What grind size do I need for my Breville Precision Brewer?

You should use medium-sized grounds for your Breville Precision Brewer. However, since you can tweak many variables, including the hot water temperature, you can experiment with slightly finer or coarser grounds to achieve the flavor that you prefer. If you’re using the Cold Brew mode of this brewer, then you should opt for an extra-coarse grind. You can find out more about the different grind sizes in our article and chart.

How do I descale my Breville Precision Brewer?

To descale your Breville Precision brewer, you must pour a descaling solution into the water reservoir and ensure that there are no coffee grounds inside the basket before putting it into position along with the empty carafe. Then press the Select button and hold it for 3 seconds. The LCD screen will show “dSL” for a second before starting a countdown (approximately 15 minutes). Once it’s finished and the LCD screen goes back to the usual menu, discard the liquid and rinse the water reservoir, basket, and carafe with fresh water. (4) In order to ensure its longevity, you should descale your drip machine every 3-4 months, depending on the hardness of the water that you use.

Does the Breville Precision Brewer come with warranty?

Yes, the Breville Precision Brewer comes with a two-year warranty.

BREVILLE PRECISION BREWER REVIEW: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DRIP COFFEE

Name: Breville Precision Review: Auto Drip Coffee Exactly How You Like It
Brand: Breville

Stylish Breville Precision drip coffee maker in a wooden kitchen

The Breville Precision Brewer is the coffee nerd’s drip coffee machine. It combines the convenience of an automatic coffee maker with (nearly) the control of a manual pour-over. It is by far the most feature-packed coffee machine I’ve tested. So if you love tinkering with every aspect of your morning brew, it might be the perfect option for you.

In this review, I’ll discuss my experience with the Breville Precision Brewer. I put it through its paces, exploring coffee quality, user-friendliness, and design features, so you can decide if it’s the right choice for your kitchen.

What I liked:

Certified by the Specialty Coffee Association
Offers the most control over brewing variables
PID temperature control
Attractive design and high-quality build

What I didn’t like:

Large and heavy
Expensive
Water tank not removable

Full Review Of The Breville Precision Brewer

The Breville Precision Brewer is on my list of the top coffee brewers for many reasons. I value its Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) certification, which guarantees a perfect cup of coffee as defined by the foremost coffee experts. But I also appreciate the ability to tweak every variable in order to brew the perfect cup as defined by me.

There are two versions of the Precision Brewer: one with a thermal carafe and one with a glass carafe and hot plate. My hands-on experience is with the thermal version, which I prefer, but the functionality is largely the same between the two. I’ll highlight where differences arise.

How We Rated It

Design
Features
Coffee Flavor
Ease of Use
Value for Money

4.4

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The Most Feature-Packed Drip Coffee Maker

“Precision” in the name is not just a marketing buzzword. This machine is unrivaled when it comes to precise control of your brew.

There are five pre-set brewing modes: Fast, Strong, Over Ice, Gold, and Cold Brew. To summarize each, briefly:

Fast shortens the brew time. It takes me less than 8 minutes to make 12 cups.
Strong makes a bolder-flavored cup by slowing the brewing process. It takes about 11 minutes to brew a carafe.
Over Ice prepares an even more concentrated brew for making iced coffee. You are limited to 4 cups (20 ounces) at a time.
Gold brews to SCA specifications for the Golden Cup (1).
Cold Brew runs overnight, brewing slowly with unheated water for an ultra-smooth cup.

The Precision Brewer makes anywhere from 1 to 12 cups at a time. If it detects less than 4 cups of water in the tank, it automatically adjusts the brew cycle for smaller volumes to ensure you still get a full-flavored coffee.

Like any decent drip coffee maker, it can be programmed to auto start on a 24-hour timer for coffee drinkers who like to wake up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

My Brew: The Mode For Coffee Geeks

Along with the presets, there is a My Brew option, which is essentially manual control of every variable. As a coffee geek, this was the mode I used most often when brewing for myself, whereas I’d default to Gold mode when serving company.

In the My Brew mode, you set the water temperature (from 197 to 204 F), bloom time (from 0 to 5 minutes), and flow rate (slow, medium, or fast).

In an especially unique move, Breville has included two interchangeable filter baskets, one flat bottom and one conical. This allows even more control, as research demonstrates that filter shape impacts flavor profiles (2).

In terms of our sensory evaluation, basket shape made maybe even a more pronounced impact than the grind size did

The two brew baskets are also valuable when brewing varying quantities, as I found the cone filter basket yielded better results when making smaller volumes.

The best thing about all this is that, unlike brewing a manual pour over, once you find the perfect settings, you can repeat the exact same coffee every time.

Impressively, this coffee maker features a PID temperature control (proportional integral derivative), something more often found on high-end espresso machines (3). It ensures better temperature accuracy and fewer fluctuations during the brewing cycle.

Pour-Over Adapter

The pour-over adapter kit, which is sold separately for around $30, allows you to use a favorite pour-over dripper already in your collection in place of the included basket. It’s a neat idea, letting you develop a convenient and reproducible recipe for any type of pour-over brewer, like a Hario V60 or Kalita Wave. Honestly, it represents such a small fraction of the price of the brewer that I think it should just be included by default.

Using The Breville Precision Brewer

Given the sheer number of options, the Precision Brewer has a bit of a learning curve compared to the average coffee maker with a start button.

I found the programming surprisingly intuitive, however. If you’ve ever used a Breville espresso machine that requires you to memorize a series of button presses, you’ll be happy to hear that isn’t the case here. The LCD screen displays all the options, and the Select knob makes it easy to toggle between them.

The preset modes eliminate the learning curve if you’re not interested in exploiting all the features to customize your coffee. But if that’s all you want, I’d probably suggest an alternative coffee maker for your money.

