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I owned a Breville Dual Boiler for a few years, was always happy with the coffee it produced, and I thought it was very good value for the price... until it fai

by cibyr 5y ago

I owned a Breville Dual Boiler for a few years, was always happy with the coffee it produced, and I thought it was very good value for the price... until it failed in a manner that caused it to constantly trip a GFCI. I brought it back to the shop where I bought it (who service all varieties of espresso machines), and they told me that Breville won't sell them parts for repair. I then contacted Breville, and they wanted me to ship it back to them for maintenance, at a cost of several hundred dollars. So I wound up with one of those much-more-expensive Italian machines, which has now seen daily use for a few years and not needed anything more than a replacement group head gasket (which cost $10 and any idiot can replace one at home).

lostlogin 5y ago
I used my fathers Rancillio Silvia for 10ish years after he used it for about that long. It’s still good but I have upgraded. It had a US$70 service after about 15k coffees and was still fine at 20k. It’s got a little surface rust on the drip tray. Fantastic machine. This pales compared to some machines though - I was recently reading about someone has a ‘60s Faema e61 that has made nearly 5 million coffees. https://www.home-barista.com/advice/faema-e61-original-vintage-or-reproduction-legend-t40541.html https://www.home-barista.com/advice/faema-e61-original-vinta...
hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
Don't disagree, and I realize this isn't the solution for most people, but home-barista.com has some excellent forums on how to make the most common repairs yourself. For a tripped GFCI, dollars-to-donuts you had a leaky o-ring on your boiler, which was letting steam into the innards of your machine. The replacement parts can be acquired very cheaply and there are great YouTube videos on how to do the repairs. With the BDB there are a couple of primary failures after a couple years (failed o-rings, pump or solenoid that needs replacement, new grouphead gasket), which have fortunately been well-documented in online forums and YouTube.

by cibyr 5y ago

lostlogin 5y ago

I used my fathers Rancillio Silvia for 10ish years after he used it for about that long. It’s still good but I have upgraded. It had a US$70 service after about 15k coffees and was still fine at 20k. It’s got a little surface rust on the drip tray. Fantastic machine. This pales compared to some machines though - I was recently reading about someone has a ‘60s Faema e61 that has made nearly 5 million coffees. https://www.home-barista.com/advice/faema-e61-original-vintage-or-reproduction-legend-t40541.html https://www.home-barista.com/advice/faema-e61-original-vinta...

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago

Don't disagree, and I realize this isn't the solution for most people, but home-barista.com has some excellent forums on how to make the most common repairs yourself. For a tripped GFCI, dollars-to-donuts you had a leaky o-ring on your boiler, which was letting steam into the innards of your machine. The replacement parts can be acquired very cheaply and there are great YouTube videos on how to do the repairs. With the BDB there are a couple of primary failures after a couple years (failed o-rings, pump or solenoid that needs replacement, new grouphead gasket), which have fortunately been well-documented in online forums and YouTube.