Breville the Barista Touch BES880 Questions & Answers

It’s well known this is what it does. I’m onto my third machine. Definitely contact them now before they say it’s out of warranty! For the amount of money you pay it should last longer than a year.

Will do that tomorrow morning, thank you.

How much coffee is in the portafilter before you tamp the coffee? Do you tamp it down quite hard? I guess you mean excessive steam from the bottom of the portafilter and not from the top seal. I guess too much steam would mean the grind is not fine enough. Try 9 grind and see if that is good with a hard tamp. On different coffee beans you need to try a few different grinds to get it to taste good. The brew without milk should taste smooth and not bad. With a finer grind you will need to increase the time to fill to same level. My portafilter needs to be a bit over full before tamping. After saying all of that are you using the double bottom filter basket. For shopping centre coffee you usually need to use the double bottom. I guess you are using the single bottom basket and that is why you are getting excessive steam. Use the double wall/bottom filter basket with a 13 grind for a start. See how you go.

thanks for reply. approx 18 to 20 grams of ground beans in portafilter and ive used various tamping pressures. I dont use the double wall/bottom filter basket as the beans are ground at time of usage and booklet says to use single wall when grinding fresh whole beans.when ther is excessive steam/smoke, the coffee brew smells and tastes burnt . I will try the 9 grind and double wall filter in the interim. Cheers

The problem the beans are not fresh whole beans as you say. They are not fresh as they have not been roasted recently. Fresh beans is when I get green beans and roast them yourself. That is what you call fresh and after two weeks they are also not fresh. When I roast green beans I can use the single wall basket but after a week or two I need to use the double wall basket. Basically all shopping centre beans need a double wall basket as they are old in roasting terms. You can try a 9 grind with the double walled basket but you may find no or not enough brew will flow. That may be too fine for the double walled basket and you may need to go to say around 13. You are suppose to with every different coffee beans try a few different settings for the grind until you get a great smooth tasting brew. Just one or two different grind settings can change the taste from great to bad.

Hope you get it right soon.

The micro switch behind the portafilter where you grind might be stuck a bit. Push the button in and out sharply with your finger and it should move freely and click. I guess you could try the old PC fix of turning it off at the power point and pulling the plug out of the wall for a few minutes. Leave it out longer if all else fails. You could also try a Full Factory Reset with is the last one on the Menu List on the touchscreen. I did it yesterday for no special reason and you just bypass the items you do not need to do.

Apart from that I guess it needs a repair unless someone else can help.

I guess you mean the Brew is frothing? I like it like that for my Cappuccino coffee. I only use the larger baskets being the single wall basket and double wall basket. If you have good coffee beans newly roasted you use the single wall basket which is used in most machines. If you roast your own beans or beans from the supermarket you use the single wall basket for about two weeks or so and then use the double walled basket when the brew comes out all black and runny. Some supermarket coffee beans only come out runny and black in the single wall basket.

If you are getting too much frothing for the type of coffee you like you would use the single wall basket. That's the one with lesser number of holes on the bottom.

But that is just on baskets. There are numerous other things you could be doing to get too much froth in the brew. It also depends on the grind size you are doing. What number do you have the grinder set on?

Also without seeing a photo or video it is hard to say what it is. Also the machine may be faulty but hopefully that is not the case.

I have been finding for the last few months the different coffee beans have had not much taste. I went to Coles and got the Moccona Barista Reserve Medium Roast Coffee Beans for $19 usually $36 and they are really great. They have a nice strong taste.

Are you using the single or double wall basket?

I've tried descale Backwash clean changing baskets. The only thong that worked was a backslash but then after 2 coffees it keeps doing it.

1. Is it you have too much crema on the brew and nothing to do with milk? 2. What beans are you using? 3. What number are you grinding at? 4. What type of coffee are you doing. Cappuccino, etc 5. You have four baskets? Two small ones and two double ones.

I'd say it is the wrong size grind doing that or double wall basket.

OR IS IT: You are making a Cappuccino and expect to see more runny fluid but it is actually working correctly?

All complaints I have seen have been about getting black watery brews instead of a good brew.

OR: You like black runny fluid. I guess do a very course grind and that should do it but not dure what the taste will be. Also use old beans and that will do it.

So it is working good now?

The machine maxes around 95c which won't burn the coffee, if its not hot enough pre-warm your cup. You can't pour into a frozen cup in winter and expect hot coffee.

Mine is the same as yours in that the coffee is not hot enough for the amount of milk I want frothed. If you put less milk in the jug it will go to 75c if you have 75c put in the machine. Try setting 75c in the machine until you get the heat you require.

If I use a small jug and put the milk in up until the bottom of where the spout is flared out it should go to 75c or hot enough for you. My small jug may even be smaller than your jug so you need to put less milk in.

You can always manually froth the milk by pulling the wand out and using a separate milk frothing thermometer and you stop at any temperature you like. I normally use the automatic frothing and tried manual frothing today and it tasted slightly better.

I am assuming my machine is working the same as yours and not faulty but will go to Harvey Norman sometime soon and see the Breville representative and see if my machine is working properly.

