Sage (Breville) Oracle Dual Boiler Review

Introducing the Oracle Dual Boiler

The new Dual Boiler by Sage (Breville) has been long awaited. Ever since the original Dual Boiler arrived a decade ago, people have been waiting for a successor. But is this a successor to the original Breville Dual Boiler, or rather the Oracle Touch?

Let’s get one thing out of the way – the Oracle stands for Breville’s automatic grinding and tamping solution, found in the Oracle Touch, Oracle Jet, and now the Oracle Dual Boiler.

Here’s another thing. ALL the original Oracle models by Sage (Breville) were already dual boilers. That includes the Oracle, the Oracle Touch, and now the Oracle Dual Boiler. Therefore, the new Oracle Dual Boiler is to me the replacement for the older Oracle Touch. Just have a look below to compare:

Let’s list the features of the NEW Oracle Dual Boiler below:

• 58mm portafilter with single and double baskets
• Auto puck-prep via tamper fan
• 5.7″ touch screen display with basic and advanced mode
• Wifi on board
• Auto milk steaming
• Baratza stainless steel conical burrs
• Automatic grind adjustment (notice there’s no grind knob!)

What does the Oracle Dual Boiler come with?

Thankfully, the Oracle Dual Boiler comes with just about everything you need to get started on your espresso journey. The machine comes with the following:

• Single and Double baskets (12g and 22g)
• 480ml milk pitcher
• 58mm dual spouted portafilter
• Knock Box 10
• Cleaning kit
• Water filter

Save 15% at Sage EU and UK

While the Sage Oracle Dual Boiler is quite an expensive machine, if you live in the UK or EU, I can provide you with a 15% off coupon if you like. Just enter your info in the form below.

Design and HMI

Probably the fanciest thing about the design of the Oracle Dual Boiler is it’s 5.7″ touch display. It’s very well done: excellent contrast, excellent viewing angles, and the response time is very good for an espresso machine. The touch display is actually based on Android, which can be observed when perusing the settings menu.

Anyway, the touch display is the main interface of the machine. From here, you select, parameterize and start drinks. The screen also includes some nice instructions and animations, helping new users to get used to the machine, and also maintain the machine by backflushing and descaling.

I’m quite a fan of the execution of the screen, even if I prefer the immediacy of having physical buttons to press. What’s interesting is that they even manage to set the grind size via the screen. There is no grind dial anymore. Instead, the grind adjustment is done inside, via motorization.

The Build

I would say build quality is on par with other Breville machines. It’s a stainless steel casing on the outside, bolstered by a plastic housing inside. The boilers are also made of stainless steel. The burrs are 6 bladed stainless steel, made by Baratza. All this use of stainless steel does give the impression of quality, and this thing weighs a super hefty 38 pounds. Watch your back when lifting this sucker!

Anyway, let’s take a closer look at what’s driving the Oracle Dual Boiler. Inside the machine there are 3 heaters:

1. Smaller brew boiler
2. Larger steam boiler
3. Brew group heater

The heaters are PID controlled, and do a good job of keeping the temperature constant. I find that the machine is ready after just 5 minutes, which is excellent for a dual boiler. It also has a timer though, to make sure it’s thoroughly warmed, before you get up. Nice. I set mine for 5:30 am.

Let’s look further into the guts of the machine, to see what’s really inside, and if it might be easy enough to fix after warranty. Luckily, it’s easy to get inside – just two torx screws at the back, and two philips screws under the front fascia of the machine. It took me about 5 minutes to get the top off.

Looking below, you can see the two boilers, the water funnel, the self-adjusting grinder, and the tamper fan housing (that’s under the white housing). You will also see a whole bunch of wiring and tubing (click on the picture to enlarge). The tubing is generally PTFE, also known as teflon. Some of it is jacketed against heat, with an additional silicon tubing.

Then, there are a lot of wires, including PID thermoprobes, checking for temperature. You’ll also find electrical components like solenoid valves, a loud fan in the back, motors, and so on.

To be honest, it’s a lot of stuff under there, and it’s quite cramped. I am not sure I’d like to dig around in there to fix something, should a problem crop up. Anyway, this does come with a 2 Year Repair Warranty, which is good.

The Grinder

As I mentioned before, the grinder is a stainless steel, 6 bladed Etzinger burr, as found in the new Baratza ESP. The burr assembly is connected to toothed cog, that is adjusted via motor. The adjustment is done from the touch screen, completely omitting any kind of mechanical burr gap adjustment for the user.

I find that the grinder does a fine job for its purpose, providing good body on the shots, and I find the espresso to be nice and balanced, too. It should be mentioned however, that I normally use medium to dark roast espresso beans, with an 80%/20% arabica to robusta blend. These blends are first of all easy enough to grind, and secondly are relatively easy to extract.

For light roast however, I have read on the internet that people complain about the integrated grinder. They say it’s not suited for light roast. I will say this – light roast beans are much denser, much harder than medium or dark roast. For that reason, they put a lot more strain on the grinder burrs and motor. These smaller integrated grinders to not seem to have the required torque to handle light roast, on a regular basis. For that, you might want to use a dedicated grinder.

How does the Auto Puck-Prep work?

