I am expecting a FedEx delivery Friday of a V2 that I won in an eBay auction. When I get the machine and get it set up, what should I be checking out, cleaning, etc? Any things I would really want to upgrade?

I have been reading about PIDs, but I think I'll hold off a little while on that upgrade.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to being an active member!

I was in the same boat not too long ago. You want to do a good descale and check the gaskets for elasticity. You may want to just replace the screen and gaskets as the replacements are cheap. There are numerous posts on this site and others as well as youtube as to how to perform basic maintenance. Seattle Coffee Gears has a good youtube video. Just use the search function in the espresso machine forum here. Good luck.

That's a big help. I have done quite a bit of searching and do see how to perform various functions, I just wasn't sure where to start with a "new to me" machine.

And Seattle Coffee Gear is great. That's probably where I'll pick up the parts.

I find SCG to be great for machines, but I prefer to purchase parts from EspressoParts. I got my Gasket and Screen for less than 20 dollars and they arrived to the other side of the country in two days. One thing I also suggest ALL new Silvia owners invest in is the HQ 14Gram basket from Espresso Parts, or a La Marzocco Ridgeless (I and many others think the HQ-14Gram basket is a much better value coming in at $5). Regarding upgrades, I would suggest a PID, OPV adjustment to 8-9 bars, and a steam wand upgrade. Just a few tips regarding the Silvia and just about any home single boiler machine: Silvia can be very uncooperative at times, I know from only getting mine tamed a week ago. I'm assuming you are new to espresso so there is one thing that no good machine will account for... the grinder, you will need a good quality burr grinder to pair with Silvia, I personally have a Mazzer Super Jolly that I won on eBay for 300 dollars, The Rocky is also a nice grinder, but it's dated, stepped, and in my opinion a little over priced (Unless you can find a cheap doserless). Therefore, in the home range I would go for something like a Baratza Virtuoso or Vario. I also suggest getting a scale, it's great for consistency. Have fun brewing with Silvia, she's a nice little machine.

I'm not overly new to espresso. My wife and I have sought out a new machine after burning out two other "off the shelf" machines. We have been sticking to stove top espresso pot and while we do enjoy it, we wanted something we could have some fun with and save the stop top for larger groups.

We narrowed it down to Breville or Rancilio (for our budget, while expecting our first kid); and the right Rancilio auction came up. I do have a grinder...it is one that has pretty mixed opinions - the Krups GX610050. We became pretty familiar with this grinder when we spent some time in Australia and it was branded as the Sunbeam. It has given us pretty solid results, and I'm confident in it being just fine for now.

I just looked up the details of your grinder and I have the feeling it will not be good enough. I am reading it has 20 settings, covering the range of French press to espresso. Perhaps your previous machines had pressurized portafilters? In a Silvia, it is the coffee that has to provide all of the resistance to keep the water from gushing through and to create enough pressure to make espresso.
It requires very fine adjustments in the grinder to get it just right and 20 steps covering the entire range is not enough.

kyhokie wrote:I'm not overly new to espresso. My wife and I have sought out a new machine after burning out two other "off the shelf" machines. We have been sticking to stove top espresso pot and while we do enjoy it, we wanted something we could have some fun with and save the stop top for larger groups.

We narrowed it down to Breville or Rancilio (for our budget, while expecting our first kid); and the right Rancilio auction came up. I do have a grinder...it is one that has pretty mixed opinions - the Krups GX610050. We became pretty familiar with this grinder when we spent some time in Australia and it was branded as the Sunbeam. It has given us pretty solid results, and I'm confident in it being just fine for now.

Yeah, I don't think that grinder will cut it, Silvia is known to require a powder like grind.. almost in between salt and powdered sugar.

I started with a Silvia too, about 10 years ago and I made many mistakes along the way. In the first years I was just producing about 2oz of a hot black liquid with a bit of foam on top and thought that was espresso. Some mistakes are machine specific and some are general mistakes that can happen with any machine.

Silvia stuff:

1) There is very little space between the screen and the puck. It is very easy to over-dose, make sure it is not hitting the screen when you load the pf into the machine. Put the loaded pf in and take it out, it should not have marks from the screen. You can do the coin test to make sure that even a small coin on top of the puck will not leave a mark when it is loaded in the machine.

2) You need a pressure of about 9 bar. The pump in the machine can deliver much more and it is regulated by the OPV, so you need to check that it has been set correctly. Here is a video on how to set the OPV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km6HO7xf0rI
If you don't have a pressure gauge for the pf you can do the following: Let the machine heat up, then put a rubber disk or blind filter in the pf. Open up the steam wand such that it is outputting about 30~45 ml of water in 30s when the pump is on. Now turn on the pump for 30s and collect the water coming out of the steam wand and the water returning back into the container through the return hose. The total should be about 120-140ml while the wand is giving 30~45 ml, if it is more the pressure is too low if it is less the pressure is too high. Turn the OPV tighter or looser like in the video to adjust until you get the required amount of water out.

3) Temperature gets a lot of attention with the Silvia, you can do the surfing or install a PID, but really this is all of so little importance if all the other stuff is not right.

General stuff:

Your first goal is to get an espresso out in 25-35s. If the machine pressure is set up right then the mistakes that will prevent the 25s-35s extraction are

1) Coffee is not freshly roasted. Forget about supermarket coffee. If yo buy roasted pre-packaged coffee, it needs to have the roast date on it and that date must be no more than 2 or 3 weeks ago. Using stale coffee your espresso will come out in 10s-15s no matter how fine you grind and the results are terrible.

2) Inconsistent dosing. Just 1g more or less coffee in the basket can make a already 5 seconds difference in the extraction. This variable is one of the easiest to deal with. Use a scale with 0.1g accuracy and keep the dose consistent.

3) If you are still not getting 25s-35s extraction times, you have grinder issues.

Alright! A bit of an update.

So far, it looks like the modified Krups grinder will do the trick. Now *I* need to get my skills up to snuff. I have been able to get a fine enough grind to SEVERELY slow (too slow) the shot pull from the Silvia. Some tweaking from that has gotten my shots to 25-33 seconds - I just need to hone my skills to get everything consistent and get a less bitter (sour? - still learning the difference) shot.

Mods to Krups: 1.17mm spacer (that is 1mm larger than the factory spacer, which I removed); and I had to take out the wire that went across the spout as it was causing the grind to pack in and seize the motor.

The eBay'd Silvia has been great. With some help from a friend who owns a local coffee shop, I/we were able to get some pretty good pours. ...if I can just do that at home without him looking over my shoulder.

I have some beans dated late October I'm going to keep practicing with and get another batch asap. I'll post some pics when I have something pic worthy .