Our two year old LaMarzocco GB/5 2EE, is giving us trouble. The 2 groups are not brewing at the same rate. It makes it near impossible to dial in a perfect grind setting when one side consistently pulls faster than the other. It can vary as much as 5-10 seconds brew time between groups. Watching the pressure gauge, both sides appear to be running at about 10 bars of pressure. The faster side might be running slightly under 10, maybe 9.8 bars. Could that have anything to do with it? But, wouldn't lower pressure mean a slower shot? Or is it something else?
I'm an experienced barista and the trainer for my company and I'm trying to understand more about how machines actually function and how to troubleshoot such problems. It is maddening to work on this machine and have such differences between shot to shot. I feel confident that the problem is not packing, dosing or tamping related, i.e, it's not channeling that's creating the fast shot. I have been seeing some muddy pucks though. We've had technicians look at the machine and they cannot accurately diagnose the problem either.
Has anyone else encountered such an issue? On a GB/5 or any other machine? What can be causing this and how can we fix it? Thanks for your insights.
Just want to serve the best shot possible,
LL
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