Hello all,

After picking up a V3 Silvia 2nd hand, a thorough descale and backflush was performed and I pulled the group head apart and cleaned. For the last couple of months, daily water back flushing, followed by weekly chem backflushes are performed. However, no matter what I do, water pumped through the group head is riddled with old coffee granules. Is another decent descale in order? I'm using a bench top filtration system from Bombora.

As a side note, I notice that my tamper isn't super super tight, maybe 0.5-1.0 mm slack and there are always a few grounds that end up stuck in the basket ridge. After brewing there is also ALWAYS quite a lot of grinds stuck to the shower screen. I am using the Rancilio 'Precision' 18g basket most of the time. Will un-tamped grinds be more inclined to be sucked up by the 3-way solenoid and lodge in the brew path somewhere?

Your feedback and knowledge would be most appreciated.

Kind regards,
Ben

I am in the same boat in the sense that my tamper also leaves a bit of clearance with respect to the basket rim. What I do is scrub the gasket and the screen while I do a brief screen flush after each shot. At the end of the day I do a wiggle with the PF holding the blind disc loosely inserted, followed by a one-off backflush. The Silvia is known for having little headspace, so the screen might easily foul up. After that any water you run through the group will contain old grinds.I found that the flush and scrub routine works well.

Had a similar problem with the gaggia classic, but one question...do you remove the PF soon after brewing or not? I found out that grounds get sucked into the brewhead of the GC in case there is little headroom (16 or more grams) and the pf is left in place, the hot air shrinks and creates a vacuum.

I always allow plenty of headroom. I'm wondering if the extra water sitting on the top of the puck may add to stray granules that are randomly floating around?
And yes, I too have to scrub the shower screen every single shot..

Have you taken the shower screen out, etc, and cleaned it? It should unscrew easily, I read.
If your water isn't running clear after descale and thorough group head clean then you may have bigger problems...

If he pulled the grouphead apart he must have removed the shower plate??
His water is running as he mentioned water with grounds coming out.

Not sure but I would start the day with a doppio

TS It's not clear to me yet if you remove the portafiltre immedialtely after a shot or later.
In my experience with the gaggia classic (quite similar machine) I always had to do a cleaning flush after taking out the PF and there was usually some grounds in the water.

Yeah, sorry about that reading error!

Hi,
Most of the time I finish brewing and I unlock the portafilter to break the seal. But I do let it sit in the group loosely for approx up to 1 minute whilst steaming.

I'll be pulling apart for another descale and clean of the group head tomorrow so I'm sincerely hoping this cures it. I am assuming I should be able to pump water through the group and it should be clear, regardless of whether it is a Silvia or something $3K plus?

Thanks

Think it is a design feature of this sort of machine...
my faemina has serious portafilter sneeze so I have to keep the pf locked in ...luckily there is enough headroom so the grounds do not get sucked in buy even then there are some grounds in the water i pull next time.

You may want to try taking the pf off right after brewing before starting another descale etc which imo will not be able to resolve this behaviour