Let me preface this by saying that I'm completely new to higher-end espresso machines, having recently upgraded from a cheap DeLonghi EC-155.

I purchased an Expobar Office Leva Plus from WholeLatteLove a few weeks back, in search of thermal consistency and better control over the brew process altogether. Additionally, I purchased a thermometer for exposed E-61 brew-heads from chriscoffee.com, to ensure that the machine was meeting my temp requirements.

When its at optimal idle temperature (~190°+), it elevates to 202°+ once I engage the lever and pulls a good shot. My problem is that it doesn't seem to maintain that optimal idle temp after the shot has completed. After I pull a shot, it drops from 200°+ to 130-140° (maybe even lower) and resides there for a long time.

I can get it back up to temp by purging several ounces of water a couple times, or shutting off the machine and restarting. Either way, I have to wait 20-30min for the boiler to get back up to ideal temperature for brewing. It's a waste of time & water.

I see the red light on the face of the machine illuminate several times a minute, indicating that the heating element has kicked on. The temp climbs quickly every time I take a shot, regardless of the starting point - so the boiler/heating element obviously works. Boiler pressure gauge reads between .8 and 1 (pre-configured by WLL), always.

Does anyone know what could be causing this huge temp swing? This isn't normal, is it?

Thanks.

Your machine is experiencing a thermosyphon system stall. After a 1 hour warm up, what does the thermometer read with the machine at idle?

Whole Latte Love installs a thermosyphon restrictor "disk" where the upper heat exchanger outlet tube connects to the group and this, along with your specified boiler pressure range, causes the grouphead to idle at a more manageable temperature.

I had the same thing happen to me, I talked to WLL and they said to remove the disk, by that time I was up to 1.2 on the boiler, so the GH got to 218-229. I have to lower the pressurestat to bring the temp down a bit. Flushing helped, but still ran high. I think the restricter did fine but maybe a larger opening. Thats a lot of testing too. Once I got a shot pulled, the GH sat about 206.

The restart seems to help. I shut it down after reading your replies and, after restarting it the next day, it idles at a more workable 180°+. More often than not, i've found it idling in the low to mid 190s.

I wanted to keep it up 24/7, as I was told that this will help prevent scale buildup. But it shouldn't be a problem to shut it down every few days to give it a breather.

The real problem is that I'm unemployed and sitting around the house all day long, trying to find my perfect shot. I really need to find a job

Thanks guys

J

UPDATE:

For the past 2+ wks, it has been stable at 195-197, with no need for restarts or even purges. Only briefly drops to high 180 after pulling a shot. I guess it just needed a month to warm up

I seem to have experienced the same extreme temperature swings with my new Expobar Office Lever Plus. It seems to slowly be stabilizing somewhat (idling around 195). I did find a bizarre way to reverse my thermal syphon stall. If at anytime the temp seemed to keep dropping I would open the lever to the intermediate position just enough to get water to flow slowly without the pump coming on. This helped to really reverse the temp drop towards the tune of 210. I don't know if it is an abnormality on my machine. Has has anyone else found this to be true? Operating these E61 HX machines without out the help of Eric's Thermometer would be a mystery to me.