cafeIKE wrote:From the photo, the PID is going to be exceedingly close to the uninsulated boiler.

Care to stick a TC in that space on a closed machine and report the temperature after an hour of operation?

As part of the PID installation, the boiler is insulated and a small piece of flashing (over the insulation) is installed to further shield the PID controller from heat. This is all part of the PID kit that Jim Gallt put together for Chris. I believe the Alexia's case was also further modified with additional ventilation slots in the bottom of the case (and perhaps the top). From conversations with Jim, I know that he tested this with a thermocouple as you suggest (and apparently the PID controller has some sort of internal temp monitor as well, cool!). Beyond that, the specified controller was chosen because it has an increased operating temperature range in comparison to some other PID units.
(But we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit )

More interior pictures to follow.

(And I need to get some cheap thermocouples!)

cafeIKE wrote:From the photo, the PID is going to be exceedingly close to the uninsulated boiler.

Care to stick a TC in that space on a closed machine and report the temperature after an hour of operation?

Done during testing and development of kit (which includes boiler insulation and reflective shield). Click the link for measured ambients over 2-hour period.

http://www.pidkits.com/alexia/05050035-ambient.pdf

Shows steady state ambient temp is around 120F in brew mode. Temps rose to a little over 130F after 30 minutes with steam switch continuously on (not recommended).

Jim

The Quick Mill Alexia bench test is my first hands-on experience with the E61 grouphead, and I've got to say I really like it. It's probably too early in my "E61 honeymoon" to make very broad statements, but it just seems so easy to use. Silvia never treated me this well (this consistently at least).

The drinks are coming along nicely. Here's a shot from the first few days:

Mmmm - Kid-O from Intelligentsia

This is the first milk drink from Alexia from day 2 of using the machine. It looks pretty good, my (lack of) latte art skills notwithstanding.

The first milk drink from Alexia, about 8 ounces

The following video shows a shot of Caffe Fresco's Daterra Estate from the other morning, and my tamp style. The shot blonds a little early (hard to see it in the video). I have since adjusted my grind a little finer and my dose a little heavier. I am still using Rocky for now, but I will drag out the Cimbali Max for the TGP soon.

[gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1854737357421137418&hl=en[/gvideo]

Quick Mill Alexia - Temperature Surfing and the Stock Thermostat

One of the first things I did when I received the Alexia was to break out my new Scace thermofilter and test the machine a bit (it was clean after all).

As delivered, I was observing temperature measurements of 199-201°F at the high side of the heater cycle. I used the machine as delivered for the first week with good results as I finished up some Intelligenstia Kid-O Organic espresso blend.

After a bit of testing with the thermofilter and visual observation of the temperature measurements, I have determined that the thermosyphon and group need some waking up from a long idle period. If you just walk up and pull a shot, the shot will be cold (I have seen as low as 185-186°F at the thermofilter). I find that I need to flush about 3-4 ounces, wait, and maybe flush again and wait until the heater cycles on (Tip: I use the warming flush water to heat my cup). Once the heater light goes off, I wait 40 seconds, pull another 1 ounce warming flush, and then lock in the portafilter to pull the shot near the top of the heat cycle.

When I had the covers of the machine for the previous pictures, I adjusted the thermostat ever so slightly up. At the adjusted thermostat setting, the highest temperature I have registered on the thermofilter has been 203°F, and that wasn't for very long. The above surfing procedure results in a fairly consistent 202°F thermofilter measurement at the current thermostat setting.

These two videos show this temperature surfing procedure. The second video is just for confirmation that these steps are repeatable.

[gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-500276248917745588&hl=en[/gvideo]

[gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6489232501144198220&hl=en[/gvideo]

jesawdy wrote:Flush to warm the group. Before you grind for your shot, lift the brew lever and flush about 3 ounces of water.

...

Brew. You may wish to do another brief spritz (1 ounce or so) of water from the group by lifting the lever, and then immediately lock in and lift the brew lever.

I think that's a lot of flushing for a non-HX machine, Jeff. Although not as dramatic as with an HX, these machines do have a thermosyphon effect, which keeps the head pretty close to brewing temperature. In addition to requiring more frequent refills of the reservoir, a 3-oz. flush will introduce 3 oz. of cold water into the boiler, which will pull down your brew temperature. I flush just enough to have some water come through the brewhead, and I do it immediately before locking in the portafilter.

I'd be curious what your results would be, if you give that a try.

Marshall wrote:I think that's a lot of flushing for a non-HX machine, Jeff.