Cleaning And Maintenance

This brewer is effortless to clean and maintain, though the removable parts are not dishwasher safe. Most days, I just rinse the filter basket and carafe under warm water. Once a week, I scrub them properly with dish soap.

With all the tech in this machine, I was a little surprised that there is no automatic descaling alert. I’d suggest setting an alert on your phone every 3 to 6 months. An easy-to-use automatic descaling cycle takes about 15 minutes to run.

SCA Certification And Coffee Quality

The Breville Precision Brewer Thermal model is certified by the SCA for its ability to produce a Golden Cup. This rigorous certification was designed by coffee professionals and includes criteria around brew temperature, extraction percentage, keeping coffee warm, etc. So you hardly need me to tell you that this machine brews delicious coffee, but I’ll tell you anyway.

I tested every brewing mode and experimented with the My Brew settings. I explored how the two basket shapes influenced flavor and extraction. I tried light, medium, and dark roast beans. I brewed single cups and full carafes. I even tried using cheap ground coffee from the grocery store.

Every cup I made was at least good coffee, and most were outstanding once I had dialed in the variables to optimize extraction.

A big difference I noticed between this machine and cheaper brewers I’ve tested was its prowess with lighter roasts. The ability to increase the brew temperature and bloom time really opened the door to even the lightest Nordic-style roasts.

Glass Or Thermal Carafe?

The Breville Precision brewer is sold with either a stainless steel or glass carafe. The glass carafe model adds a hot plate to keep the coffee hot.

Personally, I prefer a thermal carafe. Not only does it keep my coffee hot without risking that stale or burnt coffee flavor hot plates can impart, but it’s also more durable and energy efficient. Breville’s thermal carafe is the rare one that measures a full 60 ounces (most are 50 ounces), and it has a brew-through carafe lid to avoid letting the coffee cool as it brews.

Notably, the glass carafe model is not SCA-certified. The brewers are otherwise identical, so I assume this has to do with the criteria regarding keeping coffee hot. If you prefer a glass carafe, I suggest drinking your brew within the first 30 minutes to enjoy the best coffee quality.

Design, Durability, and Build Quality

The Breville Precision Brewer has an elegant design that matches every other Breville appliance, including the Breville Smart Grinder. It has a brushed stainless steel finish, blue LCD screen, and white lighting around the buttons.

It’s sleek and attractive, which is good because it’s also one of the largest drip machines I’ve tested. At 12.4 x 6.7 x 15.7 inches, it’s bigger than many espresso machines. I live in a small condo with a small kitchen, and it dominates my counter, though I can slide it under the cupboards.

My only complaint about the design is that the water reservoir isn’t removable. I generally just use the carafe to fill it, which isn’t a huge hassle. But I always value the convenience of a removable water tank, especially in these higher-priced machines.

Impressive Build Quality

My experience with Breville coffee gear has always been that you have to trade off features and durability to keep prices reasonable. For the most part, that’s a trade I’m happy to make. I’d rather have five years with a user-friendly machine than ten years with something that doesn’t make coffee the way I want.

The Precision Brewer is the exception to that rule. The build quality here is excellent, from the steel body to the Thermocoil heating system. It feels sturdy and well-engineered. While I didn’t test mine long enough to speak to its lifetime longevity, online reviews suggest it encounters few problems over the long haul. It includes a 2-year warranty.

Is The Precision Brewer Worth The Price?

The Precision Brewer offers unprecedented customizability and precision to brew great coffee exactly how you like it. But it comes at a price – over $300.

The price is on par with other top SCA-certified drip brewers, like the Technivorm Moccamaster or Ratio Six, but there are certainly more affordable machines with Golden Cup credentials. In my opinion, you should only splurge on the Precision Brewer if you plan to take advantage of its functionality.

Coffee lovers who enjoy tinkering and who brew a wide variety of coffees (which necessitate different extraction conditions) will get their money’s worth from this machine.

If your home coffee routine is always the same medium roast with the same settings, you can find better value elsewhere.

You also get a few nice extras for your dollars. The Precision Brewer comes with a coffee spoon, cone filter basket insert, mesh basket filter, 10-pack of flat-bottom paper filters, and a water hardness test strip.

Don’t Buy The Breville Precision Brewer If…

You’re on a tight budget: For amazing coffee without the high price tag, check out the Bonavita Connoisseur (BV1901TS). It doesn’t have any bells and whistles, nor is it the prettiest machine on the block, but it’s the most affordable drip brewer with the coveted Gold Cup standard.
You prefer a simpler operation: If you don’t plan to take advantage of all the features of the Breville Precision Brewer, you might like the SCA-certified Oxo Brew 9-cup Coffee Maker instead. It’s more affordable, brews perfect coffee at the touch of a button, and has a similarly sleek visual appeal.
You’re willing to trade features for build quality: For a brewer that’s built to last, consider the Technivorm Moccamaster or Ratio Six. They fall in the same price bracket as the Precision Brewer and lack its many settings, but both are SCA-certified and backed by an industry-leading 5-year warranty.
You want a smart coffee machine: Do you have a kitchen where all the appliances talk to each other? Do you like to brew coffee with an app on your phone? The GE Cafe Specialty coffee machine was made for you, and as a nice bonus, it has a stunning design.

The Verdict

The Breville Precision Brewer stands alone among drip coffee machines, thanks to PID temperature control, a variable-flow water pump, and a Thermocoil heating system. Breville clearly took advantage of its espresso machine expertise in designing this brewer – to the benefit of filter coffee geeks everywhere.

The Precision Brewer is one of the most expensive coffee makers on the market, but for the home barista who wants to enjoy the customizability of a manual brew with the convenience of an automatic machine, it’s unrivaled – and well worth its cost.