Breville BES878, What the Instruction Book States
The BES878 Barista Pro instruction book states a Thermojet heater, 30 grind settings, a 2L tank and a 54mm portafilter. It states no dimensions and no weight.
The BES878 is the model code for the Breville Barista Pro, and its instruction book states a Thermojet heating system, 30 grind settings, a 68 fl.oz (2L) water tank and a 54mm portafilter.
What the instruction books state
Two instruction books were read for this model, one for the US market and one for Australia and New Zealand.
| Specification | Value | Which book |
|---|---|---|
| Heating system | Thermojet | US and ANZ I22 |
| Grind settings | 30 | US and ANZ I22 |
| Rated power | 1680 W | US |
| Water tank | 68 fl.oz (2L), removable | US |
| Bean hopper | 8.8oz (250g) | US |
| Portafilter | 54mm stainless steel | US and ANZ I22 |
| Tamper | 54mm, integrated and removable | US and ANZ I22 |
| Grinder | Integrated conical burr | US and ANZ I22 |
| Temperature control | PID | US and ANZ I22 |
| Pre-infusion | Low pressure pre-infusion | US and ANZ I22 |
| Auto shut-off | 30 minutes | US and ANZ I22 |
Sources: BES878-instruction-manual.pdf on breville.com; BES878BSS_ANZ_IB_I22_WEB.pdf on assets.breville.com. Checked 13 August 2026.
Why one of those citations names a revision and the other cannot
Breville serves its instruction books from two paths, and only one carries a revision code.
The ANZ document is BES878BSS_ANZ_IB_I22_WEB.pdf, whose filename encodes the model, the region ANZ and the revision I22. The US document is BES878-instruction-manual.pdf, which encodes the model and nothing else.
A citation to the assets.breville.com path can name a revision. A citation to the breville.com/content/dam/ path cannot, and that limitation travels with the citation rather than being quietly dropped.
The heating system, which is the difference from the Barista Express
The BES878 states Thermojet. The BES870 Barista Express states Thermocoil. Both are Breville’s own component names, printed in their respective instruction books.
The grind setting counts differ too: 30 on the BES878, and 16 stated in the BES875 ANZ manual, BES875 being the Australia and New Zealand designation for the Barista Express line.
What the manual does not state
No dimensions, no weight, no part numbers and no service procedure appear in either BES878 book.
The counting rule for the comparison below: a brand counts as publishing an attribute when it appears in a manufacturer-hosted or national-distributor-hosted document reachable without a login. Retailer re-hosts do not count. Checked 13 August 2026 across Philips, Gaggia, Breville, De’Longhi and Rocket Espresso.
On that rule, Breville publishes no parts diagram and no service manual, and Gaggia is the only one of the five that publishes either.
What the shared 54mm figure does and does not establish
The BES878 and the BES870 are both documented at 54mm for portafilter and tamper, and neither book says a component from one fits the other.
Two machines documented at the same dimension is two machines documented at the same dimension. No Breville parts catalogue exists to settle interchangeability, because Breville publishes none, and no document from any of the five brands states cross-model compatibility.
One figure that separates nothing
Both BES878 manuals and the BES870 manual describe a low pressure pre-infusion stage and PID temperature control. Neither is a point of difference between the two machines, and both appear in the Barista Express books as well.