Heating up · Sage / Breville Barista Express
Sage / Breville Barista Express: POWER button light flashing after you switch on
The machine is heating. A pumping sound while it heats is normal.
- Which light
- Main button or power light
- Colour
- Colour not named by the maker
- Steady or flashing
- Flashing or blinking
What Sage / Breville says to do
- Wait: when it reaches operating temperature the POWER light stops flashing and all the button lights come on.
- If instead the STEAM/HOT WATER light flashes at switch-on and the machine does not heat, the steam dial is not at STANDBY: turn it to STANDBY and heating starts.
From the Barista Express® — Instruction Book: Functions, Care & Cleaning (Cleaning cycle, Descaling) and Troubleshooting and the Barista Express™ BES875 / SES875 — User Guide: Functions, Care & Cleaning and Troubleshooting. This is the Barista Express’s pattern; another Sage / Breville machine may use the same light for something else — check the manual for your model.
Other Sage / Breville Barista Express lights
Heating up on other machines
The same need shows up as a different light on each machine — which is why a light cannot be read without the machine.
Sources
Every line on this page comes from Sage / Breville’s own documents, read on the date shown. Nothing is taken from third-party manual sites.
- Breville: the Barista Express® — Instruction Book: Functions, Care & Cleaning (Cleaning cycle, Descaling) and Troubleshooting — Barista Express BES870, US and Canada instruction book (V23 edition). assets.breville.com Checked 2026-09-29.
- Sage: the Barista Express™ BES875 / SES875 — User Guide: Functions, Care & Cleaning and Troubleshooting — Barista Express SES875, UK user guide (UG2 A25 edition). assets.sageappliances.com Checked 2026-09-29.