Okay, so I set up my machine at home this weekend and replaced all the seals and gaskets with the cafalet silicone seals. One I put everything back together the left group shows extremely low flow when I pull down the lever sans portafilter. Sometimes it will ever take a minute or two before water starts to flow through the screen.

So far I've only disassembled the group to make sure all the seals were put on correctly. Then I removed the screen to see if I could see water flowing out of the four holes in the piston. When I pull down the lever and look up in the piston the 4 holes aren't visible and I get uneven spraying from all four corners at a slow rate.

The right group on the machine works perfectly and has the flow in accustomed to seeing.

I never had this problem before moving it to our house and replacing the seals.

Does anyone have any ideas why this might happen?? Is it possible the spring isn't compressing enough to move upwards to open the 4 holes in the position??

Oddly enough when I load the portafilter and pull a shot there doesn't seem to be much of a problem. I preinfuse for 7 seconds and slowly lift the lever and espresso starts to flow at a normal rate. This is very complex if indeed.

I plan on faking a video of the issue when I get home to give visual reference. But figured I'd ask here first to get an idea of what might be going on.

Thanks guys! William and Lauren.

Here are some videos

This is showing normal flow out of my right group
This is showing the restricted flow on the left group. Does anyone know what would cause this??

My first thought is that the flow restrictor/one way valve in the neck from the boiler is stuck. I would open it up and look for scale and then make sure the stainless ball has free movement. If your machine has the aperture adjusting screw inside the bolt then you might try easing it out a little. Word of warning, most machines have never had that adjusting screw moved before so the o-rings that keep it from leaking will probably fall apart and need to be replaced. (Every time I have adjusted one of them it has sprung a leak until I replaced the o-rings.)

Neither of these groups have the flow restrictor per day. Just the ball valave. That was my first guess actually. It turns out the silicone seals from cafalet just didn't agree with that group. They were somehow Benedict down and covering some of the holes. Once I put OEM seals in it works perfectly. I wonder why the silicone gaskets didn't work on this group?? FWIW I have two different vintage groups on my machine. One is the newer group and one an older one. The cafelat seals didn't work on the older group.

That's pretty weird. The seals are exactly the same size as the OEM ones. From looking at the video and based on all your other info. it did seem like the holes in the sleeve were partially covered. Maybe the bottom silicone seal was a fraction towards the bottom end of the piston inside the groove.

I thought it was super weird too. It was in no way a slight st your products or even that your silicone gaskets didn't work. On my newer group they work flawlessly and actually allow for a lower lock in. So I'm beginning to think it's a problem with my group.

Do you have any insight as to why it would do that with your gaskets?? Could it be the piston sleeve is warped a little and causing the bottom seal to slip when I lower the lever and raise the piston? The problem seems to disappear with the rubber gaskets.... but I'm guessing it's because they aren't as pliable. Even with the OEM gaskets the flow isn't as strong as my newer group. As you can see in the video the newer group sputters out like crazy (is that normal). I can post a video of what it does with the OEM gaskets too if that helps.

As you know I'm a huge fan of your work. I use nothing but your portafilters, gaskets, seals, tamper bases... knock boxes. Almost anything I can buy I get from you, I will always support what you do and was hoping you'd chime and help me through it.

Is it possible your piston is not adjusted up enough? I have no experience with your machine. JK

This is my first post so hello to you all. Ellejaycafe, if your machine has a newer group and the part below is present, it's probably worn out.

puffinjk wrote:Is it possible your piston is not adjusted up enough? I have no experience with your machine. JK

I've searched but no success. Is there a way to adjust the piston up further (threading it in more) without removing the spring?

I also can't seem to find much information on how to remove the spring either.

Looking at the group last night, when I pull the lever down the hole isn't opened all the way where the ball valve normally goes; it seems like it stays in the same position. Still having the same issue and can't seem to fix it.

I would go to cafe parts website, And search for astoria lever 60, look at the diagram,You can try to adjust the piston up on the threaded rod or you may have to replace the articulation joint for the lever action because of wear(per biffs suggestion). Jim