☕ Discount of 67%!Barista Pro 1680W 2L Coffee Maker

This works fine but not so sure there aren't better options. I typically just make americanos and should have looked for that simpler machine where I could just press "Americano" and no need to tamp, switch to make espresso and then add water. Oh well, live and learn.

My original review was a 2-star. But Amazon customer helped me get a replacement and the new machine works consistently. I am changing the review to 4-star based on the customer service experience and the performance of the replacement.

I purchased the original expresso machine with high expectation, believing it'd be a good entry level expresso maker for a regular home user because of 4.5+ review rating. Unfortunately, I received an item that's not as good as advertised.

I noticed there are some tiny scratches on the tray and on the wall of the machine. They didn't really bother me as other items in the box were brand new and wrapped in the original package. I went ahead and assembled the machine. After my first few tries, I couldn't get good extractions. I watched many videos for improvement tips. I used different beans, grind setup/amount, etc, frustrated. After a few more days, I came across a video showing how to check the machine pressure and how to fix it. I followed the instruction and repeated the check steps to validate the pressure level of the machine. I even tried with the double-wall cup with clean disk to test the pressure. The machine struggled to reach the mid point of the pressure gauge with everything sealed completely.

I contacted Amazon product support. I described the pressure issue with the support. I was offered a refund or a replacement. I chose to receive a replacement because I want an expresso machine. Thank you Amazon support for the professional assistance.

I am giving this product a 2-star rating for now. I will come back to update the rating after I receive the replacement and try it...

Great Quality Breville Coffee Machine!

If you enjoy controlling the coffee-making process, this is a great option. The machine offers a lot of versatility and precision.

However, I have a few concerns:

1.The tamper it seems defective and doesn’t feel as sturdy as it should. I would like to change it! how to do that?
2.The milk jug doesn’t have the Breville logo, which makes it feel like an unbranded or mismatched piece. It’s a bit odd, especially considering the brand’s reputation for quality.

Overall, despite these minor issues, the machine performs well, and I’m happy with it!

Cons- I wish I could fit a travel mug under it. Sometime the steam wand needs a second priming.
Pros- pretty easy to learn to use, even for a new coffee drinker. Love that I can switch between regular and decaf with each serving. Honestly quicker and easier to clean than my french press.
Its a great machine and with several coffee drinkers in the house this will pay for itself in just a couple months. I do wish the tamper was on the right, but I'll bet the lefties are pumped.

Best thing about this machine is the quality of the shot. Our previous machine was Starbucks Barista which is a great machine for the price but can't put out the quality the Breville does. I'm still experimenting and even with the double walled shot cup and grind set to 2 the pressure gauge only barely hits the lower end of the espresso range. With the regular portafilter cup it hardly budges.
The grinder puts out very find grind which is impressive.
It seemed our Starbucks machine put our more steam but could be my imagination.
The small size of the water tank which I have to remember to check every day and steam levels are only issues I have found so far.

Update:
Just received a replacement, the grinder is working better, but it definitely sounds different than the other older models that I’ve owned. Sounds weaker and has a little more trouble getting through the grind. Hopefully it will last, but I’m keeping the box in case it needs a repair down the road…

I love this espresso machine, but it has its problems. This is the third one that I’ve owned. The first one had two issues over the first few years which required replacement of one of the pumps and a solenoid valve done with help from YouTube. I have a second machine at a vacation home.

I just bought a replacement for my first machine when it finally gave up the ghost and started leaking (5years old), just received it yesterday. I set it up today and grinder motor is defective and I’m going to have to return it.

Hopefully the next one will work OK. I think if I hadn’t owned two of these, I wouldn’t have known that the grinder wasn’t working properly.

When it’s working, it’s a great device for sure and can’t be beat, just wish the failure rate was a little lower…

The Breville Barista Express can make great espresso, but it is far from a plug-and-play experience. The machine's biggest drawback, by far, is the lack of an espresso volume sensor featured on more expensive machines, which adjusts the amount of pressurized water based on the final espresso volume coming out of the portafilter. This is essential for brewing consistent espresso. The Breville has pre-set volumes for the amount of water going into the puck; however the final volume of espresso is a function of several variables, including amount of coffee, grind size, quality of beans, how forcibly the grinds are packed, water temperature, etc. Therefore, without an espresso volume sensor, the only option the Breville offers to get the final espresso volume right is to guesstimate by manually stopping the water flow when the amount of espresso looks alright. This can be a setup for frustration. Most of the first few dozen shots I attempted were too concentrated because a significant portion of the shot volume was absorbed by the coffee grinds without making it through the puck, leaving me with a few drops of espresso in my cup.

