Zinda

I've heard a variety of comments that Bernina will not be supporting the 830 in the near future and are offering a $5000 trade in. Can anyone shed light on this situation? When is Bernina coming out with a new top end sewing machine?

Onebyone

That's not good. I know many who are still paying on their 830 machine. It's not that old of a machine.

Iceblossom

There is the old 830 and the new 830. My friend gave me her new 820 because while she loves Berninas she wasn't clicking with this machine and she replaced it with a 770.

I didn't find anything about discontinuing support, but I did find that there is a special trade-in promotion going on now:
https://www.bernina.com/en-US/Promotions-US

The 820 (the 830 without the embroidery) was not well received and pretty quickly discontinued. Many bad reviews, some of the machines seemed to have more mechanical problems which mine doesn't have. I'm having a great time with it, but I'm not dealing with fancy threads as my friend was.

Tartan

​Some of them are wonderful and others not so good. $5000 doesn’t seem to be a lot considering what they cost. I think part of the problems is the more features, the more that can go wrong.

quiltedsunshine

The new 830 was a learning experiment that flopped. A lot of good came out of it, but the machine needed 20 parts replaced, and they had to turn the hook 30 degrees. They learned how to make the new Bernina jumbo hook, from the experiments done with the 830. I've heard you can buy an 830 for about $2,500 on ebay. But they really can't compare to the 740, 770 and 790, which is a much better machine. The 880 is pretty good, but is so over-engineered, you've got to have a degree in physics to run the thing. The 8 Series bobbin is smaller than the jumbo bobbin in the 7 Series. Where I work, we sold 3 830s and it was a disaster. If you came into my store, I wouldn't sell you an 8 Series machine. We've had customers from other stores asking if we can fix the 830, and they've already been back to Bernina and they couldn't/wouldn't fix them. So there's a kind of re-call on them. I'd take a 790 over an 880 any day!

petthefabric

When I got a 770, the dealer wouldn't even take a trade in on the 830. Yes, I think they were a disaster and Bernina took a hit in reputation with that lemon. There's laws on car lemons. But $5000 doesn't sound like they stand behind they're product.

QuiltE

Quilted Sunshine ... and All Others ....
Knowing that the 820 and 830 were sister machines, were the faults totally with the 830?
Or is the 820 as much of a problem child?

Yes, I have an 820.
Love the larger 820 bobbin, but OMG an even larger one with a 770 ... can't help but love that!

Do the 7-series use the same feet as the 820?

sewbizgirl

I still have my old 830 Record from 1974. It's an awesome, reliable, all mechanical machine. I was surprised when they gave the same number/name to a newer model! I love my old Bernina but gave up on the newer ones when they became insanely expensive and complicated. Plus... they are ugly. Sorry to hear the new 830s were lemons.

bearisgray

Never could understand why Bernina would give the same numbers to a newer line of machines - seemed like a recipe for confusion.

FWLover

I have an 880 and love it so much I went ahead and upgraded it to a Plus. I also have the embroidery module for it. Don’t understand the antipathy toward it.