We got the Breville ESP6SXL as a gift from Crate and Barrel. I Put water in the tank put the tank in the machine and nothing but a loud vibration came out. I tried everything to get it to work and on one attempt noticed that a few small air bubbles come out when I dropped the tank in place. this means the air in the machine is creating a barrier that prevents the water from going into the machine. (priming process) I lifted the tank and pressed it down in and out for a while 20-30-50-100 times eventually drop by drop enough water gets into the machine to create a vaccum and this is what sucks the water from the tank into the machine. I suggest trying 20-30 times, make sure its heated up and turn it to brew, if it doesn't start working with 30 seconds, try another 20-30 times. I was going for a while and air bubbles kept coming out every time I dropped it back down. air bubbles were still coming out when it finally did start working so you don't have to get all the air out it just needs some water inside to create the proper vaccum. This will work, I tried calling Breville and was on hold forever... Good Luck Hope this helps Ken

Unplug it, take the water tank out, take the filter out, plug it in, put the tank back on like 5 times. Then pick the tank off an on like 50 times to get the water in to the grove of filling the tank and do that over one more time and it will work. The whole getting it going **** but keep trying everything and it works and it is the best coffee. I was about to whip it out the window and my husband tried everything I did and it started working, of course!! I called customer service and still haven't heard back from them. I am glad I got it working. 

Same problem here.

The machines work fine, they just don't prime very well.

With the resevoir in place, I lifted it up about 2cm and 'dropped' it about 8 times. Each time, air bubbles came up from the bottom. After doing this, the next time that I went through heating, ready to brew, brew process, it worked fine.

I was ready to box it up and send it back. I'm glad we didn't. The coffee is great.

I called Breville on this problem today (12/22).  Coffee maker would not move past "heating" cycle while trying to prime it.  Customer Service told me to unplug the coffee maker, remove the water tank. Plug the coffee maker back in, turn it on.   Unit said to replace water and I put the tank back on,  Open head, which I did and then closed it again.  The unit then indicated "heating"  I left it plugged in for just over an hour, when it finally vibrated and said ready to brew.  I pushed brew and water went down in the tank but no water released into the cup.  Machine indicated open head which I did again and then it said ready to brew and I pushed brew again and water went down in the tank but no water released into the cup.  The third time I went through that process, water finally released into the cup.  I went through 2 more cycles of just brewing hot water into the cup before I trusted it to work perfectly and then brewed two great cups of coffee.  It took along time and some frustration, but it was better than having to ship it back and wait for another one.  Hope this helps!!!  Customer Service said the literature about a 4 minute prime is nonsense and I would agree!!    

I had the same issue. The machine was making the right noises but no water was coming out. I followed the directions on this post and fiddled with the part that sucks in water to remove bubbles. That did not help. Then I gently shook the machine from side to side as per "Port's"suggestion and now it isn't making any noise at all. So I would just caution against the shaking advice.

Seems like a pretty common issue. I too had the same initial problem-that is, until I found this forum. The unit would not go through the initial priming process and was stuck on heating for what seemed to be an eternity. While I was waiting, I checked this forum and followed the "pick it up and shake the **** out of it post". This worked like a charm. Right after shaking it, the water in the reservoir dropped steadily during the "rattle" stage and then began to heat. It said brewing, but nothing came out, except for a little poof of air. I shook it again for good measure and re-ran the cycle. Voila! Coffee. For such a common problem, I am surprised that the company would not simply add this to their troubleshooting section in the manual......tisk tisk!

We had the same problem - it didn't run the prime cycle correctly, and we weren't getting any water out of the thing. No water was moving from the water tank to the machine

After following a couple of other reviews and dropping the thing a couple of times, we thought to "prime" where the water tank attaches to the machine. Poured a little bit of water directly into the little hole in the base of the machine. Put the full water tank back on the machine, ran it a couple of times more, and it worked.

It drew about an inch of water the first time we ran the brew cycle, and it gave about a half cup of water, then drew around another inch the second time, with about a cup of water coming out. Ran it one more time for good luck, and then ran a kcup through it.

Not sure whether it was the dropping or the "priming", but we were able to enjoy a good (full!) cup of coffee after only 2 hours of GRRRRR. :-)

I had this same problem - with 2 different machines. During the initial 'Prime', it sat at 'Heating' for over 30 minutes, then finally reported Ready. When I tried to brew, no water came out. I returned the machine and got another one. Same exact issue. It's easy to spot - after all the vibrating, the tank of water should be about half empty - if it didn't empty, no amount of 'Heating' is going to work.

I called Breville - they indicated it was a bad pump, and all they could do was replace the machine. Asked what the likelihood that I had 2 bad machines in a row - they indicated that if they were from the same 'batch', then it may well happen. Turns out they both were from batch 804 (look on the bottom of the machine - there is a number engraved in the metal to the left of the Breville sticker.

I took the second one back to the store, had the person unpack the new one - sure enough, it was from a different batch. It primed and heated in the 4 minutes the manual indicates.

So - in short, if this happens to you, return the machine and get one from a different batch. Apparently batch 804 sucks :)

After many failed attempts at getting past the heating cycle during the initial 'prime' step, I unplugged my machine removed the water filter then reseated the water resevoir and voila! Coffee!

I was freaking out... a $300 Christmas gift that was looking like a paperweight but finally it's working like a charm.

My suggestion is to remove the water filter and see if that helps getting it primed. Once it's primed, reinstall the water filter.