slystav Senior Member Joined: 8 Nov 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Newcastle, UK Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: La Pavoni Pro 1997 Grinder: Russell Hobbs Burr
Posted Tue Nov 8, 2005, 9:02am Subject: La Pavoni Pro Disaster
Hi everyone, Hoping you can help as I just received my second hand La Pavoni Pro (1997) yesterday and was really disappointed. Being excited to give it a go I didnt give it a full strip down and clean the internals (such as descaling) as I'd originally intended to do out of the box. I did clean the group and screen and scrubbed some stains off the metalwork and boiler cap with an old toothbrush with slightly soapy hot water to reduce the chances of spoiling my coffee on my first attempt.
It boiled up first time and I let it get up to almost 1 bar before I opened the steam valve as I was busy grinding some beans I'd just bought. I ran some water through the PF to clean it and pulled my first shot. It was the finest grind my (new) Russell Hobbs will go to without modification and I tamped only a medium amount. It came out really watery and having presoaked it started dripping through quite quickly before I pulled. The coffee came out with hardly any crema at all and was an awful muddy brown colour (The beans were Old Brown Java and looked medium brown and quite dry. I was told it was 'aged' or something but up until now I've only used Breda beans at work to compare it to).
My second shot had pressure on the pull where my first shot had none. I had tamped harder the second time round. Both times I used the double basket and filled to about 5mm from the top. It came out a lot better and some crema (but still hardly any) formed. After a few attempts, including turning off the boiler between shots and using the cold cloth technique (they get HOT!) I was still disappointed as, even though I tamped as hard as the (best) second shot all of them came out very watery.
When I lift the lever to pull a double shot, does it go all the way up? I tried pumping it to different heights and it was like the water just poured straight through and filled the cup with water instead of coffee. I thought, maybe pulling the lever up had created a pressure difference and sucked the coffee up out of the filter and 'expanded' it so the puck was not as dense any more? On the last shot when I ran out of coffee and didnt want to waste any more I used a single shot in the double basket tamped hard and the water just flowed straight through so it ended up being thrown away.
I tried frothing milk in the same session two or three times with absolutely no success. Every time I could not make any foam. The milk got very hot even though the nozzle was right on the surface of the milk and not pushed in at all. I think I used quite a lot of milk for the size of jug, which I am told is the best way to keep the milk cool. I waited until after the shot had been pulled and the gauge was at 1 bar to open the steam valve. I only had to open it about halfway to receive a good quantity of steam but it did nothing. The valve takes a long time to open all the way, is it really worth the wait when it looks like there isn't much more pressure to gain? The best froth I managed and the best shot I managed combined to make what was like an instant coffee that had just been shaken up a bit so it was a bit frothy. I added some sugar and had a few sips then threw it away.
When I came to knock out the filter I realised how hard it would be with a scalding hot filter and no means of retention like a spring clip, etc. Any tips? I cant really afford more baskets and I dont like the idea of pre-tamping baskets before they are loaded into the PF, as some people have suggested. Could I perhaps buy a modified basket or a spring retention clip from another brand of PF? I'm sure you know the type.
I used to use a Wega 3 group commercial machine with matching grinder, doser and excellent steam facility at my last place of work and think I developed quite high standards because of the capabilities of the machine. Are my expectations too hight or do I just have a problem? Is it the coffee, blend, tamp, grind or otherwise? Please help if you have any idea, it is little more than a really expensive ornament otherwise. Make it worth all that dirty crockery and coffee grounds splattered everywhere!
Posted Tue Nov 8, 2005, 10:23am Subject: Re: La Pavoni Pro Disaster
Slystav,
Lever machines have a different learning curve than machines like the Wega. The same things that affect espresso quality in automatics affect the quality in lever machines. But it seems more pronounced.
The lever machines can deliver excellent espresso, but they need more patience and are fussier than automatics. Try searching the archives here for La Pavoni and check out these websites:
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