Breville Barista Pro vs Barista Express Impress: faster heat-up or easier tamping?

Barista Pro vs Express Impress at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the two machines are identical have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on how you make coffee.

Design, size and build

Both are brushed stainless steel boxes with the grinder on the left, the group head in the middle and the steam wand on the right. From across the room, the giveaway is the front: the Pro has a small LCD between its buttons, while the Express Impress has a round pressure gauge and a tamping lever next to the grinding cradle.

The Express Impress is the narrower machine at about 12.9 inches wide, against roughly 14 inches for the Pro. It is deeper, though, at about 14.9 inches to the Pro’s 13, and both stand about 16 inches tall.

Weight is close. The Pro comes in at about 20 pounds and the Impress at 22 to 23, so neither is something you will move around often.

The Pro’s LCD sits between its buttons where the older Express had a gauge.

The water tank sits at the back on both, and on the Pro you can also top it up from above. Leave a few inches behind either machine so you can slide the tank out without moving the whole thing.

Build quality is very similar. Both feel solid, with metal portafilters, a weighty drip tray and no flex in the panels.

Width on the counter

The Impress is narrower but deeper, so measure both directions.

Our tip: Measure the gap under your wall cabinets with the hopper lid open, because both machines need a few inches above them to refill beans.

Heat-up and heating

This is the Pro’s headline feature, and it changed my whole morning routine.

The Pro uses Breville’s ThermoJet✕ThermoJetBreville’s fast heater. It heats water on demand to brewing temperature in about three seconds and switches to steam almost instantly. heater. From power on, it was ready to brew in about 3 seconds, ready to steam about 5 seconds after a shot, and back to brew temperature about 6 seconds after steaming.

The Express Impress uses a thermocoil✕ThermocoilA coiled metal tube that heats water as it passes through. It is reliable and stable, but slower to heat up and to switch between brewing and steaming than a ThermoJet. with PID✕PID controlA digital controller that keeps the water temperature steady by making small, constant adjustments, so shots taste the same from one to the next. control. It takes roughly 30 seconds to heat up, and about 15 to 20 seconds to ramp from brewing to steaming.

Time to ready, in seconds

Measured with a stopwatch from a cold machine.

The catch both share

Fast water heating does not mean a warm group head. Both machines warm their group head and portafilter passively, so the first shot of the day tasted sharp unless I ran a blank shot first.

On the Impress, I scored the same espresso 5.5 straight away, 7.5 after a blank shot and 9.0 after the machine had been on for 15 to 20 minutes. The Pro behaved the same way, and two blank shots fixed it in under a minute.

Impress espresso, by warm-up

My scores out of 10 with the same beans and dose.

Grinder and dose

Both have stainless steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. The gap between them sets how fine the coffee is. and a hopper that holds about half a pound of beans. The Pro has 30 grind settings and lets you stop between numbers; the Impress has 25 on a side wheel plus an inner burr you can move.

Out of the box, the Impress’s inner burr was set to 5, which was too coarse for fresh espresso beans. Moving it to 3 gave me a wide, usable range, and I would make that change on day one.

The Pro grinds for a set time, adjustable in tenths of a second. With the same timer, my doses wandered between about 15.8 and 16.2 grams, so I kept a scale next to it all month.

The Impress grinds into a cradle, so the grounds stay off the counter.

The Impress’s dose meter is the real difference. After you tamp, it shows whether the dose was low, in the green zone or high, and if it was off, it adjusts the next grind time on its own. In the double basket, it handled anything from about 14 to 18 grams without me changing anything.

Our tip: Hold the filter button for three seconds on the Impress after you change beans, because it resets the dose learning and stops the first shots overdosing.

Tamping and puck prep

This is the Impress’s headline feature, and the reason most people buy it.

On the Pro, you grind into the portafilter, tap it level, and press with the included tamper. It is a skill, and in my first week only about half my shots landed in my target time window.

On the Impress, you pull a lever and a flat tamper drives straight down with about 22 pounds of force, then twists slightly to polish the surface. The grounds never leave the cradle until the puck is done.

Shots in my target window, by week

Share of shots that ran within my target time with the same beans.