The other major flaw of this machine is the unreliability of the milk steamer. Once the steamer comes to the right temperature, it is supposed to have an 8-second timeout to allow the user to pause the steam and put the steam wand into the container holding the cold milk. In reality though, turning the dial to standby causes water to shoot out of the steam wand when it's turned to steam mode again, resulting in watered-down milk. The only way I've found to reliably steam milk is to quickly slip the steam wand into the milk while it's steaming full force, which is obviously not ideal because it makes a mess.

The third issue I would wish to see addressed is the water tank, which wastes a lot of water, especially if you are filling the tank with purified water. Below the minimum water level, the machine cannot pump water out of the tank, so the water needs to be discarded and filled to at least halfway. It would be nice if the machine could use water more efficiently so that water below the minimum level is not wasted.

Beyond these three shortcomings, the Breville has the potential to be a capable home espresso machine. The burr grinder is excellent, the machine has a relatively small footprint and looks nice in the kitchen, and it comes with everything you need to use it out of the box except for water and roasted coffee beans.

If you read the manual carefully and learn to manually adjust the shot volume right off the bat, then you may have a new favorite appliance in your kitchen. When done right, it's a worthy upgrade to traditional filter coffee.

Shipped to me the next day awesome delivery.
My old automatic machine gave me nice shots with crema, but after two year it sprung a leak, I really liked the idea of a more manual quality espresso, I have the extra time now that I work primarily from home.

I read all the reviews, watched the YouTubes and thought ok I can adjust from my automatic espresso maker. The top review here was excellent.

I understand that different coffee beans require different grinds, however, the machine will not reach any pressure when making the espresso. No where in the manual does it indicate HOW the gauge works, so here it is, the gauge only works when you press the button, so before you press the button the gauge will tell you if you will have good espresso or not, you have to wait to see what happens, did you get pressure?
If not then adjust the grind, or the amount of coffee or the espresso cup you are using. Ok so now think of this: There are about 20 grind settings, another 20 amount settings, 4 different espresso cups to use, and then the amount of hand pressure you use to tap in the grounds, it should be 30 pounds of pressure with your hand? Do you know how much 30 lbs. of pressure is?. So that is like over 300 different combinations of settings to see even if the gauge will show you anything. One YouTuber had a way to test the gauge and unfortunately following his instructions mine only moved slightly, so in the YouTubers experience I have a dud machine. But wait, a call to support and there is an 1.75 hour wait so they said they would call me back 2 hours later they did. A guy from India set up a video call with me to walk me through it. He laughed at me when I asked for some reference for the hand pressure, "I dont know what to tell you its 30 lbs of pressure" Dude I dont have a gauge on my hand, give me some reference, any way I think if you press it tightly so the rim is even all the way around you will be ok, when you tilt the handle no coffee should move. Anyway the rep was very condescending and must of been doing something else cuz several times I had to show him again, I had to say to him look I'm not going to do this if your not going to watch, after that there was no more do overs. The rep showed me that the pressure gauge did work by utilizing a rubber cup inside the handle (apparently the YouTuber did not know about this) and BAM there was the pressure. So here is what the rep said, don't use store bought coffee beans like Starbucks, for the best flavor and best use out of the machine use local roasted coffee that was roasted recently days not months like Starbuck. Starbucks coffee is too old by the time you get it, vacuum packed or not. Breville ships a special cup to use for old coffee. Once I changed to that the pressure was there and the crema was there pressure and it tasted better. So I am going to the local coffee roaster and see what I can accomplish.

