On my machine, which seems to have particularly wet pucks, I notice that I get drier pucks with higher doses and "better shots." I think headroom might be related to dry pucks. Maybe a lot of water on top of the puck lets some stay there. And by "better shots" I just mean shots without terrible channeling. If I get lots of channeling, I don't get much pressure in the portafilter, and there is little pressure to release through the solenoid valve.

I bet using only one type of coffee couldn't hurt. If you are trying to discern differences in extraction then you might want to minimize your variables. Are you wasting a lot of coffee dialing in new roasts? Too fresh or too stale coffees can cause their own problems as well.

jamiedolan wrote:No, only a gram scale. Is it important to be able to measure to the 10th of a gram?

A digital 1g scale has an absolute accuracy of ±2.0g : ±1 count ±1g ± device quality factor
The typical cheep and cheerful 1g scale CMIC has a capability of 5kg.
Accuracy typically is highest in the middle of the range. 20g is in the bottom 0.5% of the range

±0.2g makes a difference

Pucks are compost. Drier pucks are an artifact of higher doses, not better shots.
Dose by taste, nothing else.

YUK

Machine ran out of water while running hot water wand. I close the hot water valve immediately and refilled the water tank. Pump didn't run. Turned off and on many times. Pump won't start. All three lights just flash.

Any suggestions? Did my pump die?

I emailed 1st line.

Thanks

If the water reservoir is like on my machine, it sits on a plate with a spring switch to tell it water is present... maybe something got jammed in that mechanism... if lift up, reseat should hear it click.

erics wrote:The lights are blinking because of an "extra" low level of water in the boiler.

Or so it thinks.

Jim promptly got back to me even on this holiday afternoon.

Thanks Jim at 1st line. Great Service!

I had been using some water that was filtered, but had minerals in it, then today, I had put distilled water in the machine. As soon as I opened jim's email and saw him ask if I was using distilled or RO water, I realized what happened. The units sensor can't tell if there is water in the machine if the water is free of minerals and salts.

I'm glad to be back up and going to quickly.

benm5678 wrote:If the water reservoir is like on my machine, it sits on a plate with a spring switch to tell it water is present... maybe something got jammed in that mechanism... if lift up, reseat should hear it click.

It appears that this unit has a probe / sensor that determines the presence of water, via conductivity. So distilled or watered filtered to the point of having almost no dissolved solids can't be sensed by the system.

Once I added in water that had some even minimal minerals in it, the machine popped right back to life.

I know that machines had systems like this, however, it didn't occur to me that my machine had a sensor like that and that's what the problem was until Jim mentioned the water.


Thank You

Jamie

erics wrote:And that's certainly good news - so - for future readers of this thread, why not elaborate on exactly what you had to do?

All I had to do was dump out the water tank. Then add water that had minerals in it (could be tap water or bottled spring water or filtered bottled water with minerals added back in).

I then turned the machine on, and it automatically started working again, it just started pumping the water into the boiler.

Thanks

Jamie

cafeIKE wrote:A digital 1g scale has an absolute accuracy of ±2.0g : ±1 count ±1g ± device quality factor
The typical cheep and cheerful 1g scale CMIC has a capability of 5kg.
Accuracy typically is highest in the middle of the range. 20g is in the bottom 0.5% of the range

±0.2g makes a difference

Pucks are compost. Drier pucks are an artifact of higher doses, not better shots.
Dose by taste, nothing else.

Thanks for the info on and explanation of scales. I'll look around for a more accurate scale.

Jamie

mini wrote: Are you wasting a lot of coffee dialing in new roasts? Too fresh or too stale coffees can cause their own problems as well.

A few shots, not too many sink shots, one of us drinks most of them.

The ones I roasted 2 nights ago, though fresh roasted, they were old beans, I wonder if that made a difference.

Jamie