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Is this a Brewing Pressure Issue? or it’s not?

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  • Swiftly
    replied
    San good work. @espressoadventure is right. If you aren’t using filtered water I strongly recommend that you do. I use a two stage filter. First stage is a Doulton Sterasyl ceramic cartridge, second stage is an activated green carbon. The green carbon isn’t as good as regular carbon but I switched to using them as part of my bit to reduce carbon emissions and pollution.

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  • EspressoAdventurer
    replied
    Not that quick San.....Temporarily fixed the issue..... Yes.
    So Where are you located?

    Suggest you read the the sticky on water filtration in extreme machine thread.
    Scale is the by product of 'heavy' water.
    Descaling after 2years, and then ongoing on a more constant timeframe will not be
    positive for your machine or the quality of espresso produced.
    Of course its your call.
    Good luck with it.

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  • San
    replied
    Swiftly Many thanks for your thorough instructions. I’ve descaled twice before but it didn’t help however I’ve decided to go once again and it did fix the issue.

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  • Swiftly
    replied
    San .Not sure if you’ve resolved this issue. The pump is rated to 15 bar static so 12.5 bar is fine, You might actually have two issues first, pressure at 12.5 bar is too high. The target to aim for is 9 bar static. Second, your flow rate is too low. There could be any number of causes but typically it means the jet, jet filter, or delivery holes in the mushroom (top) of the E61 group head are partially blocked. The holes and jet are very small in diameter so they could easily be partially blocked.

    Before you do anything you need to descale your machine. Use Magic or any other citrus acid based descaling agent like Caffetto. Mix at least 2L of it. Run it through the HX and group using the brew lever at 10min intervals. Run it through the boiler by filling a mug from the hot water dispenser at 10 min intervals. You’re done with the HX and boiler when the descaling agent that is coming out is not light green but is almost clear. Now empty the tank, rinse and fill it with fresh water. Run the fresh water through the HX/group and hot water tap/boiler like you did with the descaling agent mix.

    Now you need to back flush the group using a coffee cleaning agent like Cafetto in a blind filter until the water that comes out of the E61 exhaust is clear and not brown. To do this you put the blind filter in the portafilter and mix a small scoop of coffee cleaner in the filter before you mount it onto the group. Use the brew lever to back flush the group. Once the blind filter is filled from the first flush, the subsequent flushes should last only 3-5 secs. When done, rinse out the blind filter remount onto the group and back flush once or twice with clear water. Remove the portafilter then flush the group into a cup for 10-15 secs.

    Flow rate: measure by weighing how much water comes out of the group into a cup in 20secs. Use a digital scale to measure in grams. Do this without mounting the portafilter. Repeat 3 times to get an average. Divide the average by 20 and you will have the rate in ml/sec. The target should be between 5-10. 10 is very fast. I’ve got mine set to 6 using a 0.5mm jet which is the smallest I have. My group originally had a 0.7mm jet.

    If you get less than 6ml/sec, you have a blockage somewhere in the grouphead or maybe further upstream in the hydraulic circuit. OR you have a faulty one way or three way valve.

    Pressure: chances are, after descaling and back flushing, your manometer will still read 12.5 bar. Your machine should have an OPV over pressure valve inside you should adjust it to approx 9 bar when the machine is fully warmed up. WARNING! DO NOT under any circumstances try this unless you know how to work with 240V which is all through the wiring in the machine. Take it into a professional service centre instead.

    Good luck.

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  • Barry O'Speedwagon
    replied
    Presumably these things have an OPV? Which might be cactus or otherwise impaired?

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  • tompoland
    replied
    Following with interest...

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  • San
    started a topic Is this a Brewing Pressure Issue? or it’s not?

    Is this a Brewing Pressure Issue? or it’s not?

    Hi fellow CS! I have two years old HX La Pavoni with vibrating pump. From the last week, the extraction became a bit funny and i decided to check a brew pressure with portafiler fitted pressure gauge. What I found is that it takes approximately 10~12 sec to reach 9 bar then the gauge continues very slowly climb to 12 bar and beyond. I stopped the pump after it reached 12.5 bar because of the concern of potential damage to the pump. Is this a normal behaviour for the vibration pump or it needs adjustment or there is something else wrong? Greatly appreciate your help!
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