Hi all. Ive been tinkering with a Sunbeam EM4800 for a year or two now, and despite typically enjoying the results (from various pre-ground suppliers) I have always been rather disturbed at how quickly the output either a) turns yellow, b) sprays, c) turns frothy-white, or d) jams. Various sources suggested grind granulatity is the culprit, so now Santa deliveryed my shiney new Sunbeam EM0480.
- The spray problem is now only seen if I set the grind too course - eg. above 18 on its 1-20/25 scale. Problem solved.
- The jamming now only occurs if I set the grind too fine - eg. below 13 or so. Problem solved.
- Reading these forums suggested to me that the frothiness (over-processing of the coffee with boiling water?) can be caused by too-fine grind, and sure enough, my espresso shots at 13 have more such froth than at 16. Is this desirable? Some on these forums seem to have preference for it. Regardless, eliminating the froth seems only to expose the final, and presumably most destructive problem...
- The turning yellow fairly early. >
Yes, Im using the single filter, and pretty much no matter what I do (including running the same test on an inlaws EM4800), the switch from thick syrupy brown liquid to watery yellow liquide tends to happen after about 2-3 seconds - way less than required for andy coffee Ive ever had. Sorry, I dont know the volumes.
This may be somewhat maskable when adding copious milk, sugar, and cappuccino-stype choc sprinkes (asll as required), but I dread to think what a straight shot of this tastes like for anyone requiring a short black.
So, what should I be doing with this now? Is it just the machine? As much as I enjoy tinkering with this stuff, I dont want to have to find the needle-in-a-haystack combination of all the relevant variables (more answered below) before getting it close to right.
Other variables:
- Im certainly trying different combinations of filter-load and tamping - generally quite firm, and ~ 2mm from the top of the filter.
- Ive checked that the grinder burrs are positioned properly, and that I can see the distance between then change as I rotate the dial from 1..25 (total variation seems to be about 1mm between burrs).
- I must admit that Im not using high quality beans - started with purchase of a Vittoria 200g bag from the supermarket. I suppse that if these are near "flat", then that could result in early yellowing of the output.
- Prior to purchase of the grinder, I had made some attempts with purchase of preferred coffee (I like Dimmatina) pre-ground by those with decent grinders, but I now dont trust them to grind for my machine, since one occasion saw it way too fine, which kept jamming my machine.
- Ive generally used descaling/cleaner tables in my coffee machine, including checks on these with Sunbeam customer support. Probably 3 times in this 1-2 yr period... with weekend-only use of the machine.
- One technique Ive not generally been sure about, is whether to leave the loaded filter connected to the machine to "warm it up" prior to use. I usually just ensure that the machine has warmed itself up prior to insertion of the loaded filter.
Sorry for the ramble... hope it makes sense.
I can see the total relevance of "snobs" in this websites name - dread to think of the number of machine owners out there who dont get this stuff right, and happily go for years not realising that their machine is producing coffee a fraction of the quality it could/should be.
Stu.
- The spray problem is now only seen if I set the grind too course - eg. above 18 on its 1-20/25 scale. Problem solved.
- The jamming now only occurs if I set the grind too fine - eg. below 13 or so. Problem solved.
- Reading these forums suggested to me that the frothiness (over-processing of the coffee with boiling water?) can be caused by too-fine grind, and sure enough, my espresso shots at 13 have more such froth than at 16. Is this desirable? Some on these forums seem to have preference for it. Regardless, eliminating the froth seems only to expose the final, and presumably most destructive problem...
- The turning yellow fairly early. >
Yes, Im using the single filter, and pretty much no matter what I do (including running the same test on an inlaws EM4800), the switch from thick syrupy brown liquid to watery yellow liquide tends to happen after about 2-3 seconds - way less than required for andy coffee Ive ever had. Sorry, I dont know the volumes.This may be somewhat maskable when adding copious milk, sugar, and cappuccino-stype choc sprinkes (asll as required), but I dread to think what a straight shot of this tastes like for anyone requiring a short black.
So, what should I be doing with this now? Is it just the machine? As much as I enjoy tinkering with this stuff, I dont want to have to find the needle-in-a-haystack combination of all the relevant variables (more answered below) before getting it close to right.
Other variables:
- Im certainly trying different combinations of filter-load and tamping - generally quite firm, and ~ 2mm from the top of the filter.
- Ive checked that the grinder burrs are positioned properly, and that I can see the distance between then change as I rotate the dial from 1..25 (total variation seems to be about 1mm between burrs).
- I must admit that Im not using high quality beans - started with purchase of a Vittoria 200g bag from the supermarket. I suppse that if these are near "flat", then that could result in early yellowing of the output.
- Prior to purchase of the grinder, I had made some attempts with purchase of preferred coffee (I like Dimmatina) pre-ground by those with decent grinders, but I now dont trust them to grind for my machine, since one occasion saw it way too fine, which kept jamming my machine.
- Ive generally used descaling/cleaner tables in my coffee machine, including checks on these with Sunbeam customer support. Probably 3 times in this 1-2 yr period... with weekend-only use of the machine.
- One technique Ive not generally been sure about, is whether to leave the loaded filter connected to the machine to "warm it up" prior to use. I usually just ensure that the machine has warmed itself up prior to insertion of the loaded filter.
Sorry for the ramble... hope it makes sense.
I can see the total relevance of "snobs" in this websites name - dread to think of the number of machine owners out there who dont get this stuff right, and happily go for years not realising that their machine is producing coffee a fraction of the quality it could/should be.
Stu.


) hole, coffee on top, tamp, lock, pour.
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