Sage and Breville Oracle machines: an owner's guide

I have just bought one. What do I do first?

1. Unpack it and wash the loose parts. The water tank, portafilter, baskets and milk jug, in warm water with a gentle washing-up liquid. The booklets say no part goes in a dishwasher.
2. Fit the water filter and test your water. Soak the filter for five minutes, fit it in its holder and the holder in the tank. Dip the supplied strip in the water you will use and enter the result when the machine asks. That setting decides how often it asks to be descaled and to have its filter changed.
3. Fill the tank, switch on and let it heat. The two older machines fill and heat two boilers, which the Oracle booklet puts at about five minutes. The newer ones walk you through set-up on screen.
4. Flush it as the booklet or the screen directs. On the Oracle that is water through the group head, the hot water outlet and the steam wand, repeated. It rinses the machine before the first coffee.
5. Lock the hopper on and fill it with whole roasted beans. The grinder will not run with the hopper unlocked. The booklets say never to put ground coffee in the hopper.
6. Leave the grind size at the maker's starting point for the first shot. The Oracle booklet suggests starting at 30 of 45. Insert the portafilter at the grind outlet and start the automatic grind, dose and tamp.
7. Pull a double onto a scale. Lock the portafilter into the group head, put a cup on a scale and start a two-cup shot. Note the weight in the cup and how long it took, then taste it.
8. Change one thing: the grind size. The machine fixed the dose and the tamp, so the grind is what is left. Move it a few steps, make another, and compare. Leave temperature, pre-infusion and tamp settings alone for now.

The parts and controls, on the Oracle

These are the names the Oracle's booklet uses. The Oracle Touch, Jet and Dual Boiler put the same functions behind a touch screen, as described model by model below.

Bean hopper and grinder

A grinder built into the machine, fed from a hopper that locks on top. It grinds straight into the portafilter.

Grind size dial

Sets how fine the coffee is. The Oracle has 45 settings, 1 the finest. It is the main control you are left with, because the machine sets the dose and the tamp.

Grind outlet

Where the portafilter is inserted to be filled. A fan inside the outlet spreads the coffee and tamps it, so there is no separate tamper.

58 mm portafilter and baskets

A larger portafilter than the 54 mm one on the maker's Barista machines. A one-cup and a two-cup basket are supplied; the booklets for the newer machines say the single-wall two-cup basket comes fitted.

Group head

Where the portafilter locks in to brew. The booklets describe it as heated on all four machines.

1 CUP and 2 CUP buttons

Start a shot that stops by itself. On the Oracle they are set by duration as it leaves the factory: 25 seconds and 30 seconds. They can be reprogrammed, and the machine can be switched to count volume.

Steam wand and lever

With the wand down in the jug and the jug on the drip tray, the machine steams milk to the temperature and texture you set and stops. Lifting the lever instead gives manual steam.

Long black dial and hot water

On the Oracle, a dial that makes a shot and then adds hot water from a separate outlet, in three preset sizes or your own.

Displays and menu

Show temperatures, the grind size and alerts, and give access to shot programming, shot temperature, the clock, the cleaning cycle and the advanced settings.

Water tank, filter and drip tray

The tank can be filled from the top or lifted out at the back. The filter is there to reduce scale. The drip tray also takes the water the wand purges.

What the automation controls, and what it leaves to you

It controls the dose. The grinder runs until the basket is filled to a set level, and on these machines that is a fixed amount: the Oracle Jet's booklet gives it as 22 g.

It controls the tamp. A fan in the grind outlet levels and compresses the coffee with the same force each time. An uneven or light tamp, a common fault in hand-made espresso, largely goes away.

It controls the milk. The wand steams to a temperature and stops.

It does not control the coffee. Beans differ in how they grind and how they resist water, and the same beans change as they age. So the one large variable left is the grind size, and on three of the four machines that is still yours to set. Only the Oracle Dual Boiler changes it for you, and only when it judges a shot was off.

It does not decide your recipe. How much espresso ends up in the cup, and whether you like it at that strength, is a choice. The buttons stop at a time or a volume that somebody set; you can set it somewhere else.

And it does not taste. A machine can tell that a shot ran fast or slow. It cannot tell that this coffee is better a little longer, or that you find it too bright. That part stays with the person drinking it.

