I only recommend equipment that I use and like myself, and I tell you the good and the bad about it, and why I recommend it, so you can make your own mind. When you buy equipment from one of the links in this page, I get a small commission that helps me maintain this site.
I discussed a bit about espresso machine requirements in What is good espresso. As a short recap, temperature and pressure consistency are key, as is dry steam for making milk drinks. You also do not want to wait forever to switch between brewing and steaming, and ideally you want to be able do both at the same time.
For example, all else equal, brewing the same espresso shot at 200 F vs 202 F can make a world of difference in flavor. Each coffee is going to have a different ideal brew temperature to get the flavors you want out of it. Similarly, a lower end machine that starts brewing at say 204 F but finishes brewing at 195 F is going to deliver an espresso shot that is both a bit sour and bitter at the same time, and it would be very difficult for you to determine what is wrong with it or what to do about it. You would just know the espresso doesn’t taste quite right (although some of these are okay in milk drinks).
This is why there is a minimum bar of equipment I recommend, even for home, even if I always advise against overspending on espresso equipment. Making espresso can be tricky with good equipment, and it is very frustrating with inadequate equipment, so much so that you are better off doing french press or drip in that case provided you’re still using good and fresh coffee. While there is cheaper equipment out there you can buy, I discourage you from doing so.
I will also remind you here that a good espresso machine cannot compensate for a bad grind or stale coffee. A machine usually cannot do much about grounds that are not the right size, not the right consistency, or not distributed evenly on the basket. A machine usually cannot extract what is not there either, as it is the case with stale coffee.
Breville Dual Boiler
The Breville Dual Boiler represents the best compromise between price, functionality, and performance for entry-level home espresso at around $1,200.
The Breville Dual Boiler is the espresso machine that use and recommend for home espresso. It provides very consistent temperature and pressure, good steam, and the ability to brew espresso and steam milk simultaneously.
The Dual Boiler is a home espresso machine with separate brew and steam boilers, a heated portafilter group head, and a lot of features. It is the only home espresso machine to deliver true temperature accuracy and stability at its price point.
The good
Brew temperature accuracy and stability. Tests with appropriate measuring equipment have shown that the Dual Boiler can stay within one degree of its intended brew temperature for the duration of a shot. Espressos made with this machine taste the same shot after shot, and if you change the temperature by a couple of degrees, you consistently get different flavor balance out of your coffee. Only by having used inferior espresso machines can you really appreciate how nice this capability is.
Brew and steam simultaneously. You can brew espresso and steam milk at the same time because the machine has two separate boilers, one set to brewing temperature, the other to steaming temperature. If you don’t want to multitask, steam is ready for you the second you need it.
58 mm portafilter. This is the size of commercial espresso machines, so you can fit a 19 gram dose and make more intense espressos and milk drinks. The portafilter is heavy, feels solid, and retains heat well.
Auto start. You can configure the machine to turn itself on at a specific time, so it is ready and up to temperature in the morning when you want to use it.
Preinfusion. You can customize a preinfusion phase during brewing where the first few seconds are brewed at a very low pressure. This can help get more flavor out of light roasted coffees, but I will discuss in detail why I do not use this feature later. It is nice to have it included for those who want it.
Cup warmer. The top of the machine warms up so you can keep your cups there and have them warm and ready to use when making drinks.
Looks. I think the machine is great looking, especially if you get in black.
Accessories. The machine comes with pressurized and non-pressurized baskets, a blind disk and cleaning tablets, a milk pitcher, and a tamper that attaches magnetically to the machine for storage.
Popular. This is a machine that sells well, and there is a lot of information and videos online about how to use it and repair it.
The bad
Appliance feel. If you have used commercial or high-end home espresso equipment, you notice that the Dual Boiler feels more like a nice kitchen appliance than a heavy duty machine (except for the portafilter), and that is true. However, considering the low volume of expected use at home and the low price point, I don’t see this as a big issue.
Reliability. This machine offers unheard of espresso performance for its price. The downside is that some of its components are of more basic quality and are known to fail a little more often than some of those in more expensive espresso machines. Breville provides a 2 year warranty and is responsive and helpful, and fixes or replaces bad machines for about $350. Some parts can be easily bought online but others are harder to find, requiring you to send the machine to Breville for service. Provided you know what you are doing (so you don’t put unnecessary abuse on the machine), I find the machine performs well for years, if not over a decade like more expensive machines.
How to use the Dual Boiler
The Dual Boiler has a lot of features and can be a bit intimidating at first if you have not used espresso equipment before. However, once you configure it to your liking, operation is really easy day to day. While I will cover the details of the espresso making process in details in other sections, here are some tips and ways in which I use this machine specifically.
