On my Silvia, I pulled a shot that was:

Espresso Classico roasted on Jan 25.
VST 15 gram basket
0.1 gram scale
step on weight scale for tamping

1) 14 grams
2) tamped 20 lbs
3) 32 seconds
3) 1 1/4 ounces with little creama.
Taste lacked personality traits of espresso classico

EDIT On my 3 week old Compak K3 Touchless grinder-which I have probably ran about 5 lbs of coffee through so far- while the grinder was running with no beans in it, I adjusted the wheel to make it coarser by just a 1/8 inch to 3/16 of an inch. I marked it by tape to do this.
The next shot:

1) 14 grams
2) tamped 20lbs
3) 24 seconds
4) 2 1/18 ounces with not very good creama.
Tastes watery

For just a 1/8 of adjustment, I'm getting a way different shot. Is my grinder not adjusting properly? Or is this because my stock Silvia(confirmed with the N. America Rancilio through email) is at 12 bar, which supposedly will make it sensitive to grind? This is driving me nuts.

A brand new grinder will need time to break in the burrs; until then, you'll be getting inconsistent results.

Here's a meta post:

Do grinder settings change while breaking in?

with lots of links to good discussions on the topic.

Sorry, I should of stated my grinder is 3 weeks old and I used about 5 lbs of coffee so far. Moving the wheel just 1/8 caused a jump in the grind to be this coarse- Would this qualify as inconsistency not something defective? Or could this be because my Silvia is set to 12 bar pressure?

It's tempting to blame the equipment, but I suspect the problem is on the handle side of the portafilter. It's true that the margin of error is smaller at higher brew pressure, especially when using a fussy espresso machine like the Rancilio Silvia. Lowering the maximum brew pressure to 8 or 9 bar will increase the margin of error.

Do you have a different basket? You might try that.
Sometimes very small tweaks can have big effects. You might try getting close on grind, then tweak the dose.

HB wrote:It's tempting to blame the equipment, but I suspect the problem is on the handle side of the portafilter.

I move grind adjustment just 1/8 and my shot is so coarse I get an extra ounce of liquid. I'm open to suggestions what I'm doing wrong to cause this.

allon wrote:Do you have a different basket? You might try that.
Sometimes very small tweaks can have big effects. You might try getting close on grind, then tweak the dose.

I had this problem with my old basket also. I was pulling good double 1 1/2 oz 14 gram shots with a fine grind for about 35 seconds. But now I am at the point where I want it in the convention of 25 seconds like it should be. But my stepless grinder is not giving me any room for this precision dialing. I use scales and keep everything exact. I can't tell if it's me or the grinder is not adjusting correctly.

What Dan said. Make sure your brew pressure is in a "normal mode."

Keep track of the time, but time can be deceiving. Unless you're purposely pulling shots to gauge what a particular time length looks and tastes like, use appearance to stop the pour, not the clock. More generally, use a combination of taste, time and appearance to tweak grind and dose.

Your numbers tell one story, your description of what your shots taste like tells another. A better idea of what's going on would be helpful.

What does the pour look like as you near the end of the draw? More precisely, how much has it blonded? At a guess your brew ratio is too dilute and your coffee under-extracted but more and better information will help nail it down.

A good (seasoned) grinder will allow you to make very fine and very consistent changes in grind and allow you a lot of control in terms of tweaking grind to meet the demands of a new blend and changing conditions. In that sense, your grinder is at the low end of adequate. Get used to making very fussy adjustments, and get used to them not always doing what you think they should.

Also, Silvia has a long and steep learning curve. Be patient.

BDL

dman777 wrote:I move grind adjustment just 1/8 and my shot is so coarse I get an extra ounce of liquid. I'm open to suggestions what I'm doing wrong to cause this... I can't tell if it's me or the grinder is not adjusting correctly.

I owned the Rancilio Silvia for years and fully appreciate that a certain degree of random results are part of its charm. If you owned a more forgiving espresso machine (e.g., the Izzo Alex Duetto), I am nearly certain you would not be questioning the proper operation of your Compak grinder.

To your original question:

dman777 wrote:...while the grinder was running with no beans in it, I adjusted the wheel to make it coarser by just a 1/8 inch to 3/16 of an inch. I marked it by tape to do this.

I am not familiar with the K3, but based on my experience with many other grinders, 1/8" is a minor adjustment and 3/8" is a huge adjustment. Speaking specifically to Mazzer flat burr grinders like the Super Jolly or Mini, the former adjustment would change the pour speed by approximately 4 seconds and the latter would push into gusher territory.

I recommend returning to the original grind setting and fine-tuning the taste by adjusting the dose as advocated in Espresso 101: How to Adjust Dose and Grind Setting by Taste.

boar_d_laze wrote:Also, Silvia has a long and steep learning curve. Be patient.

Given the long list of threads Darin has started, I think it's safe to assume he'll ultimately upgrade. In my opinion, the sooner the better. From The problem is on the handle side of the portafilter:

HB wrote:I will also disagree with the assertion that time spent on Silvia is well invested. Let's face facts: It's a fussy machine with a mountain of research behind it. But someone starting from scratch on the next level machine (essentially every machine reviewed to-date on this site except Silvia) would have better results in a shorter amount of time with less frustration. I don't know of anyone who has returned their upgrade from Silvia under a "no remorse" policy.

For what it's worth, my statement above posted almost seven years ago is consistent with the recommendations in another one of Darin's threads made here two weeks ago.

Dan you're right, it was a mistake to be so anodyne. Silvia's lesson that persistence is futile will only be learned after much effort. As I've said in numerous "what should I buy" threads, Silvia is an idea whose time has passed. What I should be saying now is that the first step with a Silvia towards improved brewing is replacement.

Guessing at other people's motivation doesn't usually work out too well, but I suspect that Silvia retains popularity because so many people cut their teeth on one and there are so many positive reviews on CG and vendor sites.

BDL

boar_d_laze wrote:What I should be saying now is that the first step with a Silvia towards improved brewing is replacement.

I agree, but for those who decide to stay with Silvia, I noted an interesting suggestion that may have been overlooked in the other thread on CoffeeGeek:

TagTeamJesus wrote:Based on experience, I don't think that the E61's gentle pressure profile makes shots more consistent than Silvia's. You have to learn what to do with Silvia, namely open up the steam wand for about 2 seconds before you engage the pump to let out the blast of high pressure that sits on top of the boiler. Definitely makes Silvia less prone to channeling. I sometimes think Silvia suffers from undue insult because people upgrade to another machine before they learn this or improve their skillz. I know Randy was with Silvia for a long time, so its not always the case. But I have found a different set of experiences in favor of Silvia, so let it be known.

Unfortunately, nobody suggested this tweak at the time I owned one; it makes sense that it would reduce channeling. Then again, my only regret about upgrading from the Rancilio Silvia is that I didn't do it sooner.