Breville Bambino Plus BES500DBL (Damson Blue)

This machine gets a star for being compact & fitting on my bench, and a star for the mostly decent coffee shots (although it's very unforgiving with beans and grind size). It loses three stars for its control panel and general design: * no on/off switch. Press any button to turn it on (great, this is achievable in a bleary pre-coffee state;… Read more

random prodding will produce the desired effect). Ok, how do I turn it off? Maybe it has an automatic timed switch-off.. nope. What? Press and hold single shot + steam buttons? Ah dang it, my under-caffeinated finger slipped and now it's shooting another shot at me (after I've already removed my cup, of course).

* forced cleaning cycle after (apparently) 200 shots. I love that it loves being cleaned. I don't love that it gives no warning, and no way of delaying the cleaning while I finish making my cuppa. Even worse when someone else uses the machine first, tips it over 200, I emerge to a blinking machine, and now I'm running late for work as I had to mess about with a clean before making my cup.

* the cleaning cycle overfills the drip tray. Yes, I emptied it first. Yes, I put a 2L container under the wand and group head (which seems superfluous as there's a seal in the filter basket so nothing is coming out of that baby). I still ended up with water seeping across the bench like the machine was a small child who was too busy to take itself to the loo. And again, the buttons to start the cycle are ambiguous, and it's unclear when it's finished cleaning. Is this combo of lights its normal state or is it trying to tell me something new?

* ooo here's a new combo of flashing lights; what does this mean? What's that, Bambino? You're out of water? Maybe you could have a water warning light next to your "cleaning required" light and your power switch!

My elderly Breville machine was amazing, but the Bambino Plus has put me off Breville completely. If I need to get the manual out to decipher basic functions on a benchtop appliance, you've done something wrong. I'm not looking forward to having innocent house guests at Christmas.