The type of water you put into the machine is of critical importance, both because it impacts the quality of the coffee, and also because it affects the performance and lifespan of the machine. Tap water has a lot of minerals that over time deposit scale on the walls of the boilers of the machine and in other parts, causing leaks and if not taken care of, the breakage and malfunction of the machine. While you can run a descaling process on this machine, the process is not usually trouble free, and scale can be prevented in the first place if you use a specific water composition. I use a formula that was recommended by several members of the home-barista.com forums that produces scale-free water: mix 1000 ml of distilled water with 25 grams of potassium bicarbonate to keep as a concentrate. Then I add a tablespoon of the concentrate to a gallon of distilled water and that’s the water I use on my machine. This prevents scale from building up inside the machine and breaking it, and distilled water is usually about $1 a gallon at most grocery stores.
Set the right brew water temperature for your beans and experiment. The ease with which you can set the brew temperature on the Dual Boiler and its remarkable temperature stability is one of the best features of this machine. Make sure to set the brew temperature higher (202 F to 204 F) for lighter roasts and lower (195 to 200 F) for darker roasts. Also experiment brewing at different temperatures with the same coffee while keeping everything else the same, so you can learn how temperature affects the tastes that you get out of the coffee and which flavors you prefer. Too low a temperature results in sour coffee and too high a temperature can result in too bitter coffee. To change the brew temperature, press the MENU button until the temperature is shown and the using the up and down arrows to change the setting on the screen, then click the EXIT button. The new temperature is shown on the screen.
Flush the group head before making an espresso. Press and hold the 1CUP button for three to five seconds before making an espresso. This accomplishes several things: clean the group head of any existing coffee from the previous drink, stabilize the boiler temperature if the machine has been sitting idle for a while, and provide a chance for the machine to adjust to a new brew temperature if you have made a change.
Disable preinfusion. This one might be controversial but it is what I do and what I recommend people new to espresso to do as well. Preinfusion is a feature that enables you to start brewing at a fraction of the 9 bars of pressure for the first few seconds of the extraction, with the goal of saturating all the ground coffee before hitting it with full pressure. This prevents from holes breaking in the coffee grounds and results in more clarity of flavor for lighter roasts. However, my biggest issue with preinfusion is that it results on a great loss of body and mouthfeel on the espresso, and those are for me essential attributes of espresso. If my espresso does not have good body and texture I would rather drink drip coffee or pour over if what I am after is clarity of flavor. Other issues with this is that it requires grinding the coffee much finer, and that the second half of the shot accelerates in flow quickly, making it difficult to learn whether your espresso preparation technique is correct and to stop the shot at the desired volume. To disable preinfusion on the Dual Boiler, click the UP and DOWN arrows at the same time, click MENU to get to the preinfusion duration, use the DOWN arrow to bring the time to zero, and then click exit. Even with preinfusion disabled you observe that it takes a few seconds for the pump to get from zero bar to 9 bar on the (very useful) pressure gauge, so it is not like coffee is getting hit with 9 bars of pressure right away.
Steam milk while you brew espresso. Because the Dual Boiler has separate boilers for brewing and steaming, you can steam milk while your espresso is brewing. For most machines at this price point, you have to wait for the single boiler to heat up to steam temperature before or after making an espresso, which means your coffee sits idle before you can mix it with steamed milk, degrading the experience of the workflow and the drink itself. The first few times you will probably want all your concentration watching the espresso flow and color and the scale, but after you figure that part out, you can start steaming the milk slightly before you hit the brew button so they both finish at roughly the same time.
Lay the milk pitcher on the tray to steam milk. The Dual Boiler has a 3-hole steam tip, but it is not nearly as powerful as some commercial machines. While I cover steaming more in detail in other pages, here is a summary for this machine. You still place the tip near the right edge of the pitcher to steam milk. Fill the pitcher a bit below the bottom of the V from the spout, lay the pitcher flat on the drip tray with the spout it it, and then rotate the spout to the right so you can support the steam wand with the spout of the pitcher and so that the tip is on the right side of the pitcher, submerged near the edge. Open the steam all the way and slightly pull on the pitcher to tilt it towards you a little while it still rests on the drip tray. When the milk starts rotating, pull some more to tilt the pitcher more towards you so that you can introduce a bit of air (but not too much). Keep tilting the pitcher towards you more as the milk increases in volume. When you have the volume you want, do not tilt the pitcher so much that you still introduce air, but enough that you still keep the turbulence going so the bubbles mix with the milk. When the pitcher becomes too hot to touch (or a bit before), stop the steam, flush the steam wand, and clean the steam wand with a wet cloth. Clean the tip clockwise; if you do it counter clockwise you will unscrew the tip a bit over time.
How to maintain the Dual Boiler
(This section is a work in progress.)
Conclusion
The Breville Dual Boiler is a machine with impressive capabilities for its price, and ideal for low-volume home use. It is easy to use and maintain, and it delivers great espresso consistently for years. While it does not feel as solid as machines that are much more expensive, this is to be expected and not an issue if you take care of it.
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Great Espresso at Home 