Breville Oracle Dual Boiler Review: You Can’t Automate Passion

Breville has made its name bringing cafe-quality coffee into the home. Machines like the Barista Express Impress proved that thoughtful innovation could simplify coffee without killing the ritual, and the Oracle Touch introduced a touch screen to a competent dual boiler for easy drink selections. 

The Oracle Dual Boiler, however, feels like the brand’s over-engineered middle child – a hulking, stainless-steel statement piece that looks like a prosumer machine but can’t decide whether it’s manual or automatic.

After two years using it, I’ve realised it’s for people who want the aesthetic of a manual setup and the approachability of an automatic, regardless of the coffee outcome. For anyone who has come from an ECM or similar (like me), who enjoys the process of distributing, tamping and extraction, it’s possible you will find the level of automation frustrating.

Design & Setup

Visually, the Oracle Dual Boiler is impressive. Big, heavy, and premium – it looks like it belongs behind a cafe counter or in an upscale restaurant. The stainless steel feels substantial, and the layout is intuitive enough once through the long setup process. 

Once you’re past the set up, Breville’s user interface is excellent. The digital screen is genuinely well executed – it’s clear, super responsive, and loaded with drink options you’ll never use (shakerato, anyone?). Once you’ve selected a particular drink style you can adjust the grind, shot volumes, milk temps, and foam levels, then save your favourite extractions. If you need that level of control, it’s all there.

You’ll notice there’s no knobs or leavers on the side of the Oracle Dual Boiler, everything is controlled via a button. Like previous machines, the cavernous drip tray is removed to conceal cleaning tools, and you’ll only need to empty it every second week. 

Performance

On paper, the Oracle Dual Boiler should be brilliant. It grinds, doses, and tamps automatically, then senses flow to calibrate the shot. The idea is that it learns and adjusts over time.

In practice, however, it’s inconsistent. Even when the grind setting remains the same, some shots run long, some cut short, and the crema and flavour swings with them. You can grind and pull two shots in a row and you don’t know what you’re going to get, or how long the shot timer will run. The grinder doesn’t help; it offers 45 settings but almost no finesse where it matters – in the finest third. I’m perpetually stuck between grind sizes 8 and 9, even though I’ve adjusted the manual burr setting within the hopper. 

The auto-tamping mechanism has also been unpredictable, running indefinitely on a few occasions, which forced me to manually stop the process. Additionally, the plastic hopper lid has developed fine cracks in the short time I’ve been using the machine. These things happen, but on a machine at this price, they really shouldn’t.

The Oracle Dual Boiler’s heat-up time is the standout feature – it’s ready to go in minutes and the programmable auto-on timer means it’s ready for action as soon as you walk into the kitchen in the morning. 

Oddly enough, the older Oracle Touch – which I reviewed years ago – pulled better shots and felt more reliable, delivered more consistency for less money. Which makes you wonder what you’re really paying for here.

And if you really don’t need a dual boiler, you can spend even less again and still enjoy great coffee. For me, the Barista Express Impress remains the standout of Breville’s range: friendlier, more fun, and less fuss – a machine that proves you don’t need to spend four grand to get a great cup.

User Experience

I’ve been using the machine in manual mode only. Aside from when I’m doing the kids’ babychinos – set the temp to 45, foam to 8, and you’re done. 

There are quirks you need to consider in the auto mode, like if you want to clean the group head between shots pulled. If you have already finished grinding the shot, and then press the brew function to run water through the head, it will not let you press brew again. It assumes your shot is done, despite no portafilter being locked into place. Essentially you have to bang out the coffee grinds and start again. 

In manual mode you get all the same features as the auto mode without the constraints. You press brew and it starts a pre-infusion, then you press it again to shift to brew mode. If you hold the brew button for too long it goes to a blooming mode which you don’t want if you’re pulling an espresso shot. 

All this really becomes obvious once you get the scale out. I like to pull about 28 grams of liquid from the double basket, my wife prefers it weaker, roughly 25 grams. In auto mode the machine will overextract well into the thirties – it can’t see when it’s time to end the shot. Then the next day it could do 24 grams. To get the consistent performance out of this machine, like any machine, you need to weigh your shot.

If you aren’t bothered by such consistency – the type that truly replaces the need to purchase coffee from a cafe – then running the machine in auto mode may satiate you.

The temperature sensor in the steam wand is excellent in either mode, milk finishes at the same heat every time, which I do love. The automatic frothing, however, still can’t match a human hand. The texture lacks depth; the microfoam is always too aerated, and you can’t bang it out on the bench. 

Yes the dual boilers are technically impressive – brew and steam simultaneously with rock-steady temperature – but Breville offers that functionality on cheaper machines that are more hyper-focused on coffee output. 

Living With It

The longer you own the Oracle Dual Boiler, the clearer its purpose becomes. It’s built for aesthetics and convenience, not necessarily coffee quality. It looks incredible on the bench, it starts itself in the morning, and it makes a fine flat white when everything aligns.

But it lacks soul. There’s no tactile joy, no rhythm, no reward in mastering it. You don’t feel accomplished taking your first sip. For something designed to simplify coffee, it makes you think about coffee more, in a frustrating way. Why did it do that? What’s it doing now? Why is this shot so different from the last?

Value & Verdict

The Breville Oracle Dual Boiler is a fascinating piece of engineering that ultimately overreaches. It promises cafe-quality coffee with push-button simplicity, but in reality it’s too automated for purists and is no more convenient than Breville’s cheaper dual-boiler machines.

Its best features – the quick start-up, programmable timer, impressive screen, and consistent milk temperature – are genuinely great. But its core promise, to make perfect coffee effortlessly, simply doesn’t hold up. 

It’s for people who want to feel like a barista without the learning curve, or the passion. For anyone who values the ritual of coffee making, an ECM or Profitec machine will deliver infinitely more joy and better coffee, at the same (or even a lower) price point. For everyone else, Breville’s more affordable machines do 80 per cent of the job for half the money. 

The author was gifted a Breville Oracle Dual Boiler for the purposes of this review.

Also read:

Breville Barista Express Impress Review: Take My Money
Lelit Bianca V3 Review: The Sweet Spot
Breville Oracle Touch Review: Still The Home Coffee Machine To Beat