Breville The Oracle BES980

We have had the Breville Oracle for a over 6 months now. It makes great coffee every time and the traditional method a trained barista would use. It isn’t an automatic machine or semi automatic. But does automate the stuff most people get wrong, milk froathing, taping the coffee grinds and has many advance features on more expensive machines. It is expensive but worth it if like you a good coffee and don’t plan to become a barista. It is far easier to keep clean than automatic coffee machines that suck up stuff into their bodies, simply cause traditional and coffee grinds are external and not drawn into the machine.

We did have one problem the grinder dial did not show the grind value. But a single phone call to Breville who agreed to replace it with a brand new appliance. We just had to take it back to Bing Lee and swap. The new machine has been fine since and had no problems.

It is a great machine if you have guests stay, one demo and they will be set making a coffee. We were married last year and with all the wedding guests using it I was sure it would be broken but held up very well.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the Breville coffee machines. There are cheaper Breville models less automatic but if you can stretch the budget to the Oracle it is well worth getting it.

I love this coffee machine! I've gone from buying 2 takeaway coffees a day to making them at home. It's so quick and easy, but most importantly the coffee is just as good as a cafe one - better if you invest in really good quality freshly roasted beans (not supermarket beans!) I cant fault this coffee machine, it heats up really quickly, and has all the bells and whistles you could ever need. It looks great (I've got the black sesame model) and it's quick and painless making a coffee for a few people since you can steam milk and extract coffee simultaneously. The built in coffee grinder and tamper save time, and it's just so easy! Highly recommend this coffee machine.

Machine broke down twice now in 4 years in what I consider light use. About 2-3 cups extractions a day.
After 3 years use the solenoid stopped working after making lot of noise for couple of months. I had the machine repaired. They also found 4 faulty O-rings (at group head, at milk wand, and somewhere internal). The failing O-rings is likely the reason for the extraction became worse in time.
Unfortunately a couple of months later it had to go back to the repairer as the main coffee pump failed. The pump and coffee safety valve needed replacement.
I hope to have machine back this week... and won't break down again.

Obviously this +2000$ machine is not made to last.
I have to mark it a 1star overall as you can't give it points for good coffee if it is unreliable poor build quality.

This is an amazing full service machine. Barista quality coffee at home. So easy to use and clean. I live the look and functionality and recommended to any coffee snob like me to buy one over any other machine.

I have been using this machine for over two years now and it hasn't missed a beat. Makes better than cafe quality coffee in minutes. it is very easy to clean up after use and maintain. Excellent support offered by Breville including a free in-home setup service. You can make all the the different style so coffe you could ever want and don't need barista training to get you there!

We bought this from Harvey Norman in March 2017, so we've now had it for almost two years. It has never faltered. We took the opportunity of the White Glove Service and are glad that we did, it gave us more information about how to get the best out of our machine.

The machine tells you when it needs cleaning, and it is good to use this time as a chance to clean out the grinder and frother too. If your milk wand is not cleaned each time, it will cake up and not perform as expected. Keep the machine working at its best by cleaning it regularly.

We are very happy with this machine and don't feel as though the next level of touch screen is needed. It works consistently well.

I've owned this machine for over a month and I have no complaints. It delivers multiple cafe quality coffees everyday with little effort, and cleaning is straight forward. I highly recommend to anybody with one of these machines uses the complimentary white glove service Breville offers, Emily in WA showed us how to get the most out of the machine and she made the best coffee I've tasted from the Oracle so far. I highly recommend this machine to anybody looking for great coffee in the home.

My husband and I purchased this machine from Harvey Norman. We have been enjoying our coffee everyday, perfect temperature and a good caramel cream from a great auto tamper. We had the lovely Emily from White Glove service in WA come to our home and demonstrate great tips for both coffee making and up keep of cleanliness to ensure we get that perfect coffee everytime. I reccomend anyone who purchases this machine to book for the White Glove service. It's both complimentary and beneficial.

Two great things occurred. My wife bought me a Christmas present of a wonderful coffee machine and Emily from the White Glove Service gave us a very clear and enthusiastic presentation on the use and care of the machine. We now make the best coffee and I couldn't be happier. I like the more hands on method of the 980 as against the one touch method of the 990, I feel it gives me more control and involvement in the ultimate taste of the coffee. But that is a personal preference.

My wife and I purchased the oracle a couple of months ago and had been pleased with the coffee machines performance so far. There were lots of different settings for the grind control, temperature, milk temp/texture and many others that we had left at the factory default settings. The coffee was quite good and still a lot better than our previous delonghi machine.

Yesterday we experienced the Breville white glove service and had Ryan visit us in home for a demonstration on all facets of coffee making, cleaning/maintenance and customising the settings.
After an hour or two with Ryan my wife and I are now making much superior cups of coffee, with the taste and texture miles above what we were making when we hadn’t explored and understood the different settings.

Ryan was a pleasure to have and was quite knowledgeable and didn’t mind having an audience, with some of my close family with similar Breville machines joining us. He left us some great coffee beans and was happy to answer any questions we have. I think this service takes my rating from a 4 star to a 5 star.

We purchased it after a lot of research and it is in the middle range, not like Oracle touch too expensive and digital , however more functional than the express model.
The milk is done 90% of times perfectly. and the coffee is brewed well. Obviously the quality and the age of the coffee impacts the quality a lot. The training comes with it is good. We bought it from Myer shop on ebay with a good discount which was a really good deal.

