I've been playing with a bottomless portafilter on the factory for about 2 months now, and have been getting pretty consistently good results lately. I've found the beans (and their freshness) is by far the biggest factor. Two other things I've noticed. The first one is that I seem to have good luck if I tamp once, rotate the basket 180 degrees in the holder, and then tamp again (at least using the grounds from a doserless Rocky). The other thing is that the shots tend to come out the best if I wait till just after the heating element has cycled on and off--on my factory, that brings the pressure up to around 0.85-0.9.

cheers,

Jake

Just a quick note to say that WLL has a refurb'ed Factory 106 on ebay right now. No bids yet and about a day to go. Great price right now so it probably could be picked up cheap.

I'm sure satisfied with my Gaggia. Bought it last Fall from WLL.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread to post that our new Gaggia Factory G106 (it's our second Gaggia Factory - this one being a "refurb") arrived today from WLL. The first one stays out at the beach house - this new "refurb" is for use at home. The refurb arrived in perfect physical condtion and working order.

There is a slight operational difference between the one we already have and this new refurb. The difference, I believe, relates to comparative operation of the pressurestat on the two units...

This new refurb hovers at .5 or just barely over that - then the boiler kicks in quite briefly, peaking at no more than about .7 to .75 - and then quickly drops back to .5 or just barely over that, where it hovers again for a while before briefly kicking back up to no more than about .7 to .75.

In contrast, the Gaggia Factory we already have at the beach house seems to cycle between a high of at or just under 1.0 and a low of no less than .85...

I won't mind that the two machines differ in operating range, provided the lower operational range of the new refurb is adequate... (and I'm not one who'd be comfortable taking apart the unit to tweak the p'stat anyhow... and certainly not while still under warranty). On first try tonight, the new refurb has made a reasonably acceptable cup and the steam also seems reasonably adequate, though the steam seems possibly a bit less intense than on the other machine... (though as my frothing skills are somewhat less than minimal anyhow , I'm not exactly the best judge of this - any steam difference may-well be no more than a figment of my imagination).

Any chance the lower numbers on this new refurb might be too low either for optimal brew and/or frothing temperature/pressure?

On the other hand, any chance the lower numbers on this new refurb might actually be beneficial by making it less prone to overheating?

Thanks,
r-gordon-7

r-gordon-7 wrote:This new refurb hovers at .5 or just barely over that - then the boiler kicks in quite briefly, peaking at no more than about .7 to .75 - and then quickly drops back to .5 or just barely over that, where it hovers again for a while before briefly kicking back up to no more than about .7 to .75.

In contrast, the Gaggia Factory we already have at the beach house seems to cycle between a high of at or just under 1.0 and a low of no less than .85...

Hi Richard. In this instance, I'm tempted to trot out that shopworn phrase, "let taste be your guide". If you're happy with the pours and steam, leave 'er alone. But if the shots taste sour and the steam is anemic, it's not hard to adjust the pstat on the Gaggia Factory. Mine is set to around 0.8 bars right now. You can also try flushing a bit more volume to deliberately preheat the grouphead prior to pulling a shot.

Sorry the Gaggia Achilles didn't work out.

Thanks, John. I'll keep the taste buds tuned for signs of sourness... No signs of it so far tonight. As for the steam - my wife seems to have the better touch with that part of the operation, so I'll leave that part of the call to her discretion...

BTW, when I returned the defective referb Achille to WLL (well, those things happen...) and had them send me the refurb Factory instead, I also ordered from WLL a spare portafilter for this Factory - they still have 'em in stock and reasonably priced. And so... earlier this evening I e-mailed your buddy about machining this spare into a bottomless, just like he did with the spare for our first Factory a while back. Your buddy was quick to reply, so off goes the spare portafilter tomorrow to Rapid City, SD... (for its bris...? )