I agree, but to be clear, the first 3 ounce flush is only from an idle state... not for every shot pulled in a session. Perhaps more so than warming the group, I am flushing that amount to force a heater cycle, just so I know where I am at (see my temperature surf post above). The second 1 ounce flush may be superfluous, I will gladly try without and report back my findings.

I am going to guess that the PID installation will change the procedures a bit.

jesawdy wrote:I agree, but to be clear, the first 3 ounce flush is only from an idle state... not for every shot pulled in a session. Perhaps more so than warming the group, I am flushing that amount to force a heater cycle, just so I know where I am at (see my temperature surf post above). The second 1 ounce flush may be superfluous, I will gladly try without and report back my findings.

I am going to guess that the PID installation will change the procedures a bit.

My Zaffiro is on PID. So we may be looking at different requirements.

Quick Mill Alexia - Steaming

Steaming on the Alexia is pretty no nonsense. The machine has good steam performance and is quite easy to make good microfoam with. I was a little surprised when I actually timed how long it takes to steam, it is a little slower than I would have guessed. Anything less than 8 ounces is plenty fast, and unless you are steaming for multiple beverages, I hope that you will agree that 8 ounces of milk is aplenty for the "exceptional espresso" that you just prepared.

Getting Ready to Steam

Save your clean up for later. After pulling your shot, I'd recommend a quick rinse of the showerscreen and portafilter and save your cleaning routine until later (you do wiggle rinse and water backflush, right?). You can do the cleaning routine beforehand, but it will impair heating of the boiler and your shot is getting lonely setting there on the counter all by itself. So, let's steam!

Turn on the Steam mode. Enter steam mode by turning on the right most toggle switch. The steam indicator (right red lamp) will come on as well as the heater indicator (center red lamp). The heater lamp will go off once the boiler reaches steaming temperature. The machine should be at steaming temperature in about 2 minutes.

Force the heater on. Here's a tip - learn to start steaming before the heater goes off. Here's how:


• Initial purge. After the steam switch is on, I purge the wand a bit in the first 30 seconds. If your boiler pressure gauge was still reading the brew pressure, it will drop quickly to about 1 bar.
  
• Get ready. Get your pitcher and milk ready, and watch the pressure gauge, it should be rising.
• Purge again. I will purge the wand a bit more briefly at around 2.5 - 3.0 bar, or perhaps 1 min 15 seconds if you're watching the clock. This should get rid of any remaining moisture in the wand.
• Watch the gauge. With time, I found the heater was turning off near 3.5 bar, so I would start steaming before I got there (Note - the steam temp is thermostatically controlled, not a pressurestat control, so results may vary based on your routine).
• Steam. Start steaming at 3+ bar or somewhere between 1:30 min and 1:45 min.
Note - Watching the boiler pressure gauge is a reliable indicator of when to steam. However, if you are more overzealous with your wand purging or have different routine, the gauge readings will probably vary. If you have the PID controller, you can watch the boiler temperature and not the pressure gauge. This should be a much more consistent method. I can expand on this after I install the PID controller.

Frothing

The Alexia has a two-holed steam tip and the steam dispersion pattern is directional. With the wand pointed nearly straight down, center the tip in the pitcher and find the stretching zone, you can hold the pitcher level. Once you're ready to incorporate the foam, sink the tip a bit; depending on the pitcher design and milk volume, continue to hold the pitcher level or cant it to one side. Experiment to see what works best for you. (Refer to Jim Schulman's The Home Barista's Guide to Espresso, in the Barista Technique - Frothing and Pouring Milk section for more help.) The video below shows steaming 10 ounces of milk.

Quick Mill Alexia - Steaming Milk
[gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2777098372214414703[/gvideo]

Finishing Up

• Clean the wand. There will be milk dried onto the steam tip and lower portion of the wand (the Alexia does not have the "no burn" wand). Use a moist cloth to scrub the milk off the tip and wand. It is a good idea to purge a little steam; this flushes the tip and moistens the cloth for more scrubbing. Be careful not to burn yourself when you purge. Hold the cloth loosely from above the tip, purge, wipe, purge, wipe (in a class, I was instructed to hold the cloth like you would a stinky diaper, that's a good analogy). I found that I have to spend a little extra time cleaning the junction where the wand shaft meets the upper portion of the tip.
• Prepare your drink. Pour your milk (I'll spare you my latte art ).
• Turn off Steam mode. After you've prepared your drink, you still need to return the machine to brew mode and cool things off. It is not advisable to leave the machine in steam mode for long periods of time. Return to brew temperature mode by turning off the steam switch.
• Refill the boiler. Place the steam wand in a tall pitcher or mug, open the steam valve and engage the pump switch to fill the boiler. Directly after steaming, it takes about 6 ounces of water before I get a steady stream of water out of the steam wand. The boiler is full now and things are starting to cool off. (Tip - it is all too easy to get splashed with very hot water in this step. You may want to cover the pitcher/mug with your steam rag, or alternatively, I found it helpful to just remove the tip from the wand. The tip is very easy to remove and no splashing*.)
• Clean up. Time to rinse the group again, wiggle rinse and backflush with water. This will also help cool the grouphead back down to close to normal levels.
  
