I don’t think you’r the only person having a similar issue, I’ve recently heard from a couple of people with a similar problem who’re convinced it’s nothing to do with not keeping the wand clean, so it could be there are a small percentage of machines with a fault – well worth getting in touch with Sage. ROMMELSBACHER COFFEE GRINDER (150W) (STAINLESS STEEL) EKM 150. For around £150 you can add a PID which also includes pre-infusion. https://www.sageappliances.com/content/dam/breville/uk/assets/miscellaneous/instruction-manual/espresso/BES500-instruction-manual.pdf. Also, I find this stuff is amazing for keeping the stainless steel suface clean. OK, if you’re a seasoned home barista, this coffee might not be quite up to your standards, but I reckon you’ll find it’s not far off, and lets face it, the majority of the people you’re making coffee for probably aren’t going to have the palate to be able to tell any difference between this coffee and the one you would have made from your far more expensive setup. Running very regular descaling cleans seems to be helping coax it along a little, and I cannot find a way to go directly into the main (not the descaling) cleaning cycle (which automatically starts after 200 cups). This is my first espresso machine so hard to know. Steam wand: Proper steam wand (not a panarello) with both auto milk frothing, and manual texturing. Your email address will not be published. Fantastic review, thank you. The Bambino decides when. The Breville Bambino Plus is a welcome refresh to the bulky espresso machines of years past. I assume that the reason for this is a combination of a thermoblock boiler with a really good steam tip. Had been looking/waiting for the best deal on a Bambino Plus when an email went to Costco members a couple of weeks ago. It’s with regards the milk frothing. It still makes good coffee! Required fields are marked *. What an absolute steal for what I hope will be a very good introductory system for a budding novice. So, straight out of the box, with no modding, the Sage Bambino plus, as far as I’m concerned is one of the best espresso machines – both in terms of shot quality, and certainly in terms of user friendliness and beginner friendliness. I start of with the bottom of the jug tilted slightly diagonally towards somewhere around seven or eight oclock, just to create a bit of an angle. Product Specification. Kev. No water comes out of the portafilter, that’s the point of the backflush disk, it goes through the internals and directly into the drip tray. My gripes are: the 54mm portafilter means accessories are not as easy to come by and options are limited. Older stock may come with only dual walled baskets, so if you’re not buying directly from Sage Appliances (which I would recommend you do if you’re buying now, as I can’t find them as cheap anywhere else) I would recommend that you check with the retailer whether you’re getting one of the newer units with the standard baskets. The truth is simply that 15 bar pressure works for very low cost machines, especially for those that are designed to work with pressurised baskets – and more on them shortly. But the milk this machine can texture automatically is probably pretty rubbish right? So just do it again, without a cleaning tablet in there if you’re sure you did actually put it through a proper backflush the first time, and just make sure you’re definitely starting the cleaning cycle by keeping both shot buttons pressed together for at least 5 seconds until both lights go solid, and then a single press of either button – and make sure you’re also allowing it to complete the cycle, don’t touch it until it goes back into standard ready mode. Just like your local café. Most coffee machine reviews and “best coffee machines” type blog posts (not just coffee machines either, it’s true of all products), are written by professional writers who’re hired to write articles for blogs and other websites. But if you’ve changed the pre-set shot button settings and you want to put re-set them: Let us know if the 53mm tamper fits please, and feel free to link to where you got it from. So just put the single basket in (dual wall or standard, doesn’t matter) – put one of the cleaning tablets that it comes with, in the little indentation, lock the portafilter in, and press the single and double shot buttons together for at least five seconds, and then both of the shot buttons should be lit up solid – at this point, press either of the shot buttons just once, and the cycle should begin. These kinds of reviews are largely based on research, and from reading the marketing blurb, and contain very little (if anything) in terms of real user feedback. Big thanks for the review and also the videos which will help me get up and running quickly. Though the Bambino Plus has a better warranty, yet I recommend the Barista Express for your … Cheers, Rich. Yup. The Breville Bambino Plus espresso coffee machine serves as a great starting point regarding price, ease of use, and versatility, allowing users to have a convenient way to make authentic espresso at home. The Sage blurb & instructions tell you that you need to use the jug that comes with the machine in order to use the auto milk texturing feature. Kev, Bonjour, So overall, unless you find the Duo Temp Pro for a bargain, I’d go for the Bambino. If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know that coffee blog is completely different to commercial blogs. I have both machines, I don’t own them (I own the original gaggia classic), both are on long term loan to me while I’m continuing to create content on both, and they’re both great machines. It’s also a great machine in terms of portability, I stuck the bambino in the boot recently when we went on holiday to Cornwall, it took up hardly