Hi all,

I'm new on the forum and quite new in the world of espresso.
I recently scored my first espresso-gear consisting of a La Pavoni Europiccola (pre-millenium; judging from pictures on the web probably from around 1997) and a Compak K3 grinder.

I read about every beginner's thread about the Europiccola I could find on this forum and on others, but I'm still having some trouble understanding the hows and whys of some small problems I'm having.

My routine:

• Warm up the machine until light goes out. Release steam with the steam wand and at the same time raise lever until some water comes out.
• Close steam wand, put lever in down position and let the machine warm up for about 15 minutes.
• Put 14,5 g of fresly ground coffee in the double basket
• Flatten out surface with fingers and tamp with about 10 kg of pressure
• Remove portafilter from the machine and put filled basket in portafilter.
• Raise lever until just under the point where steam starts coming out of the shower screen
• Firmly attach portafilter + basket to the machine.
• Raise the lever to the highest point and wait for about 10 seconds.
• Slowly lower the lever.

What's going wrong:

• From the top position it takes about half a pull for any resistance to start and another couple of centimeters for any coffee to drip out.
• Shot volume is low, about 15 mL with a single pull.
• The shot itself seems so-so: not too sour, not too bitter and some crema but nothing to be enthousiastic about.

I've read about squishy pulls, fellini pulls, cold group heads et cetera and I've already tried to:

• Pull more hot water through to heat the group head.
• Try to expell as much air as possible to eliminate problems described here.
• Perform some quick pumps between the top position and the marked postition as described here.
• Pull down until I feel resistance, pull back up and down again. Effect: resistance still starts at the same position.

According to the friend I got the device from the gaskets and seals have been replaced about a year ago so it seems unlikely that that's the cause.

Can anyone please run me through the troubleshooting steps to diagnose and hopefully fix this problem? Or shouldn't I consider it a problem?

Thanks!

drgary wrote:Thanks for doing your homework.

thanks; I was a bit worried of coming across as a lazy newbie (which I'm not) rather than an absolute beginner (which I am).

drgary wrote:Try one thing. With the lever raised and the portafilter with coffee locked in, wait until you get a few drips of coffee coming out. If this isn't happening, coarsen your grind a bit. You may not be getting enough preinfusion.

Ok I will try coarsening the grind when I get home. With my current grind setting, no drops have been coming out even with the lever raised for 30+ seconds.
I would, however, think that my fourth "trick" (pull down until I feel resistance, pull back up and down again) would have a pre-infusing effect also... or am I missing something?

I think you are doing just fine. I use a lower dose, 12.5 gm in the 49mm double basket instead of 14.5. That seems to work best for me on my Europiccola. Also, I don't let it warm up as long. After the machine gets up to pressure--about 7 or 8 mins.--I run enough hot water thru the group to fill my cup about 1/4 full, set it aside to warm a bit, then bleed off the false pressure. While the pressure is coming back up, I grind the beans and by the time I get the basket ready to load into the portafilter, the Pavoni is back up to pressure and ready to go. The whole process takes a total of about 10 mins for a 1 oz. shot.

Even raising the lever most of the way up before locking in the PF--or raising the arm all the way up, then down a bit before locking in--the pull is still fairly squishy. Sometimes less so than at others. That just seems to be the nature of the beast.

My first shot is always the best one...which is good because that's all I normally pull. Subsequent shots are too hot. So maybe by starting with a cooler machine to begin with and lowering the dose, you will get a better shot. Give that a try and see if it works any better for you. But all in all, it sounds like you are doing just fine with what you are doing!

Remember, too, that espresso is an acquired taste. You will probably grow to like--even prefer--your shots to any others. Go with that and rejoice!

Some more ideas on shot volume ...


The spongy feel is caused by the air cushion above the puck, and a big air cushion does mean less coffee volume. Some things that might give you a smaller air cushion and larger volume are:

1) Warm the group a little more with half pumps before pulling. With a hotter group, the initial burst of water will contain more water vapor, and that initial vapor should help drive out the air before the puck is water-saturated. (Once the puck is saturated it will be pretty much airtight.) When the chamber is up to full pressure, the water vapor above the puck is condensed back to incompressible water.

2) When you raise the lever before locking in the group, always raise it enough for a little water to come through then lower til it stops. That should add some water vapor to the space below the piston, displacing a little air. And water vapor, being lighter than air should tend to hang in there while you lock in the PF.

