Extreme pressure gauge

[bugsy2126]

Hi again,

More coffee troubles ;D, however this time I have a purchased an EM0480 grinder as was suggested and am now using it in conjunction with the EM6910 espresso machine. The setting is on about 14-15. The problem is that after I have grinded my coffee and its in the puck, tamped down so the metal is about halfway with some pressure, when I press the double shot button, the pressure gauge needle goes RIGHt up to the red and then hangs around in the red area. Water fizzles out the back of the machine and a few drops of water seep into the mug. After about 6 seconds, a few measly drops of black coffee drop into the cup and then it finishes after about 15-20 seconds.

Now the coffee isnt the best but surely this shouldnt be happening :S

[Bill]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

Sounds like the grind is too fine. Try setting the grinder to a corser grind setting.

[bugsy2126]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

My initial grind on a setting of 11 yielded more coffee than when I tried the setting of 14. However when I set it to 14 I did pack more coffee in. I must be doing something dramatically wrong :S. The Sunbeam manual said setting 11-14 was for espressos. How can both sunbeam products differ so vastly?

[Bill]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

The Sunbeam manual said setting 11-14 was for espressos.

I have no experience with Sunbeam machines, however I wouldnt pay too much attention to what setting the manual says. Thats just a guide to get you in the ballpark. The ideal setting will vary between machines, will vary depending on what beans youre using, how old the beans are, etc, etc. Just keep adjusting the grinder in the direction that gives you more flow, until youre getting approx. 25-30ml per spout, ie. 50-60ml total from the double basket in around 25-30 sec.

[Thundergod]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

I havent used my Sunbeam grinder for some time but what you describe is as Bill suggested, the result of too fine a grind.
Packing in more coffee will also slow down the pour.

You need to be consistent and only change one thing at a time if you are going to solve a problem.

Grind the same amount of coffee and tamp consistently and only adjust the grind until you hit the right spot.

I will assume you are using fresh beans because its hard to clog the basket with stale ones.

You are using the single walled baskets I hope?

[A_M]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

I havent used my Sunbeam grinder for some time but what you describe is as Bill suggested, the result of too fine a grind.
Packing in more coffee will also slow down the pour.

You need to be consistent and only change one thing at a time if you are going to solve a problem.

Grind the same amount of coffee and tamp consistently and only adjust the grind until you hit the right spot.

I will assume you are using fresh beans because its hard to clog the basket with stale ones.

You are using the single walled baskets I hope?

I agree with TG (as we often do) and the other comments but would add a few extra pointers as it appears your new.

1: Read any number of posts on TAMPING and Grinding...

2: Keep the level constant and while wanting to up dose on the single floor baskets (Lots of holes and lots of light when you look through them) do not OVERDOSE.

3: The tamp and grind is a balance - These days I watch my level and grind very closely and use a lighter tamp than many others (8 - 10 kg)

4: See my post of checking pressure and that will explain how to test your system and get a feel for ROUGHLY where your theoretical sweet spot might be.. IT is a GUIDE, just like the numbers on the grinder...

As we will all say "You need to be consistent and only change one thing at a time if you are going to solve a problem. " and in some cases that might even mean YOU ;D

[bugsy2126]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

Thanks for the help guys. My coffee isnt the freshest as it is Gloria Jeans/Coles bought coffee but Id rather perfect the art on this coffee and then move up to fresh(er) coffee. Ill try adjusting the grind. I am using the single floor basket.

[A_M]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

Thanks for the help guys. My coffee isnt the freshest as it is Gloria Jeans/Coles bought coffee but Id rather perfect the art on this coffee and then move up to fresh(er) coffee. Ill try adjusting the grind. I am using the single floor basket.

Do not be fooled by using GJ beans etc...

While sometimes they can be Ok, at the end of the day you will have to go through the whole process again...

All be it, that you will now be more experienced - Grind and Tamp etc will both need to be reassessed.

[GregWormald]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

Practicing with stale beans will NOT show you how to get good coffee out of fresh beans--they react differently and will fill your grinder and machine with stale oils.

My advice--chuck the stale beans and buy fresh ("roasted on" date no more than a couple of weeks ago, and stored in opaque one-way valve bags).

Id be surprised if you couldnt get good coffee in less than half-a-dozen tries.

Greg

[L_pena]

Re: Extreme pressure gauge

Hey there,
Fine tuning and leaning how to extract a good coffee is one of those things that cannot be done with anything else than the fresh coffee, you could go through 2kg worth of old beans and learn nothing, except knowing that they are old beans. you will end up having to relearn your grind/dose & tamp technic all over again when using fresh coffee. it is frustrating and confusing, trust me Ive been there. Start with fresh beans and youll be smiling from ear to ear in no time.

The em0480 was my first grinder (served me very well), there are a few annoying bits about the grinder but you learn to live with it. Others have pointed this out but I have to say it again, dont worry about the grind setting numbers on the dial they are all slightly off. Just use them as a reference point once you get a good extraction, and generally you will only moving 1 or 2 click either way when dialing in a given bean. Using old beans will give you a different reference point and give you a wider reference point to work with, not a good thing at all. [smiley=huh.gif]

I like rushing into everything so my biggest learning curve was to learn to deal with a problem in a methodical way. Isolate a predicted problem and change only ONE variable at a time, I still like to rush from time to time but getting better at changing only one variable now.


hope this helps,
Rancho.