Espresso machines

[Tristan]

For you guys using these machines at home - are you leaving them on or waiting for them to warm up in the morning? I love the taste of a good espresso but for home use I just think it would be too much admin? At home I've stuck with a French press and grinder with the added benefit of having a larger mug of coffee to enjoy while having breakfast and checking VS.

We've got a Rocket at work which pulls around 12 shots a day and I've put it on a simple timer so it turns on an hour before we get in and shuts off at closing time (along with our air compressor)

rocket by Tristan Thomas, on Flickr

[j44ke]

We have a Delonghi super automatic at home, but our friends have an Astra Pro that gets turned on by the first person conscious enough to do so. There is a warm up and pressurization period before the first coffee can be made, and the first coffee made is usually poured down the drain. Then it stays on and is used all day and is the last thing turned off. Seems to work best like that.



Seems like the grinder is the most important thing. You can have a mediocre espresso machine and a kick ass grinder and everything tastes pretty great. Reverse that and it doesn't work out as well.

[Mark Kelly]

For you guys using these machines at home - are you leaving them on or waiting for them to warm up in the morning?

My wife is a coffee addict and habitual early riser. She drinks coffee flavoured milk drink (AKA latte) in the AM so it doesn't matter. By the time I'm up it's good to go.

Teamwork.

[sjauch]

I wake up, walk to the kitchen and turn the machine on. Then do everything else shower, dress & eat. After about 30min the machine is ready to go.

If you leave yours on make sure the boiler is auto fill. Otherwise you can burn up the heating element.

[dashDustin]

i turn it after after i let the dogs out to pee. they do their thing, i get ready...20mins later I grind and get ready to pull my shot. i don't have time to pull shots to test...so it's 1 and done.

[Eric Estlund]

Replacing the group head gasket on my Isomac. What a PITA- I need to essentially pull the group head and take apart the boiler to replace the gasket.

Making something with an E61 or similar pretty appealing just from a clean up perspective.

How often are you guys replacing stuff like gaskets/ screens, etc?

[sevencyclist]

Like sjauch said, I turn on the machine first, and then shower. The machine is all warmed up by 20 minutes, and I just run about 1/2 cup of water through to ensure great temperature.

I am still learning to get consistent foam for latte art.

2015-06-28 12.13.51 by sevencyclist, on Flickr

[Octave]

For you guys using these machines at home - are you leaving them on or waiting for them to warm up in the morning? I love the taste of a good espresso but for home use I just think it would be too much admin? At home I've stuck with a French press and grinder with the added benefit of having a larger mug of coffee to enjoy while having breakfast and checking VS.

At some point I had it set on a timer for the boiler to start about 15 minutes before my alarm would go off - that way I could roll out of bed, slip on my kit and rub the sleep from my eyes and voila, it'd be ready to roll. These days if I'm in a hurry I just stick with an aeropress. The proper rig sees most of it's action on the weekends or when my wife (who works from home) is feeling ambitious.

Making something with an E61 or similar pretty appealing just from a clean up perspective.

How often are you guys replacing stuff like gaskets/ screens, etc?

Yep, definitely seek out something with a standardized grouphead like an E61. I've done one full overhaul, about two years into ownership, and otherwise I'd say about once every 6 months I'll replace a gasket/screen...etc. if I'm pulling 3-4 shots per day.

[Cookietruck]

ok eric, a little more on the lever machine. i probably pull 4-6 shots a day. i clean the screen every couple days. the lever machine is very simple, but maintenance seems to be key. since there is a piston that moves up and down, there are o-rings in the piston and they are lubed with grease. i've gone a very long time without pulling the piston (13mm nut and 13mm lock nut, and one e-clip). the thing works much smoother and tastes a little cleaner after cleaning and relubing the piston.

the thing i've started doing very routinely (1-2 times a week) is, after the machine is warm, using a pick to pull the o-ring for the screen/portafilter out, the screen slides right out and i clean it up real good and wipe off the face of the piston, slide it all back together and keep using.

also, with my machine, if i make certain i get a full cylinder, do a short infusion then pull the lever back up and to fill a little more, i get about 1.5oz to a shot at the most. 17-18 grams of coffee in the double basket, so basically a ristretto. you want a lungo or a real double or something like that, then you're gonna pull the lever back up and do another pull. i never do that. the basket is a weird size so you'll need a different tamp...but you could just turn your own i guess...

the machine heats up pretty quick too, turn it on in the mornings before i shower and then i pull a few shots.

i'm using a gaggia factory/la pavoni professional, 16 cup boiler.
CoffeeGeek - Gaggia Factory Lever Machine - Greg Sherwin's Review

[Eric Estlund]

If I understand, the lever on that machine is direct pressure, as opposed to a lever actuating a spring? I'm new to this stuff and want to avoid a pile of machines I don't want/ like.

[Cookietruck]

yes, the pavoni's and the gaggia factory are direct pressure. no spring.

[lukasz]

I think a PID Silvia is a great idea. I may know a guy that's selling one ;)

If I could find a cheap spring-loaded lever machine I'd jump all over it. Other than that I love my La Pavoni. Heats up quickly, steams well if I want milk, quiet, small footprint. I wish it were more consistent (hence the wish for a spring lever machine), but that's it. I can only ever get about 15 grams in mine without clogging the machine up. I think it might be because I prefer a light roast and those beans tend to be more dense, but maybe that doesn't quite make sense.