Before purchasing this espresso maker I would drink coffee at Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and other smaller coffee restaurants. Now that I realize how good espresso can taste I only drink it at home. This thing is amazing, you will not take this out of the box and make a fantastic cup of espresso on your first try. But after taking the time to get it dialed in correctly however this makes a fantastic cup of coffee or double shot of espresso. I liked this so much I bought another one for my second home. Just a few tips to help new users, the goal is to get two times as much liquid as the amount of grounds you put in.
So 18 g of ground beans should give you 36 g of espresso. That is called the yield, the 36 g of espresso should be delivered between 20 and 30 seconds. All of my instructions are for creating a double shot espresso. The very first thing to do is reset the amount of time the machine will output liquid when you press the double shot button. You will need a stopwatch for this procedure. The clock app on your phone should work fine. Press the round button on the right hand side of the gauge and you will hear one beep, press the far right double shot button and it will start outputting water, once your clock/stopwatch app shows you that it has been running for 28 seconds press the double shot button again. You will hear two beeps. This tells you that it has been set successfully. Now you know that you will get the proper time for your espresso you next need to work on the proper amount of liquid in that time. The amount of liquid that ends up in your cup will be affected by the grind size you choose and how tightly you compact the ground beans in the porta filter. I would suggest starting out with a grind size on the outside left edge of 4. I would suggest grinding until you get 18 g of ground coffee ain the porta filter. I purchased a digital kitchen scale to help with this. Remember if you are getting too much liquid in your cup your grind size is too big if you are getting not enough liquid in your cup your grind size is too small. Those are not 100% rules because how hard you press the grinds in the porta filter will also affect how much liquid is able to travel through them. Make sure that no matter what size you are grinding your beans to. You always compact them with the same amount of force. I usually use my thumb and index finger to press the tamper. I know this has been a long winded review and I still have not covered everything. In closing, do yourself a favor and purchase a dosing funnel, not a dosing cup a funnel. That will help you keep the mess from ending up all over your counter. Put the tamper on top of your grinds and slightly press it down, then remove the dosing funnel and finish compacting your grind. You will notice that you have almost no mass. One last tip, if you have tried everything and you still cannot get the proper amount of espresso in your cup change your beans. I have been frustrated When using old or poorly roasted beans. I have changed the grind size, changed how hard I was compacting the grounds, changed the filter and become very frustrated. All I needed to do was buy some good beans and everything was perfect again. Trust me, if everything you try does not work get new beans.

Dislikes:
- EDIT: 2022/03/01: Recently noticed a nasty smell coming from the steam wand arm after removing the steam wand tip. Turns out, if you don't remove the steam wand tip after each use, some milk remains between the connection point of the tip and the inside of the arm, which grows nasty stuff. I now remove and clean the steam wand tip and flush the wand after each use... :(
- Water tank grows things. I anticipated this, and am sure the manual must recommend frequent cleanings, but if you're waiting for the fancy digital touchscreen to remind you, you'll be sorely mistaken. I might have to throw out water more frequently and scrub it down (weekly?), but that's way too high maintenance for a parent with a toddler.
- The waste water/grounds container is made of plastic and shows wear and tear very fast (weeks) on a $1000 machine. Unfortunately, this is a high touch area as one is always sliding the milk frothing cup and mugs in and out.
- The auto-clean feature on the steam milk wand is annoying. Auto-cleaning by pouring milk and water to the water catch bin is a recipe for some nasty smelling stuff, unless you're constantly cleaning it. Or, you use something to catch the rinse water and pour it out. I'd rather just manually clean it myself, but I can't find a way to disable this feature.

Likes:
- Espresso and lattes are yummy.

Let me start off by saying this. This machine is perfect if you:
- Don’t want to spend $10-$20/week on coffee beans
- Just need morning caffeine and don’t know/care about the frivolities of espresso
- Do want to have time for other hobbies/activities in the morning
- Want to impress the occasional guests but still go to cafes on the regular

It does the job that you need it to do and a little bit more. It is easy to setup, use and maintain. It will feasibly last as long as most other kitchen appliances if you’re making 1-2 coffees per day. For the price, you can’t really find a comparable deal (a decent grinder, volumetrically programmable espresso machine, decent steaming power and ease of use). So if you like coffee but don’t want to obsess the minutiae, then this machine is perfect.

—

However, I must also confess I’ve basically given this machine away to a (close) friend. If you’re obsessive and are looking to develop coffee/espresso/milk-based drinks as a hobby, this is not the machine for you. I think there will be many people expecting this to be a starter setup that they will upgrade from. I encourage those to look at used items at a discount (Rancilio Silvia + Rocky grinder or sette) or machines without as many creature comforts (Gaggia classic + knock feld2 hand grinder) as a serious alternative. With those, you can grow with your machine and eventually take all of the accumulated accessories with you to your dream setup.

Setup/Ease of use (5/5):
Setting the Breville barista express is easy. Out of the box, there’s all you need to get started (minus the glass and coffee, BYO) and a condensed pamphlet for those too busy to read the more extensive manual. Time from initial plug in to brew ready is 1 minute max and the grinder is immediately ready. The central brew pressure gauge is good as another way to help dial in a new coffee. There is a solenoid value (behind the front plate) which relieves brew water from the coffee bed and brewing chamber after the shot is complete to allow for easy cleaning. The drip tray is large and has an indicator when it needs to be emptied. The water tank is large enough to be filled once a week and container a spot for A cycle-count based cleaning indicator will also alert the need for backflushing and descaling.