Probably the most convenient feature about this machine is the auto puck prep. It’s really interesting how it works, too. As the grinds are descending from the grinder, they are spun outwards into the waiting basket, and are filled volumetrically, until the grounds reach the spinning tamper fan. Once enough resistance is felt, the grinder stops, and the tamper fan polishes the puck. It’s pretty darn neat!

This whole process of spinning, then grinding, and tamping generally takes about 25 seconds for an 18 gram dose. So while it might not be super expedient, it is in fact super convenient.

While this method of dosing is super convenient for the user, it’s not without its faults. The main problem with this volume based dosing is that the doses can be inconsistent. I normally get 18.5 grams out, but sometimes I get outliers of 16 grams, or 20 grams. So, it’s like +/- 1.5 grams for dose consistency.

You could of course also dose by time, but then I’d suggest not changing beans or drink styles, as this will affect grinding time.

Setting the Dose

The grinder and puck prep system out of the box are calibrated to make 22 gram pucks for the larger basket, and 12 gram pucks for the smaller basket. Since I prefer 18 gram doses, I set out to lower the tamping depth, consequently lowering my dose.

Since it is not that intuitive to do, I made a video about it. You have to make sure not to unscrew the tamper fan connector too far. Also, make sure the connector is reinstalled properly, and the setscrew is tight.

After adjusting the tamper fan depth, I went from 22 to 18.5 gram pucks. To get down even further, you could buy an IMS basket. Anyway, here’s the video:

How is the Oracle Dual Boiler for Espresso and Cafe Crema?

I do find that the Oracle does well for espresso, especially once it is completely heated up, including the portafilter. This generally takes about 10 minutes before everything is warmed evenly. Then you get an espresso with excellent texture, and with a nice depth of flavor, provided you’re using good, freshly roasted beans.

As for Cafe Crema, I do think the Dual Boiler does a very good job, too. It automatically adjusts the grind size to be more coarse, for this longer drink. It’s also pretty accurate at hitting the set volume, which I was pleasantly surprised about. If I aim for a 150 ml drink, I generally end up around 150-165ml.

How is the Auto-MilQ Milk Texturing?

The Oracle Dual Boiler comes with a powerful, 4 holed steam wand that’s great for texturing milk in manual mode. It is powerful enough to get an immediate swirl going for milk incorporation, but not so strong that it can overwhelm beginner baristas. I love the steam wand in manual mode, and the inclusion of the temperature probe at the tip is excellent for knowing when your milk has reached temperature.

I am also happy to say that this steam wand does pretty darn good in automatic mode, too. While I was unimpressed at the auto milk foam on the Oracle Jet, it works much better on the Dual Boiler for me, on both 3.5% fat milk, and 1.5% fat milk. It doesn’t do quite as well with alternative milks though. For that, I’d suggest steaming manually.

Specifications

Here are the specs of the machine:

• 17.9″ x 15.2″ x 14.7″ (height, width, depth)
• 38 pounds
• 1800 watt power
• Stepless Baratza grinder with 45 digitally encoded reference points
• Preset recipes: Espresso, Americano, Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White, Cortado, Mocha, Iced Latte, Espresso Martini, Espresso Shakerato, Latte Shakerato, Hot Chocolate, Babyccino, Tea
• Made in China

Oracle Jet vs Oracle Dual Boiler

You might want to know if it’s maybe better to get the Oracle Jet, since they look so similar.

Welp, the Oracle Jet does cost $1,000 less than the Dual Boiler, making it 33% cheaper. It also includes a beautiful big screen, and boasts a faster heat up time. The Jet and Dual Boiler share the same Baratza burrs, 58mm portafilter, and 12 ounce bean hopper.

With all that being said, the Dual Boiler can of course extract espresso and steam at the same time – hence the name. Therefore, the Dual Boiler is much better for practicing latte art, since you can time your milk to be done when your espresso is done, for a better canvas to pour into.

Also, I like the fact that the Dual Boiler warms up the brew group and portafilter thoroughly. While the Oracle Jet does include a mini heater above the shower screen, it takes about 30 minutes for the Jet to heat up the portafilter, which is just too long. So, I prefer the Oracle Dual Boiler over the Jet for the thoroughness of heat-up as well.

Whether the extra $1,000 is justifiable however, is up to you. I do find it very expensive. You could get a Lelit Bianca, Wendougee Data S or numerous other dual boilers for that price or less.

Save 15% at Sage EU and UK

While the Sage Oracle Dual Boiler is quite an expensive machine, if you live in the UK or EU, I can provide you with a 15% off coupon if you like. Just enter your info in the form below.

Pros and Cons of the Oracle Dual Boiler

The Oracle Dual Boiler is a nice machine. It looks handsome, and it’s fast. I love the convenience of the auto puck prep. It also makes excellent espresso and milk foam, and I like very much the other drinks like the Cafe Crema, too. But, it is super pricey.

Verdict

I think this machine is aimed at people that would spend $3k anyway, on a Jura superautomatic, but want a machine that makes better drinks. Or, this is for people who like Sage/Breville, and want the best machine they offer. While I do think it’s a nice machine that makes nice drinks, the value proposition is not as good as I had hoped.

I’d give this machine an A- for features, and a C- for value.

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