[Cookietruck]

I think a PID Silvia is a great idea. I may know a guy that's selling one ;)

If I could find a cheap spring-loaded lever machine I'd jump all over it. Other than that I love my La Pavoni. Heats up quickly, steams well if I want milk, quiet, small footprint. I wish it were more consistent (hence the wish for a spring lever machine), but that's it. I can only ever get about 15 grams in mine without clogging the machine up. I think it might be because I prefer a light roast and those beans tend to be more dense, but maybe that doesn't quite make sense.

its the opposite on my machine, i do a really light roast i tamp really hard or tighten the grind, i roast the beans darker...like full city or a little past that and i'm on the other end, wanting to loosen the grind a click or tamp really really light...
that said, ready to step up to a mazzer mini, need something stepless. right now i'm pretty good with the grind if i do a solid city roast or sometehing approaching full city. works well though because that's exactly where i like my beans roasted.

[lukasz]

Maybe I'm mis-remembering. I basically gave up on home roasting a year ago and have been putting nothing but light roast ethiopian beans through it since.

The machine still has some mysteries for me. One thing I often get is that the grouphead doesn't fill up to capacity if I just raise the handle and wait. So if I get down a decent distance and don't feel any pressure I pump it three or four times to get more in there and then push the shot through. Maybe that's just the type of stuff you deal with when you use on of these. There's also the thing where every few months it pees all over my counter. Thing is, in balance I don't even find these things annoying.

I'm so over perfect shots. As long as it is good I don't care.

[Cookietruck]

Maybe I'm mis-remembering. I basically gave up on home roasting a year ago and have been putting nothing but light roast ethiopian beans through it since.

The machine still has some mysteries for me. One thing I often get is that the grouphead doesn't fill up to capacity if I just raise the handle and wait. So if I get down a decent distance and don't feel any pressure I pump it three or four times to get more in there and then push the shot through. Maybe that's just the type of stuff you deal with when you use on of these. There's also the thing where every few months it pees all over my counter. Thing is, in balance I don't even find these things annoying.

I'm so over perfect shots. As long as it is good I don't care.

yeah that's the thing i was talking about in my post up there to eric, i can hear the gourphead fill, i wait a few seconds. then i push the lever down with moderate force...until you can feel it infuse...then back up to refill that last bit then pull the shot..

my machine also was bad about not filling the group. i noticed that the lever in the up position was interfering with the locknut for the shaft for the piston...so i got my wrenches out and clocked the locknut so that the lever would straddle the locknut and i got that last 1/16" of piston travel to get a good fill in the grouphead...
also, pulling the piston out and replacing or atleast greasing the rubber piston seals usually makes it work better.

[lukasz]

Maybe I'm setting it too low. That makes a whole lot of sense! Usually I set it just a bit higher than necessary to feel the piston touch the screen when you press all the way down.

Thing is sometimes it fills perfectly and sometimes it doesn't. I bet raising the piston travel will solve this problem though.

[dashDustin]

I need some of y'all to move down here to Austin/ Georgetown so I can open up a coffee shop in Georgetown.

[sjauch]

I need some of y'all to move down here to Austin/ Georgetown so I can open up a coffee shop in Georgetown.

I'm not sure people like us are the best customer options for a coffee shop. I hardly go and we have a bunch of really good places here in NYC. What I make at home is as good or better so I don't have the urge to frequent places.

I do buy a lot of beans though.

[dashDustin]

I'm not sure people like us are the best customer options for a coffee shop. I hardly go and we have a bunch of really good places here in NYC. What I make at home is as good or better so I don't have the urge to frequent places.

I do buy a lot of beans though.

I mean employees.

[Cookietruck]

so i've had my lever machine for somehting like 8 yrs., in that time you have to learn to tune the things up. it's not a problem though because they are very simple.
there is a plastic sleeve on the inside of the grouphead that is replaceable, i noticed a while back (maybe 6mos. ago) when i was relubing the gaskets for the piston that, that the sleeve in the grouphead was cracked. so i ordered one, maybe around $30, and replaced it. also cleaned the grouphead since it was all broken down, lots of gross oil in there. got the sleeve back in, the new o-ring for the sleeve is really hard so it took me a while to get the sleeve all the way in there. i though it was good. put it all together and the portafilter didn't feel right when i locked it in. the sleeve needs to be flush with a ledge in the grouphead so the portafilter gasket will seat correctly.

so now the grouphead fills completely, anyone that's used a lever machine knows the feel of the grouphead filling some, then you push the lever down lightly to infuse then pull it back up to fill some more brewwater in the grouphead.
well, now i'm doing a very quick fill because so much water is getting in the group. i prefer a more ristretto style shot and this thing is going full on double shot now.

also put a temp strip on the grouphead. never realized this thing heats up so quick. pretty much turn this thing on, once the boiler gets pressure (about 10-15 mins), i run water through the group for about 2-3 seconds and the group is at 97-100*C. it cools quicker than i thought as well.