What changes when the coffee changes

Open a new bag and the machine does the same thing it did yesterday: the same dose by level, the same tamp, the same shot time or volume. The coffee is what is different, so the shot is different.

A fresher or lighter roast usually resists more, so the shot runs slower and shorter in the cup. An older or darker one resists less and runs fast. The booklets say as much: stale coffee may pour too quickly and taste bitter and watery.

The response is the grind size. A shot that now runs fast wants a finer setting; one that drips wants a coarser one. Move a few steps, not one, on a 45-step dial, and judge the second shot after a change, since the grinder still holds some coffee from the old setting.

Because the dose is set by level and not by weight, a change of grind size or of beans also changes how many grams are in the basket by a little. If you weigh the dose now and then you will see it move. That is normal, and it is one more reason to compare shots by what is in the cup.

Expect to do this with every new coffee and again as a bag ages. A machine that changes its own grind takes over some of that; on the others, it is the part of espresso these machines hand back to you.

Time, volume and the weight in the cup

The Oracle's shot buttons stop by time unless you change them: 25 seconds for one cup and 30 for two. A shot stopped by the clock gives more espresso when the grind is coarse and less when it is fine. So as you adjust the grind, the amount in the cup moves as well as the taste, and two shots are hard to compare.

The Oracle, the Oracle Jet and the Oracle Dual Boiler can be switched to stop by volume instead, according to their booklets. That holds the amount steadier. The Oracle Dual Boiler's booklet notes that in its volume mode the volume cannot be adjusted.

The steadiest method is the one used everywhere else on this site: a scale under the cup, and the shot stopped at a weight. The booklets for the Oracle, the Oracle Touch and the Oracle Dual Boiler describe a manual shot that lets you do that; the short Oracle Jet booklet does not describe one, so look for it on that machine's screen. Find the weight you like, then program the button to match.

The booklets print a guide that judges a shot by how long it ran. That is the maker's guide. A time is a reading of how much the coffee resisted, and CoffeeHQ does not teach it as a target.

Which basket, and what it changes

The booklets say to use the one-cup basket for a single cup or a weaker espresso and the two-cup basket for two cups or a stronger one, and that the grind size may need adjusting when you switch between them.

Most owners stay with the two-cup basket, because the machine's fixed dose and its default settings are built around it. That is common practice, not the maker's instruction.

The baskets are single wall. That is what makes the grind size matter: the coffee itself holds the water back. The explanation of single-wall and dual-wall baskets on the Barista page applies here.

Milk: what the automatic wand does

Fill the jug to below the spout, lower the wand fully into it and rest the jug on the drip tray. The milk has to cover the seal on the wand. Start it, and it stops when the milk reaches the temperature you chose.

You set two things: temperature and texture. On the Oracle they are chosen with a dial, with the booklet marking 55 to 65 °C as ideal. The Oracle Jet and Oracle Dual Boiler add a setting for the kind of milk, with dairy, soy, almond and oat, a temperature range of 45 to 75 °C, and eight or nine levels of texture.

The booklets say different milks texture differently and that the texture level may need adjusting. A milk-type setting is a starting point for that kind of milk, not a promise about your carton.

The Oracle and Oracle Touch booklets also describe steaming by hand, which turns the automatic stop off; the booklets read for the two newer machines do not describe it. Wipe the wand and tip with a damp cloth after every use; lowered, it purges itself.

Cleaning, descaling and water

Every use. Rinse the basket and portafilter under hot water, wipe the wand, and empty the drip tray when it is full.

The cleaning cycle. A back-flush of the group head with the cleaning disc and a tablet. The Oracle asks for it with a Clean Me alert after 200 shots; the touch-screen machines show a message. The booklets say it is separate from descaling.

Descaling. A longer procedure for the inside of the machine. All four prompt for it. On the Oracle and the Oracle Touch the booklets say how often follows the water hardness you entered. On the Oracle it involves valves behind a panel marked for the purpose, is run only from its menu, and starts with the machine switched off and cooled for at least four hours. The booklets recommend descaling in any case if scale is visible in the tank.

The water filter. Replaced every three months in the booklets read; the two older booklets add, or after 40 litres. The Oracle Touch booklet says that if the filter is replaced on schedule the machine need not be descaled; follow the prompts of your own machine.