3) During pre-infusion, try working the lever up and down a few times at the very top of the stroke. Whether this works may depend on how tight your seals are - seems to work well for me to eliminate spongyness on my pre-millennium machine.

If you are using the stock basket (not the Elektra), 14.5g is on the high side for most coffees. You will probably see a little more volume with a lower coffee dose. With the Elektra basket, a high dose is in the 16-17 gram range.

Shot volume on a Pavoni is never very high, but you should be getting more than 15ml. On a 14.5g dose, I would typically be expecting about 20g* of coffee in the cup.

*Note: - Is usually best to weigh your shots and report the weight rather than the volume. The volume has too much variability depending on how much of it is crema. A tight ristretto would have about the same weight of brew as your coffee dose, and a normale would have about twice as much brew as your dose. On my Pavoni, I seem to like shots that come in around 1.5 times my dose (brew ratio of .67)

For me the first shot comes out best if I wait between three and four minutes after the pressurestat light goes out after making the bleed through the steam wand and the group bleed by raising the handle. For a long time now I also put the filter basket in the portafilter, raised the group handle until a bit of water and steam come out, lowered it just enough to stop, put on the portafilter and pulled the shot. I never have a spongy pull that way unless there be too much or too finely ground coffee in the basket.

The second shot can be done by simply putting the packed filter basket in the portafilter, raise the handle, and make the pull. The third for me requires cooling of the group with a ramekin filled with cold water.

I generally use slightly less than 14 grams.

rpavlis wrote:For me the first shot comes out best if I wait between three and four minutes after the pressurestat light goes out after making the bleed through the steam wand and the group bleed by raising the handle. For a long time now I also put the filter basket in the portafilter, raised the group handle until a bit of water and steam come out, lowered it just enough to stop, put on the portafilter and pulled the shot. I never have a spongy pull that way unless there be too much or too finely ground coffee in the basket.

OK...this sounds pretty much like my own routine, except you wait longer between the first and second purge/bleed of the group. It usually takes me about 2 mins. to grind, level and tamp the shot. But most of the time I still get the spongy feel and the handle goes down about half way before there's real resistance.

Soooo... I just now went and pulled a shot...waiting 4 mins. between group bleed/purges instead of my usual 2 mins and...same thing. Spongy for about half way down with the handle. Not sure what's going on and why it doesn't work for me.

Tomorrow I'll try the series of small Fellini moves that Pat suggested and see if that helps. I'm really OK with the sponginess, frankly. It sort of feels like the Aeropress. The shots still taste good to me, but I would prefer a firmer pull if I can get it. I have had them in the past using the above technique, but it's not consistent. I'll keep playing with it...

Well...I couldn't wait until tomorrow to try it out, so I turned the Pavoni back on, went thru my usual routine, then, instead of one pre-infusion lift, I did a series (3) short Fellini lift-pulls. No sponginess.

I pulled up the handle past the click to the top and bled/purged the group, locked in the portafilter, then brot the handle up, then down past the click, back up, down past the click, back up...then puled the shot. No sponginess.

I don't know if this is because I pumped out the air with the short pulls or if the machine was already pretty warm from the first time and that's what made the difference. So I'll try it again tomorrow when the machine is completely cold and see what happens...

This morning I carefully weighed the two espresso shots I made--both 14 grams. The first shot was made about 3 and a half minutes after the light went out after the bleeds. I removed the empty portafilter, put the pressed coffee into it. Then I raised the handle until steam and a bit of water was emitted, lowered it just enough to stop the flow, put on the portafilter with the loaded basket. I raised the handle and pulled it just enough to emit a bit of espresso, then pushed it all the way up again and made the full shot. Mass of espresso:38 grams.

I had another basket of pressed coffee in another basket. I removed the portafilter, switched to the new basket, put the portafilter in place with the handle down, raised the handle all the way slowly and pulled the handle again until a bit of espresso was emitted, then pushed it up fully and made the full shot. Mass of espresso: 36 grams.

Note that I put the portafilter on the machine with the handle up just below emitting hot water for the first shot, and all the way down for the second. (I always do it that way, otherwise I get a spongy first pull.)

Third shots (and subsequent) , I cool group with a Ramekin of cold water for about 10 seconds, pulling some of the water from it into the group by raising the handle about half way. Then I do as in the second shot. (When I measure the temperature of the espresso as it emerges this tends to result in the last espresso being emitted from each shot at about 93 to 94 degrees.)