Sage (Breville) Bambino Plus Review After Nearly 4 Years

I thought it was about time for an up to date, 2023/2024 review of the Sage (Breville) Bambino Plus. So here we go.

If you're in the UK or Europe (including Ireland, Germany, France, and most other countries in mainland Europe), I reckon you should join my Brew Time mailing list, just saying. https://coffeeblog.co.uk/joinbrewtime/

Product links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3Nu4Wu6
Sage UK: https://breville.oie8.net/adJnq
Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3yRuVqe
Breville USA: https://breville.oie8.net/BXYKOW
Sage Europe: https://breville.oie8.net/vnggYd
John Lewis: https://john-lewis-and-partners.pxf.i...

Videos mentioned:

What is Dose:    • Simplifying Home Espresso: What is Dose?  
Ratio:    • Could This Be the No1 Dialing in Hack...  

Explaining the nerdy stuff I was harping on about for anyone who wants to know more:

3 Way Solenoid Valve.

This would usually be the reason that a machine can deliver more gentle water pressure from the shower screen, rather than having to use a spring valve which means that the water can only leave the shower screen under high pressure.

With the Bambino Plus even without the solenoid the pump control would have this covered anyway which is why the Bambino is the same even though it has a spring valve not a solenoid.

The presence of the solenoid means that the excess water and pressure is fired off as soon as the shot is pulled, so you get drier pucks that are more satisfying to knock out into the knock box, and if you choke the machine with too fine a grind you don't need to worry about portafilter sneeze.

9 Bar OPV.

All the entry level machines have 15 bar vibration pumps. We're generally aiming for up to 9 bars of pressure in the basket, and having an overpressure valve set to fire off any excess pressure to limit the pressure in the basket to 9 bars, just makes it a bit easier, when we're using standard espresso baskets and trying to dial in to get perfect extraction.

PID controller.

Proportional Integral Derivative controller. A feedback loop that is used in various technologies to control various things, in this case it's been used to control the temperature.

Basically, there's a delay between the heater being on and then the pre-set temp being reached, so the PID learns how to get the pre-set result by knowing when and for how long to turn the heater on or off. Something like that anyway, I dunno.

Low Pressure Pre-infusion.

All of Sage's espresso machines have technology which automatically control the pump power, to mimic the pre-infusion that comes from plumbed in commercial machines that deliver preinfusion at line pressure before the pump is engaged.

It allows the water to be introduced more gently to the puck of coffee before the pressure ramps up. It's counted in the shot time by the way, so the total shot time is from when you press the button, not when the espresso starts flowing.


Other Links:

Freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans from The Coffeeworks (my website): https://cworks.co.uk (use discount code yt25 for 25% off your first order).
Coffee blog: https://coffeeblog.co.uk
Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/coffeeblogkev

Current Gear:

Blackmagic Pocket 4K https://amzn.to/3EnYAKJ
Samyang 35 mm T1.5 VDSLR II Manual Focus Video Lens https://amzn.to/3RB4Q4I
VILTROX EF-M2 II Focal Reducer Booster Adapter Auto-Focus 0.71x compatible with Canon EF mount Lens to M43 Cameras https://amzn.to/3e37Qcp
Glide Gear TMP100 Adjustable iPad/Tablet/Smartphone Teleprompter Beam Splitter Glass https://amzn.to/3C7hRgt
Promptsmart Pro https://bit.ly/3CAhXPl (tablet prompter app, includes voice tracking, very good! If you have it more than a couple of metres away from you, just use a lav mic with an extension so it can year you).
Aputure LS COB 300D II LED Continuous Fresnel Light 300D Mark II https://amzn.to/3SVy4ft
Aputure Accent B7C 7W RGBWW LED Smart Bulbs https://amzn.to/3RD0ABu
aputure light dome ii https://amzn.to/3M5XjcY
Sennheiser MKH 60
Sanken Cos 11 Lavalier

Timecodes:

0:00 Intro
1:08 Specs
3:46 5 reasons this makes great espresso
8:44 Steaming milk
10:58 Cons & how to overcome them
14:29 Bonus tip for better pre-heating
15:05 Water from the wand
16:49 Kev's pointless fact
17:23 Tatty Bye


Please note, affiliate links included above.

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