Settings by button

No display: the hidden settings

The Barista Express has no display or menu. Its settings are button combinations from the manual.

• Shot temperature: five steps up or down.
• Shot volumes: record your own, or reset.
• Cleaning cycle: 1 CUP + 2 CUP + POWER (the cleaning cycle).
• Descale mode: 2 CUP + POWER (descaling).
• Standby: US machines sleep after 1 hour (POWER flashes slowly; any button but POWER wakes it) and switch off after 3 hours. The UK guide: auto off after 30 minutes. Neither can be changed.

There is no water hardness setting. The UK guide uses hardness levels for the filter and descale intervals but does not say how to measure them.

Change the shot temperature

The manual's Advanced Temperature Mode.

1. Press POWER to switch the machine off.
2. Hold PROGRAM and press POWER. The machine beeps once.
3. Look at which button is lit: that is the current setting.
4. Press one button from the table within 5 seconds.
5. Listen for 2 beeps: the setting is saved. With no press in 5 seconds, nothing changes.

The manual gives no figure for the default temperature itself.

Record the shot volumes, or reset them

The manual's steps. Breville's video adds: program with a real shot, ground, dosed and tamped.

1. Grind, tamp and lock in a basket of coffee with a cup under the spouts.
2. Press PROGRAM once. It beeps and flashes.
3. Press 1 CUP (or 2 CUP) to start the shot.
4. Press the same button again when the cup holds what you want. 2 beeps mean it is saved.
5. To go back to the factory volumes, hold PROGRAM until it beeps 3 times.

The defaults are about 30 ml for 1 CUP and 60 ml for 2 CUP. The US manual says the reset also returns the default temperature; the UK guide mentions volumes only.

Breville / Sage Barista Express: every job