Hi all,

Having some low temperature issues on my new (used) A3, though it could be just the way my routine happens.

Originally, I noticed early blonding and some taste problems and I suspected the grinder, but I did not have issues with the Bricoletta. Same coffee (not 10 days old yet), same grinder. My bottomless PF went with the Bricoletta, so until today (I made a new bottomless PF with another PF I found), I had not done any temperature readings.

Anyways, after a long idle, I see the "normal" A3 flash boiling and after a moderate flush, the 1st shot pulls consistently around 200 (+/- controllable depending on the flush - amazing how you can control this!) - and the first shot is usually really good. I then typically rinse the screen and PF from the group (1-2 oz) and then prepare the next shot....but what I am finding is that the next shot is around 196 degrees (taste is not as good, early blonding), and unless I let the machine sit idle again, all additional shots are right around 196 with the same taste problems (grassy, sour) - i.e. I can't pull repeat shots at high temp.

This is amplified right now in that I have a light roast coffee which like higher temps, I can't hit them easily with any flushing/rinsing.

So, am I just doing something wrong in the routine? Do I need to increase boiler pressure to increase the HX temp (boiler is currently around 1bar +/- .05).

Machine is only about 1.5 years old, was run (previous owner) on an everpure softener system. I also descaled lightly before installing and pulling mushroom prior only the slightest amount of scale.

Looking for any suggestions...perhaps I am just being overzealous on the flushing/rinsing, but when I look at the flush videos here, I seem to be in line. It is the "rinse" that seems to be dragging things down, and perhaps slower HX recovery? I don't know.

Open to thoughts/suggestions.

That is bizarre. The Elektra is a quintessential dragon of a heat exchanger, usually recovering to the point of flash boiling about 30-40 seconds after a shot. my boiler is set at 0.8 bars, much less than yours, and I don't have any issues. My first question is, have you descaled and/or checked for scale in the thermosiphon? I can't remember if you said so, but just because the machine is in great shape on the outside doesn't mean it can't be badly scaled in the HX, which will typically scale much worse than the boiler itself. This can constrict the HX and make it prone to slow recovery. I've also, on my Elektra, had the thermosiphon loop stall entirely once, though when that happened it continually got worse and worse as I drew more water out of it, rather than holding steady at a slightly low temperature.

If I may offer one suggestion, though--try flushing ONLY right before the shot. Clean your basket off with the water tap rather than the group--you'll get better water flow there and it won't disrupt the thermosiphon recovery. That way the group can recover the entire time between when you finish shot 1 and when you're flushing for shot 2. If you go back and look at the A3 review, I know dan warned that overzealous group cleaning (with flushes) can disrupt the group's recovery cycle.

Hope that helps.

Thanks....that does help. I believe the problem is on MY end of the portafilter the more I play around.

I checked the mushroom in the group head before setting up the machine and there was only very slight scale formed there. I descaled both the boiler and HX before installation, but visually, there was almost no scale anywhere. I did not pull the large HEX bolt from the HX as I don't have the hex driver to fit it. I will have to find one to fit.

Question....does a visual inspection under the big HEX bolt give you a good indication of HX condition?

After playing some more, and reading your post and others, I believe I may just be flushing too much from the group head and disrupting the thermosysphon. This was perhaps a bad habit from my Bricoletta, which seemed to have no problems with it.

I will experiment more in the upcoming days with the Scace now that I have a bottomless PF again to use it in. I was lucky in that I found a loose PF kicking around that did not fit my Bricoletta and I had stored it away, but it fits the A3 group perfectly. 5 minutes with my bimetal hole saw and dremel and that problem was solved.

I think he's good on scale, since he just checked it after getting the thing last week.

That said, I would agree Dave's advice on water if you didn't work it out on the Bricoletta--a hardness test kit will help you decide how often you need to descale or whether you need to soften your water.

Also, for the HX cap on the top of the boiler, you need a 12mm Allen key/wrench.

Thanks....I will pick up the appropriate Allen key.

I have an aquarium test kit I use now. My water is very soft after going through the resin softener and carbon filter....around 20ppm (or less) I believe is the measurement. Too soft for optimal espresso taste really, but I am OK with the taste at this point (primarily an Americano, cappa, and latte drinking house), so am happy to err on the side of less scale at this time and hide it under the blanket of water and milk.

Grant wrote:Thanks....I will pick up the appropriate Allen key.

I found mine at Sears in the automotive area.
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Mark

I <3 sockets - I picked this set up on Amazon and was pleased:

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Grad ... 000GYLGU8/

It was about the same price as one specialty wrench since no other sets I could find had anything larger than a 10mm.