Paul, I agree with Bodie; there's no one "right" to make espresso, including how long it takes for the soak (preinfusion) stage. That said, you can easily vary a few variables and evaluate the mouth feel and taste. Try grinding a tad smaller and you'll certainly get a longer soak. Or, you can drop y...

I can think of a couple of solutions. One was posted a while back, although I can't find it. The OP simply didn't mount the vibe pump at all; he left it suspended by the hoses. Silicone can be glued; so you could make your own mounts, using some sheet silicone from the home wares section of your dep...

A Resistance Temperature Detector is a resistor whose value changes with temperature. The resistance increases as the temperature of the sensor increases. A thermocouple measures temperature using two different types of metals, joined together at one end. When the joint is heated or cooled, a voltag...

I've bought them from Quest and from Amazon. there's nothing special about them; you just have to get the correct physical size and the type to match your thermometer

It varies by grinder. My Sette had to be cleaned out periodically, else it developed a rancid smell after many months of use. The cleaning had to include opening the case to sweep out fines that made their way out of the grinding mechanism. I've a theory that the case being plastic, contributed to t...

Since the machine is a fairly standard dragon HX, there is no regulation of the brew temperature. So, the issue is most likely the service boiler getting too hot (higher in pressure), due to a stuck pressurestat. If the pressurestat in that machine is mounted to the boiler (EG, like Maters usually a...

The Arden name plate is meaningless, as they are a retailer. They sell many different machines, and the label on yours is just a rebadging. To me, it looks vaguely like an older Expobar, maybe a Monroc. On second thought, maybe an older Office?

Almost any e61 portafilter will work. For example, I sometime use Rancilio portafilters on my ECM Synchronika, which I think has the same group as your Classica. The only difference I've noticed between the various brands is that the lock position of the handle sometimes varies slightly

TLDR Your logic is good, but there is a serious downside. New circuit breakers will often stand up to loads of a few amperes more than their rating, especially for short periods. As they age, they tend to be less tolerant of such overloads. They'll trip much closer to their rated load if loaded cont...

Set your grinder to its finest setting. If this is not fine enough to choke the machine (IE no coffee comes out or only a few slow drops), then the grinder is either not capable of being used for espresso, or it needs calibration