Breville 800ESXL 15-Bar Triple-Priming Die-Cast Espresso Machine

The Best Expresso Maker for the Price
The Breville 800 ESXL is turning out to be one of the best buys I have ever madeBreville 800ESXL Commercial 15-Bar Triple-Priming Die-Cast Espresso Machine.

I had a Gaggia that produced great espresso when I first got it, but recently, it stopped creating any crema whatsoever. Water leaked from the steamer wand and the expresso head. It was time for a replacement.

I studied and studied and studied all the expresso makers and I knew I did not want to spend over $500 for a good pot. My goal was to find a great pot for under that amount. I read every review there is on the internet concerning the Breville 800 ESXL. People love it or hate it but if you read carefully, you may find as I did, that many of those who hate it, did not follow the directions as prescribed by Breville. They treated it like their old pot, however, the Breville 800 is a wonderful pot if used according to the instructions...

Beautifully designed, but missing important elements
From a interface and asthetic point of view, the machine is flawless. It's beautiful and solid, and has many nice touches like an integral storage bin and swiveling steam wand. Having said that, it's missing a few things on the INSIDE that you'd expect from a $400 machine:

For one, it uses a thermoblock. This results in a pressure drop and uneven heating compared to a boiler, which is why there is the need for the double-wall crema system. (I'm referring here to pump machines with boilers, not the cheap steam machines.) This is why you'll find that after brewing you have a soupy sludge instead of the hard dry puck considered an indicator of proper espresso brewing. Update: as pointed out by somebody else, this may be more a function of the lack of three-way valve than indicative of poor pressure or heating. I didn't realize this didn't have a three-way valve, but that's just one more reason to avoid this. Regardless, the weakness of the thermoblock is apparent in the...

Reviewing Breville 800ESXL Espresso Maker
Reviewing Breville 800ESXL Espresso Maker

Points to make

(1) UNPLUG the machine every time, like it says in the manual! Why?
The first day I had the machine I assumed that once you turn the machine off in the front panel, it is really off.
Not so, apparently.
One lonely evening, while making love to my machine (just kidding eh!), anyway, quite near the turned off machine in a quiet evening, I could hear a very low humming sound coming from it.
Power unit or whatever, I realized the machine was not really off, and from then on I decided to follow the recommendation in the manual -- which I presumed initially was only for home-safety reasons.
Obviously is not sucking the 1500 watts, but there's still something going on inside, and it's not a caffeinated gerbil!

(2) Vibration and Noise
IMO, it's not noisier than other espresso makers, and it sure is a dead loser against my blender, which my neighbors are probably acquainted...

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