Hey, Scott, I'm sorry it's been hard to get going on the Pavoni. I'm not an expert, so I'll let the experts give you their expert advice.

Here's how I had a bit of success with that machine:
Fill with softened water, turned it on.
Waited 15 minutes
Dosed about 15 grams into the double basket. Ground the same as for my Silvia. Beans were Counter Culture Hologram, 1 week old.
Waited until the pstat turned the boiler off and temp stabilized.
Locked in, raised the lever, counted to 15, slowly pulled the shot.

I pulled about 10 shots over a week between when I finished the rebuild and started to sell it. Never, ever, did I have a shot that was totally undrinkable. Probably 2-3 of them were quite good. I never did any "second shots" since I heard that's the biggest learning curve with this machine.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to change the pressurestat so much; like someone mentioned the elevation of Bishop isn't crazy high. Doesn't seem high enough to warrant such drastic changes in the pstat.

One idea is you could buy some pre-ground espresso beans. It won't be exactly dialed in, but it will be a ballpark and you can get some that isn't terribly expensive to experiment with. At least it takes the grinder out of the equation for now.

In my experience sour shots are either too hot or too overextracted (grind too fine, channeling, etc).

You can do a new descale, but I don't think it's necessary. I descaled it once and was using whole-house softened water since. I don't think the pstat would be clogged with scale; the scale wasn't very bad even before I cleaned it out.

I hope there's something in there that helps. I have a video on my phone of pulling a shot on that thing, do you want me to send it to you?

Alan

homeburrero wrote:Which pStat? Do you see it pictured in this list?
http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/La_Pa ... to_eng.htm

It's very likely your old pStat just doesn't want to work at low pressures anymore. That's a common failing of the Mater XP-GP ('second model' in that Francesco Ceccarelli list.)

I don't think it is any of those, but it is the middle one here: http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/La_Pa ... C_0717.JPG


Alan: I expected a learning curve, I just thought that the info I found online was contradictory. I adjusted the pstat all the way tonight, after the pressure started going past 1.5 bars, not sure why it seemed to work at lunch...now the pressure maxes around 1.0 bar.

I found this page about how most English speakers tend to be unable to discern the difference between sour and bitter likely due to our diets being mostly sweet or salty.

http://www.sensorysociety.org/knowledge ... usion.aspx

There are 3 distinct versions of the LaPavoni and many sub variations within any of the major variations. Then you must consider the state of repair and adjustment. On top of that you must layer on the individual operator technique and all of the coffee-grinder variations. There is no way that anyone will produce a cookie cutter operating procedure that is universally functional for everyone.

Mine is from 1997

Well it has the pstat of the 2.5 but the green switch on the 2.6...otherwise I don't see what the other differences are between 2.5 & 2.6 on the outside. Maybe I should figure out how to remove the piston to see if it's metal or plastic?

I believe I have had my La Pavoni Pro for 1 year now, so about 1000 shots, and will tell you what I do, hope it helps.

Turn it on, it oscillates between 0.7 and 1.0 bar.

Bleed the air out of the chamber via the steaming wand. I do this into a bowl to collect the water so it doesnt go everwhere.

Raise the lever until water comes out to flush the grouphead.

Grind beans, 15g, into biggest basket. tamp into basket.

Steam milk.

Adding the portafilter has a few steps:

Raise lever until water comes out the grouphead,
lower it until the water just shuts off,
lock in portafilter,
raise the last little bit

(This stops me having to pull a lot of air through the puck, just a little)

Jiggle the lever up and down a little (maybe 3 cm?)

Pull shot.

I grind and tamp so I get enough resistance that I dont really need to put a hand on the boiler lid to hold it stable. If the flow gets quick, slow it down. I aim for 28 seconds, but now dont use a timer very often, so am not sure what I really get.

T

Unrooted wrote:Well it has the pstat of the 2.5 but the green switch on the 2.6...otherwise I don't see what the other differences are between 2.5 & 2.6 on the outside. Maybe I should figure out how to remove the piston to see if it's metal or plastic?

It is a mix. It has the resettable thermofuse and steel heating element, but also has the brass piston. And no plastic sleeve in the group.