What am i doing wrong?

[AUFC]

Hi all,

this is my first post but have come to this awesome forum a few times for advice on selecting both my cafe machines. My first was one of the original cafe series purchased over 10 years ago along with the EM0480 grinder. Well the machine finally packed up and i came back on here for advise on the EM7000 which i ended up grabbing last night for $599 new. I was so excited going to go home and pour my first cup with my new machine but was left extremely disappointed.

I do have decent knowledge on pouring a cafe, so i believe my issue is with i hope firstly my beans and secondly my grinder.

Unfortunately until i had these issues and started looking up this forum last night i had no idea i needed to clean my grinder at all and in the past 10 years i have never done it once, will this of caused any permanent issues or am i just in need of a good clean. Also i went to gaganis to buy beans (had great results with their Brazilian beans in the past) but when i grabbed a 'fresh' pack last night, the bags were covered in dust, so i wondered if they were fresh at all?

so my problem: with the normal basket i cannot get the pressure gauge to register anything at all and the cafe just pours straight through, losing colour in seconds. I tried on the finest setting on the grinder, starting with a normal amount in the shot and increasing it to the point of way to much just to confirm that it wasnt the amount of cafe i was putting in the shot. I also tamped correctly (in stages) and quite hard on the last tamp.

I then tried the 'pressurised' basket from my old sunbeam cafe series and this time i got creama and the gauge registered but only to the grey area (below the orange) and was still way to quick.

What do you guys think? is it my beans? grinder? machine? any advice on where i can get some nice fresh beans from the Gouger St Markets today as im heading that way for lunch today. any help would be greatly appreciated

[LeroyC]

Definitely try some good quality, freshly roasted coffee from a reputable local roaster first. I'd say give that a go then report back.

[AUFC]

yes that was going to be my next step before attempting to look at the grinder. Any suggestions where i can get good roasted cafe?

I will be in the central markets in gouger st today for lunch. Do you have any recommendations?

[CoffeeHack]

It sounds like your grinder may not be able to grind fine enough - if it's 10 years old (let alone not being cleaned) it is possible that the burrs are blunt and need replacing, or the whole unit needs replacing.

Your old Cafe Series most likely has a double-wall basket (the "pressurised" basket as you mention - it should only have a pinhole outlet on the underside) and therefore requires a coarser grind to achieve crema with a machine that has a lower-power water pump. If your EM7000 is flowing through like a fire hose at the finest grind setting then you could be pretty certain that your grinder is not able to grind fine enough. I'm not sure if the EM0480 can be shimmed like the old Breville Smart Grinder - maybe someone else can offer some advice?

[AUFC]

Hi coffeehack thanks for your reply. I have also been reading up a few topics on here regarding the grinder and that may well be the case. there are ways to shim it, just catching up on those now.

Still going to grab some fresh beans cos even if its the grinder i reckon that fresher beans + the pressurised basket will improve the pour at least until i can get to the underlying problem.

Dont want to change too many factors at the one time, so as to help pinpoint the actual issue. So my plan is to try the fresh beans with both types of baskets.

Then take apart my grinder and have a look. I am hoping a good clean and possible quick fix with the shim will take care of it as i dont really have the funds for a new grinder at this time.

If anyone can offer good info on how to shim, the do's and donts, and anything i should be careful of when assembling / disassembling my grinder i would be very gratefull

[nickR]

Myer had Breville smart grinders for $199 the other day - I should have bought them all, I think it's back to full price now.

To be blunt you need to get a new grinder. I would go to the stores, get a small amount of ground beans today, and try them out to taste a decent coffee. You've got years of rancid coffee grounds in there and I wouldn't want that in my new machine !!!

If not a new grinder, then a thorough clean. I would hope a big difference in taste should be apparent....

I have an EM7000 now, as well as having had previous older models. I think they are great, and with a decent grinder you can avoid all the normal problems people encounter. The standard process seems to be

- complete gushers when first starting
- try more coffee in basket
- still a gusher

- tamp harder
- still not right

- lock it in harder
- still hit and miss
- collar wears out
- get a new machine

If they packaged it with a decent grinder I think a lot of people could avoid all of this....

