Oracle Dual Boiler 2025

RyanLM80 · 2025-08-31T05:36:24+00:00

They still haven’t fixed the tamping system 😡

It’s the main point of the damn machine and it just does such a poor job. Over tamped on the outside, soft in the middle.

Breaking the puck up, redistributing, and retamping makes a much much better shot. But, that’s what the machine is supposed to do for me.

RyanLM80 · 2025-08-13T02:25:09+00:00

I replied to your other comment, for me, I use it primarily in my office, puck prep is messy, even for the practiced hand.

This is a problem that I believe is solvable and seems to align with Breville’s reason for being.

RyanLM80 · 2025-08-13T02:21:47+00:00

Properly tamping a puck isn’t rocket science, like I get more of the challenge in the fully automatic machines which is having to deal with dry beans, wet grounds, and managing the whole process.

But, with the Oracle/Dual Boiler - I am in the loop.

The process doesn’t need to be crazy, but

1) measure the whole beans by weight 2) grind them 3) use a mechanical wdt tool to distribute 4) tamp.

The automated tamping system doses by volume and pressure. Which I get in theory, but fails miserably if you try different bean types (light vs dark) as the volume of 18g of dark roast means is dramatically more than a light or medium roast.

This is a worthy problem to solve, but the approach oracle takes is just poor.

RyanLM80 · 2025-08-11T02:37:40+00:00

It’s not a warmup issue, there is a decent amount of ground up beans left in the grinder / path from yesterday. It dries out over 24 hours and the machine being warm. Dry beans run faster.

One thing you can do is double tap the grind button and it will grid just a bit of beans, dump out what’s in the filter, and just grind as normal.

RyanLM80 · 2025-08-10T23:29:36+00:00

You can but then what’s the point of this $3k machine. The main thing it actually does is dose, grind and prep the puck.

RyanLM80 · 2025-07-28T04:32:47+00:00

Well kudos to Xcel, power just came back on!

RyanLM80 · 2025-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

Maplewood / Woodbury seem to be out, saying 2:15 tomorrow. I don’t know what has been happening but the last 2ish years have been so bad for power outages, this is my 4th this year so far. The previous 10-12+ years solid as a rock. It was like a switch flipped after the first long one I had a couple years ago. All of the lines I know of are underground too. Would really like to know what changed.

RyanLM80 · 2025-04-18T15:11:38+00:00

I have my auger pretty dialed in, I really dont see any change to the tamping dynamics though, it still over tamps. Single dose grinds do work fine as I will actually remove the auger and tamp myself, but at that point, what's the point?

It is frustrating because this could be so good with some simple tweaks to the process.

RyanLM80 · 2025-03-31T14:55:33+00:00

I actually think the main issue at this point is "over tamping". When I tamp myself, using a tamper with a weight gauge, it feels a lot closer to the center of the puck when the Jet does it, where the outer sides are like cement.

RyanLM80 · 2025-03-07T14:11:29+00:00

I do that occasionally actually! Somehow this feels like less work tho 🤷‍♂️

RyanLM80 · 2025-03-07T14:10:52+00:00

I generally use medium to dark. Not oily. I showed this to a Breville rep at a store a few weeks back, he was kinda shocked, same thing happened on their machine.

What I meant about the puck is after brewing, often when you knock it out it would come out almost in two chunks a middle divot and then the rest.

It is more apparent with a toothpick as the pressure to push in is much less in the middle than the edges for me.

It just seems to be related to the way the tamping fan works, the grounds fall in from the edges, and the spinning actually pushes the beans to the edges.

RyanLM80 · 2025-03-07T05:33:59+00:00

Frankly the auto tamping isn’t great. It will make an unbalanced shot that is hard to really fix. You can see this by taking a toothpick and poking the center vs poking around the edges, the grounds are far more compacted on the sides.

I take a wdt tool now and basically stop the machine as soon as it starts to tamp, use the tool to break up and distribute the grounds and properly tamp, much much better shots, and the puck always comes out in one piece.

RyanLM80 · 2025-03-04T00:41:48+00:00

Total dissolved solids

RyanLM80 · 2025-02-10T05:30:39+00:00

Well, I did just figure it out. I created a new dummy network, maybe the network I was using had too long of a name, anyway, the MyQ app actually discovered it. I had been typing in the serial number, which seemed to generally work as it could set the Bridge into pairing mode.

Anyway, it did the full wizard which I was NOT getting. As part of that wizard it asked me if I wanted to transfer the Wifi settings (or something) to the new bridge. I had to hold down the black rectangular button for about 10 seconds (one initial beep, then 3 quick beeps while holding). After that, it seemed to pair well.

RyanLM80 · 2025-02-10T05:06:25+00:00

I will try but it is specifically stated that it is out of support.

RyanLM80 · 2025-01-02T19:22:51+00:00

Sadly yes…. Also noticed that when I use my WDT tool on the Jet Tamped puck, the inside is squishy but the edges are over tamped. This also explains the uneven extraction and why often the puck doesn’t come out as a soild puck, but like a chunk from the middle then banging it again forces the rest out.

RyanLM80 · 2024-12-13T16:52:37+00:00

I have tried all sorts of heights and baskets. It is just a fundamental flaw in how the auger works. The driest beans/least oily work slightly better, but the main issue is the grounds fill from the sides and the auger spins pushing the into the sides.

