misterdoggy wrote:I went back to the machine and realised that you needed to pull lightly on the lever, not enough to make the pump come on, just enough to let some steam wet the grounds. This was hard to measure while a 'full' portafilter, but was easy to see without any portafilter in place.

For those who are wondering what Bruce is talking about, see Is there a purpose for the E61 middle brew lever position? At the mid-point, the upper valve opens and the brew chamber gets a spritz of water (reservoir models) or is open to line pressure (plumbed-in models). For the former case, I refer to it as prewetting since there's no pressure and to avoid confusion with the E61's built-in preinfusion.

I've tried prewetting the puck on reservoir types of E61 espresso machines and really didn't notice any difference. With the plumbed-in models, it pressurized the brew chamber to line pressure, extending the E61's inherent preinfusion by a few seconds. That did seem to increase the margin of error.

My bet is that you'll discover more "secrets" over the next month or two, many of which may properly be attributed to your mastering the basics. If you haven't done so already, read Dave's Buyer's Guide to the Vibiemme Domobar Super and the associated review thread. He covers all the ins-and-outs. The Vibiemme shouldn't require any extraordinary efforts on your part; we both found it very forgiving of minor errors in barista technique (an 8.0 for its "morning after" score).

11 bar is a common factory setting for ESE pod espresso machines. Something closer to 9 bar is highly recommended. Quite surprisingly, I find this is not specifically called out in the review. Oops.

Search on 'Vibratory pumps' and 'OPV' in the FAQs and Favorites, you will find all the information you need.