Also heating the cups with hot water first helps with getting higher temperature but a bit of a pain as I do not want to use the hot water from the machine as I have to fill it with a hose and funnel. Mine is in a small area and I can not remove the water container to fill it.

It would be nice to be automatically do the frothing for two cups at once but you could do that manually. I have two jugs and do the milk frothing separately.

Hope this helps.

High numbers are course, low numbers are fine, 24 is bad.

What do you mean : "I can't physically move the dial past 24. Then you say you can manually change it to 1." Do you mean you change the grinder up the top of the grinder above the top of the machine to 24?

If you are just getting black runny liquid for the brew and no crema it means you should be using the DOUBLE WALL BASKET and NOT the SINGLE WALL BASKET. Unless you roast your own green beans most other coffee beans like from shopping centres you usually need to use the DOUBLE WALL BASKET.

You can start at 14 like in the video and go lower after tasting just the brew. When it tastes the best you leave it on that setting. You need to do this with any new beans.

Here is a video of all you need to do. Push the knob to the rear to go lower and finder grind.

external link 

I guess you mean the big cup icons on the opening screen? I always had trouble moving the icons to left or right and just realised if I put a finger firmly on the name under the icon I can move them left or right easily. Not sure if that helps?

Someone below mentioned this as his answer to fixing this; "Yes, I came across it once.. for me it was blockage up the group head. I did grind the coffee too fine and the powder found it's way up the group head and caused the issue. I used a tablet to clean it and it's been working fine since." Is your coffee ground too fine try setting 15. Also try doing a "brew" with no coffee in it and see if the water comes out and hopefully it does not stop. Obviously you have the water tank full and the filter is not clogged? If that is no good get back to us as there is six things to try which should fix it.

i have the same problem with coffee machine BES880 help me please...

Mine has done that from new. I have been using a milk jug just a bit bigger than normal and it would only go to 60 or 65. Apparently that is the correct temperature but too cold for me also. Probably if you heat up the cup first it may be hot enough but who wants to go to that bother. I noticed if I put less milk in it would go to 70 degrees. Today I just used a smaller jug and maybe the one that came with it. I filled the jug to just slightly lower than the correct level and it went to 75 degrees. So if you want a large cup of coffee, it looks like you have to heat the milk manually or just start the automatic or manual milk frothing again just for a short period. So try using less milk and the temperature might go higher. So looks like they have either designed it for small cups of coffee or mine is faulty also. Anyone else comment on this?

Are you using the dual floor coffee basket? Ours came with one and the single floor basket. If you do not have one electrical shops like the Good Guys sell them. Then you will get good crema. Some say it is fake crema but who cares as ;long as it works and tastes great. Also you can change the grind size to get a good flavour. I take it as low as possible and if that taste is not good I keep taking it back a bit until it tastes good. With every packet of beans you are suppose to alter the grind size until good. Hopefully buy the same coffee and you do not need to change it. I just bought Aldi medium black and white packet for about $12 for a kilo and that has proven to be really great. I have just been using up a lot of beans that I have had for a while and maybe I can use the single floor basket but when they are old, like opened for over a week I'll need the double wall basket.

But try the DUAL FLOOR COFFEE BASKET and you will not get a watery brew and should taste good. (I guess you are not using it now?)

Thank you!

Did you find a solution mine is doing this.

Yes, I put descaling solution in (double the amount I usually do) it didn’t pump (as I suspected). I left it over night in the tank. Tried it again in the morning and hey presto! It had the same problem a few days later but the same solution worked. I ran 2 full tanks of descaler through and a cleaning cycle.

That was months ago and it’s been fine since.

So to summarise, leave descaler in the tank overnight then run a couple of tanks through the descale cycle in the morning.

Let me know if it works!

Yes default grinding time and bru time can be adjusted in the touch screen menu.

Ive never brewed for more than 30sec. Should be aiming for 25-30sec. Might be stale bean, not sure.

Hi Anne, inside the jug there are markers, but the milk should at least be around a third up the wand.

What is the capacity of the jug (how many ml). If I use a smaller jug made of stainless steel, will the automatic froth function work? I don't want to use 200ml for one cup of coffee so just trying to find a way to froth less milk if I'm just making one cup of coffee. Thanks

150ml

Pull it all apart and thoroughly clean even if it is not due, I thoroughly clean every 3 days, also make sure the milk is cold and fresh, any left over milk from a previous cup should be discarded.

When you say it doesn’t frost like it used to are you just talking about the temperature or the texture of the milk as well? Mine has never missed a beat maybe try doublechecking your profile to see if it’s at 70°. Before I put my milk under the wand I also did a purge ( let it free steam before sticking milk under it ) to help with texture. Hope this helps

Hi Rikki, did you find an answer to your issue? I'm having the same problem.

no and Brevelle replaced it once but it still does it. We have given it a full clean but it is still the same first cup is the worst then it gets a little better. We just put it in for a second go and we get the result we should get the first time. I won't buy a Brevelle again.

Have you may be touched or changed the froth setting for your profile maybe? Also maybe try not purging the steam wand before putting your milk under it that way it will bubble up and have a bit more froth. Sorry those are the only things I can think of

Hi Stephanie, did you find an answer to your issue? I'm having the same problem.