The smaller washer in the group should prevent any brown water getting back through to the kettle. However if the larger washer at the top of the piston chamber is not closing over the holes properly, water may be pushed back into the kettle. It won't be brown but you may see bubbles in the water as the lever comes up. If you do, you may be able to simply turn the washer over and get some more life from it. However if you've gone to the trouble of getting in there, you might as well change it. 30ml is perhaps a little light for one pull but if the shots are OK, who cares. I did just try some cold pulls on mine and got around 45 - 50ml each time. I only queried your seals because you pumped the lever quite a lot in the video and i assumed you were needing to in order to get enough water through the machine. With that many pulls I would think you're getting a very large, overextracted shot or, pulling the cup before it finishes? I personally favour short shots and wouldn't pull more than 1.5 times. In theory that small washer in the group should prevent the lever pumping from disrupting the puck but who really knows what's going on in there.

It looks like the pre-infusion pumps aren't delivering as much water as they should/showing as much resistance as they should. My machine does slightly similar. The issue could be two fold.
First, more water in the boiler means a quicker filling cylinder. Experiment: fill boiler to the widest part of the boiler (so just a few ounces of water) and with no portafilter in place, hold down the lever and count to see how long it takes the water to flow out of the group. it should be somewhere around 5-10 seconds. Then, do the same thing but with the kettle filled to an inch below the top. It should take more like 2 seconds. This gives you an idea of how long the cylinder takes to fill with water when the lever is lowered in relation to the amount of water in the kettle. With this in mind, I don't start my pull until I know its filled. Not sure if this matters or not, but it seems theoretically sound and it doesn't hurt.
Second, when holding the lever during pre-infusion pumps with old(er) valve seals, there may not be enough back pressure to properly close the valve seal to the kettle. This takes some feel and letting the lever go a bit more abruptly to get that seal to close and get the water pumping to the coffee. The piston should hit resistance, and shouldn't really easily rise that many times without anything coming out. I hope this makes sense.
Also, play with the grind. I was getting weak, zero crema shots with tighter grinds, and too much assistance needed. Try going a bit coarser than the gaggia. As soon as I started running coarser than the vibe pump, I got better (awesome) shots. They are different. Not as kick you in the pants, not as syrupy, but more delicate and nuanced. They shouldn't necessarily be weaker though.
One more, are you using a thermometer in the kettle to know when it's ready to pull and to have consistency with temperature? I love this aspect of these machines. It makes it so easy to explore pull temperatures with different coffees.

samgiles wrote:However if the larger washer at the top of the piston chamber is not closing over the holes properly, water may be pushed back into the kettle. It won't be brown but you may see bubbles in the water as the lever comes up.

I do notice that there's some bubbles in the kettle if I let go of the lever abruptly (in like 1 sec). However, if it's let go slowly, with the speed during a pull, there isn't any bubbles in the kettle. It's still functional properly right now, but I guess a rebuild is probably due soon in the near future.

Also, one thing I notice is that, if I don't let the lever raises high enough, it won't start dropping water no matter how I do. But I if I do let it raise sufficiently, the following small partial pumps will get a fair amount of showering. I showed this in the video. I think my small washer is probably sticky, am I guessing correctly?Haha. I guess that's probably why I need to do so many pumps before dripping forms as it wasn't showering at all!

samgiles wrote:With that many pulls I would think you're getting a very large, overextracted shot or, pulling the cup before it finishes? I personally favour short shots and wouldn't pull more than 1.5 times.

Yeah, my "instinct" tells me to fill the group with a larger amount of water and then pull the cup earlier. This is because from what I've read, the pressure peaks at 6 bars and quickly goes down. So, the further the spring raises, the pressure is probably much closer to 0. Weaker shot I presume.

jonny wrote:Experiment: fill boiler to the widest part of the boiler (so just a few ounces of water) and with no portafilter in place, hold down the lever and count to see how long it takes the water to flow out of the group. it should be somewhere around 5-10 seconds. Then, do the same thing but with the kettle filled to an inch below the top. It should take more like 2 seconds. This gives you an idea of how long the cylinder takes to fill with water when the lever is lowered in relation to the amount of water in the kettle. With this in mind, I don't start my pull until I know its filled. Not sure if this matters or not, but it seems theoretically sound and it doesn't hurt.
Second, when holding the lever during pre-infusion pumps with old(er) valve seals, there may not be enough back pressure to properly close the valve seal to the kettle. This takes some feel and letting the lever go a bit more abruptly to get that seal to close and get the water pumping to the coffee. The piston should hit resistance, and shouldn't really easily rise that many times without anything coming out. I hope this makes sense.

I think what I've just described matches your second description..

jonny wrote:One more, are you using a thermometer in the kettle to know when it's ready to pull and to have consistency with temperature? I love this aspect of these machines. It makes it so easy to explore pull temperatures with different coffees.

