Breville Puck Sucker Evaluation

Go right into a espresso store and also you’ll hear the thwacking of baristas knocking out spent espresso pucks.

Espresso machines use a pump to pressure 9 bars of strain—round 130 kilos per sq. inch—by means of espresso, leaving dried, compacted pucks of their wake. Eradicating these espresso pucks requires some elbow grease (and a rubberized bar to knock the portafilter towards). However, eek! This may be noisy, and a few pucks do not need to budge. To that finish, Breville launched a vacuum pump-powered knock field known as the Puck Sucker. We put it by means of two essential checks to see if it really works any higher than a conventional knock field.

The Checks

• Espresso Puck Check: We used the Puck Sucker to take away quite a few espresso pucks from a portafilter, evaluating its ease of use to our favourite knock box.
• Usability Check: We evaluated how simple the pucker sucker was to arrange and function.

What We Discovered

What’s the Breville Puck Sucker? 

The Breville Puck Sucker is a vacuum pump-powered knock field that mechanically engages once you place your portafilter in it. When the vacuum activates, it pulls the spent espresso puck out of the filter basket and into the catch bin under, so it is easy to eliminate or compost the espresso grounds. 

Does the Puck Sucker Work? 

Sure—with a catch. In our testing, the Puck Sucker did an awesome job of gently eradicating stuck-in espresso pucks with out us having to exert any bodily power. The portafilter suits neatly within the cradle, the pump mechanically kicks on, and the puck is neatly eliminated. There’s just one problem: As a result of the portafilter must create a fair seal across the opening for the vacuum pump to work, the Puck Sucker is designed to perform with 58-millimeter Breville portafilters. So it’s solely suitable with the Breville Dual Boiler, Breville Oracle, or Breville Oracle Touch, making it a much less common product than we’d like. (These additionally occur to be a few of Breville’s priciest fashions.)

Most Breville espresso machines have 54-millimeter baskets, which implies they are not suitable with the Puck Sucker. And though we suggest a number of different, non-Breville espresso machines with 58-millimeter portafilters, they received’t have the precise proprietary form wanted for the Puck Sucker to function.

The Verdict

The Puck Sucker is a vacuum-powered knock field that quietly and effectively eliminated stuck-in espresso pucks from 58-millimeter Breville portafilters. It prices greater than the common knock field and is proscribed to make use of with just some fashions, so we won’t extensively suggest it. Nevertheless, should you’re keen to spend the cash and have a suitable Breville espresso machine, you’ll get pleasure from its clean operation and mess-free design. 

Good to Know

The Puck Sucker is compact sufficient to suit on an espresso machine’s drip tray for storage, and its catch bin can also be dishwasher-safe for straightforward cleanup. It may maintain 10 to 12 espresso pucks earlier than it must be emptied and we just like the rubber backside that retains it in place.

What Ought to You Get As an alternative? 

When you’ve got an espresso machine that is not suitable with the Puck Sucker, we now have excellent news: There are cheaper knock bins that work with any machine’s portafilter. Once we examined knock boxes, we have been notably keen on the homeffect Knock Box, which has a sturdy column as its knock pad as a substitute of a horizontal bar. It absorbed influence in a means that popped out cussed pucks whereas decreasing the noise and power required to take action.

Why We’re the Consultants

• Jesse Raub was Critical Eats’ author and spent over 15 years working within the specialty espresso business. 
• He was our in-house espresso knowledgeable and frequently examined espresso gear for this website together with coffee scales and espresso grinders.
• Jesse beforehand examined 10 knock boxes.