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Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

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  • #16
    Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

    I just had a thought. About filling the boiler, wont switching on the brew switch fill the boiler too whether or not the steam knob is opened or closed? So, if Ive pulled a shot, wont the boiler be full when I start the steaming process? What advabtage would it be to switch onthe brew button and open the stean knob?

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    • #17
      Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

      Im not sure on this machine....

      But on most, the water for the group is drawn off part the way down the boiler, where as the steam/hot water comes from the very top.

      So drawing from the group could leave an air space above the water, drawing from the steam wand wont.

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      • #18
        Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

        This is going to sound like a dumb question.... OK, so Im supposed to open the steam knob 5 seconds or just before the green light comes on (in which the boiler stops heating), how do I know when the light is going to turn on before it actually turns on?

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        • #19
          Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

          Guess??... time it the first time, then youll know...

          Else, let it get to the green light stage, start steaming, while doing so, flick the switch to brew then back again on the steam setting to kick the boiler back into gear....

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          • #20
            Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

            Ive just found a previous thread that had someone modify his Carezza with a Silvia steam wand. the length of the Carezza one was too short. There was also mention of the Carezza running out of steam especially with the modded wand and the way around that was to open the knob before the green light comes on. One of the ways suggested was to count to 25 or 30 seconds from the time the switch was turned on. Id be trying that one tomorrow.

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            • #21
              Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

              Alls well again! Should have taken a photo of the finished product! I did a double whammy, made sure I filled the boiler by brewing with the steam wand open as well as counted down 25secs after switching on the steam switch and it worked a treat!!
              Add to that I almost pulled the perfect shot, no soggy pucks as I put in just the right amount of coffee to have the coffee flushed tight against the shower screen. No crema disk used and still managed to get lots of crema from what many here would consider stale beans. Cant wait to get my hands on good fresh beans this weekend!

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              • #22
                Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                Thats great .... well done... when you get fresh beans, youll see "real" crema ;-)

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                • #23
                  Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                  I said almost perfect and not perfect because Im still pulling the shots too quickly, nowhere near the 20-25 seconds recommended. Dont know what else to do differently now. Im using a s/s convex tamper instead of the plastic one that came with the machine, putting almost all my weight in the tamping, grinding the beans at finer end of espresso setting, the shot still comes up too fast. Cant complain about the crema or the look of it though. Its better coffee than Ive had the last few days. At least Ive got the amount and steam working down pat.

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                  • #24
                    Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                    Originally posted by NewToEspresso link=1181004219/15#17 date=1181018111
                    This is going to sound like a dumb question.... OK, so Im supposed to open the steam knob 5 seconds or just before the green light comes on (in which the boiler stops heating), how do I know when the light is going to turn on before it actually turns on?
                    To all those posting about timing the steaming process so the green light doesnt come on, it doesnt matter.

                    Why? Because the Gaggia boilers are small and well heated enough that the boiler can go through a heat cycle while the steam valve is wide open. I have actually managed to BOIL a 1L jug of water with a Gaggia by steaming it continously (yes, it took a while). So the amount of water in the boiler doesnt matter that much either (unless you have run it low somehow).

                    With a Sylvia wand, the greater size of the steam hole may not let this happen with with the standard arm and the plastic stump, the boiler will cycle in steam mode.

                    To ensure you have a full boiler, the best way is to prime it during warmup so that it is full for the 1st brew.

                    NewToEspresso, what grinder are you using? A good grinder should be able to choke the machine at its finest settings.

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                    • #25
                      Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                      Im using a Breville BCG450 grinder which is not up to scratch but I dont have the money to upgrade it at the moment. I used the finest settings for the supermarket beans I bought a while ago and it was still doing 7 second shots but I was probably putting in too little coffee in the basket so what has probably happened was that although i packed it in tight at the finest setting (Turkish), there was a lot of room in between the coffee and the shower screen so it basically washed through the coffee displacing it through the gap.

                      I didnt understand the bit about the Silvia wand causing the boiler to cycle in steam mode, please elaborate. Is it then recommended to mod the Carezza with the Silvia arm?

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                      • #26
                        Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                        Some people prefer the Sylvia arm as it is much longer but I just tilt the jug to get the milk to reach. I was saying that the Sylvia arm might not allow the boiler to be able to cycle, as it would release more steam than the Gaggia one (so the heating elements may not be powerful enough to heat the boiler more than the steam loss cools it).

                        Dosing is as critical as tamping so you need to establish a technique to be consistent with this. I knock the tangs on the PF with my tamper until the grinds stop settling and add more grinds and repeat until the grinds are at my calibration level.

                        A friend of mine had the same grinder and was able to mod it by adding washers under the burrs to decrease the minimum gap but it led to the death of the grinder (he replaced it with a EM480C and couldnt be happier).

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                        • #27
                          Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                          Because I make at most 2 cups only (but mostly only one for myself) I dont have too many issues with the arm length as I use either a 600ml jug for 2 cups or the 300ml ceramic creamer for myself. Im just tempted to do the mod out of interest. I like tinkering around with stuff and modifying stuff but I might hold off on this one.

                          Another question, how do you fill the boiler to the full and how do you know its full? As for priming the thing, thats what i do everyday anyway, I switch on the brew button after 10 minutes of leaving it on and run a latte glass full through the PF to warm up the PF as well. Thats what I did the last 2 days too when the machine ran out of steam in the middle of steaming the milk. When it runs out of steam, it doesnt totally go dry but a lot less steam comes out and that causes a screeching sound when steaming and its quite disconcerting. Add to that the milk was pretty flat and it ruined my coffee the last 2 days.

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                          • #28
                            Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                            NewToEspresso....

                            To ensure the boiler is full (as detailed earlier in this thread ).....

                            Draw hot water from the steam wand (using the brew switch after opening the steam wand).... when a steady stream of water comes out without any air.... the boiler is full.

                            This is the same procedure as used for priming a boiler when the machine is first used.

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                            • #29
                              Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                              Thanks. Something must have gotten lost in the translation when they wrote the English manual. The manual said that to prime the pump, all I need to do is switch on the brew button and run a cup of water through the brew head. No mention of running the water through the steam wand UNLESS no water comes out of the brew head when the brew switch is on (due to some airlock thing).

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                              • #30
                                Re: Gaggia Carezza running out of steam

                                Sad when RTFM is misleading... but typically Italian too

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