Could you describe how you put the thermometer in the kettle?I notice that different part of the water have different temperature readings, at least different heights do. Also, closer to the heating element, the temperature is also higher. I am using a router speed controller to adjust the temperature though. Am curious about that.

jonny wrote:Also, play with the grind. I was getting weak, zero crema shots with tighter grinds, and too much assistance needed. Try going a bit coarser than the gaggia. As soon as I started running coarser than the vibe pump, I got better (awesome) shots. They are different. Not as kick you in the pants, not as syrupy, but more delicate and nuanced. They shouldn't necessarily be weaker though.

Yeah, I agree that the Peppina's and vibe pump's shot are different. I think I was used to the kick-in-your-pant type of drink, and was expecting something similar from the Peppina. That was probably unfair though as the shots she produces hold its own class. But I think, with some updosing and also manual assistance, it should theoretically possible to get 9-10 bar to make intense ristrettos we get in vibe pumps. I found out somehow why my Cappas are "weak" btw. It seems that the skim milk does a really 'great' job diluting the Cappas and 'enhance' it with a weird taste. Should probably stick back to whole milk.

Have you compared your shots to any "3d wave" straight espressos from lever machines?

I suspect that you might be tasting the coffee for what it is, and it doesn't sound bad to me. I personally don't think "helping" the lever really does much compared to all the other factors. I like to never help it because it makes a variable a constant and allows me to adjust the other variables.

If you want more of a kick, maybe you should consider:

1. Raising the temperature using your controller. It will make it taste more burnt. Easy to try-- quick to know.

2. Using darker roast beans. They will seem to give it more kick.

3. Adding some robusta to your blend. Definitely more kick.

4. Using beans that are not ancient, but starting on the downhill curve. Maybe more kick.

I know "kick" isn't well defined, but I think I know what you are talking about, having gone from a Gaggia Classic to a La Peppina. I don't know where that "edge" came from with the Classic, but I'm glad it's gone. I had it PID'd, bottomless, timed carefully etc., and I liked the espresso, but didn't love it. I have a suspicion that the La Peppina and the Caravel really allow you to taste the real coffee, and when the other variables are under control, that is the variable that should be adjusted.

Bad analogy, but kind of like cutting back on salt-- everything tastes bland for a time until you adjust and then you realize you can actually taste the food.

DJR wrote:Have you compared your shots to any "3d wave" straight espressos from lever machines?
I suspect that you might be tasting the coffee for what it is, and it doesn't sound bad to me.

I've tried a few 3rd wave coffees in New York City and here in State College. But none of them actually uses lever. Their espressos (3rd wave) were what I used as reference for my coffee and they all do have the "kick" at first sip. I do hope I am tasting the coffee for what it is. If what I am tasting is La Peppina, I am totally fine with it. I was just afraid that this cute Peppina goes wasted in the hand of a newbie Barista.(me:P)

I might be a little obscure in my description, apology. But the kick you're describing isn't exactly my "kick". I tried a few dark roasted beans occasionally and definitely they're not my cup of "coffee". The thing I was looking for was more of an intensity at the first sip. The Peppina's first sip was so round that it's almost watery in my opinion. However, the taste complexity only starts to develop after that 0.05 sec of watery front. This is probably a good thing though as it provides a smooth progressive development into the complexity of the shot. But this gives me the impression that the coffee was weak itself and thus doesn't stand out as much. But as mentioned in previous post, I found out that it was most probably the skim milk I am using.

Update: After typing this post, I bought a new gallon of whole milk. I used 16g of Redbird to be pulled into 2 oz into Mr. Coffee-steamed-microfoam. Absolutely delicious. The chocolate taste definitely cuts through the milk and it was so sweet with heavenly aroma. Definitely is what I used to get on Gaggia in enhanced version! The whole milk also adds to the body of the Cappas into buttery smooth chocolatey drink. Very very enjoyable overall. In addition, I discover that the crema from Peppina isn't as bitter as the one from Gaggia. I sometimes prefer to mix the brown crema with the milk to soften the bitterness before drinking. But for this, I don't have to do it. One conclusion that I've come to, two actually:
i) Never ever use skim milk for your Cappas, especially not the unbranded ones.
ii) "Watery front" doesn't mean weak coffees, nor makes weak Cappas. In fact, I think it actually makes the coffee sweeter, distinct profile of spring lever I suppose.

I apologize for the troubles caused here, if any. This whole dilemma was actually caused by the usage of skimmed milk which dilutes the coffee too much. However, I do learnt a great deals from all the above experienced La Peppina users. Thank you so much! I've come to a temporary conclusion(until further corrected that is) that the "tame" shot I perceived is actually a unique profile of spring levers. It actually enhances the sweetness of the shot and provide a smoother palate transition into a more enjoyable experience.

I think there must be something wrong with your machine if there is even a hint of wateriness. I've never run into it. Maybe you should get a rebuild kit from OE and see if that helps. Somehow you must be underextracting because it should be like syrup coming out.

It is the "first impression" taste for the first 0.05 sec that is "watery", not the body.As I said, it takes that brief 0.05 seconds for the taste to actually process and develop. The taste following that is pretty strong though. The shot itself is actually pretty syrupy with good body. I am going to get the rebuild kit from OE soon. That's on my next to-do list. I've had too much caffeine for today. Will try again tomorrow.