My weekday routine typically sees me pulling one shot in the morning and that's it. Sadly, this shot is always a bit of a spritzer and seems to channel a fair bit. On the rare occasion I pull a second shot all this bad behavior goes away. I've always been reluctant to toss the first shot as that would effectively double my bean budget. I know there's some debate over what causes the sink shot phenomenon but last week I tried something and it's been working every day for a week now. Before my flush (HX) I use the blind basket and pull for about 5 seconds. I then do my regular flush and then pull. No spritzing or channeling! No idea why this pre-pressurization is working but it is working very nicely. Perhaps this isn't news to anyone but just though I'd share!

So you're give the pump a workout at full pressure? I have thought about this too, and I wonder if someone who knows more about pumps than I do could see the merit in doing this.

I literally just finished my morning shot. Another perfect first pull using the blind basket preflush. I can't for the life of me figure out why this works though!

What happens when you use the blind basket? Isn't water forced back through the group and eventually forced out through the three-way valve?

Sounds like what's happening is that your "pre-flush" is clearing out trapped air/moisture making the pressure through the group when you brew more even.

With my VBM DD I've never felt that I had a consistently poor shot as my first shot of the day. I always do a 4-5s flush and I've tried backflushing. My first shot is usually delicious and unless the first shot was off in some way, the second shot is not materially better in anyway. I'm at a loss for those who do experience this 'first shot is a sink shot' since that's not my experience and I believe I could tell if the shots were discernible.

My guess is that it's temp related. No matter how much I flush, the first shot I actually pull is slightly cooler than the 2nd. I'm not sure why, it would seem that flushing water through the group would deliver as much heat as possible, but it definitely seems like I see higher temps when pulling shots than when flushing against no resistance. I'll definitely see if using a blind basket for the first shot will even things out for the rest of them though.

The VBM DD is a double boiler no? Perhaps its something to do with an HX. It's not temp related. I have the thermometer mod.

I have a grouphead thermometer on My Alexia, and I can tell that flushing alone doesn't bring the temp as high as with coffee in the basket. I tried the backflush disk a while ago, and it did increase the temp more than flushing, but it was still a few degrees under what I get from running a shot. I never did try the coffee after that, though, so it may have been hot enough...? At least my sink shots don't go to waste... I save them for the wife who tosses them in milk for her breakfast, and right before going to bed, so I never really worked hard to eliminate them.

Jim

The reason I'm saying it's not temp related is because whether I do a regular flush and pull or the blind filter then regular flush and pull, the temp during the extraction is the same. It's not temp related.