Looking for La Cimbali Junior M21 Owner's Manual

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
yossarian
Posts: 2
Joined: 16 years ago

#1: Post by yossarian »

Hello home baristi...

Long-time lurker, new poster. I have finally managed to get a decent espresso set-up at home, with a new La Cimbali M21 Junior S/1 paired with a lightly used La Cimbali Junior grinder. Alas, the vendor (here in Turkey) did not have a manual for the machine(s), either electronic .pdf or printed.

Would there be anyone out there that can help with a .pdf copy of either manual? I greatly appreciate your assistance.

I have had the machines for a week now, and all of the years of anticipation had me prepared to pull a shot 'by the numbers.' Alas, I must confess that I have yet to experience any epiphanies, with most of my shots coming out sour and metallic. Granted, it is a struggle to find decent espresso beans, and I have taken to pulling my shots with what was available from the local Starbucks. Not being happy with their blend, I have tried blending some of their other roasted beans to achieve something more palatable, but with no success so far.

As a result, I am starting to get concerned about the pressure-stat setting. I live in a rural village, far from the the vendor, so I can not rely on them to adjust the machine for me, in the event that the pressure (and hence, temperature) might be a little low. I have seen some other posts along this line on the site, but would like to have a manual in hand before I get carried away with adjustments (and I need to put a FedEx order in for some decent beans...)

Cheers,

Diarmuid

jthiessen8
Posts: 15
Joined: 16 years ago

#2: Post by jthiessen8 »

I don't know if you ever came across the LC Junior manual. I just got it from a local supplier. Give me your email and I will send it. Its actually two pdf's: one is the installation manual, the other is the user manual.

User avatar
HB
Admin
Posts: 21981
Joined: 19 years ago

#3: Post by HB »

Thanks Jeremy! For the convenience of future readers of this thread, I've uploaded the PDFs to HB's server:

La Cimbali Junior M21 owner's manual
La Cimbali Junior M21 installation manual

Scanning the documents, there's a lot of identical content. The main difference is the installation manual covers programming starting on page 19.
Dan Kehn

yossarian (original poster)
Posts: 2
Joined: 16 years ago

#4: Post by yossarian (original poster) »

jthiessen8 wrote:I don't know if you ever came across the LC Junior manual. I just got it from a local supplier. Give me your email and I will send it. Its actually two pdf's: one is the installation manual, the other is the user manual.
Thanks very much, Jeremy. I appreciate your help.

I am still coming to grips with the machine; I just received some lovely espresso from The Coffee Collective in Copenhagen, and have been using that as a decent espresso from which I can calibrate my shot preparation techniques and routine. Alas, I have yet to see any sort of consistency, with the majority of my shots coming out sour.

Here is my routine:
Warm the machine for 90 minutes after waking up.
Pull a big flush (120ml)
After 3 minutes, pull 90ml
After 1 minute, pull 60ml
After 1 minute, pull 60 ml
Dry the portafilter, grind, dose, distribute (Stockfleth), tamp
Pull 60-90ml (until steam stops)
Wait 15 seconds (for the water in the group to heat up again)
Pull the shot

If I am using the machine during the day, and it has been left on for a while;
Pull 60ml
After 1 minute, pull 60 ml,
Grind, dose, distribute, tamp
Pull 60-90ml (until steam stops)
Wait 15 seconds
Pull the shot.

If anyone has any advice on how to tweak this routine, it would be greatly appreciated. As it stands, it s rather difficult to get decent espresso beans here in Turkey (with the post from Copenhagen getting lost once, and the replacement order taking over 10 days to arrive.)

Cheers,

Diarmuid