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
)
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)
Running 8 3/4 bar at present fitted a new pump and set it to 9 bar I thought
dialed in the grinder with some local roasted Ethiopian beans and WoW mega best espresso to date, then noticed whilst pulling a shot pump sitting on 8 3/4 bar so I've left alone at least till these beans are finished.
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
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
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 .
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 ..
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 ..
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.
@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.
@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.
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.
I realise it's nowhere near the calibre of the other machines mentioned in the thread but is there any reason not to adjust to 6 bar on a Gaggia Classic?
I realise it's nowhere near the calibre of the other machines mentioned in the thread but is there any reason not to adjust to 6 bar on a Gaggia Classic?
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.
Is this from a gauge fitted to the portafilter? I might be wrong (now there would be a surprise..
) 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.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Coffee Forums
890.8K posts
39.6K members
Since 2008
A forum community dedicated to coffee enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about collections, retailers, beans, grinders, brewers, technical maintenance, models, styles, teas, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!