The grinder. The upper burr lifts out to be brushed, and the tamping fan in the grind outlet comes off with a supplied magnet to be cleaned. It has to go back on: the Oracle and Oracle Jet troubleshooting pages list a fan that was removed and not replaced as a cause of the portafilter overfilling and of the grinder running on without stopping.

Water. The booklets say not to use distilled, demineralised or heavily filtered water, and that if your water tests at the two hardest levels a different source is strongly recommended. They suggest filtered or bottled water with some mineral content, tested and entered like any other.

The steps, the products and the timings for all of these are in your booklet and on the machine. Take them from there.

Model by model: what each machine does and what it leaves to you

All four grind, dose and tamp automatically into a 58 mm portafilter and steam milk automatically. They differ in how you talk to them, how they heat, and how much of the adjusting they take on.

• Oracle (BES980 / SES980)
• Oracle Touch (BES990 / SES990)
• Oracle Jet (BES985 / SES985)
• Oracle Dual Boiler (BES995 / SES995)

What changes what on an Oracle

Each line is a tendency and the mechanism behind it, not a promise about taste. The last part of each says what else the result depends on.

Grind sizefiner or coarser

Finer makes the puck resist more, so a shot runs slower and, stopped by time, gives less in the cup. Coarser does the reverse. It is the main control left to you.

But it also depends on: The coffee and its age. A setting that suited one bag will not suit the next, and the level-set dose shifts a little in weight as the grind changes.

Shot lengthstopped earlier or later, by time, volume or weight

A longer shot from the same dose is weaker and has taken a little more from the coffee. A shorter one is stronger and heavier.

But it also depends on: How it is stopped. By time, the amount moves with the grind; by weight, it does not.

Basketone cup or two

Sets how much coffee the shot starts with, and so how strong a given length is.

But it also depends on: The grind, which the booklets say may need adjusting when you switch.

Shot temperaturea degree or two up or down

Hotter water generally takes more from the coffee. The maker describes it as something to adjust for the origin and roast.

But it also depends on: Everything else being settled first. It is a small control.

Pre-infusionthe default, or longer and gentler

A longer low-pressure start gives the puck more time to soak before full pressure, which the maker describes as helping an even extraction.

But it also depends on: The coffee. The Oracle booklet marks it as for advanced use.

Tamp settingsforce and polishing time, or tamping height

Change how hard and how long the fan presses, or how far down it reaches, and so how full and how firm the puck is.

But it also depends on: Having a reason. The defaults are the maker's, and the booklets present these as advanced adjustments, one with the machine switched off and unplugged.

Milk temperature and texturehotter or cooler, more foam or less

Sets where the wand stops and how much air goes in.

But it also depends on: The milk. The booklets say different milks texture differently.

The coffeefresher or older, lighter or darker

The largest change of all, and the one no setting makes for you on three of these four machines.

But it also depends on: Nothing on the machine.

When it goes wrong

For each thing you might notice: what to consider, since there is rarely one cause, and the first thing to try. One change, then brew again.

The shot runs too fast

Consider

• A grind size too coarse for this coffee
• Coffee that has aged since you set the grinder
• A new bag that grinds differently
• The tamping fan missing or not seated after cleaning

Try first: Move the grind size a few steps finer and judge the second shot. If the puck looks loose or unfinished, check the tamping fan before changing anything else.

Work through a fast shot

The shot drips or barely comes

Consider

• A grind size too fine
• A very fresh or light coffee that resists more
• A blocked basket
• A machine that needs descaling

Try first: Stop the shot and move the grind size a few steps coarser. If that changes nothing, check the basket's holes and whether a descale is due.

Work through a slow shot

It was fine yesterday and is different today

Consider

• A new bag, or the same beans a week or two older
• A different coffee topped up over the last of the old one
• The grind size dial moved
• On the Oracle Dual Boiler, the machine has changed the grind itself

Try first: The machine did the same thing; the coffee changed. Adjust the grind size to the coffee now in the hopper, and expect to again as the bag ages.

When a shot changes unexpectedly

The coffee tastes sour or bitter

Consider

• How the shot ran: fast, slow or ordinary
• How strong it is: add a little hot water to the cup and taste again
• The coffee itself
• A cold portafilter and cup, for a sharp first shot

Try first: Read the taste together with how it ran before touching the grind. The diagnosis tool does this for you.

