aesebu55 Senior Member Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Alabama Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 3:21pm Subject: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
I bought a Rancilio Sylvia off of eBay and I just got it in. My first thought was "this thing is broke" but I just don't want to believe it, so I am going to post this and hopefully I will find out what the problem is. First I turn the power on and put water in it. I am using the double basket. What I do is fill it to the top with loose coffee. I then tamp it one time, tap the side and then tamp it hard. After that I am securing the porta filter. The next thing I do is wait for the orange light to go off and then I press the coffee button. When I press it, the espresso starts coming out in less than a second, and it comes out really fast. Much faster than I have ever seen any espresso come out of other machines. When I drink the espresso, it tastes watered down and it isn't very hot at all.
Second problem is the steam wand. Whenever I use it, it shoots out a lot of water before it actually starts producing steam. When I use it I am following the instructions, or as best as I understand them. I am going to go play with it some more, but this thing seems broke, but it is likely just me, since I read on here that these machines are "finicky".
Yann Senior Member Joined: 1 Dec 2002 Posts: 225 Location: Wellington (New Zealand) Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: La Marzocco GS/3 Grinder: Mazzer Kony-E
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 3:34pm Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
I wouldn't worry, I don't think it's broken.
First thing is, do you have a good grinder, ie a burr grinder. I think you said you just filled the double basket up with "loose coffee". Where did you get this coffee from? Is it store purchased pre-ground? If so, then you will definitely need to get yourself a grinder. Without it, the Silvia is pretty useless, and the shot will continue to come out as it has. You need to be able to grind coffee finely enough so that it creates some resistence to the water trying to get through, and in so doing, be able to extract the essense of the coffee.
The steam wand. With pretty much all machines, there will be a bit of water in the wand before you steam. You just need to clear this out into the tray or more likely, into a cup or a spare frothing jug. You need to clear it so that the steam comes out without any water. This should only take a few seconds. Otherwise, a suggestion when using the steam, is to not wait until the light goes out, but to start steaming before this, so that the boiler is continually heating so you can attain a maximum of steaming power for a longer time. I usually wait around 40 seconds or so after I flip the steam switch, but it may vary. So long as it's before the light goes out anyway.
But first thing will definitely be to get a quality grinder. If you have one, then I suggest grinder finer so that there is resistence to the water. For me, there was usually around a 5 second or so wait until coffee came out, but this does vary.
I'm sure others will have better advice to give, but that's a start!
All the best on your new purchase though. I wouldn't be alarmed at this false start as it seems, as with a bit of practice, the Silvia will give you great espressos and coffees :)
yann :)
*Edit* Just a side note as well, don't forget to give your machine a decent amount of time to heat up all the elements and boilers etc inside. I usually allow at least 30 mins, else it'll have a detrimental effect on the quality of what you are trying to produce.
Also, try reading up at Mark P's old Silvia pages here, or Randy G's ongoing Silvia pages here.
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 3:47pm Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
For the espresso coming out in less than a second problem, it's not a problem w/ Silvia, it's a problem with your coffee. If you're using whole bean, grind finer. If you're using pre-ground, go get some whole bean and a grinder :) But if you can't afford a grinder just yet and are having your coffee ground at a shop, have them grind you some more, MUCH finer. It sounds like you're using coffee ground coarse enough for drip or press pot, and that just won't provide any extraction or pressure for Silvia to push against. Extracting espresso from canned Chock Full O' Nuts just isn't possible, which is why you so often see people posting that the grinder is almost as important as the espresso machine. I'd put the Solis Maestro or Innova Conical as the minimum companion for Silvia.
If you've already got the coffee as finely ground as you can wrangle, you may get a benefit by trying the following:
Fill the portafilter 3/4ths of the way.
Gently tap the spouts downward onto the counter. This should settle the grounds, similar to cereal settling in the box "during shipment".
OVER-fill the portafilter so there's a mound of coffee on top.
With your little finger or a straight edge (spoon handle, grinder brush handle, business card), level off the mound of coffee so that you have a smooth, even surface, level with the top of the filter basket, with no nooks or crannies visible in the top of the coffee. Sweep off any extra coffee that isn't lying flat.
