fanopants Senior Member Joined: 4 Oct 2012 Posts: 2 Location: CA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Thu Oct 4, 2012, 4:07pm Subject: PL41QE - Group Head Leak, 15-18s Pulls
I purchased my first espresso machine with grinder almost two years ago with significant advice obtained from this very forum. I went with the Lelit PL41QE and a Baratza Vario and have had a positive experience with both. In the past few months, however, I've had some issues with my Lelit. First, pull time for a double shot is 15-18s. I've tried different dosages (14g-18g) and moderately different grind settings and have been unable to rectify this. I thought that perhaps my tamping technique was off and ran a few experiments; with a heavy tamp, the machine would leak from the sides of the grouphead. The leaks are espresso, not water, which I gather from another thread here is a sign that the gasket is NOT an issue. Further, the leak appears to be getting worse; while it happened sporadically in the past, it happens more often than not now. I use freshly roasted beans (not TOO freshly roasted, within 1-3 weeks typically) from various roasters.
Any ideas as to what could be going wrong? What other information have I neglected to provide? Thanks!
Posted Fri Oct 5, 2012, 6:44am Subject: Re: PL41QE - Group Head Leak, 15-18s Pulls
Espresso leaking around the side of the portafilter is a sign that the filter isn't sealing against the group gasket properly. The maximum life of a gasket is usually only a year, so I suspect yours needs replacing, particularly if it's getting worse recently. Unless you mean the leak is further up the group, in which case it's probably a seal further up the group. I don't know enough to
On the shot time, I suspect that you aren't grinding fine enough yet. Some Varios need adjusting to go fine enough for espresso. Even with very coarse grounds, the shot time won't be much shorter than 10s, because of the flow rate and pressure rise on the vibe pump. There's a big range with my Gaggia that will give 15-18s after a hard tamp - maybe 4-5 out of the 40 coarse settings on my Preciso. A little finer than that, and the shots start getting into the right 25-30s range, but there's only a small range that is really good here (maybe 3 micro-settings).
You won't be able to build enough pressure with a leaky gasket to get a 25s shot, so that's the first thing to fix.
fanopants Senior Member Joined: 4 Oct 2012 Posts: 2 Location: CA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Fri Oct 12, 2012, 4:32pm Subject: Re: PL41QE - Group Head Leak, 15-18s Pulls
dyqik Said:
Espresso leaking around the side of the portafilter is a sign that the filter isn't sealing against the group gasket properly. The maximum life of a gasket is usually only a year, so I suspect yours needs replacing, particularly if it's getting worse recently. Unless you mean the leak is further up the group, in which case it's probably a seal further up the group. I don't know enough to
On the shot time, I suspect that you aren't grinding fine enough yet. Some Varios need adjusting to go fine enough for espresso. Even with very coarse grounds, the shot time won't be much shorter than 10s, because of the flow rate and pressure rise on the vibe pump. There's a big range with my Gaggia that will give 15-18s after a hard tamp - maybe 4-5 out of the 40 coarse settings on my Preciso. A little finer than that, and the shots start getting into the right 25-30s range, but there's only a small range that is really good here (maybe 3 micro-settings).
You won't be able to build enough pressure with a leaky gasket to get a 25s shot, so that's the first thing to fix.
Thanks for the help! A new gasket will be here on Monday, hopefully that does the trick!
Re: grind -- I've been grinding as fine as a Vario grinds. I'm grinding at about 1.47g/sec which, according to Baratza support, is finer than the machine's quoted output. I'll revisit my grind settings when the gasket arrives. I didn't document my first year or so of use with the machine, then the machine fell into disuse during relocation, and only in the past 6 months or so have I really tried to dial it in to no avail. But now...A GASKET!
Again, BIG THANKS to qualin and dyqik for the input. I'll report back next week with an update.
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