any space, and there was no faffing around at all getting it set up once at the holiday cottage, just straight out of the boot, plugged in, filled up – and ready for much needed coffee within seconds. We have reviewed plenty of coffeemakers over the years. Backflushing is where you use a blind disk, or “backflush disk” which blocks the holes on the filter basket, and you put a cleaning tablet, or a bit of backflush powder into this, and pull a series of short shots, basically. We have reviewed plenty of coffeemakers over the years. Baskets: Current stock ship with single and double standard baskets and single and double dual wall baskets. Thermoblock machines or small single boiler machines with the ability to provide hot water don’t tend to do a great job of it in terms of speed and temp, but if you have a heat exchanger machine or dual boiler machine, with water being provided via the boiler (as is the case with the Profitec Pro 600 I’m using at the moment) hot water is properly hot, and is dispensed just like turning a tap, so it really does beat using a kettle for Americanos. The RRP is £399 – and before the current situation, I regularly found it on offer for anywhere between £200-£350. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. If you’re looking for around 30 seconds for instance, to extract the desired amount of liquid espresso from the ground coffee at the brew ratio you’re using, for example 2:1 (19g dry ground coffee:38g liquid espresso), then this 30 seconds is the total shot time including the pre-infusion time. So the fact the Bambino plus comes at 9 bars out of the box, is a very positive thing for this little machine. On most jugs I find you need to fill them to just below the indentation of the spout, and with 500ml jugs (which I prefer to use) this will mean that if you’re drinking 6 or 8 ounce drinks, you’ll probably have some milk left in the jug after pouring. And also given that over a period of time I would be able to significantly increase the shot quality of the classic to beyond what would be possible with the Bambino, at this price if I was choosing between the two, I have to be honest and say that I would choose the Gaggia classic pro. … There’s the Sage Barista Pro, which is the newer version of the Barista express, and there’s the Barista Touch, which is the touch screen version. What this means is that the Bambino has the potential to create better tasting espresso than other domestic machines. Cleaning tablets are pricey. This indicates that it wants you to do a backflush cycle. I’ve steamed milk with quite a number of espresso machines, including domestic espresso machines, prosumer machines, all the way through to multi-group commercial machines, and I can honestly say that I’ve found the Bambino plus to be one of the best machines I’ve used when it comes to ease of use. Available from Retailer. Pages. I’m not surprised about that, Sage do make very shiny, pretty looking espresso machines, but I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the water tank. At this point, empty the bowl, rinse both the drip tray and the water tank – put the water filter back in, and you’re all sorted. Also bought myself a Sage Smart Grinder from John Lewis, £176. Unfortunately it’s vey difficult to steam milk without waste, if you want decent texture, you’re probably going to waste some milk. This is a backflush cycle. Wouldn’t like to know what it would produce if we knocked it down to two or one. Compare Prices; Lowest Prices in Other Countries. Businesses will reduce their prices when they need to compete in order to move their stock. Coffee makers. If you really do want to work on reducing milk wastage, then try using a 350ml jug, and filling this to just below the indentation of the spout. In addition to the … You just don’t have much room at all for maneuver, if you don’t get it bang on perfect right from the get go, there’s little or no chance of redemption, you either put up with poorly textured milk, or you try again. A PID controller, usually just referred to as a “PID”, which stands for Proportional Integral Derivative, is basically an algorithmic temperature controller. I have had several amazing and delicious shots with the Bambino, but I am starting to notice inconsistencies and was wondering if any other owners experience the same. I recommend to other potential buyers that you reach out and chance your arm, you never know where a cheeky request might take you. In short, I think this is an amazing little espresso machine. Wow, bargain! That's incredibly fast and a huge benefit for the espresso lover … Many thanks for this thorough and detailed review which has been terrifically helpful for me when trying to choose my first “proper” home espresso machine. If you use the Honey browser extension, on some websites such as the Sage appliances website or ao.com, you may find an active discount code – but I wouldn’t expect to save much. To be fair to pressured or dual walled baskets, although I’ve just referred to them as only being fit for being used as indoor frisbees, I can actually see the benefit of these baskets. If you don’t have a big enough bowl then just use two bowls and replace one with the other half way through the rinsing cycle. A one-stop electronics ownership platform. Even the Rancilio Silvia which is around £530, doesn’t have this feature – in fact to get an espresso machine with low pressure pre-infusion you’d usually have to spend around a thousand pounds or more – except for the Sage machines. The coffee machine comes with a 54mm portafilter with a 19g dose to deliver consistently rich and balanced coffee. It's in the top 3 bestselling coffee machines and has dozens of popular alternatives in the same price range, such as Delonghi EC680 or Nespresso