My new QM 2B has had a few instances where it has spit out water from the drain chamber. What is the cause of this? Is it something I'm doing wrong or different from the first 5 days of ownership where I never saw water come out before?

Hi Mike,

I see you never got a reply on this. When you say "spit out water from the drain chamber", can you be a little more specific? Do you mean that at the end of pulling a shot, when you lift the brew lever some water blows out of the silver tube behind and below the E61 head into the drip tray? If so, this is normal. There is a lot of information here about how the E61 works, but when you lift the lever you release pressure from the portafilter, and if there is water in there it will blow down through that tube.

You must mean when you lower the lever end of shot and release pressure...

Absolutely! That is what I get for writing a reply on the forum in the middle of the night without having had any coffee.

Compass Coffee wrote:You must mean when you lower the lever end of shot and release pressure...

Yes. What is it an indication of? It doesn't happen that often, so is it an indication that I'm doing some wrong, and should change something?

I'm trying to learn.

I'm trying to learn.

In and by itself, that is good news.



When you lift the lever to begin the brew process, water flows towards the puck and, via the pre-infusion valve, into the pre-infusion chamber.

When you conclude the shot by lowering the lever all the way down, you open both the pre-infusion valve AND the drain (exhaust) valve. Water exiting the bottom of the E-61 group at the conclusion of a shot is PERFECTLY normal and is to be expected.