Various Retailers have
Breville Bambino Plus Espresso Machine (various colors) on sale for
$399.95.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member
George_P_Burdell for finding this deal.
Available Retailers:
Product Details:
- Compact design creates cafe-quality coffee right at home
- ThermoJet heating system: achieves the optimum extraction temperature in 3 seconds with instantaneous transition from espresso to steam
- Auto purge: ensures your next espresso is extracted at the right temperature
- Precise espresso extraction: Digital Temperature Control (PID) delivers water at the right temperature +/- 2°C, ensuring optimal espresso extraction
- Automatic microfoam milk texturing: adjust the milk temperature and texture to suit your taste and create latte art
Top Comments
Bambino has a 1-hole steam wand, whereas Plus has 4-hole steam wand with auto frothing. However, Bambino has plenty of steam power and automatically turns off the steam after 90 seconds, which is how long it takes to steam two lattes' worth of milk to 140F in their included pitcher, so effectively it steams automatically for us too lol. Just let the wand tip touch the surface of the milk for 5-6 seconds to aerate, then set the cup down and submerse wand then wait for it to shut off by itself.
The 4-hole wand tip and rubber O ring gasket are available on Breville's site for $20 shipped and threads right on to the standard Bambino, so if you wanted to try it out you could. Even for my wife and I who drink 90% milk drinks, the standard Bambino has never left us wanting for the Plus model. Who knows, maybe it is an ignorance is bliss thing. Our relatives sure loved the americanos and lattes we made for them on Thanksgiving though!
Plus has a 2-year warranty whereas standard has 1-year. Up to you if that's worth it, ours has been working fine as of 1 year.
Plus has a 3-way solenoid valve; the rest of the brewing components are identical. This pulls excess pressure away from the puck after brewing completes (I am summarizing), but also creates more build-up inside the system and requires a separate cleaning cycle. By leaving the portafilter in the unit for 10 seconds or so after brewing on non-Plus, most if not all the pressure has already been relieved, so it was more of a negative than a positive for us. We just clean up the few extra dribbles in the drip tray.
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101 Comments
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You can still fine tune you espresso, get a good grinder and continue to improve in time.
My 2 cents, if this machine looks expensive to you, this hobby is not for you. (you still need a decent grinder, and you need a minimum investment of 300 dollars for grinder that actually grinds espresso). If you are truly considering this hobby, this would be a starting point but upgraditis may hit you very fast.
And please for the love of god do not get the machines with the build in grinders. Everyone who is serious about this hobby will regret that buy and move on to a much better grinder that isn't necessarily going to cost you more.
https://www.target.com/p/breville...nk=s
$299.99 dropped down to $262.51
My 2 cents, if this machine looks expensive to you, this hobby is not for you. (you still need a decent grinder, and you need a minimum investment of 300 dollars for grinder that actually grinds espresso). If you are truly considering this hobby, this would be a starting point but upgraditis may hit you very fast.
And please for the love of god do not get the machines with the build in grinders. Everyone who is serious about this hobby will regret that buy and move on to a much better grinder that isn't necessarily going to cost you more.
Encore ESP for sub 200.
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Bambino has a 1-hole steam wand, whereas Plus has 4-hole steam wand with auto frothing. However, Bambino has plenty of steam power and automatically turns off the steam after 90 seconds, which is how long it takes to steam two lattes' worth of milk to 140F in their included pitcher, so effectively it steams automatically for us too lol. Just let the wand tip touch the surface of the milk for 5-6 seconds to aerate, then set the cup down and submerse wand then wait for it to shut off by itself.
The 4-hole wand tip and rubber O ring gasket are available on Breville's site for $20 shipped and threads right on to the standard Bambino, so if you wanted to try it out you could. Even for my wife and I who drink 90% milk drinks, the standard Bambino has never left us wanting for the Plus model. Who knows, maybe it is an ignorance is bliss thing. Our relatives sure loved the americanos and lattes we made for them on Thanksgiving though!
Plus has a 2-year warranty whereas standard has 1-year. Up to you if that's worth it, ours has been working fine as of 1 year.
