Hi people,
Just wanted to vent my frustrations and hopefully warn others about the pitfalls of buying too cheap a machine.
I bought an EM6910 in May last year and it is still under warranty. I attended the sunbeam course where I was told to use the machine with the pressure needle in the brown zone and have been doing that since. (Along with a purchase of a Gene cafe and many Kgs of greens from andy).
Anwyay to cut a story short recently the machine has started to do somethign strange - when i do a good slow pout the pump kinda surges - It starts off with the pressure in the brown and then slowly drops down to gold, only to shoot back up to brown again then drop to gold etc...
Heres a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODo4cHC2bMo
I returned it to the sunbeam repair agent who after a week told me it was fixed. I went to collect and was told there is nothing wrong with the machine. The agent then proceeded to put a double floored basket machine in the machine and showed me how the pressure gets to the gold. Apparently that is the acid test as to whether or not the machine is working ok.
I phoned sunbeam this morning and was told the same thing. They basically said that the machine is working fine and it is my technique at fault. I apparently need to be in the gold zone while doing my pour. I was also told that I was mistaken and they dont say to go into the brown at the course.
They have offered to send me their complimentary preground coffee to show me how to grind.
Apparently if the motor were to surge when the pressure guage is in the gold or when the blind filter is in place then there is a problem but at any other pressure this is nothing more than user error.
All in all this is pretty bad customer support and i realise now that buying cheap is not necessarily cheaper.
It looks like I wasted $700 and need to somehow come up with a few more thousand so ensure i can get my regular coffee kick.
So basically to anyone contimplating the EM6910 - yes it is a great machine, but dont be fooled by the talk of warranty periods and customer support - unless you use it exactly like they want you to the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on.
Just wanted to vent my frustrations and hopefully warn others about the pitfalls of buying too cheap a machine.
I bought an EM6910 in May last year and it is still under warranty. I attended the sunbeam course where I was told to use the machine with the pressure needle in the brown zone and have been doing that since. (Along with a purchase of a Gene cafe and many Kgs of greens from andy).
Anwyay to cut a story short recently the machine has started to do somethign strange - when i do a good slow pout the pump kinda surges - It starts off with the pressure in the brown and then slowly drops down to gold, only to shoot back up to brown again then drop to gold etc...
Heres a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODo4cHC2bMo
I returned it to the sunbeam repair agent who after a week told me it was fixed. I went to collect and was told there is nothing wrong with the machine. The agent then proceeded to put a double floored basket machine in the machine and showed me how the pressure gets to the gold. Apparently that is the acid test as to whether or not the machine is working ok.
I phoned sunbeam this morning and was told the same thing. They basically said that the machine is working fine and it is my technique at fault. I apparently need to be in the gold zone while doing my pour. I was also told that I was mistaken and they dont say to go into the brown at the course.
They have offered to send me their complimentary preground coffee to show me how to grind.
Apparently if the motor were to surge when the pressure guage is in the gold or when the blind filter is in place then there is a problem but at any other pressure this is nothing more than user error.
All in all this is pretty bad customer support and i realise now that buying cheap is not necessarily cheaper.
It looks like I wasted $700 and need to somehow come up with a few more thousand so ensure i can get my regular coffee kick.
So basically to anyone contimplating the EM6910 - yes it is a great machine, but dont be fooled by the talk of warranty periods and customer support - unless you use it exactly like they want you to the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on.

. I just assumed this was normal behaviour for pressure build up where it would surge (pin way up right) as the pressure was unable to be released at such a rate needed via the extraction through the puk. After some wait theres the slow drip drip drip...the pressure releases slightly and the pin goes back to normal position,..then pressure builds up too quickly again (but really its the extraction thats happening too slowly) and again..drip drip drip releases a little pressure and the pin goes back to normal and so on. After approx 30-40 secs the surging stops and the pressure gauge remains steady, I assume because the puk is now saturated and flow begins to go a little faster.
. At the time, I was buying grounds and so I had to get my local roaster to dial in slightly coarser next time and the surging stopped.
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