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Well the Botticelli has found its new home

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  • TC
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Originally posted by DavidR link=1201913985/15#23 date=1209364262
    Shannon,

    Fellow Botticelli owner here...I suffer from much of the same grief you do. Its still very hit-and-miss after 4 years of ownership, particularly coffee extraction speed (even with a Rocky grinder and consistently fresh beans).

    Milk frothing is also very irregular, with perfect foam/froth somewhat elusive.

    Best of luck with it. There are a few other Botticelli owners who seem to have great success - I still wish Id plonked down the extra coin and got the Giotto.
    Hi David,

    The "Bott" is a very good machine. It just needs a little Silvia style TLC. FWIW, Jim of PIDkits can provide a variation on the Silvia kit which turns the Bott into a much tamer beast

    Might be worth considering.

    Chris

    Leave a comment:


  • DavidR
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Shannon,

    Fellow Botticelli owner here...I suffer from much of the same grief you do. Its still very hit-and-miss after 4 years of ownership, particularly coffee extraction speed (even with a Rocky grinder and consistently fresh beans).

    Milk frothing is also very irregular, with perfect foam/froth somewhat elusive.

    Best of luck with it. There are a few other Botticelli owners who seem to have great success - I still wish Id plonked down the extra coin and got the Giotto.

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Time for a Botticelli update I think........

    Things are going well at the moment, I am able to pull some reasonably consistant shots which is good.
    I am finding the experience really fun - but still challenging, especially as I have made the swap to single basket to cut down a bit. Man you need to get your tamp just right to avoid the channelling disaster dont you!!!!

    Milk is still very much hit and miss, I am yet to pour a half decent rosetta, but for the moment I am OK with this as at the end of the day a nice rosetta is just icing on the cake. I do firmly believe that good art does increase the overall coffee experience, but for the moment a good extraction and flavour will suffice - and as many have said here before, one day it will just click and all will be good in latte art world.

    A couple of weeks ago I was able to use some gift vouchers to grab 4 cap cups that I am quite happy with - not exactly NP but I like them, and more to the point Allison does as well. These are being used almost soley at the moment and are good as they are more to the correct size of a cap cup (also meaning that a single shot does not get lost in the milk as well)

    I am still struggling with shots seemingly extracting at the correct pace, but blonding occurring early, not sure how to go about fixing this, but nedd to work on grind and tamp some more, so that might fix it up a bit.

    Anyhoo, onwards and upwards I go. I am going to have to invest in some decaf soon so that I can drink more and get techniques right without the nasty side effects that have been plaging me of late since upping my coffee intake.

    The story will continue.......

    Leave a comment:


  • Thundergod
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Now thats funny.

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    OK so heres a funny story for us

    I finish my last post here and decide to look for some nice looking cups to show Alli just in case she is asked by her boss to show the sort of thing Im after.

    All is well, when she says - "why havent you been using our small coffee cups?"
    Me: Our SMALL coffee cups? WHAT small coffee cups?!?
    Alli: The ones we got with the dinnerset

    It seems that when we bought our dinnerset some 10 years ago we had some nice, but a little delicate cups that we didnt really use. After a couple of months they were put away into a big tupperware container and stored in the back of the cupboard as noone was using them - naturally when instant coffee is the pinnicle of all coffee, you want a BIG mug to put it in.

    So I grab them out to have a gander -
    just over 200ml, fit nicely under the Bott without the need to take any spouts off the PF or remove the drip tray for clearance, and other than having an incredibly square base, are a pretty nice sort of cup

    So lets recap - under a week ago, I couldnt scrape together a decent cup and was even commandeering my 5yo daughters peter rabbit cup as it was a good size!, then TG graciously offers me a couple of his cups, I get the go ahead to use some DJ gift vouchers we received for some cups, my wifes boss decides to thank me for doing some photoshop work by buying me some cups, and now I find I have 8 at home begging to be used what a turnaround eh. And to top it off, Alli tells me one of the main reasons she wanted this dinnerset was for the cups and she has always been a bit bummed out that we did not use them - WOOHOO something about coffee that she might now like

    Trinity is also happy, she has already said to me - so does that mean you wont be using MY cup anymore daddy?? ;D

    Anyhoo, the shots are still hit and miss, but at least they will taste bad in some half decent cups.........

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Thanks again for the kind offer TG

    At the moment I just cant cope with all this good will being splashed around - it is so cool.

    I will still say no to the offer though - only because I have just this week done some photoshopping for my wifes boss and he is going to thank me by buying me some cap cups which means that I will go from nothing in the way of proper cups to 2 sets (when I go to DJs with the vouchers) in the space of a week.

    If I took you up on your offer I would feel incredibly greedy, when there are probably others out there with less than I.

    Thank you again though for your kindness in offering up something so nice.

