Okay how did I do on my set up? I did a lot of research and felt this was best until my friend said she was buying the breville automatic oracle or something and now I’m wondering if I made a mistake 😅 I was really going for the future proofing aspect of this where I hopefully wouldn’t need to replace anything for awhile. Either ease my worries or let me know I f-ed up so I can return it within my window. I’m a total noob btw if you couldn’t tell 🤭😉
by LunarLibraBabe
9 Comments
I’d say less electronic = more future proof
Imo you made the right call, you get into espresso you probably won’t be using the extra stuff that comes with oracle
As long as your Varia VS6 doesn’t have motor run out (wobbly shaft) that’s a fantastic grinder. It performs as well as some of my several thousand dollar grinders.
You know it’s funny we must think alike, because I was going to go with almost this exact set up after researching haha.
I think the Breville Dual Boiler is the best Breville to go for as far as Breville’s go. It allows you to temperature control the water, nice dual boiler for milk and it has push buttons. Often times a touch screen is actually a drawback for me. Screens break, electronics fail; but push buttons are far more reliable.
This is a good machine ~~Savannah~~ , this is stable, this is reliable do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
With that being said this is the year 2026, and there are a LOT of fish in the sea. Before Breville was competing with Gaggia and Lelit. So either an old looking espresso machine from the 60s or all chrome machine that looks like it came from the year 2203, but now in this particular year the competition is insane.
**The Fellow Es1**- has more features, can deliver a more consistent shot; but worse build quality and while it has a more “powerful” boiler it is a single boiler.
**The Meraki -** Delivers more consistent shots, better milk wand, includes grinder and scale to ensure accuracy. But worse build quality and company hasn’t been in the market long.
**The Decent Espresso Machine -** lets you track almost all aspects of a shot in real time, the most future proof and portable as it’s made to last forever and allows you to **Permanently** extend the warranty and transfer the warranty to any new buyers. **But it costs $4000**
All of the machines I listed all have touchscreens ironically lol, but the point still stands. The Breville is a good solid machine, it’s just releasing during a Home Espresso Machine renaissance of sorts
It’s a perfect setup and will last you many years. The BDB is a fantastic machine. If you do upgrades such as slayer and needle valve mods, it will have features on par with ones in the $3k plus range. It’s a really fun machine for someone who is just delving in espresso making out of box. Enjoy it!
The more toys and whiz-bangs that a machine comes with, the more that can go wrong, just ask Ninja Luxe Café owners, Jack of all Trades and Master of None machine.
I’d say you’ve done the right thing, separate Grinder (don’t know it, can’t comment on how good it is) integrated Grinders even on the better machines have limitations.
The good thing is the repairability of the machine you have. Stick with it, don’t beat yourself up and I bet you’ll never regret it. You’ll learn more from it.
9/10!! I love it
What tamp matt is that?
Breville introduced their machines around 2010. If you could get a brand new Gaggia from 2005 in box today and it checked out, I think it would be a terrific machine if you could learn the ins and outs. MSRP was around $400 then. The Gaggia, over time, has risen in price and feature set. It’s a lot easier to get into espresso these days than back then. Having said that, this is one of the better Breville machines. From all I’ve read about them, they will last years before needing major servicing and by then you will have upgraded.
I think you made the right choice by not going with one with a built in grinder (which isn’t very good) or the Oracle and its LCD screen. It’s been a long time since I hopped into this game but the Gaggia was the best thing you could buy around that time up until Breville’s lineup came out. I’m sure there was another Gaggia level machine but I wouldn’t be able to remember the name at this point.
I rate it “switch the grinder and machine around so you can steam comfortably, that’s what you got a dual boiler for!”. Regardless, looks like a solid choice. Now stop worrying abour gear and enjoy the coffee.