Found a Breville $150 cashback for the Oracle espresso machine that is also valid with the 20% EBAY tech xmas offer, bringing the total price down to $1609.20 (from $2200). Both Good Guys and Bing Lee have the machine in stock.
Cashbacks valid through 3rd Jan.
Do yourself a favour… Do not buy this machine.. The dual boiler is a far superior machine… The oracle is useless
Correct me if I'm wrong. I thought this is a dual boiler model.
It is a dual boiler. I've seen it demoed and it "seemed" to make coffee as good as any prosumer machine. Awesome price. So tempted to sell off my Expobar. Just that everything I've bought thats Breville never seems to last that long…
Rubbish Megahowler. The Oracle has everything the BES920 has AND can auto steam milk (you can do it manually) and auto grind and tamp. Both machines are excellent options. The BES920/SmartGrinder is down below $1000 in this sale so a bargain.
Making a cafe quality coffee with the Oracle is easy once you get used to it (like any coffee machine) and you don't need to be an expert. The BES920 requires a little more skill being a manual steam and tamp, but is still a great choice.
I have owned both… and yes this is basically the dual boiler with extra features.. but they don't work well
The auto milk is great.. That's the only saving grace..
The problem is the grinding mechanism and beans hopper (if you leave beans in the hopper they get hot from the machine and spoil rapidly)
You will need to throw away the first basket of coffee everytime you make coffee.. The machine is fine at extracting coffee and texturing milk.. I had to buy the Smart Grinder to solve this issue..
P.S. thanks for the downvotes.. I'm sure they came from people who have owned and used both machines in a home environment extensively
I stand by my comments.. I regret selling my BES900 (original Dual Boiler) Save yourself some money ($600) and get the Dual Boiler smart grinder combo.. unless you feel auto milk is worth $600
I never knew the beans get heated. Would you say it will happen to all the automatic coffee machine or just The Oracle because of the internal design putting the boiler and beans close to each other?
Well most Full autos are thermoblock.. and would also hazard a guess that most auto users purchase beans from woolworths or coles.. So may not be as important
I have an Oracle (but never had the 900 or 920) and I find it fine. If you find leaving beans in the hopper spoils them, don't fill it up so much. just enough to last the day. Ok, it's not quite as good as the Smart Grinder (which I do have) which obviously doesn't have any bean heating problems, but I really can't say my beans spoil from boiler heat. I roast my own beans and I'm getting a great cuppa from the Oracle.
I run water through the basket to warm everything (though the machine does heat it anyway), so there is no need to throw away the first pour of the session. If you're doing that because you think the grinder path through the 980 is holding old bean grinds the same thing will apply to the Smart grinder.
Having said that, although the 980 is better than the 920, I dunno if I reckon it's $600 better. The 920 combo is probably a better buy at that price. I use a Smart Grinder with a Sunbeam 6910 and it's now producing a great cup, so with the 920 it would be really good.
Remember CashRewards cashback to save a further $65.97 ….. taking it to $1543.23