I traded my 820 for a 770. The 770 is a bit smaller, but has embroidery (which I didn’t have with the 820). The feet work for either, but the bobbins are different. The 770 has the BSR and knee lift. And I have tons of the big cones of thread that don’t fit on the 770. So apparently I need to get a separate standing thread holder (not Bernina) so I can use those. You could check out the 570 - my friend got that for her portable machine. It has the knee lift and BSR.

sorry, I see you’ve already checked out the 570 - and I know what you’re saying about the cost of the Bernina accessories!

I was given the 820 by my friend who loves Berninas but she did not click with the 820 . She's replaced it with the 760? the 770 without embroidery as she has a different brand of embroidery machine because she wanted something specific that brand had. She was the second owner of the machine and got it as a good deal by the original owner who was another Bernina fan who just hated it! My friend paid about half price for the machine, which was more than the trade-in the dealer offered the original owner. Lol, everyone is different and the 820 was not a popular model it has been discontinued and there are a lot of unhappy people who seem to have gotten lemon machines. She used it for several years and said it was fussy about threads, since she does do fancy things and I just quilt, I haven't had the problems she had.

Friend is very happy with the 760 and I've had the 820 in heavy use for the last year. For the most part we are doing well together but recently it's giving me an error message that I have responded to correctly. I can sew roughly 10-12 stitches, less than two inches and the error message comes up. My seam is looking lovely, everything is fine and I press the error message sew my 10-12 stitches and again it pops up. Everything sews perfect for those 10-12 stitches. I've done everything that can be done several times, needle and bobbin and thread changing, resetting the computer, basic on/off. It worked fine the night before and now it doesn't... So it's time for a servicing any way and I have my cheapo portable brother up right now.

There are things I absolutely love about the 820. The huge throat space and the lighting are terrific. Overall, it's easy to use and I've quickly grown attached to the knee lift and to stopping with the needle down by my foot control. With my vision issues, I have a hard time reading the buttons and mostly I just use the thread cut one so I know where that is! (nicely placed btw) I've had no problems with the auto needle threader, again with my vision issues that's a wonderful thing.

Now, I don't do machine embroidery but I have friends that do, and as a feature it would be important to me to be able to buy prewound bobbins. Can't do that with the 820/830. I've been wanting to try Glide thread for my bobbin and machine quilting but mostly what I find around here is prewound bobbins and it is not L, M, or 15 so haven't been able to try. I got a cone of Superior So Fine on sale and was getting nice results with that before the stitch an inch issue came up.

iceblossom; one of the first things to check for short stiching space and then message is: thread in the race area and the thread cutter. There are places in the race that are impossible to get to so a cleaning at the dealers with their cleaning charge ($125+ here) is required.

That's what I'm hoping for, petthefabric! This picture is actually showing issues in the take up area right by the spool area, and not the usual "you are not threaded" message that some people have to resolve by taking off the front panel. There is no bunching of the stitching or issues with the sewn seam, I have a nice long sample showing different threads and needles, but even with the settings the same it isn't the exact same number of stitches it's just very close like something going through an not quite exact cycle. I've also tried the various tricks like letting the spool be on the floor and holding the tension, as well as different threads and positions with both the spools and the pole thing. It is one of the known issues and is most likely something I just can't get to.

Machine has been in hard use this past year, I'm not opposed to the servicing, would like it to be happy again. I've been very happy with the BSR and the ease of quilting up to twin sized projects so far. I do not believe this to be one of the lemon machines, it has been well taken care of and serviced and usable up to now so this is just part of it's care -- I hope!

I own a Bernina 830, 880, they use the same bobbin. I also own a 590 and 790, they use the same bobbin. I understand the Bernina 4 series uses the same bobbin as the 5 and 7 series. The 4,5, and 7 series bobbins hold more thread than the 8 series. The feet for these machines are interchangeable. My 5,7 and 8 series all have the BSR and I don’t know if the 4 series has BSR. They also have the dual feed feature that I use all the time, again I’m not sure about the 4 series.

Double check about the feet and find out what makes the feet different. When I bought my granddaughter's machine they said the feet were not the same but they kind of are. Her feet don't fit on my machine but my feet fit on her machine.

Wow, I have an older Activa Bernina that have given me no problems. Thank The Good Lord. I thought Bernina's were made to be goprod machines without problems and last a long time. Sorry your having so many issues IceBlossom, with your machine.

Why oh why did Bernina duplicate model numbers?

Looks like my dream will be staying at that!

For now, this all means I won't be doing anything and will try to persuade myself to be happy
with the small one I have.

But who am I kidding? :)
I know I will not be ... but will put the idea on hold and re-consider in the new year.
Chances are that when the time comes, it will be a Janome, not a Bernina.

QuiltE, I don't want to stir up controversy but I go to a lot of retreats and most of the ladies who are having machine-acting-up-issues are using Janome it seems. There were 2 this weekend, both with bobbin case/hook area problems...very noisy when they could get them to work. This is just my experience.