Programability (4/5):
I was actually surprised by how programmable this machine is. Not only is there timed grinding and volumetric shot programs, there’s temperature control (!!). This might not seem that amazing, but at the price point, I’m not sure there’s anything actually offering that feature. You can play with temperature as a variable in addition to grinding/portafilter prep. The only downside is that the machine can’t be programmed to turn on/off and a switch won’t help with that.

Grinder (3/5):
This is where the machine starts to falter. The grinder is stepped (13 knob based adjustments, 10 burr based adjustments) which isn’t ideal for espresso. However, you can definitely still grind fine enough for espresso. Just anticipate a single step creating a pretty large jump in shot time. Also, the grind tends to come out clumpy so further grind distribution techniques will be required to avoid channeling. The grinds themselves seem to collect in mound first (I suspect due to the smaller conical burrs that get quite hot) and leads to grinds falling out of the portafilter before actually filling it. The first material upgrade I made with this setup was a separate grinder. However, it feels like a waste when there’s the option to buy this as a stand alone espresso maker and grinder. Overall grind retention is very poor meaning a morning bleed/flush is necessary (and a waste of perfectly good beans). It was actually so bad that I realized this was problem (6 months), I couldn’t consistently pull 2 shots on any given day.

Espresso (4/5):
This machine includes ~5 seconds of preinfusion + normal vibration pump driven brewing. The shower screen is a bit taller than you would think so leave a decent of head space when tamping. The machine is perfectly capable of pulling good to great shots of espresso. It helps to ensure the group head and portafilter are sufficiently warm before brewing.

Steaming (4/5):
I’m not big on steaming milk so I can’t add much here. Just know that it takes quite a while for the machine to ramp up to steaming temp (Thermoblock - basically an aluminum radiator- rather than a traditional boiler). Once up to temp, the machine can definitely produce enough micro-foam out of the single steam hole for latte art.

Hot water:
There is hot water (which actually can’t be said for some machines in this price point).

Included accessories:
Double spouted portafilter (2/5) - This is actually one of my largest gripes. The portafilter does not give the growth potential for to those who want to “ascend” into cafe level espresso. The size is 54mm (possibly even 53?) in diameter and has a channeled plastic base to remove brew output inconsistencies. These might not seem like a big issues but they seriously hamper your ability to correct what’s wrong. The channeled base removes the ability to diagnose potential tamping inconsistencies. The size is restrictive because it doesn’t allow you to find many accessories in the market. Common portafilter sizes are 49mm (old Italian style), 51mm (idk, newer Italian style?) and 58mm (commercial sized). Many techniques to overcoming a poor grinder will require portafilter accessories (Weiss distribution technique: funnel, top distribution tools: OCD, blind shaker etc.).

Tamper (3/5) - could be heavier in hand and handle is a bit small

Milk pitcher (4/5) - its fine.

Single + Double non-pressurized baskets (4/5) - they work, I wouldn’t recommend using the single basket since its a bit shallow

Single + Double pressurized baskets (5/5) - great addition for those not wishing to fuss with grinding/tamping too much to dial in

Water filter (5/5) - love seeing this included, helps slow down scale build up
Backflush disc
Coffee scoop
Cleaning supplies (for one full cycle, backflush tablet + descaler), brush for grinder, steam hole reamer
Hex wrench (for removing shower screen)

Nits:
The cleaning light came on at 8 months and never turn off despite multiple cleaning and descaling cycles
Breville support is hit and miss. Don’t expect anything out of warranty and its kind of hard to get normal day to day support.
The casing is actually plastic wrapped in aluminum. Its fine if you don’t beat the machine up but it won’t last as long as a 100% metal-bodied machine
Burr-based grind adjustments are a pain in the ass. Espresso dust can get between the burrs and make it difficult to place the top burr back in without a thorough (read: turn the thing sideways and go at it with a brush) cleaning
Aluminum grate on drip tray has sharp edges

To be perfectly fair, I believe I’m asking for things that are well outside of the price point or consumer group this is designed to fit in. However, it does feel like Breville priced this machine down (given the advanced and full feature set) to make it less user configurable. This means that it will serve 80% of the people who buy it very well. But, for the 20% that want to completely outdo their local tattooed, mustached and bespectacled barista, it's not likely to happen on this setup. Even if you get the best beans and put in the practice, the process is still very much so equipment dependent. Don’t get me wrong…you will make some spectacular drinks on this machine. But every time? Every day? Cafe quality? The odds are pretty low.