[Javaphile]

People, please stop saying they need a new grinder. Until known fresh beans have been tried it would be utter stupidity to replace the grinder! The symptoms described perfectly match using old stale beans. It's cheap and easy to test if the beans are the problem. Buy some whole beans directly from a roaster who can tell you exactly when they were roasted. To be safe get some that are no more than 5 days old just in case packaging or storage is an issue. Use them with your single walled basket and aim to get ~60ml (Including crema.) in 30 seconds if you have a double shot basket (Holes cover the whole bottom of it.) and 30ml in 30 seconds if you have a single shot basket (Holes cover only the middle of the basket.). Assuming your gauge is accurate it should show approximately 9 bars of pressure while doing this.

After trying the above report back and we'll take it from there.


Java "First check for bad beans!!!" phile

[AUFC]

Thanks for all your replies guys.. i appreciate it..

i got my fresh beans from the market today and going home to test very soon.. fingers crossed..

will post results

[LeroyC]

People, please stop saying they need a new grinder. Until known fresh beans have been tried it would be utter stupidity to replace the grinder! The symptoms described perfectly match using old stale beans. It's cheap and easy to test if the beans are the problem. Buy some whole beans directly from a roaster who can tell you exactly when they were roasted. To be safe get some that are no more than 5 days old just in case packaging or storage is an issue. Use them with your single walled basket and aim to get ~60ml (Including crema.) in 30 seconds if you have a double shot basket (Holes cover the whole bottom of it.) and 30ml in 30 seconds if you have a single shot basket (Holes cover only the middle of the basket.). Assuming your gauge is accurate it should show approximately 9 bars of pressure while doing this.

After trying the above report back and we'll take it from there.


Java "First check for bad beans!!!" phile

Absobloodylutely!!!

[Logga]

Thanks for all your replies guys.. i appreciate it..

i got my fresh beans from the market today and going home to test very soon.. fingers crossed..

will post results

The anticipation is killing me.

[AUFC]

Hi guys.. i am in need of some URGENT help. I thought it best to take it apart and give it a clean before putting the new beans in. Did a great job but.......

after putting it back in the clicks are only audible on a small part of the grind numbers and i cannot take the collar off again as i cannot get the arrow on the collar to line up with the arrow on the body.

when taking it apart i also took off the black plastic bit that is screwed to and underneath the collar. I think i might of put it back incorrectly and this is preventing both arrows from lining up.

am i stuffed now? any other way to take the collar off? can my day get any worse

[LeroyC]

Hi guys.. i am in need of some URGENT help. I thought it best to take it apart and give it a clean before putting the new beans in. Did a great job but.......

after putting it back in the clicks are only audible on a small part of the grind numbers and i cannot take the collar off again as i cannot get the arrow on the collar to line up with the arrow on the body.

when taking it apart i also took off the black plastic bit that is screwed to and underneath the collar. I think i might of put it back incorrectly and this is preventing both arrows from lining up.

am i stuffed now? any other way to take the collar off? can my day get any worse

It's a bit hard to know without seeing it. Can you post some photos? What happens when you push the release button?

[AUFC]

will try to get some pics up later but this is what i mean. i cant take the collar off. Imagine you are twisting the collar anti-clockwise to line the arrows up together (near the button). My collar will not go all the way to the arrow, it only goes around 2-3 cm past the coarse scale on the grinder. (where it actually writes the word COARSE)

my collar will not travel further and the arrows need to align to take it off, so cant take it off.

pressing the button does nothing.

i cant believe i did this, im an idiot, really cant afford a grinder right now and have a brand new cafe machine just sitting there doing nothing

[AUFC]

So it only goes to this point and cannot go any further back towards the arrow below

[LeroyC]

So it only goes to this point and cannot go any further back towards the arrow below [ATTACH=CONFIG]14288[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14289[/ATTACH]

From memory you can remove the upper burr without taking the collar off. Can you try this and see if it helps?