Read a shot in Make my coffee better

The amount in the cup keeps changing

Consider

• The buttons stop by time, so the amount follows the grind
• A button was reprogrammed
• The coffee is ageing

Try first: Weigh three shots. To hold the amount steady, switch the machine to volume if yours offers it, or stop a manual shot by weight and then program the button.

The grinder will not start, will not stop, or overfills the basket

Consider

• The hopper is not locked
• The portafilter was not turned to the starting position
• The tamping fan was taken off for cleaning and not put back
• The grinder has overheated from heavy use and needs to cool

Try first: If it will not start, check the hopper: the Oracle shows a message and beeps when the hopper is unlocked or the grinder needs to cool. If it runs on or overfills the basket, turn the portafilter to the left to stop it and check the tamping fan, which the booklets give as the cause when it was removed and not put back.

The milk is not what you asked for

Consider

• Milk not covering the seal on the wand
• The jug not resting on the drip tray
• A partly blocked steam tip
• A milk that textures differently from the setting's assumption

Try first: Check the jug and the milk level, then clean the tip as the machine's steam-wand guide shows. Then adjust the texture level for your milk.

Milk frothing troubleshooter

The machine keeps correcting the grind and you do not like the result

Consider

• It is correcting towards its own target, not your taste
• A new coffee it has not finished adjusting to

Try first: On the Oracle Dual Boiler, turn the automatic grind adjustment off in settings and set the grind yourself. On the Oracle Jet, the guidance only recommends, and can be ignored or switched off.

Espresso leaks round the portafilter

Consider

• The handle not turned fully into place
• Coffee on the rim of the basket
• A wet rim or wet lugs, which the Oracle Jet booklet says reduce the grip that holds it

Try first: Wipe the rim and the lugs dry and lock the handle past the centre until it is secure.

It asks to be cleaned or descaled

Consider

• A count of shots since the last cleaning cycle
• A descale interval set by the water hardness you entered
• A water filter due for replacement

Try first: Run the cycle it asks for, with what your booklet names. They are different jobs and one does not replace the other.

Cleaning or descaling?

Change one thing, observe, learn

Each of these changes one thing and holds the rest. Brew the two side by side where you can, and write down what you notice before deciding which you prefer.

• Three grind sizes, nothing else changed

  Change

  Pull a double at your setting, at five steps finer and at five steps coarser.

  Keep the same

  The coffee, the basket and the shot button.

  What to notice

  How the weight in the cup and the taste move together when the shot stops by time. This is what the dial is worth on your machine.

• Stopped by time against stopped by weight

  Change

  Pull one double with the button, then one in manual mode stopped at twice the weight of the dose.

  Keep the same

  The coffee and the grind size.

  What to notice

  How far the button's shot is from the weight you chose, and which you prefer.

• A new bag at the old setting

  Change

  When you open a new coffee, pull the first shot without touching the grind size.

  Keep the same

  Everything.

  What to notice

  How differently it runs. It is the clearest demonstration that the machine repeats and the coffee varies.

• Automatic grind adjustment on and off

  Change

  On an Oracle Dual Boiler, make three shots with the automatic adjustment on, then three with it off at a setting you choose.

  Keep the same

  The coffee and the shot mode.

  What to notice

  Where the machine settles, where you settle, and which you would rather drink.

What to avoid

• Putting ground coffee in the hopper. The booklet says never to.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Descaling the Oracle any way but through its descale menu, opening its descale valves before the machine has been off and cooling for at least four hours, or overtightening their screws, which the booklet says can damage them. It warns that steam may be released as a valve opens.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Touching the steam wand or reaching past it straight after use. The booklet warns that pressurised steam can still be released after the machine is switched off.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Removing the portafilter while a shot is running. The booklets say never to, and the Oracle Dual Boiler's adds that it may lead to scalding by hot steam or coffee, and that the wand may purge hot steam when it is lowered after texturing milk.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Putting any part in a dishwasher.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Filling the tank with distilled, demineralised or heavily filtered water.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Adjusting the tamping height with the machine plugged in. The Oracle Jet's booklet starts that procedure by switching off and disconnecting the machine.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Leaving the tamping fan off after cleaning the grind outlet. The booklet gives a missing fan as a cause of the portafilter overfilling and the grinder running on.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Assuming the machine has dialled in the coffee because it made the puck. On three of the four it has not touched the grind.CoffeeHQ reasoning
• Changing the advanced settings to fix a shot before the grind size has been tried. Tamp force, pre-infusion and temperature are small controls; the grind is the large one.CoffeeHQ reasoning
• Changing the grind size, the shot length and the temperature together. One change, then taste.CoffeeHQ reasoning