Plus has a 3-way solenoid valve; the rest of the brewing components are identical. This pulls excess pressure away from the puck after brewing completes (I am summarizing), but also creates more build-up inside the system and requires a separate cleaning cycle. By leaving the portafilter in the unit for 10 seconds or so after brewing on non-Plus, most if not all the pressure has already been relieved, so it was more of a negative than a positive for us. We just clean up the few extra dribbles in the drip tray.
Bambino has a 1-hole steam wand, whereas Plus has 4-hole steam wand with auto frothing. However, Bambino has plenty of steam power and automatically turns off the steam after 90 seconds, which is how long it takes to steam two lattes' worth of milk to 140F in their included pitcher, so effectively it steams automatically for us too lol. Just let the wand tip touch the surface of the milk for 5-6 seconds to aerate, then set the cup down and submerse wand then wait for it to shut off by itself.
The 4-hole wand tip and rubber O ring gasket are available on Breville's site for $20 shipped and threads right on to the standard Bambino, so if you wanted to try it out you could. Even for my wife and I who drink 90% milk drinks, the standard Bambino has never left us wanting for the Plus model. Who knows, maybe it is an ignorance is bliss thing. Our relatives sure loved the americanos and lattes we made for them on Thanksgiving though!
Plus has a 2-year warranty whereas standard has 1-year. Up to you if that's worth it, ours has been working fine as of 1 year.
Plus has a 3-way solenoid valve; the rest of the brewing components are identical. This pulls excess pressure away from the puck after brewing completes (I am summarizing), but also creates more build-up inside the system and requires a separate cleaning cycle. By leaving the portafilter in the unit for 10 seconds or so after brewing on non-Plus, most if not all the pressure has already been relieved, so it was more of a negative than a positive for us. We just clean up the few extra dribbles in the drip tray.
- 3 way solenoid is pretty useful. Without it you can end up with a soggy puck, and dribbles running into your cup if you don't take your shot off. Or if you remove the portafilter right away you get the espresso sneeze over the back of your machine. Might be a personal preference, but I'd rather have a cleaner daily workflow and one extra cleaning cycle step.
- Plus also has an auto purge for the steam wand when you return it to it's default position. You have to purge manually on the base Bambino, which is easy but yet another step in the workflow.
- The Plus steaming automation also lets you customize temp and foam amount as well, so while in your case you can run the base Bambino almost automatically, this won't work for everyone.
Overall I don't think the Plus has anything mandatory for good espresso, but it does streamline your workflow quite a bit and that's what I'm personally looking for. If the base was $200 vs $400 for the Plus I'd say it's very close, when it's only a $100 difference I'll go for the better machine. Alternatively, if you're on a tight budget it's probably better to get the base Bambino and a better grinder.
My 2 cents, if this machine looks expensive to you, this hobby is not for you. (you still need a decent grinder, and you need a minimum investment of 300 dollars for grinder that actually grinds espresso). If you are truly considering this hobby, this would be a starting point but upgraditis may hit you very fast.
And please for the love of god do not get the machines with the build in grinders. Everyone who is serious about this hobby will regret that buy and move on to a much better grinder that isn't necessarily going to cost you more.
This machine has thermojet heater, which doesn't merely heat the machine faster, but it switches between brewing and steam temperatures very fast. Substantially faster than the Gaggia. It's really a pain to brew the espresso and then wait 30 or 45 seconds before you can start steaming milk. That is why I think the Bambino Plus is such an excellent choice at this price point. Of course, a full on dual boiler machine is the best, but you'll pay over four times more for such a machine.
This machine plus a good grinder, such as a Sette 270, a Niche or (especially) a DF64 (and a scale, like a Timemore) will deliver excellent results.
Fellow Opus is also on sale via amazon but has mixed reviews for espresso.
Starseeker Edge is on sale as well via amazon, but is a gamble since it's not an established brand. The specs (lower speed, higher power, stepless adjustment) seemed interesting to me so I'm giving it a shot.
You can also do a manual hand grinder, and to be fair it's not a bad option if you're doing one cup per day or don't mind the workout. Look for steel burrs and lots of adjustments (or stepless). I've been using the Yessdays for a few days and it's not bad. My biggest complaint is only being able to grind 20g at a time, but that's enough for a double shot +.
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FWIW, the Kingrinder K6 manual grinder is on sale for $99 (usually $129) at Amazon so I grabbed one of those as well. It (and the older K2/K4) have always been well reviewed from what I've seen and should be more than enough to get me started.
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