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Permalink Reply by Shadow on October 19, 2010 at 12:55pm

Yeah I cringe everytime I see somebody dinging the portafilter. Makes me want to knock them in the head with it. Serves no purpose from what I see and I have never done it. A few stray grounds on the sidewall aren't going to change a thing.

Peter didn't you say this was a new SO espresso of sorts? How light is the roast level?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on October 19, 2010 at 5:28pm

Temperature can cause this. A dirty group head can cause this kind of behavior too. How often do you back flush the machine and what is the temperature of the water coming out of the group head? If this is a hX unit then the flow restrictors could be clogging with scale and restricting the thermosyphon. Is there a water filter on the unit? How hard is your local water?

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milne on October 19, 2010 at 5:45pm

The roast was 462 degrees. I fiddled around a bit today. Tightened the group head a little bit, made a big difference. One of the issues is my grinder isnt as consistent as it needs to be. I will dig a hand grinder out and use that I think. I put the pf on a mill today and made a bottomless out of it. It should me a whole world of things. One was it was channeling some. Another was it was going too fast.

Anyways, these are the best 2 shot I came up with [sigh]. I was using a few different beans and roast levels. Granted the first one was real blonde. I let them go long too, just to see what they would do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBLuLuoAGOQ

Well water, excellent soft water. I put a thermometer in a shot glass. When the water came out of the head and hit the glass, it was 185. Backflush every day.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on October 19, 2010 at 8:01pm

Isn't well water notorious for being hard? Is your machine on a softening system? And 185 sounds pretty low to me. I would want to see 194-198 exit temp. You'd be surprised what 10 degrees will do. I don't think your water is working hard enough for you. A little more temp and you'll see a lot more action.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milne on October 19, 2010 at 8:07pm

Well water in a 3 mile circle here, [for all 50 people] is the best water one could find. No softener or filters needed. 275' of pure pea gravel and sand. Tell me exactly how to take the temp of the water. I will do it again tomorrow. Should I just hold it under the group head and let the water trickle down on it?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on October 19, 2010 at 9:58pm

Hi Peter - Where are you outside of Kalispell? I lived there for a bit. Born in Bozeman...

Have you taken hardness readings on your well water? Certain kinds of well water can taste great but wreak havok on the insides of an espresso machine. Scale builds up at joints and junctures where the water changes temperature rapidly, like inside the group head flow restrictors where the hot water from the heat exchanger meets the thermal mass of the grouphead. When these flow restrictors get clogged the group heads begin to cool down because the hot water from the hX (heat exchanger) doesn't flow as quickly and keep the group head up to temp. You can turn up the temp on your brew water marginally by turning up the P-stat to increase the temperature inside the steam boiler. If your hX's are working correctly you'll see good results from this but if they are clogged then you'll see almost no movement in water temp with a p-stat adjustment.

A good way to temp your water is the "Styrofoam Cup Method". Run some water into a small styrofoam cup, maybe two ounces, and take a reading with a digital thermometer. This number will be roughly 7-10 degrees less than the water in the boiler and 4-7 degrees lower than the water that first hits the coffee. It will give you some ballpark results but still usefull. You want the water that first hits the coffee to be 196+.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milne on October 19, 2010 at 10:33pm

Hey Mike,

I am 120 miles west of Kalispell, near Thompson Falls.

The water has been checked, no build up, scales or anything have ever been caused from it. The machine has been well maintained by a service guy. I spoke with him prior to buying this and he said it was a fine machine. I will check this tomorrow if time allows.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milne on October 20, 2010 at 7:55am

He actually has a business statewide doing repair work and has been for a lot of years. He does all the work for my sons shop as well. Very good reputation.

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