lattes for yourself a couple times a day (like me), its perfect. Because its doesn't use a boiler, its a little slower. That actually makes it EASIER to make perfect milk for the novice (also like me!). By the time I'm done making a latte, I've probably spent about 3 minutes. That's about 6 minutes out of my day which is quicker than waiting forever at st*rb*cks for something worse. The grinder: Its built in. Enough said. Clean it out once in a while and you'll be fine. Making espresso: You can adjust the temperature within 4 degrees of 200f (the factory setting). Adjust according to your taste and beans you are using (I'm not an expert, there's a ton and probably too much info out there on the subject). I keep mine at 202 as it brings out slightly better flavor for the standard bean I use. If you're using relatively fresh coffee beans, you shouldn't have much trouble pulling a decent shot. Maintenance/cleaning: its easy to use the cleaning cycle. Don't buy the cleaning tabs or descaling solutions. Buy Cafiza tabs as they will cost you a fraction of what the Breville ones cost for regular cleaning. Dezcal can be bought for descaling also with the same cost difference. The drip tray is dishwasher safe (top shelf). I put mine in about every two weeks. In between that, I give it a good rinse when the tray is full to get rid of any grime that may have built up. If I get 2 more years out of this, I'll be extremely happy. I've already gotten back my return on investment.