Well, bad news for us, our Breville espresso machine died. We actually started having issues with it soon after purchasing it. About eight months in we noticed some condensation in the face dial. We contacted Breville customer service and they said that they would send us a shipping label to ship the appliance to them to have it serviced. The shipping label never came though and the issue was intermittent so we let it go, hoping that the problem would just go away. I wish that we would have pursued the fix further at the time because a few months later we started to notice a drip-dripping from the face of the machine in roughly the same location. It wasn't every day but periodically. We ignored that too. The death nail came when the machine started to short out and flip the breaker on the GFCI outlet that it's plugged into. It did it twice and we took that as a sign that it's basically done for. I don't want a fire starting over this thing. We have only had the appliance for two years so the whole situation is really disappointing and frustrating to say the least. I don't think that I'll be buying another Breville product again thats for certain.
So moving on, I thought that the fix might be something simple - a faulty or worn out o-ring or something like that. In my naivety I was like, "I bet you I can fix this myself." I proceed to grab some tools and went to work trying to find the problem.
When I finally got into the heart and bones of the appliance I was literally like "Yeah, fuck this. This is way beyond my capabilities." The inside was a spaghetti factory rats nest of wires and tube's going in every direction.
Water had leaked all over the inside too and there was rust throughout and everywhere. I gave up after about 15 seconds of seeing the inside. I put everything back together and put the machine in a closet out of site and out of mind, where it continues to hibernate. We haven't decided what we are going to do yet. Do we try and get it fixed? But how much would that cost? Or do we just buy a new one? These are my questions. It seems crazy to spend all that money again when we only had this machine for two years! What a waste.
When the Breville died I started using our French press for a time but I never really liked the coffee it made. I don't think that I ever figured out the right ratio of coffee to water or the right grind that works best. The coffee always turns out sub par when I use it.
I've since been using this espresso thermos that is similar to a French press but creates more pressure when its plunged which produces a more espresso like beverage. It works amazing actually and I happen to like the coffee as much as anything made by the Breville. Surprising that such a simple device can produce such a good product.
I fished out our old drip coffee machine as well, but I haven't used it yet. We saved it because it will make a pot of coffee, which is handy if we ever had guests over.
It was also convenient in that it can be set to turn on to a timer and brew coffee on schedule in the morning. That saves a lot of time and results in less rushing around in the morning before work.
