Followup:

I got my first single-pull 1oz shot tonight. I found a grind that nearly choked the EPC, backed it off a notch, and with the help of the boiler being on high heat, I got consistent resistance the whole way down which resulted in a slow pour. I've tasted better, but at least now i know the very basic goals I was shooting for are possible.

I have a question about daily maintenance; I was pretty happy with the maintenance schedule for my silvia: grouphead brushing, portafilter wiggle, and backflush after every morning session, leaving the machine clean and ready for the next use.
My EPC, however, seems more problematic. I've tried holding a glass of water up to the grouphead and sucking in water then expelling it repeatedly.. it'll dislodge some grounds into the glass, but leaves many grounds up near the gasket (past the dispersion screen where all the water movement is when I pump the lever). The only way I've managed to remove most of them is to use a q-tip, but I don't like the idea of wasting disposable qtips so often. I tried getting in there with my pallo coffeetool but it doesn't really fit up there, and besides, I'm not sure what else I might be missing.

What do you EPC owners do to keep everything spotless and ready for tomorrow's session?

I take one of my many barcloths, wet it a bit, and then use a Q-tip to move it around the gasket - barcloth gets dirty, Q-tip does not - so you can feel guilt free in using it several times.

-phillip

gegtik wrote:Wow, Ray, that is really helpful!

Would disassembling the grouphead necessarily cause me to have to replace any gaskets or other parts? Or am I safe to take it apart for curiousity's sake?

You can take it apart without too many problems. Just use some olive oil as lubricant when you reassemble everything (especially when inserting the piston back into the ground head). It pretty much strips down and reassembles no problem. As long as you don't mess up anything (i.e. tear a gasket or something), you should be okay.

Ray

gegtik wrote:it'll dislodge some grounds into the glass, but leaves many grounds up near the gasket (past the dispersion screen where all the water movement is when I pump the lever).

Craig,

Look up there and see if you have a round gasket or a square gasket. If your machine was overhauled, the person may have used a round O-ring as opposed to a square one. The La Pavoni gasket is square and completely fills up the grove up there. The round O-rings trap spent coffee grounds between the edge of the grove in the group head and the curved radius of the O-ring. There is more information here on this thread:

La Pavoni O-ring gasket question - wrong size?

If you have the round O-ring in your group head, then you will need to take a wooden tooth pick and run it around the channel to dislodge the grounds. Then wet a paper towel and squeeze it up there and run it around the channel a bit. That will do an "okay" job of getting most of grounds out.

If you have a square profile O-ring in the group head, then all you should need to do is wet a paper towel and run it around a few times. That will clean things up pretty nicely, as long as the paper towel is damp. Also, lift the lever up to flush any grounds out of the dispersion screen.

If you have the round style O-ring, let me know. I have a bunch of extra square ones that will fit the pre-millenium La Pavonis and I'll be happy to sell you some at a decent price. They are made from Buna-N, but function fine short of commercial use. They make a big difference in the seal produced in by the portafilter basket lip, not to mention making clean up a snap. They also avoid the problem of constantly having grounds falling out of that crack while you are pulling shots.

Ray