Hello again to all,
Firstly, a short story - my family of 6 were on holidays last week for the week at lovely Tin Can Bay in Queensland in our caravan. Before we left, I agonised over whether I should take my espresso machine with me, or would we indulge in languishing on a veranda enjoying someone else making our cappuccino/espressos whilst drinking in the view (I know, rubbing it in). Well the gods were against us...
We actually went to a couple of shops that sold "espresso" coffees, but to be honest, I had found that they were decidedly well WELL below what I would even call a poor shot on a bad day that I have been known to have. The view was fantastic, but the coffee aint...
So where does this story lead? Through sheer frustration and a burning desire for at least a halfway decent coffee, we drove the 80 odd kilometers each way to Maryborough (the nearest Big W) to buy a Sunbeam Cafe Ristretto machine (and a set of cappuccino cups, and coffee, and chocolate etc etc). Now before you stop reading here, I would have to say that for a $98 machine, it is a boiler type (NOT thermoblock), with 1.5 litre water capacity AND a stainless steel jug for frothing (mind you it is only about 350-400mls). Granted, it has an alloy portafilter (with crema enhancing dual wall filter baskets), and I have no idea what the boiler is made of or its capacity, but needless to say it gave us a far better coffee than what we had been able to buy at either store in TCB, as well as better than McDonalds McCafe (I know - but I was desperate).
So here is the question - John was asking in another thread about his Carrezza dripping from the shower head. With the Ristretto, when you are in steam PreHeat mode (the Ristretto does not have a steam switch - just a pump switch. To set the steam, you rotate the steam knob to the PreHeat mark, which is just before the steam knob valve is beginning to open). When the boiler is nearing temperature, steam and hot water starts dripping from the shower screen in a not insignificant volume. Even if you install the portafilter, it still creates small bubbles at the outlets which pop spreading (quite) hot water everywhere. As you can now appreciate, in a small caravan, there isnt a lot of room in which to manouvre, and if you left the steam on PreHeat for too long, the spray just got worse. Is this normal, and do all boilers do this to some degree??? Since my home machine is a Thermoblock I havent found this problem (and I am now going away to hide in shame)
Thanks again for your wealth of advice...
Hooroo,
Ken.
;D
Firstly, a short story - my family of 6 were on holidays last week for the week at lovely Tin Can Bay in Queensland in our caravan. Before we left, I agonised over whether I should take my espresso machine with me, or would we indulge in languishing on a veranda enjoying someone else making our cappuccino/espressos whilst drinking in the view (I know, rubbing it in). Well the gods were against us...
We actually went to a couple of shops that sold "espresso" coffees, but to be honest, I had found that they were decidedly well WELL below what I would even call a poor shot on a bad day that I have been known to have. The view was fantastic, but the coffee aint...
So where does this story lead? Through sheer frustration and a burning desire for at least a halfway decent coffee, we drove the 80 odd kilometers each way to Maryborough (the nearest Big W) to buy a Sunbeam Cafe Ristretto machine (and a set of cappuccino cups, and coffee, and chocolate etc etc). Now before you stop reading here, I would have to say that for a $98 machine, it is a boiler type (NOT thermoblock), with 1.5 litre water capacity AND a stainless steel jug for frothing (mind you it is only about 350-400mls). Granted, it has an alloy portafilter (with crema enhancing dual wall filter baskets), and I have no idea what the boiler is made of or its capacity, but needless to say it gave us a far better coffee than what we had been able to buy at either store in TCB, as well as better than McDonalds McCafe (I know - but I was desperate).
So here is the question - John was asking in another thread about his Carrezza dripping from the shower head. With the Ristretto, when you are in steam PreHeat mode (the Ristretto does not have a steam switch - just a pump switch. To set the steam, you rotate the steam knob to the PreHeat mark, which is just before the steam knob valve is beginning to open). When the boiler is nearing temperature, steam and hot water starts dripping from the shower screen in a not insignificant volume. Even if you install the portafilter, it still creates small bubbles at the outlets which pop spreading (quite) hot water everywhere. As you can now appreciate, in a small caravan, there isnt a lot of room in which to manouvre, and if you left the steam on PreHeat for too long, the spray just got worse. Is this normal, and do all boilers do this to some degree??? Since my home machine is a Thermoblock I havent found this problem (and I am now going away to hide in shame)
Thanks again for your wealth of advice...
Hooroo,
Ken.
;D


Probably another americanism borrowed by us.
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