By week four, the gap had closed. Once my hand tamping settled, the Pro’s shots were just as consistent, so the Impress’s advantage is mostly in the first fortnight and for anyone who never wants to learn.

There is also the mess. The Impress kept my counter clean all month, while the Pro left a dusting of grounds around the portafilter after every dose.

Shot-time spread from puck to puck

Lower is more consistent.

Pressure gauge vs shot timer

The two machines teach you in different ways, and which one suits you depends on how you learn.

The Impress keeps the classic analog pressure gauge. If the needle stays low, your grind is too coarse; if it climbs high and the coffee drips, it is too fine. You can read it at a glance during the shot.

The Pro drops the gauge for an LCD that shows grind setting, grind time, shot size and a running shot timer. With a scale under the cup, the timer told me more than a gauge ever did, but on its own it is less intuitive for a beginner.

The Pro’s shot timer replaced the gauge, and with a scale it is the more useful tool.

Both have five temperature settings. On the Impress they run from 91°C for dark roasts to 95°C for light roasts, with 93°C as the default; on the Pro, the High setting pulled the most sweetness out of light, dense beans.

Espresso quality

Once dialed in, both make excellent espresso, and in a blind tasting I could not reliably tell them apart.

On the Pro, my baseline was 16 grams in the double basket and 32 grams out, a classic 1:2 ratio✕Brew ratioThe weight of coffee in compared with the weight of espresso out. A 1:2 ratio means 16 grams of coffee makes 32 grams of espresso.. Medium-roast shots ran in about 28 to 30 seconds and poured like syrup, with chocolate and caramel.

On the Impress, I settled on 18 grams in and about 36 grams out in 27 to 30 seconds. For a sweeter, denser cup I stopped it at around 30 grams, and that became my favorite straight espresso of the month.

An 18-gram dose made it easy to pull a rich, ristretto-style shot on the Impress.

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 for body, crema, flavor and consistency.

Where the Pro pulled ahead was light roasts. Its High temperature setting kept bright coffees from tasting sour, and with a finer grind in the 7 to 9 range I got citrus and stone fruit instead of sharp acidity.

Where the Impress pulled ahead was consistency in the first weeks. If you hand the machine to someone who has never made espresso, the Impress gets them a good shot on the first try.

Our tip: Weigh your shots for the first week on either machine, because the grinder timer alone drifts by a few tenths of a gram.

Steam and milk

Neither machine froths milk for you. You steam it yourself with a manual wand, and this is where they differ most in daily use.

The Pro’s four-hole tip is strong. A 6-ounce latte jug took about 30 seconds to stretch and heat, and the glossy microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what latte art needs. poured hearts and simple tulips by the second week. It also purges itself when you put it back.

The Impress’s single-hole tip is gentler. A small latte jug took about 45 seconds and a big cappuccino jug for two took over a minute, but the slower pace is more forgiving while you learn.

Time to steam a small latte jug

Timed with cold whole milk to about 140 to 150°F.

Strong steam from the Pro’s four-hole tip made latte-art milk in about 30 seconds.

Our tip: Purge and wipe the steam tip straight after every milk drink, because the Pro’s four tiny holes clog quickly if milk dries in them.

Americano and hot water

Both have a dedicated hot water outlet next to the steam wand, so an americano✕AmericanoAn espresso topped with hot water. It keeps the espresso’s flavor but makes a longer, milder drink. is easy on either.

On the Pro, I poured hot water first and the shot on top for a long black, with 1 part espresso to 3 or 4 parts water. On the Impress, the hot water sputtered a little at the start, so I held the cup close to the outlet.

For tea, both deliver water hot enough for black and herbal teas. Neither has a temperature setting for green tea, so let it stand for a minute.

Our tip: Pour the hot water first and the espresso on top, because it keeps more crema on a long black on both machines.

Cleaning and upkeep

The cleaning routine is nearly identical. After each shot you knock out the puck, rinse the basket and flush the group head, and after every milk drink you purge and wipe the steam wand.

