Morning all,

Been having some issues with my 220v Astoria Jun (branded Mr. Espresso).

I currently have the unit plumbed in, I have city water. The resting pressure on the machine reads a tick under 4 bar.

When I go to pull a shot, the pressure goes to 8 then ramps up to 9-10. The next shot I pull, same technique, grind, beans, the pressure ramps up to 10-12 with the needle bouncing a bit. I shut the pump off, wait a few seconds, and try again. Usually I can get readings all over the place, till it settles back to the reading of 9-10.

After pulling a shot, I would turn the unit back on to clean the portafilter, and noticed the pressure would jump all over the place, not staying at around 9-10 but going higher, and I could get the pressure reading to change simply by turning the unit on/off/on/off. It's not consistent.

I'm at a loss here as the unit's been running for a year straight with no issue in my house. I descaled the unit a few month's back. I'm wondering if I need to put a pressure regulator on my hard water line, or if something's gotten into the system through the city water and has gummed up the system/pump?

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

A pressure regulator is always a good idea although 4 bars is not overly high for the input pressure but near the upper limit for most machines. I run 3 bar on the mains. The swinging pressure could be several things. If your extractions are good and the timing stays within a second or so from shot to shot then your pressure is probably not swinging which means it is probably your gauge. You may have gotten an air bubble or scale in the capillary tube leading to the gauge. Easy fix is disconnect it and clean it out, or the even easier fix, ignore it if your shots are still flowing good and see if it works itself out. If you have a portafilter mounted gauge you could double check the readings.

Thank you for the insight. I've broken the machine down and cleaned everything out and it's back up on it's feet again!