So I took delivery of my Grimac La Uno on Monday, and as Atillo waned me, the steam arm and performance on this machine was really bad. It essentially had a radially mounted wand with one really tiny hole, and was pretty thin too. In addition it was leaking water when the tap was closed, as well as dripping on my hand while steaming.
I noticed the pressure on the boiler was turned up to 1.5 bar when I just receieved the machine, and turned it down to something more sane. I had a chat to a service tech afterwards, and he basically told me they turn it up so high because of the poor steam performance. I must say at the 1.1 bar mark it was taking forever to texture milk, and getting good microfoam was very challenging.
I headed over to coffeeparts on Wednesday, with the steam valve assembly to see what I could find to replace the terrible wand, and settled on a (ball joint type) wand from a Cimbali Jr, with the standard 2 hole tip that was already attached to the wand. Along with some other bits, it was a perfect fit, and looks a whole heap better than the stock parts.
I was expecting the steam to be a bit better, but I was blown away (bad pun) by how much better it is. Getting great microfoam every time now, and quick as can be.
Initial brews were a wee bit sour, but after making some small incremental changes to the pstat, I reckon I found its sweet spot, and I am getting consistently awesome shots.
Anyhoo, here is one before and one after pic after some cleaning and sporting the new steam arm.


I noticed the pressure on the boiler was turned up to 1.5 bar when I just receieved the machine, and turned it down to something more sane. I had a chat to a service tech afterwards, and he basically told me they turn it up so high because of the poor steam performance. I must say at the 1.1 bar mark it was taking forever to texture milk, and getting good microfoam was very challenging.
I headed over to coffeeparts on Wednesday, with the steam valve assembly to see what I could find to replace the terrible wand, and settled on a (ball joint type) wand from a Cimbali Jr, with the standard 2 hole tip that was already attached to the wand. Along with some other bits, it was a perfect fit, and looks a whole heap better than the stock parts.
I was expecting the steam to be a bit better, but I was blown away (bad pun) by how much better it is. Getting great microfoam every time now, and quick as can be.
Initial brews were a wee bit sour, but after making some small incremental changes to the pstat, I reckon I found its sweet spot, and I am getting consistently awesome shots.
Anyhoo, here is one before and one after pic after some cleaning and sporting the new steam arm.

Comment