I've recently acquired an used Isomac Rituale HX at a fantastic price. After researching on various site(especially HB with its extensive user info), cleaning up, descaling, and fine tuning my technique, in the past few days I've been enjoying the best espresso I've tasted in my live! it's also much easier to make a cup of Macchiato or Cappuccino if I feel like it in the morning or "salvage" a less than ideal cup of espresso...

I'm wondering how many people are using the manual E61 grouphead middle-position pre-infusion on Isomac's or similar machine with pre-infusion already built-in(my Rituale is around 4bar). And what is the reason for using or not using it besides personal preference?

The other thing I've been wondering if if there is such a thing as the ideal boiler pressure, mine current swings between 0.8-0.9 bar(0.8 being the on/off gate). I've searched around and could not find any definitive answer, but 0.8 bar seems to be on the low side of the settings. My instinct tells me since it's making fine espresso and the steam is more than enough for occasional use(having minor problem producing enough microfoam, might be my technique though), I should leave it as is, or should I?

Appreciate any inputs.

0.8 -0.9 bar does seem lower than most HX machines ( My Isomac runs at 1.1 -1.3 bar ).
But having seen this temp profile from the "HX love" thread,... i would not be too worried..

Thanks, that's one of graphs I saw which made me think my 0.8-0.9 bar boiler pressure might be OK.
Today I adjusted it to 1 - 1.1 and noticed that the cooling flush needs to be a lot longer(from ~2.5oz to about 4-5oz). I haven't tasted any shots yet. With the previous settings, sometimes it's great, but sometimes it tasted a bit sour, interested to see if it remedies it at all.

Do you use the e61 grouphead manual pre-infusion at all on your Millenium?

xcoffe wrote: Do you use the e61 grouphead manual pre-infusion at all on your Millenium?

Me ? ..No.. my Millenium is a tank supply ( though with an external "bulk feed" to the tank) ... so any manual pre infusion would be both unpressurised and inconsistent without the pump on.
I figure the guys who designed the integrated E61 PI function, knew more about espresso the i do !

If you see any advantage in the higher boiler pressure setting, you could consider "tuning" your HX circuit with different circulation restrictors to reduce the need for long flushes.