SAS wrote:Is there anyway to adjust the needle on the pressure gauge so it read 0, it reads a 0.25 bars at room pressure? I hope there is but think...probably not.

Hi, i recently had the same problem - gauge showing .25 bar at rest, i fixed mine by carefully prying off the needle and re-attatching it at the right setting.Bear in mind they are very fragile, i got mine of by gently prying it from side to side with a pair of tweezers.Also mine was not an Elektra machine so yours may be different, but it could be worth a try.If worse comes to worse the gauge is replaceable.

Howie wrote:I will definitely try this ... I hadn't even considered forcing the water through the puck like that. I assume there's no pre-infusion with this method?

Everything up until the end of "count to 5" is preinfusion, in this case also assisted by the spring pressure initially as well as the boiler pressure.

Howie wrote:What does a 5 pound tamp look like? (Is it more of just a leveling tamp using your fingertips to place the tamper in the basket?)

That's pretty much it: finger pressure to pack the grounds in a level mass under the tamper

Howie wrote:I reduced the pstat about 3/4 of a turn. Now it switches off at just above .9 on the gauge and the overshoot will take it up almost to 1.0

That's pretty much how my Elektra is set up (maxing out at 1.0), but I use it almost exclusively for Ethiopian single origins. You may prefer backing it off a little so that it switches off at 0.9 which is, for example, the recommendation of the very experienced Stefano of Stefano's Espresso Care. That said it's a small difference, so it may work out just as well to just see how you get on with it, while acquiring a little more experience with the machine.

Cheers

Mike

[...]gauge showing .25 bar at rest, i fixed mine by carefully prying off the needle and re-attatching it at the right setting.

+1 - I have an Elektra, they seem to be somewhat famous for this, used the same fix, have not had a problem since.

Enjoy your experience
James

With 14-15grams, approximately what volume shot should I expect? I've been trying the various suggestions of a partial first rise of the lever and then a 2nd pull. I don't have a single basket to try. How do single basket shots differ on the Elektra than the doubles?

Piston Adjustment

When removing the grouphead piston, I noticed a lot of water in the bottom of the cylinder. Having noted soupy pucks after shots, I put two and two together. I figured the piston doen't reach the bottom of the grouphead, i.e. the inside of the shower sreen. So I unscrewed the piston little by little until it almost touched the inside of the shower screen. My shots got remarkedly better, and the puck ended up dry at the end like it does with my other machines.

Why did my shots inprove? I think that after the adjustment, the whole shot is made from hot boiler water without cooler old cylinder water.

I suggest you try this. Unscrew the piston (NOT all the way) until grouphead cap isn't seating flush with the top of the grouphead. Then little by little screw the piston in until the cap seats flush. Reattach with the two hex bolts and try a cup.

Lets hear from you if you try this.