  * - Dan suggested the safer option of using the brew lever to refill the boiler. This will greatly raise the head temp (which is already hot). This should not pose a problem as long as you don't plan on making anything for 10-15 minutes. No chance of spraying yourself. I intend to give this a try next time I steam.

Steaming Times

Here are some steam times I have measured to give you an idea of steam performance.


From 40°F to 150°F:
4 ounces - 25 sec
8 ounces - 38 sec, 40 sec (two sets)
12 ounces - 66 sec, 75 sec (two sets)

From 40°F to 160°F:
8 ounces - 46 sec, 48 sec (two sets)
10 ounces - 55 sec, 60 sec (two sets)

jesawdy wrote:Refill the boiler. Place the steam wand in a tall pitcher or mug, open the steam valve and engage the pump switch to fill the boiler. Directly after steaming, it takes about 6 ounces of water before I get a steady stream of water out of the steam wand.

Jeff, I predict, with all this purging and flushing, you are going to get very tired of clearing the cups off the warming tray and refilling the reservoir. It really isn't necessary to get a steady stream of water out of the wand after steaming. Running the pump just until water starts to come out of the wand works quite well on a Zaffiro (and I assume on an Alexia). I brew 3 or 4 doubles a day and steam milk once every 2 to 4 days and only need to refill about twice a week.

Another tip, I do my steam purging into the very bottom of the (rinsed out) frothing pitcher, which eliminates splashing.

Thanks for the reports.

Since this review of the Alexia is my first experience with the E61, I am taking the opportunity to get a better understanding of use and the maintenance of an E61-based machine.

One thing I was a bit apprehensive about was removing the grouphead gasket and shower screen. This seems to be a common question and issue; it seems that people often either sacrifice the shower screen (tearing it up) to replace the gasket or, conversely, sacrificing the gasket (with an awl) to replace the shower screen.

In doing routine cleaning and maintenance, I prefer to remove the shower screen once a month or so, just to see what is lurking behind there. I do finish every espresso session with some "front-flushing" or portafilter wiggles, and usually 2 or 3 quick water-only backflushes. By doing this, and based on my coffee usage, I have been happy with only performing chemical backflushes on a monthly basis. Some people like to do this more frequently, and if you let coffee sit on the screen, you probably need to do so.

My fears of removing the shower screen were unwarranted... I have removed it three times without issue now (not because I had to), and it really was quite simple. Referring to the threads, "How to clean an E61 dispersion screen" and "How to remove the dispersion screen and gasket of an E61?", I settled on holding the portafilter with a blind basket at about the 7-o'clock position, lifting the brew lever, and letting the system fully pressurize. This seems that it may push the gasket out a bit. I follow this with the use of a flathead screw driver, two times at opposite sides of the screen, prying along the ridge or groove on side of the screen and using the group as the fulcrum (as shown here). The gasket and screen very easily pry out of a hot machine. The gasket feels a bit "greasy"; I'm not sure if this is because the gasket is hot, it is lubricated or if it just has coffee oils on it. While the ridge or groove makes it easy to pry the dispersion screen out, it does give a small place for coffee to accumulate. So far, I've only had a thin film that easily wipes off with a paper towel, both at the inside of the dispersion screen and on the underside of the grouphead on the "dispersion screw".


E61 dispersion screens - My Alexia review machine has the ridged, "groovy" style dispersion screen (right).


Quick Mill Alexia - Dispersion screen profile (left); Inside showing the ridge, in this case quite clean (right).

This was all quite simple, and it only takes 2 or 3 minutes to remove, wipe clean and replace. Personally, I would prefer to remove the dispersion screen on a routine basis, before the gasket hardens or the screen gets caked up or stick on with dried coffee or coffee oils and becomes a problem.

Previously, I was of the opinion that the E61 dispersion screen retained by the group gasket was a "bastard" design. I see now that it is actually quite eloquent; this design removes the issue of a screw that might seize, retain grinds or otherwise interfere with the dispersion screen or puck.

(NOTE - Dan mentioned that his review machine has the "ungroovy" spot welded-style dispersion screen shown above on the left, so YMMV)