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ok Greg, I received my barista and vst basket at 2.00 pm yesterday,mount tamborine via gold coast. thats 23 hours from pickup from you, 10 out of 10 for australia post, and you dispatched it about 6 hours from opening on first day back after holiday break,you cant get better service than that! as for the tamper, it feels great, fits like a glove and im getting better results allready,
a very happy customer, CHEERS.
Yes, paid $165 for the EM5900/EM0450 combo (2nd hand) so well under the RRP. I have looked at your tampers and can see their value (and their inherent beauty )
There is nothing wrong with my setup per se. Given i drink espresso/ristrettos the quality and freshness of the beans has been the biggest step to date. The unpressurised baskets will be my next step at which point Ill find out how the system works without the training wheels.
Much to mull over as the more i read on this forum the more i learn. Baby steps for me so a good tamper looks like an easy next step.
Depends on what budget you have available really and what your needs are. The 5900 isnt apparently too bad a machine. The 6910 is always touted as the Sunbeam to go for and rightly so, but the 5900 actually came out top in a review Mark Dundon and Justin Emerson did on basic espresso machines for The Weekend Australian back in 2009 (in front of the Breville 800, Sunbeam 4800, Saeco Via Venezia and Breville Ikon (in that order)). So its an able performer, given the right technique / beans / equipment etc.
Perhaps the paradox here is the price you appeared to have paid - the RRP on the 5900 is $499 and the 0450 lists around $150; if a $150 tamper is going to cost more than the combo consider yourself lucky the combo came to you at 1/4 of its RRP!
Before you jump either way, is there anything bugging you about the machine APART FROM whats in the cup? Are you finding the 5900 cant keep up with the demand youre putting on it (e.g. multiple cups back to back)? Is the steam output too low to be useful or the aesthetic appeal not your style? Anything else? I ask this because from Marks review, the 5900 has pre-infusion and a 3 way valve, a reasonable steam wand and manual adjustment of steam and water temperature. I assume this is still a single thermoblock machine but apart from that this has a lot of the features of the 6910.
If there are red flags here then it would be best to upgrade before you accessorise it too much. However bear in mind that price-wise youre looking at either $700-900 for a Lelit / Nemox machine, a Rancilio Silvia or a EM6910, over $1000 with a PIDd Lelit 042 or into the $1500 range for appliance-brand dual-boilers or entry level prosumers.
If youre happy with all of those sorts of points and your main issue is whats in the cup, you already have the unpressurised basket and have done all the usual checks of fresh well-roasted beans, Id be upgrading your tamper next. I appreciate this could appear a biased recommendation as I sell tampers but in my experience I do think its the next link in the chain to look at, as well as strategically the best choice. Grinder is the other possibility but the 0450 isnt by any means a bad unit and youll be looking at over $500 for a decent upgrade (Id be skipping the Rocky and going straight to a Compak or similar) and at $150 the tamper is a fair bit of a cheaper upgrade. Weve had that many people who have reported immediate improvements with a well-fitting tamper that its hard to ignore this factor. If you find you dont like the tamper or it doesnt work for you and you eventually upgrade the machine, you can always sell the basket and tamper together and youll probably be out of pocket by no more than $40 or so; but personally Id be surprised if you dont see some level of improvement.
Was looking at buying a tamper as currently i use the plastic one that came with the grinder (EM0450). Getting my pressurised baskets unpressurised soon (thanks Greg) but am not sure whether i am better off saving coin to upgrade grinder and machine (EM5900) rather than spending money on a tamper given how bottom end my machine/grinder combo is. A pullman tamper would cost me more than i spent on the machine and grinder combined!
Thoughts?
Cheers
DrSmurto
p.s. you buggers are killing me. I have spent far too may hours checking out sponsor sites on new machines/grinder/roasters and have early destroyed my keyboard with drool. ;D
Yes, the 5 cent test is the level of coffee you should try to achieve, after tamping with the "standard/consistent" pressure.
Having a tamper that only goes down the right depth, you will never know if you have enough coffee in the basket, as you will not be able to check the tamp pressure, although if you are a smidge too much, the tamper wont quite bottom out.
The dose normally does not very a huge amount for different grind settings if you are in the ballpark, as only minimal changes to grind are required.
Why dont you try out various dosing/distribution techniques to get your dose right, and fine tune your grind. If you dose changes significantly due to the grind change, alter it a little until you have the 2 in sync. Just try to be as consistent as possible and only change one variable at a time, as you could end up chasing your tail.
quote author=6A797F666A650B0 link=1310874246/29#29 date=1325925015]But then your tamper may bottom out before the coffee is tamped sufficiently.[/QUOTE]
ok I see what your saying,but then isnt the top of the dose supposed to be a 5 cent gap from the screen, so you would increase the amount until it was tamped sufficiently to suit the grind. as i said earlier im having trouble so when i change the grind the volume is altered and this affects the depth if the tamp pressure is constant
But then your tamper may bottom out before the coffee is tamped sufficiently. If you spin your tamper 90 degrees after tamping, with your fingertips past the tamper edge and on the basket edge, you will easily feel if you are not tamping level.
Originally posted by 63564756000A330 link=1310874246/23#23 date=1320051355
Agree - tamp pressure is MUCH LESS important than correct dose, distribution and an even, level tamp.
How about if your tamper had a lip on it that limited the depth of the tamp, say 7mm or whatever, then you would have a level consistant tamp and use grind and weight to adjust pour? this is from a newbie who is having trouble
Originally posted by 4A7F6E7F29231A0 link=1310874246/23#23 date=1320051355
Agree - tamp pressure is MUCH LESS important than correct dose, distribution and an even, level tamp.
The point being missed here, is consistency. All components of ones must be consistent in application and the use of a consistent Tamping Force is no more OR less important than all the other aspects of a good technique....
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