The Breville Oracle performs perfectly every time, we look forward to multiple cups of the best coffee daily our friends also comment on how awesome the coffee is... I have no problem recommending the Breville Oracle to anyone and especially serious coffee connoisseurs that must have a perfect coffee every time.

I bought Breville naked portafilter and used it on my Breville Oracle machine, and I notice that the specific portion of the basket doesn't contribute at all and the liquid pours from more than one section of the basket instead of just at the centre. The shower screen is clean, and my counter is level so it the reason for channelling issue. Settings are left by default, and the only thing I change is to make the grind finer or coarser. It affects the taste of the espresso in my opinion. Before I bought the Breville naked portafilter, I knew that there could be an issue with the way the oracle grind and tamp of the coffee grind, but this was just confirmed when I bought the Breville naked portafilter that there's channelling happening. I already send an email to Breville to see if they can do something about this machine but they have not replied me yet.

Great machine - east to use. Great service if a problem occurs -highly recommend this machine . makes a awesome cuppa . Had a minor just out of warranty period but service was happy to fix under warranty ! It’s nice and quiet , gets a work out at our place and still going strong

My oracle has been experiencing some issues. It is two years old. The last few weeks, after i extract a double shot of 2x 2oz shot glasses (4 total oz) the machine drops into the mid 180's (F). My double 2oz shot takes approx 45-60 seconds. I have to wait 2 minutes for the temp to get back up to 200 degrees before I steam my milk. I have never had this issue in the past. In addition, I hear a gurgling sound from inside the machine for 2-3 seconds, goes away for 5-10 seconds then repeats consistently. Also it seems the outside top of the machine is fairly hot, almost as hotel as the cup warmer. I don't remember this being the case over the last couple of years. I descaled the machine with no change. As a matter of fact, after the descale, the machine seemed to work great, shot out a nice shot then went into a crazy mode where it made some noises I have never heard, similar to a shot extraction, and I could not shut it off with the power button. I had to unplug it. It repeated the couple times I plugged it back in and I never hit a button. I kept it unplugged for a few hours and that seemed to do the trick.
Then, one day later, I turned the machine on and I walked away to go do something. Twice it shut off on its own. I unplugged for an hour and it seemed to fix that issue. But, we're not done yet.....it heated up to 200 degrees but none of the lights were on except the blinking power button (milk brother lever was in the proper position). It stayed at 200 but did not let me operate the machine. I unplugged for an hour or two then turned it back on. It 'fixed' the issue and I extracted a decent shot.
The machine is just out of warranty and Breville service said 'for $499 we'll fix whatever the prob is and give you a 6 month warranty'.
What is/are my issue(s)?
Where can I find parts?
I am fairly handy and can fix some things myself.
Thanks for your time and help!
James

All those 5 star ratings are correct! This machine produces incredible coffee every time. I’ve had 3 other manual machines and this is a whole class above them all. I’m also struggling to drink coffee at a cafe now as it’s often not as good as I can make at home with The Oracle!!

I nearly bought the Touch version but I’m the only coffee drinker in the house so it didn’t make sense to pay the extra. The machines are identical inside (according to company rep), it’s only the controls that are different. And it’s easy to make coffees for guests who want something different.

It may look complicated to use but it’s really easy. My wife (a tea drinker) made lattes for guests with only one quick lesson.

Emily who did the White Glove service here in Perth (WA) was fantastic! I let her set it all up for me and show me all the tricks to keep it in top shape. Thanks again Emily :)

Cannot believe the results this machine provides. The coffee produced from this domestic bench top machine is brilliant. Cafe perfection, regardless of style of coffee you drink. Then there's the white glove service which is not just a one off. Breville have hit all the right notes with this product.

I purchased my Oracle over 12 months ago. It is pricey but saving $5-$10 a day spent on coffee, it has paid for itself already. It consistently makes quality barrister grade coffee, everything from extracting the perfect amount of coffee to great micro foam milk for a flat white, this machine surprisingly does a fantastic job. I highly recommend you use the Breville White Glove service, Breville offer for free, to have a full understanding of how to get a perfect coffee or watch the Breville Oracle How-to video's on Youtube. Its not rocket science but a understanding of the Oracle's abilities will enable you to become a expert barrister..:)
The customer service line has a dedicated Oracle operator who will guide you through any concerns. The ease of use is its big advantage over other similar quality machines. I have not regretted this purchase at all.

So I had the BES920 semi-auto version of this dual boiler for about five years and on sale you could buy two of them for the price of the Oracle. The value proposition is up to you, but for me the extra $1k spent has been well worth it because it fits better in my lifestyle. If you don't want to spend time researching and learning how to make good coffee and texture milk then the Oracle has you covered. It won't match good baristas but it will CONSISTENTLY (key characteristic) produce a very good cup of coffee.

The auto grind and tamp ensures that consistency, so once you've set your shot volume all you will need to do is occasionally adjust the grind setting to get your 30sec shots. There is so little to do with this machine, in terms of user complexity, once you know how to move the portafilter it's not much harder than using a pod machine but you're getting a real fresh coffee.

If you love coffee and you're too busy to make them then I would recommend you consider the Breville Oracle because it makes great coffee with limited user involvement. The only query I have is for how expensive it is what sort of reliability we can expect.

Purchased my machine early 2017 only just found out that Breville offer a White Glove service to show u just how to use this amazing coffee machine
Had the pleasure today to have A lovely Gentleman Ryan from the white glove service show me just how even more brilliant my machine can be a massive thank you for still after having my machine for so long they organised my house call today to show me where i have been going wrong and improvements i can do to make an AMAZING COFFEE massive thank you to Ryan