Breville BDC550XL

[hotrod351]

first like to say hi to forum. well i finally broke down and bought what i figure is a good coffee machine, the breville bdc550xl. any one familiar with this machine ? all the reviews i could find were positive. what im trying to do now is figure out if the strength setting works. first time i used it for grinding coffee i set it to intense and it was just that, now i set it a few lines under strong, still taste pretty strong. i have read reviews about the problem of it tasting strong no matter where the setting it set and the coffee basket still is pretty much full when done. guess my next step is to set it on the lowest setting and see what happens. the only cons i see this far is that you cant turn the heating plate back on without brewing another cup of coffee and the start/cancel, along with the = warming plate is on = blinks the whole time the warming plate is on, little annoying but hey if it makes a good cup of coffee and does what is suppose to do than that is minor. like to hear from other people that have this machine, thanks in advance.

[EspressoErb]

I don't own the machine but I just wanted to introduce an idea to you that crossed my mind when I looked at it on Amazon.

Why don't you brew 12ozs right into your cup? Then you don't have to fuss with the warming plate and you will have fresh coffee every time. At the very least it would be an effective way to dial in the grinder without going through so much coffee.

[hotrod351]

because i use the grinder on weekends for me and the wife so i make a pot.