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What pump pressures are folks using?

4K views 44 replies 22 participants last post by  Hasi 
#1 ·
Was interested to hear the Conti 60th at the Rave event was using 8 Bar springs (others spring are available, but sadly didn't bring them) and 8 Bars made for a nice, smooth espresso.

Just had a play with my pump and lowered it slightly (was set to settle on 9 Bar, or just above). I'm now getting an initial pressure of 9 Bar, and settling on 8 1/2 Bar. Also lowered my inlet feed to 2 1/2 Bar line pressure instead of 3.

Just made an initial dialling in shot of some Rave Colombia La Cristalina (Brown sugar, honey, star fruit & pineapple) on the EK43 and it was lovely. 17g into 36.5g in 38secs. Smooth and sweet. Made another for a flat white and got the fruitiness coming through the milk.

I'm guessing as there are many 'V' owners on here now, trying out different pressures is a doddle.. For me it's a screwdriver, although my pump is external so not too bad (although I've got to crane my neck to see the pressure gauge whilst fumbling around in the cupboard under my machine
:rolleyes:
)

So the rule of thumb is 9 Bar, but if you can change yours, what do you use?

(As an aside to this if available, what temp? I'm on 94.5 Deg C)
 
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#4 ·
#5 ·
********** said:
I run at 6bar and have for a long time started of after reading the following along with other articles by Michael Cameron you have to scroll down a fair way before 6bar gets mentioned

https://strivefortone.com/2016/03/27/this-low-pressure-lark/

This by the same author is also worth the read but be aware contains strong language, you've been warned

https://strivefortone.com/2016/05/18/this-low-pressure-rehash/
That was an interesting read , did you find that wow moment difference in taste ?.Can I ask what equipment you use to achieve all of that ?
 
#6 ·
Nicknak said:
That was an interesting read , did you find that wow moment difference in taste ?.Can I ask what equipment you use to achieve all of that ?
Taste was an improvement according to my taste buds, although not they are not the best!

Equipment wise, firstly with a Quickmill Silvano paired with a Eureka Mignon, now with an Expobar Brewtus IV paired with a Niche.
 
#7 ·
********** said:
Taste was an improvement according to my taste buds, although not they are not the best!

Equipment wise, firstly with a Quickmill Silvano paired with a Eureka Mignon, now with an Expobar Brewtus IV paired with a Niche.
Thanks for that .. It was interesting what he had to say about lowering tamping pressure and then having to grind finer .. I have an easy tamp so nearly there .
 
#13 ·
Nicknak said:
Do you use 6 bar at your shop ? Quite interested in this .
I do. I have done for over 2 years.

Basically I get less channels, more sweetness, more clarity of flavour, more consistent volumetric yields. Our EY went up on average.

Our tasting scores are higher across the board Vs 9bar. I wrote a long post about it ages ago describing my findings. I'll try to dig it out...
 
#14 ·
Scotford said:
I do. I have done for over 2 years.

Basically I get less channels, more sweetness, more clarity of flavour, more consistent volumetric yields. Our EY went up on average.

Our tasting scores are higher across the board Vs 9bar. I wrote a long post about it ages ago describing my findings. I'll try to dig it out...
Thanks for that , I read the links that @********** supplied it sounded interesting . But I think it's better to hear confirmation from people on here ..
 
#15 ·
Nicknak said:
Thanks for that , I read the links that @********** supplied it sounded interesting . But I think it's better to hear confirmation from people on here ..
Think this is it: https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=431450

I was talking with Michael Cameron on the regs re pressure etc in those days and we came to some similar conclusions.

These days I go for longer ratios but the pressure helped steer me towards those recipes. Our EY tops out towards 23% on the regs and I've never served tastier espresso.
 
#16 ·
@Scotford that's interesting. I'm pretty sure @EricC lowered mine to 6 bar for a while when he had it, but put it back up for some reason. I've heard a few run a flat 6 bar, especially on the V.

What line/pre-infusion pressure are you running?

Does a lower pressure suit some roasts more than others? I'm more into fruitier, lighter roasts rather than chocolate/biscuit/darker ones.
 
#17 ·
Rhys said:
@Scotford that's interesting. I'm pretty sure @EricC lowered mine to 6 bar for a while when he had it, but put it back up for some reason. I've heard a few run a flat 6 bar, especially on the V.

What line/pre-infusion pressure are you running?

Does a lower pressure suit some roasts more than others? I'm more into fruitier, lighter roasts rather than chocolate/biscuit/darker ones.
Preinfusion, none. I've played with a 3-6 second 'preinf' (what the PB calls prewetting at line pressure) but it dragged shot times out further than I am willing to make customers wait for drinks. If I was doing less than 4-500 drinks a day I'd like to explore more, but alas. What I can say is that it didn't seem to make too much of a difference to the end result.

As far as I can tell, it's working across the board for me on lighter roasted stuff. We change our blend fairly often and have had all kinds of coffees work better down.low than at 9.
 
#18 ·
Rhys said:
I'm pretty sure @EricC lowered mine to 6 bar for a while when he had it, but put it back up for some reason.
Yes, spot on @Rhys I lowered the pressure by stages to 6 BAR since it is so easy to do on the Speedster.

I did find that the shots were easier to pull, less chance of channeling, more sweetness and possibly better flavour but this is subjective.

I did change back to 9 BAR after a while just for comparison and left it there, possibly because it worked better for the beans i was using at the time and never got around to dealing it down again.
 
#24 ·
Scotford said:
Unless you like channelling, no.
I was also wondering the same thing in regards to setting 6bar by adjusting the OPV on ulka-based machines?

Most of the discussions so far was related to commercial machines with rotary pumps, gicleurs, restrictors, etc, so the flow profile should definitely look different.

After reading this thread along with all linked threads and blogs i set my Silvia to 6bar and burned through 300gr of coffee experimenting. It is too early for any conclusions, but at least it is not worse than before on 9bar and definitely allows for finer grind.

Will keep it like that for at least few weeks before jumping into conclusions and will share.

I also have the MeCoffee PID which allows for basic pump power control (essentialy dimming the pump with linear profiles), but after 2 months of experimenting i find it non-beneficial. The best shots are always on flat 100% pump power.

Nevertheless the pump control feature works very well and predictable and i can use it in addition to the 6bar OPV to reduce the flow along with the pressure if i find the need to.
 
#26 ·
Junglebert said:
Is this from a gauge fitted to the portafilter? I might be wrong (now there would be a surprise..
:rolleyes:
) but IIRC the gauge over reads by 1 bar due to backpressure as a coffee puck lets through so much water whereas the gauge doesn't. I seam to remember this from modding my old Gaggia Classic years ago. If I'm right (would need to check, I'm worse than Wikipedia) then you'd need to have it read 7 bar.
 
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