Oracle Touch (BES990)

Can you put the drip tray into dishwasher? I always do that on my oracle touch

Get the Breville Oracle Touch. You can upgrade the girlfriend later.

No regrets so far, 2 days in. lol. It’s so quiet! The steam wand is so powerful compared to other machines I’ve used (Breville Oracle touch, Breville Nespresso pod machine). Its small footprint is much appreciated, though I find myself already longing to get a drip tray with an integrated scale for that little bit of extra cup room. Heats up quickly, and seems to heat the portafilter up quickly as well, if I forget to lock it in place the night before. One question: I seem to be setting the Df64V grind setting at least 5 or more notches higher than with the flair 58. Is this normal? I’m using both with filter paper at the bottom and the flair 58+2 puck screen at the top…

I’m in the USA as well, and it simply does not and cannot make a good cup of coffee let alone an expresso. I tried everything under the sun diff beans, grinder settings, amount of water blah blah blah. It never produced anything I’d call decent. Definitely was a waste of 800$. Had I known what I know now I woulda just told myself save the money , go to Williams and Sonoma and go do some taste tests on machines lol. Ultimately I’ve settled for the breville oracle touch. Produces much better and stronger shots etc.

As an owner of the oracle touch. I can vouch that I have amazing coffees every single day. Amazing machine

The barista pro is the best of the affordable ones. I started with the express later upgraded to the pro had that a while loved it then thought to upgrade to the oracle touch hated it now I have the oracle jet and so far I love it.

I bought an Oracle Touch back around 2019. Even though my friends and family were taken back a bit when I they learned how much I spent on a "coffee maker," it has easily paid for itself probably about six times over at this point. From going to Starbucks everyday, spending about $8 each time, the math would show 6-7x. I have never had any issues with it and if it ever dies, I'll either do what I can to get it fixed or purchase another.

The Breville impress machines up to the oracle touch sort of do the tuning for you in terms of a certain amount of water in a certain amount of time. But the important thing to understand is that this timing guideline is just a guideline. Its not supposed to be the end goal. Its to get you in the general neighborhood so you can tune for taste at that point. So even with the Breville machines, I tell people to still adjust for taste. My friend's touch impress always seems to tune a bit sour for my taste, so I typically go finer from where the machine guided him. The Breville's do have the advantage of consistency (most of the time) which I am guessing is what you are struggling with. Espresso can be a frustrating. Unfortunately the common solution to where you are is to time practicing puck prep. Possibly get a bottomless portafilter to get very negative feedback when prep is not perfect. But if you are just interested in the end goal of having something decent to drink without making this a ginormous time sink, I think the higher end Brevilles are good options. However I think I am in a small minority here in that thinking.

Don’t buy Breville. I’m on my 3rd failure- Oracle. 2 of my friends are on their 2nd machine. My sister is on her 3rd machine (Oracle touch) - the electronic screen is the least of the concerns. Google Beville espresso broken/leaking/repairs. If you MUST buy a Breville get the dual boiler and a high end grinder.

Don’t buy Breville. I’m on my 3rd failure- Oracle. 2 of my friends are on their 2nd machine. My sister is on her 3rd machine (Oracle touch) - the electronic screen is the least of the concerns. Google Beville espresso broken/leaking/repairs. If you MUST buy a Breville get the dual boiler and a high end grinder.

The majority of folks in this forum are not willing or ready to spend the money necessary to get easier consistency. Can you get a decent shot from a Rancillo Silvia or a Bambino and a hand grinder? Yes you "can" eventually. With a great deal of effort and a lot of experience. Also, people want EASY. The Breville offerings give the illusion of easy (I had an Oracle). And most folks get a satisfactory result. Not a result I would want. But good-ish. But there goes your appliance reliability. That stuff just doesn't last very long. Heat and water conspire to destroy it. As it does with all these machines. Moving up the food chain to something like a Profitec Move that works really well if you just slow down slightly. And you can get it repaired for a very long time in the future. Pair that with a $7-800 range grinder and you're in solid shape. That's $3k. But it's a solid setup that will last a long time.

I’ve got an Oracle Touch at my office that we’ve had trouble with a few times. It’s now out of warranty and “leaking steam” again. We really like the machine, so I just ordered an Oracle Jet as a replacement. But I’d like to fix the Touch… Do you have a resource for repair info and parts you wouldn’t mind sharing?

I have an Oracle Touch I picked up for $2k, and have seen them for less since the new Oracles came out. The one repair it’s needed (internal o-ring replacements) I did myself in about 30 minutes and with under $10 in parts. If the steam boiler probes had needed replacing I would have been out an additional $100 and the repair would have taken the same amount of time. Yes, I wish it had a better grinder, but for the darker roast and milk based drinks my wife wants it works just fine. It handles the light roasts…it just struggles with consistency

Oh, I wasn’t saying you should get an Oracle. I just meant that even their “high end” machines are relatively cheap/easy to repair, so I wouldn’t worry about having to drive to get something fixed if you DO decide to get a Breville product. If I could do it over, and if my wife wouldn’t be miserable, I’d spend the money on a dual boiler Ascaso or something else pretty and buy a Sette 270 or something similar for grinding. The grinder in the Oracle is a HUGE let down for what the machine cost.