Both ask for a backflush✕BackflushRunning water and a cleaning tablet backward through the group head with a blind basket. It clears coffee oil from the valve and shower screen. with a cleaning tablet when the machine prompts you, and both use the same Breville water filter, replaced every two to three months.

The Impress has one extra job: brushing the tamper face and the cradle once a week, because coffee sticks there. In return, it keeps grounds off the counter, which saved me a wipe-down after every shot.

Grounds stay in the Impress cradle, so the counter needed less wiping.

My daily hands-on time, two people

My estimate, including grinding, tamping, steaming and cleanup.

The pucks come out firm on both, and they make good compost. The Pro also emptied its drip tray less often in my test, because its quick heater dumps less water than the thermocoil.

Our tip: Brush the burr chamber once a week on either machine, because stale grounds stuck there end up in your next shot.

A morning routine, timed

Specs tell you heat-up times. A stopwatch tells you what that means at 7 a.m. with two people waiting.

On the Pro, two flat whites from a cold machine took about 5 minutes, including two blank shots, grinding, tamping, steaming and a wipe. On the Impress, the same two drinks also took about 5 minutes, because the faster puck prep made up for the slower steam.

The difference showed up in the details. The Pro was ready the moment I switched it on, while the Impress made me wait for it to warm up; the Impress was faster at the grinder, while the Pro was faster at the milk.

If you make one espresso and leave, the Pro wins outright. If you make several drinks back to back, the Impress keeps up better than its heat-up time suggests, but its 30-minute auto-off, which you can’t extend, sometimes caught me mid-morning.

Beans, water and accessories

Both use the same 67-ounce tank, the same filter and the same cleaning tablets. One full tank lasted two people about two days on both.

The Pro tells you when the tank is low. The Impress doesn’t, and I ruined one shot mid-pour in the first week before I made checking the tank a habit.

Drinks per 67 oz tank

Rough maths allowing for blank shots and rinsing. The same on both machines.

A few accessories made a real difference. A scale with 0.1-gram resolution helped the Pro most, a needle stirring tool helped me get even pucks before hand tamping, and a bottomless portafilter showed me where the coffee was channeling.

The Impress needs fewer extras because the lever does the leveling and tamping, but you can’t stir the grounds before tamping in its cradle.

Fresh beans matter more than any accessory. Use beans within a few weeks of their roast date, and remember that a double espresso is a fair share of the roughly 400 milligrams of caffeine a day the FDA cites as generally safe for most adults.

Our tip: Check the water tank before every first shot on the Impress, because it has no low-water warning.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

For daily milk drinks, the Pro was the machine I reached for first.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10. The first four come from my single reviews of each machine, and I added speed and first-week consistency because they decide this matchup.

Breville Barista Pro

Breville Barista Express Impress

Overall, I rate the Pro 8.5 and the Express Impress 8.3. The Pro is the better machine once you know what you are doing; the Impress is the better machine while you are still learning.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: is the hard part for you making the puck, or waiting for the machine? Answer that honestly and the choice makes itself. Still weighing other options? I rank every model I’ve tested in my guide to the best Breville espresso machines.

If you want to see the older model these two improve on, my Barista Express vs Barista Pro and Barista Express vs Express Impress comparisons cover each upgrade on its own. For the whole range, see my Breville espresso machine comparison, and for the full single reviews, read my Barista Pro review and Express Impress review.

For a first espresso machine, the Impress takes the guesswork out of the puck.

Barista Pro vs Express Impress specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday espresso maker for four weeks, pulling straight espresso, ristretto-style shots, americanos, flat whites, lattes and cappuccinos with the same medium roast, plus light and dark roasts on both.

I weighed every dose and shot on a 0.1-gram scale, timed heat-up, steam and full morning routines with a stopwatch, tracked how many shots landed in my target window each week, and measured milk temperature with a probe thermometer.

I ran every cleaning routine, including backflushes and filter changes, and then compared my notes with Breville specifications, owner documentation and published test data.

• Coffee: dose consistency, shot time, body and flavor.
• Milk: steam speed, microfoam and latte art.
• Workflow: heat-up, puck prep, feedback and routine time.
• Ownership: cleaning, mess, water care and footprint.