After ten or so seconds when I'm drawing an espresso from my Brasilia Mini Classic, the pump pressure starts to 'pulse' up and down. Does this matter? If so, how do I fix it?
thanks!

Can you be more specific? Pulsing like a flutter, or just slowly up and down? What kind of pressure range are you seeing when it pulses?

Adding to Nicholas' questions, do the down/up pulses correspond with the heating element going on/off? Could you post a video?

It seems to have stopped now. It was slow pulsing up and down between about 10 and 12, and it was not accompanied by a change in temp
thanks for the help
yas

Okay -- the pulsing is back on a regular basis. It starts a couple of seconds after the coffee starts to pour from the head, and seems to be unconnected to the temp. I goes up and down from about 10 to 12 on the dial. The machine is only a year or so old
thanks

I've had vibe pumps pulsing that sounded a little like a motor revving (i.e. a rapid one to two second cycle). There are two causes, both spring loaded valves. The first is in the OPV, the second inside the pump (a small spring and ball valve in the internal tube of the Ulka.

Removing, cleaning, and reseating the OPV will usually work. If the revving is in the Ulka itself, then reseating the small valve only works sometimes -- overheating may have deformed the little ball, and then the whole pump needs to be swapped. I'm just starting on my third pump on my Elektra (in four years). The pump runs very hot, and it seems to be prone to this problem.

Sometimes when I grind too fine or overfill the basket on my machine, the pump will ramp up to full pressure for about 2 seconds and then reset back down to low pressure. It will normally repeat this process for about 10-15 seconds before the first drops of coffee appear.

If this sounds like the problem you are experiencing, which is different from the problem Jim described, try grinding coarser or lowering the dose.

Yep -- sounds like the OPV valve.
Are there any good photos around that describe the fix process, Dan?
thanks!

First of all, many thanks to all for the help!
I descaled my machine yesterday and now the revving has stopped, but the flush pipe is dribbling water when the pressure in on. I guess it's time to have a look at the OPV valve. Would much appreciate photographs of how to service this.
thanks!
yas

And if you provide some x-rated pics of your Brasilia, help is on the way.