Originally posted by noidle22
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I'm afraid it's not good news.
My primary concern about the machine was realised. The whole group head is completely isolated from the thermocoil and is made of plastic.
It is fed by hot water from the thermocoil that has to travel through a solenoid valve and some tubing before getting to the group. There is no way to maintain any sort of reasonable thermal stability.
The portafilter is surprisingly high quality and is stainless steel, it seems as though they have taken inspiration from La Marzocco in this regard. The shape of the portafilter itself along with the spouts attached with an o-ring fitting rather than a conventional thread. The problem with this big heavy portafilter is that it makes it quite hard to fully heat up. Leaving the handle locked in the machine doesn't heat it up at all (due to plastic group/no thermal connection to thermocoil) and it needs to be ran under hot water for quite a while to get hot.
The next problem we face is pressure. Fortunately, the gauge is simply teed off the water line to the group head so it was easy to fit a gauge from a BES900. I brewed a shot and watched the gauge. The graduations on the gauge end at 13 bar, I've never taken one of them even that far. The needle kept going and stopped near 6 o'clock, I would assume somewhere around 17-18 bar. Not good.
The pump is one I have not seen before. It's just attached through a safety valve to the cold water line to the thermocoil, no sort of pressure control at all. Fortunately there was just enough space that I could fit an over pressure valve from a BES900.
After some adjustments I was able to get consistent pressure at the group. I set it to peak around 10.5 bar and found that it would drop to around 8 by the end of the shot.
The espresso was definitely drinkable at this point but lacked any sort of body. There's just no way to improve the thermal stability and this is the real problem. This is the problem you are having with your sour shots Gil80, you have likely nailed the grinding, dosing and tamping but the machine is letting you down. Pair the lack of thermal control with your machine still cranking out 17-18 bar through the puck, you don't have a chance.
Also one more issue re: water coming mostly from the front of the shower screen. I took the screen off and the output from the group is directly at the front of the screen, right where you see most of the water dripping in your video. The screen is also of poor design and quality so it does a bad job of distributing the water.
Many other domestic machines also have water exit the group from a hole but they don't suffer as much as this machine does. I think that this is because of the way the water is delivered to the group. The tube feeds directly down through the hole and is not diverted or restricted in any way so it just comes out at full force. Most other machines have a passage or pipe that the water runs through before exiting the group, making it less of a direct jet of water straight down.
That covers most of it, there's some other issues that I found but aren't as noteworthy. If people are interested I can write it up.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]22365[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22366[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22367[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22368[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22369[/ATTACH]
My primary concern about the machine was realised. The whole group head is completely isolated from the thermocoil and is made of plastic.
It is fed by hot water from the thermocoil that has to travel through a solenoid valve and some tubing before getting to the group. There is no way to maintain any sort of reasonable thermal stability.
The portafilter is surprisingly high quality and is stainless steel, it seems as though they have taken inspiration from La Marzocco in this regard. The shape of the portafilter itself along with the spouts attached with an o-ring fitting rather than a conventional thread. The problem with this big heavy portafilter is that it makes it quite hard to fully heat up. Leaving the handle locked in the machine doesn't heat it up at all (due to plastic group/no thermal connection to thermocoil) and it needs to be ran under hot water for quite a while to get hot.
The next problem we face is pressure. Fortunately, the gauge is simply teed off the water line to the group head so it was easy to fit a gauge from a BES900. I brewed a shot and watched the gauge. The graduations on the gauge end at 13 bar, I've never taken one of them even that far. The needle kept going and stopped near 6 o'clock, I would assume somewhere around 17-18 bar. Not good.
The pump is one I have not seen before. It's just attached through a safety valve to the cold water line to the thermocoil, no sort of pressure control at all. Fortunately there was just enough space that I could fit an over pressure valve from a BES900.
After some adjustments I was able to get consistent pressure at the group. I set it to peak around 10.5 bar and found that it would drop to around 8 by the end of the shot.
The espresso was definitely drinkable at this point but lacked any sort of body. There's just no way to improve the thermal stability and this is the real problem. This is the problem you are having with your sour shots Gil80, you have likely nailed the grinding, dosing and tamping but the machine is letting you down. Pair the lack of thermal control with your machine still cranking out 17-18 bar through the puck, you don't have a chance.
Also one more issue re: water coming mostly from the front of the shower screen. I took the screen off and the output from the group is directly at the front of the screen, right where you see most of the water dripping in your video. The screen is also of poor design and quality so it does a bad job of distributing the water.
Many other domestic machines also have water exit the group from a hole but they don't suffer as much as this machine does. I think that this is because of the way the water is delivered to the group. The tube feeds directly down through the hole and is not diverted or restricted in any way so it just comes out at full force. Most other machines have a passage or pipe that the water runs through before exiting the group, making it less of a direct jet of water straight down.
That covers most of it, there's some other issues that I found but aren't as noteworthy. If people are interested I can write it up.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]22365[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22366[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22367[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22368[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22369[/ATTACH]
Some fine detailed work there; Have to say i was tempted to give the machine a shot (pun not intended).
I know you save me some coin there.




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