moonhead Senior Member Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Posts: 9 Location: New York, NY Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Innova SS Conical Drip: Miss It Sometimes... Roaster: Hearthware, Z&D On Its Way
Posted Sun Aug 10, 2003, 4:08pm Subject: Help! Silvia Defective? Choking...Bleeding...Spilling...??
Hello all - I just got my Silvia a week ago, and have been extremely happy! Up until the past few days, that is, when I have had very strange things happening while trying to make my elixer. (not all the time, but once every 3-4 tries, I get this disaster)
Basically, when I press the brew button... 1) nothing comes out for 2-4 seconds 2) then bitter espresso comes out for about 3-6 seconds 3) then I hear this bubbling sound - and the espresso that comes out of the PF starts gurgling... 4) THEN.. a few seconds later, the espresso starts leaking out of the PF/grouphead towards the PF handle and leaks all over the place. (Is this what people refer to as "choking" the silvia?)
The result? After ~10-14 seconds after pressing the brew button, a huge mess + some really really nasty bitter espresso with zero crema.
5) Shots tried after this, with a very light tamp and a cleaning of the grouphead (with brush, not water) produce the same result. Waiting a while (several minutes?) and trying again is okay. (Does this make sense???)
Variables that I have isolated: 1) Tamping too hard? I have a cheap burr grinder for now and thus I have been having a hard time getting the 25 second 3 oz double shot. it's more like a 20 second 4 oz double shot. So - I have been trying to tamp at around 40-50 lbs instead of the 30 lbs to try to get near the 25 second shot... but this seems (?) to cause the problem above. (I know, I know - get a rocky or something... yes, I will eventually, but for now, this "not fine enough" grinder will have to do) 2) Too much pressure buildup? I tried keeping the steam button on for a while (until the light goes off) and during the espresso shot pull. Does this have any effect? 3) Defective? Will call WLL tomorrow to ask, but... I figure it is just my poor technique??
4) Machine on too long before starting the shot? is an hour or two too long for the machine to have been on?
All of the above trouble shooting has been confounded because once I get a real bad experience (like mentioned above with espresso spewing everywhere), the grouphead gets really gritted up with coffee grinds.. REAL bad. So I have to clean it and chunks of coffee grind fall out. The puck has not maintained its shape, but is all mishappen, and messed up looking (like the water crashed through the puck harder than usual, and the espresso jumped up into the grouphead, clogging it up..etc..?) And then, like I mentioned above, the following results are usually equally bad, even if I use a light tamp and the steam button is off. ??? I am so confused.... Any help would be much appreciated.
First of all do not turn on the steam button while pulling a shot. That is creating more pressure and bad results. I also suspect your grind is too coarse and uneven so the various tamp pressures produce inconsistant results. Silvia is a great machine and will reward proper technique. So trun off the steam and get a proper grinder asap. As you will undoubtedly hear a good grinder can make a poor machine produce good shots but the converse is not true. So until you add that very important element your results will be frustrating. Sorry to be a bearer of bad tidings but that has been our experience.
Thanks a lot~ I just talked to WLL, and they said that turning on the steam valve prior to and while brewing basically heated up the water in the boiler to steaming temperature. Since there is only one boiler,the water coming through the PF was nearly steaming and of course way too hot, which was burning the coffee. seems so logical now... oh well. thanks for the help!
(And.... yes, I will get a new grinder... trying to decide between the old solis maestro and the rocky doserless or doser grinders)
As others have pointed out, the problem likely lies with your cheap burr grinder. I have some experience with these. What typically happens is the combination of lots of plastic, a high speed motor and poorly cut milling disks causes two related problems:
The grind is uneven resulting in some larger pieces and lots of dust.
The plastic and high speed motor causes lots of static electricity which (amongst other things) causes the finer dust to build up in the shute. This is made worse by high humidity and oily coffee.
What happens is periodically the "hunk" of packed coffee dust comes loose from the shute. This will clog the portafilter screen and choke the machine. If you are using a doser, the dust might get distributed to several shots. One way to check this is to dump the puck out after one of these disasters and then feel the inside of the basket. If it feels "prickly" like it needs a shave, that is probably a bunch of really small coffee slivers wedged in the backet holes.
To get around this, you can dial in your grinder to a sufficiently fine grind and religiously grind only one shot (a double at most) at a time. Between shots, clean the shute (I find the back of a teaspoon works pretty well...possibly a chopstick) and discard the dust. If you can't bear to waste coffee (we understand!), you can make the grind a hair courser and scoop the dust onto the top of the basket before tamping. If you tamp down the grounds properly and the basket is full, this isn't typically a problem. Either way, don't let the shute build up with sticky coffee dust.
Beyond this, work on a good anal-retentive ritual. For a single boiler machine I recommend:
Turn on the machine and run enough water to assure the boiler is full.
Heat for 30 minutes with the portafilter (loosely) attached.
Grind your coffee.
Draw a blank shot or two.
Pack and tamp.
Attach the portafilter and wait for the boiler to come up to temperature. I propose you wait until the boiler light has been off for an additional 30 seconds or so.
Draw your shot paying attention to timing and volume. Stop at 30 seconds or 2.5 ounces (for a double) whichever comes first. A 4 ounce double will be nasty (IMHO)!
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