howard seth wrote:
I have a Semiautomatica the last 4 1/2 years. Yeah, I see the prices on it have gone up a lot since then. I use my Semi every day - have replaced several pressure stats, and the bar gauge is no longer accurate. Still makes very good coffee though, and Steamer is still a champ... (though I replaced the on/off steam valve once.)

Howard

Thanks for the reply Howard. The issues you mention are what's holding me back on this purchase (well that and the cost). I mean for this kind of money, I would expect far better reliability, and, if it's a design issue, you'd have thought after 20 years they would have nailed it.

I have read this review and the following thread with great interest. I think together they represent an invaluable body of work. The review with all its detail and insight, does, on its own, provide compelling reasons, for me at least, why this machine is worth considering. The thread that follows a review can either refute, qualify, or endorse what has gone before and so provide a litmus test as to the veracity of said review. I can't think of another buying situation where so much useful and usable information is provided in such a clear, considered, and honest manner. So for all of that I'd like to say thanks.

I could not, and would not, have arrived at my decision to buy one of these pesky machines without all of that input. I'm so glad I joined the forum.

Ian

I have done as I have said and acquired an Elektra Microcasa Semiautomatica.

At first i hated it. It was too big. I thought it was ugly too. It made everything in the kitchen look small and cheap. It made the kitchen look old (which it is). One of my first reactions was how could I have got this thing so wrong. I felt like a gullible idiot.

I started using it, on some good coffee. Thin, sweet, bland. What a waste. This was the low point.

I adjusted the pressure-stat, started getting into the green zone; checked the water dance, got everything as it could be and went exploring for the next 2 weeks.

I had always thought if I could get as good as one of my favourite cafes, then I'd be pretty content. It did better. It matched the best.

This machine is exuberant. It's a show off. It knows it can do outstanding. Thing is: you can to.

Nice post, Ian.

I've finally rebuild mine, did a lot of hydrostatic test at 2 bar, then some test with steam pressure and good to go.

So I drop the pressure to 1.1 bar. Measuring with OE steam wand gauge (gauge with a rubber tube) it's around 0.8 bar. I don't know if this gauge is well calibrated too, so let's say I'm around 1 bar

I've done some tests with a Scace device. I can't match Jim's data where he gets a hump than a drop between 4°C to 5°C. The temperature here is flat at least until 15 seconds and then it rises a little bit (1°C to 2°C). If I flush 1-2 seconds past boiling, it goes to 94-95. If I flush around 5-6 seconds, I get 90-91. I'm testing now a 2mm spacer (the seal kit from Stefano came with the viton oring and an old type gasket that I've used as a cast to make the silicon spacer. Anyway, the group overheat fast, so I have to flush 5-6 seconds to stop boiling after it's hot. The spacer just let the group cool down quicker (and at lower temp after some time) than without it.

Sorry about the number craziness, but I have to wait until morning to drink some coffee and learn something taste wise...

Márcio.

My tests where with an improvised device in which the TC was buried inside a sponge to emulate the puck. I got closer to what you observed on my tests of the similar Bezzera goups.

Well said, Jim, I remember now your posts about Bezzera.

Maybe turning the heat element off could help not rising the temperature at the second half of the shot? I do something similar with the Achille. Could be an experiment, turn it off right at the flush, or just after the flush.

Márcio.

I don't worry about it; the puck itself buffers almost all these fluctuations. The main point is finding out what flush time gets a low, medium, and high temperature

Yes, Jim, you are right.

Today I've verified that the hotter shots have less variation, 94°C to 95°C max. Maybe single ristrettos have a little more temp at the end, but is all about taste indeed.

I don't have Elektra's single filter, but I have one here that I think I bought from the company at Spain who sold Mini Gaggia parts for me. It's deep and seems to be well machined (no way to measure it). I got similar flow with 9 g compared to 16g at the double basket. Nice shots...

One thing I was thinking about it's to try a smaller jet, maybe 0.6mm or 0.5mm to increase dwell time. But then the flush time would be longer to achieve the amount of water to cool down the HX, right? I'm having around 5 seconds to stop boiling and 4-5 seconds to a medium temperature shot.

Márcio.

I can't really advise you on modifications; I got the Elektras to avoid doing them

More seriously: The dwell on the Elektra responds dramatically to head space changes. If you want more dwell increase the headspace or go to a deeper basket. For me, the strongly varying dwell is a very important feature, since it contributes to the large and predictable changes in taste one gets by changing dose.

I did play with some different gicleurs I've made. I've got some M5 plugs and I drilled and tested 0.40mm, 0.60mm and 1mm!

The original gicleur, at least on my machine, is 0.90mm. The dwell time and pressure ramp is great with 0.60mm, almost too slow, maybe it could be better with 0.70mm too, but it takes forever, more than 10 seconds, to flush the boiling water.

So I've focused on the temp management and I'm using the 1mm gicleur. The dwell time and pressure ramp change very little and it takes between 6 to 7 seconds to flush the boiling water compared to the original 8 to 9 seconds. Without gicleur it takes 5 seconds or less to flush the boiling water. The pressure gauge is around 1.1 bar. I'm locking and pulling the shot as soon as possible after the flush. The temperature profile is almost flat.

On the pressure and pump side, I was getting that weird behavior others had with vibe pumps, where it was dropping pressure some times, from 12 to 6, for instance. I've opened and cleaned the pump, but the mushroom valve is deformed. Anyway, now it's working, maybe it was some dirty from the valve and some misplacing, besides the deformation.

But one strange fact is that now I'm getting max 12 bar (no flow). It takes to 12 bar and rises just to 12.5, never reaches 13 bar. I did compress the piston spring (the one that push it when the solenoid is off) but I was not expecting to deform it - but I'm not sure this is what happened. Maybe it's a talk to specific pump thread...

Márcio.