    Leave a comment:


  • Thundergod
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    My offer of the cap cups still stands Shannon.
    See them in this thread:
    http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1163807810/

    Leave a comment:


  • Lizzie
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    good stuff, Shannon!
    just keep playing with the grind... if your tamp and method is consistent, then the grind ( and its reaction to humidity and age of the beans) is going to be your adjustment priority.

    had to re-grind my first one this morning... it was quite cool here at 6AM and the humidity from my shower and the kettles we boiled for the early morning tea hung around a bit... the first shot was drinkable, but i knew i can do better so i did it again, and had a beautiful cup of bliss.

    cheers,
    L

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    We have SUCCESS!!!

    I made some OK coffees over the weekend. Still a bit hard to get it just right, but at least I am now in the ball park.

    And the reason behind my success.......... see the picture, it was the only one that was about correct size for a proper cap. The taste was soo much better than when I make it out of my current mugs.
    Feels kind of funny, but lets face it Id drink out of a wine glass if it tastes good.

    The quest continues.......

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Originally posted by Thundergod link=1201913985/0#14 date=1202447042
    Shannon,
    My internet is on the blink atm so Ill make this quick.
    If you can hang out til Im back online we can discuss my giving you some cap cups.
    Man this place is so generous!!! - thanks so much for your offer TG

    As a family we have been given some David Jones vouchers for christmas and birthdays over the last month, and Allison has given me the go ahead to use some of that money to buy a set of cap cups.
    I love gift vouchers, you get to spend your birthday presents on things that you really would like from people who might not really know what you really like.

    So thanks for the great offer TG, but I would now feel bad accepting some cups when I am about to grab some myself.

    I am about to do some searching for what to look for in a cup (height, weight, diameter etc).

    Right, the Bott is now sufficiently warm for my first in the many rounds of coffees today - all in the name of progress of course

    On with the show..........

    Leave a comment:


  • Thundergod
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Shannon,
    My internet is on the blink atm so Ill make this quick.
    If you can hang out til Im back online we can discuss my giving you some cap cups.

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Cheers again Lis
    Llama must have also replaces the tri hole tip as this only has 2 holes - are you starting to realise how slow the SB was ;D ;D - Im not overly worried about any of these things, its just without having a manual, or having used a machine of this calabre before I wanted to make sure it was only owner inexperience and learning curve as opposed to something that I could tweak of fix on the machine.
    In regards to the steam knob slipping - I havent experience this yet. I dont think this is the leak though as I feel the slip would be at the black "on" knob, but the leak I am experiencing is coming from the group itself.

    There will be more questions, oh yes there will be more......... but not until I get home and crank her up again.

    Shannon.

    Leave a comment:


  • Lizzie
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    hi Shannon...

    i bought a 2 hole steam tip from coffeeparts, as i found the Botts tip a bit much, particularly for the 300ml jug... try plugging up a hole with a bit of toothpick and see how you go.

    i remember that LLama said that the steam knob slipped... maybe that was the bit of leaking ??

    my Bott is sitting on 100C on the gauge, but that is after she has been on for a number of hours.
    in the beginning i also queried the Botts gauge accuracy and 2mcm s reply was that i should not pay too much attention to the gauge...
    after having been switched "on for about 30 minutes, you can be sure the boiler is up to temp, and the GH is also warm enough.
    i generally switch mine off for an hour or so, or even a couple of hours ,while i do other things which require 1000W+ power, and when i get around to making a coffee, the unit is still warm enough to come back to temp within a few minutes.
    she is a solid block of metal!!
    without the PID in, you will need to give her a bit of a flush before pulling a shot, just until the heater-light comes back on... when the light goes out, the boiler is at the right temp, so lock and hit the brew-button.
    cheers,

    L

    Leave a comment:


  • Shannon
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Thanks guys, I am going to attack the spout tonight and see how I go.

    Lis, thanks again, I will talk with Brett and see if he can give some opinions - Im also going to contact Llama and see if he had the leaking thing as well (I think he left for his trip this week though ) might have to wait until he returns for an answer.

    As an aside, I almost got my 1st real microfome!! I have found that with the extra steam and the extra hole, I have to really watch the amount of air I give the milk as in no time at all it turns to massive cap fome. With the SB I had to add heaps of air to get anything other than warm milk.

    This weekend looks as though its going to be a good one - rainy and miserable conditions, no real reason to go out of the house - alright so there is that little event that is my wifes birthday, but Uknow, we can work our way around that.

    Question time - On the temp gauge I am finding that even once given an extended warm up it has never made it over the 90c mark. Should I be OK with that (it is just that I have read in 6910 threads, people upping their temp to 96)

    Cheers
    Shannon.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dimal
    replied
    Re: Well the Botticelli has found its new home

    Originally posted by Lizzi link=1201913985/0#9 date=1202355956
    they are a normal thread, Shannon: i took mine off when the PF was quite hot: i wrapped the spout in a tea-towel and stuck it in the vice, then very slowly turned the PF.
    It may also have some Loctite "Thread-Lock" type of compound as well. Best way to deal with that is with the PF cold, play the flame from a small gas torch around the vertical section of the spout to melt the Loctite and while hot, unscrew the spout. Basically youre not trying to make the spout red-hot, just anything from 150-250C should be enough.

    Cheers,
    Mal.

    Leave a comment:

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