Hi guys,
My first post here, so excuse the noobness.
I am an unqualified barista, 3 years in a top restaurant in Sydney etc...I know how to make a nice coffee and am quite technically minded.
I have a 1979 europiccola, it's been going strong for about 10 years, seals changed irregularly etc.
It's just started having some strange issues. The coffee (most of the time) just comes our gurgly and gritty. Its much like if the basket was too full and the head wouldnt tighten properly, not seal to the group head, so coffee and water leaks out the top etc...but I have just changed the seals on the whole group head and am not overfilling the basket and it seems to seal up nice and tight when I put the portafilter in....although it's an old machine and it's a little worn, so it goes past 90 degrees.
It's really got me confused and upset. I have pulled it apart a hundred times and gone over it with a microscope, and cant figure it out. There are a few visible things that have caught my eye during all this. There is a very slight what looks like its an old scratch mark inside of the cylinder, and a small crack on the inside of the portafilter, but the basket is perfect and the piston pressure is completely fine, so these wouldnt effect the actual coffee coming out. Is there any way that the basket wouldnt seal properly besides the obvious reasons?
Please help me!
Thanks
Matt
My first post here, so excuse the noobness.
I am an unqualified barista, 3 years in a top restaurant in Sydney etc...I know how to make a nice coffee and am quite technically minded.
I have a 1979 europiccola, it's been going strong for about 10 years, seals changed irregularly etc.
It's just started having some strange issues. The coffee (most of the time) just comes our gurgly and gritty. Its much like if the basket was too full and the head wouldnt tighten properly, not seal to the group head, so coffee and water leaks out the top etc...but I have just changed the seals on the whole group head and am not overfilling the basket and it seems to seal up nice and tight when I put the portafilter in....although it's an old machine and it's a little worn, so it goes past 90 degrees.
It's really got me confused and upset. I have pulled it apart a hundred times and gone over it with a microscope, and cant figure it out. There are a few visible things that have caught my eye during all this. There is a very slight what looks like its an old scratch mark inside of the cylinder, and a small crack on the inside of the portafilter, but the basket is perfect and the piston pressure is completely fine, so these wouldnt effect the actual coffee coming out. Is there any way that the basket wouldnt seal properly besides the obvious reasons?
Please help me!
Thanks
Matt
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