Greetings,

The Gaggia Factory arrived alive and well from WLL. After three tries I still haven't hit the right grind and tamp combo so I'm getting chokes and sneezes ( it is winter and the flu season has begun). Any suggestions on how to clean the group when the espresso stays inside the group? The 51 mm doesn't give you much room to work compared to the 58mm group.

Thanks,

Cliff Isackson

Hi Cliff,
Glad to hear the machine arrived safely.
I use a group brush like this one to reach into the groove and brush away grinds. Then I use a wet rag to wipe the shower screen after every shot.
As for the sneezing after a shot, I usually lift the lever up just a little bit to reduce the pressure over the puck. Some people may advocate against this as it sucks back up a little bit of dirty water into the head, but as long as you lift the lever all the way up after pulling your shots to run some clear water through, I think you'll be fine. Hope this fixes your problems!

what oofnik said...

and once a week I drain the tank and place the Factory on its side and carefully clean inside the grouphead with a brush as well as a damp Q-tip to gently remove any grounds trying to stick around up there.

But I've not had a sneeze (yet). Putting in 15+ grams of coffee puts more stuff in the grouphead. But I assemble the shots with milk before removing the portafilter. No hurries.

Coming from the pump machine universe, I'd grown accustomed to performing a portafilter wiggle after every shot. I carried this routine over to my recent explorations with La Pavoni and Gaggia manual levers. Even a hot water flush with no portafilter in the group helps release some coffee grinds. But a blind basket portafilter wiggle is far more effective:


No blind basket? A piece of foil in the single basket works just fine.


Blind basket portafilter wiggle is extremely effective at washing grinds out of the grouphead.
All these grinds were released after a hot water flush.

Greetings,

Thanks for all your responses.

I was trying to figure out how to do the portafilter wiggle and John's foil filled portafilter is an excellent solution. Speaking of solutions, can I use Cafiza to clean the screen while doing the wiggle? I've read a alot of post in the Lever Espresso section and I didn't find any discussions about cleaning the screen. I have a Zaffiro and I would backflush daily and use Cafiza twice a week.

Cliff Isackson