Care, and the parts that wear

Every time

• Rinse the basket and portafilter under hot water after each session, and wipe the steam wand and tip with a damp cloth after every use.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Empty and clean the drip tray regularly, and keep a touch screen dry and clean. The booklets say dirt in its edges can impair it.Maker's instructions: Breville

From time to time

• Run the cleaning cycle when the machine asks. The Oracle asks after 200 shots; the booklets describe the cycle as cleaning the shower screen and back-flushing the group head.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances
• Descale when the machine asks, and in any case if scale is visible in the tank, by the procedure in your booklet or on the screen.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Replace the water filter on schedule. The booklets read say every three months.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Brush the burrs and clean the tamping fan and grind outlet. The Oracle Jet booklet says regular cleaning helps the burrs grind consistently.Maker's instructions: Breville
• Before storing or shipping a machine with boilers, empty them as the booklet describes. The Oracle's booklet gives this as protection against freezing as well.Maker's instructions: Sage Appliances

Parts that wear

The water filter

A consumable, replaced by date as the machine and booklet say.Maker's instructions

The steam tip

Weak or uneven steam from blocked holes. The machines guide you through cleaning it; the booklets say to make sure the tip is tightly fastened afterwards.Maker's instructions

The tamping fan

A puck that is no longer level or firm. It is removed for cleaning and can be refitted wrongly; the booklets read give no interval for replacing it.CoffeeHQ reasoning

The burrs and the group seal

A grinder that needs ever finer settings, or coffee escaping round the portafilter with a clean, dry rim. The booklets read give no interval for either, so none is given here; ask the maker's support.CoffeeHQ reasoning

What else changes how it is used

Only the things that change the brewing. None of this is a list of things to buy.

A scale that fits under the cup

The machine sets the dose by level and the shot by time. A scale is the only way to see what either gave you.

Fresh whole beans with a roast date

The machine cannot make up for the coffee, and the grind setting has to follow the bag.

The maker's water filters, cleaning tablets and descaler

The consumables its prompts and procedures are written around.

Water that suits the machine

Hardness sets how often it asks to be descaled, and the maker rules out very pure water.

From the first brew to knowing it well

1. Let it do its job. Defaults, the two-cup basket, fresh beans. Learn the routine of grind, lock in, brew, steam, clean.
2. Put a scale under the cup. See what a button gives in grams, and how it moves when the grind moves.
3. Learn the grind dial with one coffee. A few steps each way, noting the cup and the time. This is the skill these machines still ask for.
4. Choose your shot length. In manual mode by weight, then programmed into the button.
5. Follow the coffee. Re-set the grind for every new bag and nudge it as a bag ages.
6. Then the fine controls. Temperature, pre-infusion, tamp settings, or manual mode on the machines that have one. Each alone, against a shot you know.

Improve this, from here

• Dialling in espresso — The full loop for the one control these machines leave you, with worked shots.
• Espresso dial-in assistant — Enter the dose, the weight in the cup, the time and the taste of one shot and get the change to make.
• Make my coffee better: espresso — Tick what you noticed and get the possibilities, the quickest check and one change.
• Espresso ratio calculator — Turns a dose into a weight in the cup to stop the shot at.
• Milk frothing troubleshooter — For milk that is not what the setting promised.
• Grind size guide — What to check when the grinder itself seems to be the problem.
• Water suitability helper — Hardness decides how often the machine asks to be descaled.
• Maintenance planner — What builds up where, and how you would notice.
• Bean freshness — Why the same setting runs differently as a bag ages.
• Sage and Breville Barista machines: an owner's guide — The same maker's machines with hand tamping, and the fuller account of baskets and buttons.