VertuoLine.. Breville Bambino Plus is $184.96 more expensive than an average coffee machine ($314.99). Hi David, thanks for the message and the kind words about the review. coffeeblog.co.uk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk. Since the first lock down, with lots of people wanting better quality coffee at home, the relationship of supply to demand has been turned upside down, and as a result, there are very few deals for coffee machines. Similar Products . Wrong! I think it’ll be a while until we start to see decent offers again on coffee machines. Sorry for the delayed reply David. Delivering barista-quality performance using a 54mm portafilter with 19 grams for full flavor and an automatic steam wand for milk texturing. Yup. Keep it rolling. Don’t skimp on the milk. Cheers. The Breville Bambino Plus is a great choice if you fall into this category. thanks chris. GadgetGuy/Girls live on adrenalin and coffee. when pulling a shot? Instead they’ve kept the price the same at £399, and have enabled customers to pre-order from the next available batch. This clever little espresso machine has low pressure pre-infusion, which is something I wouldn’t expect to find on an espresso machine at this price point. Couple of questions, I’m on somewhat of a budget, what grinder would you recommend and also, a good scales that would fit on the drio tray nicely? I love the quick startup of the machine and I expect that this feature alone will keep me from upgrading for a while. This is one area where the Bambino plus has really impressed me. The RRP was always £399, but they had them on offer for £299 for a while. From this I conclude that the thermoblock steam delivery is easier to handle than that of a steam boiler, but that the reason for the better results on the Sage machines is that they’ve coupled this with a decent steam wand, and it could be due to their new advanced thermoblocks, too. These are integrated grinder machines, which I can see the benefit of in terms of cost, but overall I do recommend going for a separate espresso machine and grinder combination than going for an integrated grinder. I can’t wait to get cracking. Like professional machines, Breville the Bambino BES450BSS can deliver third wave specialty coffee. Obviously, the group, the portafilter etc., will all need a bit of warming up, so you’ll need to pull some water through the portafilter to get everything warmed up before pulling your shot, but even after doing that you’ll still be pulling your shot within 10-15 seconds of turning on the machine, which is very impressive, and has me wondering if perhaps there’s some alien technology at work here from a certain downed craft from Roswell New Mexico…. Breville Bambino Plus – good coffee and great price. Just cleaned my old cheaper DeLonghi EC330S machine to sell on eBay, turns out it wasn’t broken at all, just blocked. Your whole website is most helpful. Latte art takes a long time to master, but in my opinion that’s because of how long it takes to master getting the milk texture right. The time saved with quick startup is reduced by now having to heat water in a kettle. I’ve spoken to my contact at Sage, who thinks it could literally just be that the steam wand needs more thorough cleaning. This is a real user review of the Sage Bambino Plus espresso machine, or the Breville Bambino Plus if you’re outside of Europe. I just got my Sage Bambino Plus and noticed that when screwing the Portafilter into the group head it doesn’t allow me to turn it all the way to a central position and in a right angle to the machine, there is a resistance where I can’t push it further when the handle is still pointing slightly to the left. washing the baskets, swapping the coffee, playing with the grind. Standard filter baskets have a load of holes at the bottom, to allow the extracted coffee to filter through while preventing the coffee grinds from ending up in your espresso. 1-16 of 40 results for "breville bambino plus espresso machine" Skip to main search results Eligible for Free Shipping. I think the reason for this misleading info in the instructions is that initially the backflush disk had a hole in it and water did come directly out of the group, but they changed this and didn’t change the instructions. Then when I raise up the jug slightly, at the same kind of angle, the vortex which was already there to a certain degree during the stretching phase, increases, and the micro foam gets really well integrated throughout the milk. Make sure you’re involved, by joining  the “brew time” newsletter, click here. So if someone like me wants to steam milk manually, then I can fill my boots – and if someone else in the house just wants textured milk at the touch of of a button, I don’t have to get up off my arse and go texture the milk for them. https://www.sageappliances.com/content/dam/breville/uk/assets/miscellaneous/instruction-manual/espresso/BES500-instruction-manual.pdf We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. But Sage have told me that the latest stock of the Bambino comes with both standard and pressured baskets. Cheers, This wouldn’t put me off buying the Bambino though. No problem, just press the button on the bambino, and a few seconds later, ready to go. Buy the selected items together. Kev. Hmm, no I’ve not had any experience of this, but I’ll speak to Sage and see if I can shed any light on a potential cause/solution. GadgetGuy/Girls live on adrenalin and coffee. To conclude – I’m hugely impressed with the Sage Bambino plus. The little cleaning disks from Sage are not cheap, but you can get cleaning powder which is way more cost effective. Although small, it packs a serious punch. Login. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Appreciate you taking the time to get back to us Kev.