Super Slow Extraction On Musica...HELP!!

[aaronmk]

Hi everyone,

First time posting on here and looking for some advice.

I just picked-up a second hand Nuova Simonelli Musica (finally, a real machine) after years using a POS old Breville machine.

I am however, having a lot of trouble getting a good shot out of it; basically it's extracting painfully slow and with very little crema.

I have played with all of the major variables, each in isolation: tamp pressure, dose and grind (I have gone from fine and no coffee extraction, all the way through to coarse resulting in a watery mess).

If it helps, I can confirm the following:
- Beans are fresh, less than two weeks old
- Using a Breville Smart Grinder Pro
- Machine has pre-infusion ON
- Checked portafilter etc. for any obstructions (using double basket)

After 1/2kg of beans, I am no closer to getting anything like a decent shot.

On the plus side, milk texturing is going well!

Any help much appreciated....

[MrJack]

Surely if you have gone from no extraction to watery mess, somewhere in between is a half decent pour?

I would pick a grind setting somewhere on the fine side of the middle, and dose as much as possible (with a light tamp). Then progressively dose less until I got a reasonable pour. If the post-tamp level of the coffee got too low (search '5 cent test'), I would grind a bit coarser.

By the way, posting the same question in multiple threads (topics) is considered poor etiquette.

[aaronmk]

Thanks for the quick reply. I will have another crack tomorrow afternoon, I was just concerned that maybe I was missing something obvious that was apparent to me at the time.

And, apologies for the double post, I realised my first post was probably in the wrong section, but couldn't see where I could delete it.

I'll post my results, hoping they're positive! Managed to sell the Mrs on the new machine based on "I'll be able to make you better flat whites". Needless to say, I'm hoping I can deliver on that one!

[aaronmk]

Success! It seems I must have been getting quite close the first time around. After dialing back the fineness of the grind a little and reducing my tamp pressure, I ended up with a nice, consistent pour!

Teamed with some nicely textured milk, my flat white this morning was by far the best I've had a home and approaching the quality of some of my favourite coffee shops. Very, very happy!