Breville BES870XL Barista Express Espresso Machine, Brushed Stainless Steel

Product overview

Breville Barista Express: What to Know

According to Breville's own product page, the BES870XL uses a thermocoil heating system with PID temperature control, paired with a 15-bar Italian pump that runs low-pressure pre-infusion followed by 9-bar extraction, which matches the pressure the Specialty Coffee Association recommends for espresso. The integrated conical burr grinder offers 16 settings and doses directly into a 54mm portafilter sized around an 18-gram basket, so grinding, dosing, and tamping all happen at one machine rather than requiring a separate grinder.

Milk frothing is fully manual: there's a steam wand you angle and time yourself, not an automatic system, so the quality of microfoam depends on the user's technique rather than a preset. That's a meaningful difference from the Ninja and Philips machines in this guide, which automate at least part of the milk step.

The BES870XL has been sold under this model code for well over a decade, which in practice means wide third-party accessory support (bottomless portafilters, replacement baskets, aftermarket parts) and an unusually large base of published troubleshooting guides compared with newer machines on this list -- a practical advantage even though it isn't a performance spec.

Key Listed Features