Hello All,
I have had my Crossland CC1 for a couple weeks now and am enjoying it. I've run 3 pounds of beans through the machine and am getting espresso that is drinkable but most of the shots are bitter. I'm using a Baratza Vario grinder that I bought new as well. The temperature I'm using is about 200-201 and using fresh locally roasted beans.....they are a blend that some coffee shops use in the area as their espresso beans. Also I was using a scale that weighs out to only 1 gram and was dosing about 15-16 grams. I have just invested in an new digital pocket scale that reads down to .1 grams.....so I will start using that. I'm getting about 2oz in 25-27 seconds. I believe I'm on the right track but need more practice.

I was curious as to what pressure my machine is running at so I went and installed a pressure gauge on the portafilter to see what pressure I'm running at. Does everything look ok pressure wise?

The pressure looks high. If you make the return flow higher, by opening up the return flow valve (often called over pressure valve, but please don't mistake it for the safety over pressure valve that sits on the boiler, the valve I am talking about should be sitting on the return hose from the boiler to the water tank) and re-doing the same routine with a blind filter again. When the pressure goes down to 10 or below, you can start looking at the temp and the dose (you will probably need to grind coarser, or use somewhat less coffee).

Agreed, 11 bars is pretty high. Shoot for 9. I'm sure there is something online or in the manual about adjusting the OPV. That being said, you probably won't notice a massive change or anything. You will have to loosen your grind slightly.

zix wrote:The pressure looks high. If you make the return flow higher, by opening up the return flow valve (often called over pressure valve, but please don't mistake it for the safety over pressure valve that sits on the boiler, the valve I am talking about should be sitting on the return hose from the boiler to the water tank) and re-doing the same routine with a blind filter again. When the pressure goes down to 10 or below, you can start looking at the temp and the dose (you will probably need to grind coarser, or use somewhat less coffee).

It's #42 on page 12 of your owner's manual. As described above, you need to loosen the tension to allow it to vent at a lower pressure. It will be high against a blind because the water has nowhere to go. Shoot for 10, which will yield you ~9 when some water can actually flow through coffee.

On a side note, you may want to first try cutting your shot off shorter, i.e @ the 1.5 ounce point. 2 ounces is a little long and will introduce bitters if you are blonding, which at only 15 - 16 grams, I'm pretty sure you are. If you post a video if you pulling a shot, we can confirm this.

Thank you for the replies. Tomorrow I will try dosing at 17-18 grams and see if that helps. Also I'll do a video of a pull so you guys can see. Thank you.

Please be careful when adjusting. Since this is a vibe pump it is extremely dependent upon flow rate. When measuring pressure using the blind basket, a pressure of about 10+ bar is necessary to achieve 9 bar while brewing since the flow rate is higher when water is flowing through the coffee.

BillC

Does that applies to all vibratory pumps? I got a rocket giotto with vibe pump and I have always wondered about that.

Yes, most all vibrating pumps exhibit the same characteristics. The best method of course is to adjust using coffee in the portafilter or a simulated flow rate similar to that when you have coffee in the machine.


BillC

In my machine right now with the blind basket the pressure gauge shows 10.5. When pulling a shot with coffee it shows 10.1. A .4 difference. Should I adjust it so that when running with coffee it shows 9 or is 10bars at the gauge with coffee actually 9 in the portafilter? Thx in advance.

Billc wrote:Please be careful when adjusting. Since this is a vibe pump it is extremely dependent upon flow rate. When measuring pressure using the blind basket, a pressure of about 10+ bar is necessary to achieve 9 bar while brewing since the flow rate is higher when water is flowing through the coffee.

BillC

Thank you for the reply Bill. I have thought about what you said and I think I'll be leaving the pressure as is for now. Eventually I'll be adding a valve on my pressure gauge so I can simulate flow and see what the pressure says. I'll report back with results. Thank you.