Tamp straight down, as hard as you can manage. If your feet come off the floor, that's just about hard enough.
Lock, load, and brew.
For the second problem with your steam, that's standard on Silvia. You need to turn on the steam thermostat and wait for the light to go off. As soon as it does, open the steam valve and bleed off the water until you get mostly steam. Close the steam valve again and wait 60 seconds or so, then open it up again and it should 'spit' some more water. After this, close the steam valve again and wait another 60 seconds or so. Now, you can open the wand and nothing but fairly 'dry' steam should come out. You'll have to do this every time you switch from brewing espresso to steaming milk, which is part of the reason why it takes 5 minutes or more to make a cappa on Silvia.
Yann Senior Member Joined: 1 Dec 2002 Posts: 225 Location: Wellington (New Zealand) Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: La Marzocco GS/3 Grinder: Mazzer Kony-E
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 4:10pm Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
ski Said:
You need to turn on the steam thermostat and wait for the light to go off. As soon as it does, open the steam valve and bleed off the water until you get mostly steam. Close the steam valve again and wait 60 seconds or so, then open it up again and it should 'spit' some more water. After this, close the steam valve again and wait another 60 seconds or so. Now, you can open the wand and nothing but fairly 'dry' steam should come out. You'll have to do this every time you switch from brewing espresso to steaming milk, which is part of the reason why it takes 5 minutes or more to make a cappa on Silvia.
Eek :) I never went through that process. I always just flicked the steam switch as soon as my shot was done, waited around 40 - 60 seconds, but before the light went out, bled the steam valve of water into a milk pitcher until dry steam came out, the proceeded to steam my milk. Always got nice microfoam which was used for latte art and stuff. Pretty much it was exactly the same process that Mark illustrates in his Cheating Miss Silvia page. I think getting a latte or a cappa took less than 3 mins from the time I flicked the brew switch. I suppose you would of course get dryer steam with the longer method, but I was never that patient :)
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 4:17pm Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
Well, now you know why I never bothered making many cappas on Silvia :). Much easier on the TEA. Just open the steam valve for about 5 seconds, close it, you're ready to go.
If the machine isn't heating the water enough, that's a problem. Get a styrofoam cup, stick it under the group, stick a stem thermometer in the side and fill it up at the same 'light off' point like when pulling a shot. Do it a few times after the machine has had ~30 minutes warm-up, and post your results. You'll want to see results near boiling temp. If it is cold, the t-stat might be the problem, which would be cheap to fix and easy; or it could mean more serious stuff.. Hope not! tom:)
aesebu55 Senior Member Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Alabama Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Sep 16, 2004, 7:27pm Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
Thanks so much to everyone. I ground my coffee much finer and that gave me much better espresso. Also, I filled the resevior with water and just played a little bit. I tried different things until I figured out how to get the espresso hot and how to get the water out of the steam wand to produce nice steam. I was able to make some decent espresso, but I know once I get the hang of the machine then it will just keep getting better.
drsmith Senior Member Joined: 8 May 2004 Posts: 178 Location: ny Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Mr Coffee Grinder: Crank by hand Vac Pot: n/a Drip: Bunn Roaster: Hearthware prec.; Whirley...
Posted Mon Sep 20, 2004, 3:04am Subject: Re: Just got a Sylvia, HELP!
Maybe you aren't preheating the group/portafilter/cup?
I don't have a Sylvia, but rather a much cheaper machine. I always allow the machine to fully come to temperature with the portafilter in the machine. I fill the filterbasket seperately while the machine is warming up.
Once warmed up, I'll run the machine until the heating light comes on without the filter basket in the portafilter. This will run hot water through the portafilter, heating it up the rest of the way, and leave about 3 oz of hot water in my china cup so the cup is warmed up as well.
Dump the water in the cup out, load the filter basket into the machine, and get the shot. Never had a problem with cold espresso this way. If I don't do this, I get the cold espresso you've described.
As for the watered down aspect - the other comments are right on. You should get only 2oz of espresso over the course of a 23-25 second brewing cycle. If you're getting more espresso than that, you need to grind finer, tamp harder.
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