Hi,
I'm a newcomer on this forum, even if I've been reading very good info here for some time.
Until now, I've only used French Press, with a manual grinder; and I'm quite happy with the results, but I'd like to try and make some espressos.
I just bought a Rok espresso maker, as a first step. I received it tonight so, of course, my only tries so far are really not drinkable
I'm not disappointed yet because I was expecting to need some time and efforts before getting an acceptable espresso.
But what surprised me is that, during extraction (while pulling the levers) , I can hear (and feel) air (and maybe a bit of water) escaping from the top of the water chamber.

Is this normal? I should have guessed this would lead to loss of pressure?

Thank you for your help!

Fix

It can escape and still give good results but I would expect that you should be able to pull (push?) a shot without... I would say the intended function would be for the piston to seal and not let air escape. Cleaning the o ring and sleeve usually works to fix this for me. Otherwise, could you be pushing too hard?
If you've always had the leak then it might be worth contacting your supplier?

Thanks. I just received the ROK yesterday and the air escaped from the very first try (so it should not be due to any cleaning issue).
I'm afraid it's probably faulty (it did not feel like pushing hard at all).

Same air issue here, and can't get no crema for two weeks of trying different options.
Will try to replace o-rings with ones that came with my ROK.

I have a presso. contact the owners of the company they have been phenomenally helpful to me in the past (sending free spare parts).

Thanks: that's exactly what just happened. I dropped them an email explaining my problem... and less than half an hour later, they proposed to send me replacement parts to see if it would fix the problem.
I'm waiting for those parts before any further tests, but I'm happy so far with the customer support: that's what I call reactive!

I've got my ROK Espresso Maker about two weeks ago and continuously trying different ways to make espresso, experimenting with different grinds, coffee brands, amounts of coffee, water volumes and lever movements - but still cannot get any crema on my coffee. All I always have is only a small amount of white bubbly foam when the levers are fully down.

I've noticed that some air escapes from the top and replaced the o-ring with the spare one. Air does not escape anymore, but this did not help. I inspected the piston and the metal parts of the device, all looks good. Portafilter sits in its place well, does not unwind and does not have water and air leakage.

I had enough practice with automatic espresso machines and never had any problems with making good espresso/ristretto with decent crema.

I suppose I either repeatedly make some glaring mistake in the process of preparation, or my machine has some damage that is not visible or obvious.

Please let me know what you think!

Blusbreaker, if you can provide details as to what you're doing - grams coffee/water in/out, time, temp, coffee freshness etc then we can provide feedback. Cheers.

I just received the parts and changed the water cylinder and the seal.
And it really works better!

I've just made my first espresso shot ever! (I've only used French Press and coffeepot before)
For a first try, it was drinkable... even if very bitter. I'll now have to play with the grind fineness and see where I can go from now.

Here is a picture of my first shot :

awesome news. My wife and I have pulled at minimum three shots a day for the past 3 years from our Presso. It is a wonderful machine and every aspect is serviceable.