Setup: my Bric' is on a timer. Ok, just made Debi an El Injerto Americano and was about to pull myself a double of Delirium straight up. Loaded the portafilter, flushed down to temp for flush-n-go, locked PF and exactly when I pulled the lever up the timer turned the Bric' off! Took me a micro-second to realize the pump didn't turn on and only getting line pressure, glanced and saw power light had gone off, and quickly turned the timer back on! Probably total 2.5 second line pressure pre-infusion augmenting E-61 built in pre-infusion. Result quite tasty.

isn't this the same as just lifting the lever to the middle position?

jonny wrote:isn't this the same as just lifting the lever to the middle position?

Lifting the lever just a bit past the first "stop" (point of resistance) does supply true preinfusion, but only if the machine has a rotary pump and it is plumbed. Otherwise the coffee is only moistened with a bit of water from the HX that is under pressure.