The new portafilter wing look much less tapered from the side. Nearly square, not as triangular as the old one.

Some things I don't understand. You guys talk about adjusting the boiler pressure and HX. I don't have a HX.
The Mini Verticale is just a regular Single Boiler machine, right? Also, I have a know on the back of the machine that says degrees celsius and is numbered from 30 to 120 degrees. I can adjust it between 90 and 120. That's the boiler temperature I presume. I have it around 115 degrees, but I'm still not really happy with my espresso...
I'll read some more. Especially on flushing, because that's quite random in my routine. I fill a cappuccino cup with water. Then I dry the basket, dose, tamp, throw the water out of the cappuccino cup, and brew. But the time between the flush (filling capp cup) and brew is quite random.

If you can steam milk and pull a shot at the same time it's an Heat Exchanger (or double boiler). If it's anything like the T1/A3, you'll need to pull a cooling shot. I draw enough water through my T1 group head for it to stop flash boiling and steaming. Then I quickly pull a shot (or in my case press the volumetric dispenser button while I work on steaming the milk).

Mark

Anther little clarification
the machine in question
doesn't have a pstat
temp is regulated by thermostast
however if your machine is not incredibly old you will have a adjustment knob ( back of the unit)
for the probe thermostat
the probe is not in contact with water but you can make sure that the inside encasing where the probe is
is clean from scale,
and that you use some thermal grease on the probe side to achieve accuracy as much as possible for that machine

Yes, that's what I said. A thermostat. I'll check for scale on the probe.

Does my single boiler need a cooling flush too after idling for an hour or so?

Hi Joep,

Does my single boiler need a cooling flush too after idling for an hour or so?

You can tell if the water is overheated if it first comes out sputtering and steaming, then settles into a steady stream. If this is not happening you may want to try turning up your thermostat.

You should probably flush before every shot. My SemiAutomatica returns to overheated within 45 sec. My routine is as follows: Start grinding coffee; Quick (1 s) shot to heat basket; pull out portafilter and wipe down basket; start cooling flush (cooling flush time is 11 - 13 sec); dispense and tamp coffee during cooling flush; stop flush, lock in portafilter and start shot.

My routine is a little different than that recommended in the HX lovers guide because I am trying to make espresso at 2200 m of altitude. You are basically at sea level, so you may want to start with the guidelines and find your own routine from there.

The guidelines and the basic routine apply to any HX machine, so even though we both have Elektras, and there are some differences between them (more than I realized), the basics should be the same.

I used to flush only about 5 seconds, to fill the cappuccino cup a bit, and between that and the brew moment often was a long time. Often with the sound of steam escaping in the first few seconds... I've now flushed for about 10 seconds before brewing immediately, and I immediately see improvement! Crema that doesn't turn to flakes in 30 seconds...