Review on ☕ Breville BES840XL Infuser Espresso Machine: A Premium Stainless Steel Brewing Experience by Thunder Ballman

This is probably the best espresso machine for beginners, but a few tips will help you on your way to a good espresso machine: 1) Descaling should NOT depend on warning lights. Descale every month, especially if you have hard water, with or without the cleaning indicator light. The same applies to deleting a group. The owner's manual doesn't say so, but online Breville recommends descaling once a month (no mention of harshness or warning lights)! Thermal coils are extremely sensitive to calcification, which can lead to machine failures. UPDATE 05/30/19: A fatal manual error has been found that could potentially damage your machine/warranty: Breville's descaling instructions are ambiguous regarding the amount of diluted descaling solution. that you run through this machine. Part of the instruction tells you to fill the water tank with the descaling solution, and the next section of the same instruction suggests that after going through it once, you're left with only half a liter of diluted solution. , which can only mean that you do NOT "fill" the water tank to the brim as described above (with diluted descaling solution?), but that you only fill ONE LITER of diluted descaling solution into the water tank. This is a major error that needs to be corrected in their manual, along with the frequency of descaling, which again should be done every month regardless of the signal light, as clearly stated on the Breville website and not mentioned in the manual. BREVILLE ATTENTION! 2) This machine uses a lot of water and the drip tray fills up faster than others. 3) Have a flathead screwdriver handy to change portafilter baskets, you're going to need it and Breville didn't think of that. (they thought of everything else!). 4) Use the Razor tool to level the coffee after the first tamp. Great tool.5) Get a piston milk frother (Bodum or others) and forget about the steam wand. It's faster, hassle-free, and doesn't add steam to the milk, making it creamier. 6) Only use freshly roasted coffee beans (at least a few weeks after roasting) and use a coffee grinder with conical grinders. Do not use expiration date on coffee beans, use only roasted on--/--/-- coffee. It will take some due diligence and $$ but it's worth it. Give yourself 2-3 weeks to learn the right combination of coffee and "barista" techniques to make the perfect shot for you, and stick with it and just experiment with different coffees. This machine is forgiving of everything but the descaling process, so take my advice and descale monthly!