Average Reviews:
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We have had our Breville unit for several months now. It has given good, reliable service and makes a terrific shot. I take capuccino (and the steam wand frother is very easy -- the best manual frother I have used), and my lovely wife takes americanos. We use the "barista" filters rather than the Senseo-style "beginner" filters. The included pressure gauge makes it very easy to "sight in" your favorite shot by varying the grind and tamp till you find what you like.
The pump assembly, heating block, and user interface are terrific. The buttons have a nice feel, everything about the machine's style radiates solidity. It is a pleasure to use. The waste reservoir in the base is large enough for several days' coffee drinking, and is easy and simple to empty. The convenient hidden compartment behind it is a great place to stash the extras and cleaning tablets.
The grinder is indeed adjustable and delivers consistent sized grind when it is working. But there are several problems with it -- it's obviously Breville's first attempt. First, the bean reservoir has very shallow sides -- they are not sloped enough for most beans to autofeed, so we often end up pulling the top open and stirring the beans with our fingers, to get them to feed down into the grinder. Second, the grinder *will* jam if you use oily beans -- which is too bad as we like a very dark roast. Mixing oily and dry roasts 1:1 seems to be OK, except... Third, the grinder *will* jam if you get even a little bit of water in it, which is inevitable if you fill the tank in-place on the back of the device. The molding at the top of the machine seems custom designed to direct otherwise-harmless drops of water straight down into the grinder where they will do the most damage.
The worst thing about the grinder is that it is a bitch and a half to clean. You can disassemble it -- at least as far as getting the stator blades out from around the burr -- but the part that jams is the feed paddles that push grounds out of the area under the grinder, into the top of the chute that feeds the espresso head in its holder (as pictured). That part is nearly impossible to get to. When the grinder jams, I vacuum out the coffee beans and grounds with the blade head on our vacuum cleaner (incidentally, Dyson vacuums rock), then go after it with a combination of toothpicks, pipe cleaners, and dust-free canned "air". This generally happens in the morning, so I wake up the kids with the vacuum, and then everyone's in a bad mood -- the kids want sleep and/or breakfast, I want my coffee, and I'm rooting around with a toothpick cursing the designers.
We do run the clean cycle when the "clean me" light comes on, but I suspect it is on a fixed timer -- we user reverse-osmosis water, shouldn't have any boiler-scale issues at all.
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Product Description
With its integrated conical burr grinder and dosing control, The Barista Express delivers the optimum path from espresso bean to thick crema in less than two minutes. Non-pressurized cafe style single-wall filters allow for experimentation of grind size, grind amoung and tamping pressure to explore the art of espresso. Pressurized dual-walled filters help beginners by delivering smooth crema every time. The integrated tamper with magnetized lock in storage allows you to tamp to your preference while attached to the machine or the counter
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