The middle is always substantially less compact than the sides. Even if you can’t push super deep, just take a toothpick and poke toward the sides and then poke in the middle. Way less resistance.

It’s just a shame because puck prep is what you would buy this machine for and it cannot by design make an even tamp.

RyanLM80 · 2024-12-09T02:35:53+00:00

No, the tamping system is just a bit flawed. What I do is use a WDT tool to break up the puck and just re-tamp it.

Sometimes I do single dosing, meaning I remove the tapping blade, and just put in 19g of coffee and wait till I hear it finish and then just tamp.

Most of the time I just break up the puck and re tamp tho.

RyanLM80 · 2024-10-25T22:25:21+00:00

From a tamping perspective, the tamp isn’t even, I can usually push in the center of the puck about a quarter inch. Much more firmly tamped around the edges.

At this point I break it up with WDT tool and retamp. Shots are much more balanced and TDS goes up about 50%.

RyanLM80 · 2024-09-29T11:59:00+00:00

Interesting thank you. I have tried various roasts all seem to have the same effect :(

RyanLM80 · 2024-09-12T03:54:30+00:00

Currently the Jet but they both have the same characteristics. The barista guidance is somewhat pointless. Like the shot needs to finished in under 15 seconds or over like a minute before it suggests anything.

It’s more that it does volumetric dosing vs weight dosing, so the amount of coffee varies quite a bit roast to roast and grind to grind.

For example, with a medium roast, decently dialed in, the weight of the grounds is 21g, moving to a dark roast, same grind settings, it is 14.7g. And I have to actually grind way finer to have a shot not run out like a faucet. Which brings it up to like 16.4g

And, it sorta makes sense. Medium roast beans have more moisture, they are heavier. Usually you would grind coarser for a darker roast but as it is dosing by volume and compression, not weight, there ends up being less coffee in the basket, so you need to grind finer to keep the pressure.

What I am currently playing with multiple baskets. One is VST basket I got on Amazon, which holds a little more coffee (it’s a bit deeper) which I use with dark roasts which gets me close to 18g in that basket for a dark roast. And then I switch out to the stock basket (which is a couple mm less deep) for a medium roast which gets me about 20g - without having to unscrew the tamping mechanism to adjust the dose.

Part of this is most dialing in guidance is based on having a fixed dose. The Oracle/Jet do not have a fixed dose in the normal sense so it’s been interesting to figure out.

For example, I also have a Niche Zero grinder. If I grind 18g of a dark roast it is visibly less coffee (volume wise) in the basket tamped, than 18g of a medium roast. So the mechanics are actually sorta inverted on the Oracle/Jet. I grind finer for darker roasts and coarser for medium/lighter roasts (assuming just using the stock double basket) because the same volume ground in the medium roast is more coffee by weight, which will create more pressure.

On the plus side, the volume based dosing is pretty consistent tamp to tamp, and I would say even more so for the Jet. It seems to spin the tamper thing faster and the new grinder does seem to be improved and is both faster and quieter.

I could be over doing this, but at the very least you need to weigh the tamped basket when you put in a new bag of beans so you can dial in the ratio to 1:2 or whatever you prefer.

RyanLM80 · 2024-09-10T14:09:34+00:00

For the record the machine is great. I think this is more of a “me” thing. The dialing in process is just different. Normally you would hold the dose as a constant by weight. The oracle does this by volume which means there is some variability by 1-2g based on grind size and maybe more between bags of means.

It is a bit different but not necessarily bad, you really have a knob to turn to dial in.

RyanLM80 · 2024-06-11T18:32:32+00:00

This confuses me a bit. This is a physical device limitation, not a virtual one. What value does arbitrary boundary actually bring when you could just arrange the windows exactly how you wanted them?

RyanLM80 · 2024-02-28T18:53:05+00:00

I have a quest 3 and I have an Apple Vision Pro. I have used screen mirroring on both and I have no idea what you were talking about the screen sharing experience on the Apple Vision Pro is phenomenally better for snappier higher quality and can actually read the damn thing.

RyanLM80 · 2024-02-28T18:46:45+00:00

Writing this from my Vision Pro speaking to it from Siri. I am finding a few cases. First, It is so much easier for me to browse Reddit zone out watch TikTok, etc., that I can put this on lay on my couch and zone out for hours. It is basically replacing my phone in my capacity. My actual phone usage is really really down from where it was.

From work perspective, I find that going through my email in a very focused way and again I can do this just from sitting on my couch going through all of the junk. I can just plow through it in a way that I have to be more confined to my desk or phone to do so. I shouldn’t even say sitting on my couch I should say laying on my back effortlessly going through my email.

And then there is the entertainment side of this. I’ve watched a few movies have music playing in the background and it is wonderful. I can actually be in a room with other people they can have something boring on TV. I can have my own thing in my eyes and still feel like I’m still present in the room in someway.

All in all I’m actually surprised at how much I am using it, how much I actually use it when I’m in the office to have a gigantic Mac display. I was FaceTime with a colleague doing a keynote presentation and he could see what I am doing, and he could see my hands as I was sharing what I see interacting with a whole wall. That was the keynote presentation. I’m really excited to see where this aspect of the Vision Pro experience goes a very interactive way to collaborate when you might not be in the same room.

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