biketo wrote:I notice the need for her shoulder to rest on her knuckles to completely depress the lever and her chin entering the picture.

Could have been worse then. If it was a spring lever machine, after it blows the portafilter like that, she then flinches, releases her grip on the lever, and the lever springs up and hits her in the chin.

Then the machine rocks back from the lever going up, then rocks back forward and burns her in the face with the group?

biketo wrote: Can't imagine pulling a bleary-eyed shot first thing in the morning with that machine.

Well, there's nothing really wrong with the machine, there are a significant number of people who use these things in a bleary-eyed state every morning without issue; they just take a little getting used to to learn how they work.
That sort of sneeze-splosion doesn't really happen unless either the portafilter isn't locked in enough or the group gasket is really worn (which of course can happen on a pump machine as well) or due to some really strange user error, like what happened here. The problem is that while pulling the shot she actually jerked the portafilter into an unlocked position due to her really awkward hand positioning (see the underhand grip she has on the portafilter).
In reality you don't need to hold the portafilter at all. The group gasket should be more than good enough to hold the portafilter in place during the shot.

dominico wrote:Well, there's nothing really wrong with the machine, there are a significant number of people who use these things in a bleary-eyed state every morning without issue; they just take a little getting used to to learn how they work.

Speaking personally, only, Dominico. A poor workman blames his tools!

dominico wrote:In reality you don't need to hold the portafilter at all. The group gasket should be more than good enough to hold the portafilter in place during the shot.

I thought people held the portafilter handle to stabilize the machine, i.e. to stop it from tipping/sliding forward. Not true?

biketo wrote:I thought people held the portafilter handle to stabilize the machine, i.e. to stop it from tipping/sliding forward. Not true?

That is true, a lot of people do indeed do that to stabilize the device, and it works of course if you hold the portafilter with a more natural grip.
That said, they normally do this with manual levers like the Pavoni or Cremina (as opposed to a spring lever like this Microcasa a Leva) where you are pressing down with quite a lot of force for an extended period, and even then you can avoid tipping the machine simply by changing the angle at which you are applying the downward force.

In either case, once you get used to the machine, you can keep the machine stable when pulling the lever down by pulling it down at an angle where you are also applying force back toward the machine. It sounds like some really complicated vector mathematics while I'm trying to describe it but in reality you can get the feel for it pretty quickly.

IIRC, I only hold the portafilter on my Gaggia Factory (La Pavoni variant) manual lever to balance the machine and avoid putting too much stress on the bolts holding the group to the boiler. For my La Peppina and Faema Faemina spring levers, I either hold the back of the base or let the base hold the machine steady while I bring down the lever.

And now for something completely different from @vit:



Crazy, crazy like a fox! Pressurized travel moka pot.

How to improve your moka pot coffee

"Death Wish Coffee recalls cold brew cans due to potentially deadly toxin concerns"

http://www.syracuse.com/state/index.ssf ... river_home

punosion wrote:"Death Wish Coffee recalls cold brew cans due to potentially deadly toxin concerns"

Uhh... "Tests performed by Cornell labs showed a slight risk of the toxin Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, botulism attacks the nerves and can cause muscle weakness and difficulty breathing, which can lead to death."

So to distill the message, you could end up slightly dead? Mom always did say that coffee was bad for us.. Hmmm..

Maybe they're just trying to live up to their marketing...

It doesn't stop people from injecting the same toxin to smooth their wrinkles (Botox)