Figuring out ECM Technika IV brew temperatures

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jwCrema
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#1: Post by jwCrema »

My Technika was delivered by UPS a whole business day ahead of schedule from Whole Latte Love. I bought Eric's temperature probe before the Technika arrived, and coincidently it arrived in the mail on the same day. Friday was therefore a red letter day.

WLL did a fantastic job packing the machine and it actually worked when I plugged it in. UPS has ingenious ways to crush shipments and I have had espresso machines receive catastrophic damage in shipment, so I was very pleased to have avoided that nonsense.

I decided on Hx due to fewer parts, and my typical mission is two drinks with a sprint to do four only occasionally. I considered other brands but found fewer issues reported here about ECM than Faema Carisma, or some models of Rocket.

Installation of the temperature probe was ridiculously easy with Eric's instructions. I would feel completely stupid without the probe on this elegant machine.

I've done a lot of research before posting this, and I wish the topic of flushing was on a sticky or a Espresso 501 article. Searching with mere words for the answers has eluded me. And I'm completely confident the information is sitting one link away and I'll look silly for suggesting this, but I've decided that's ok.

I have learned the Technika is a flush and go machine. I haven't been able to find a succinct definition of what f-n-go is. I went through days of searching, and find all kinds of references to it, but not the definition. Maybe there isn't one and it's more of an operating philosophy? When I throw the lever, the grouphead goes from 208F to 212F then goes down. I've decided the f-n-g for me is to purge the heat spike and I mount the tamped basket in the portafilter and shoot. This gave me a nice, full flavored shot. I tried a longer flush, then waited for the temp to come back, but found a blonde, hollow, straw tasting shot with good crema. But a good shot does not rely on crema alone.

My sense is that there is some point that I should pull the shot after the spike and a wait, but I'm curious as to what others do on Hx or ECM. I started with a longer flush to do a deeper cooling, then waited two minutes for it to recover. Then I decided that the -n-go meant "go!", so I did the shorter version that was 15 seconds start to finish.

I've also been enlightened by a better understanding of portafilter baskets. I've ordered some VST 18g baskets (and I think they'll fit). I'm going to recalibrate grind to fit them, and will work on the 25 second shot.

What hasn't changed is my Pharos - I'm able to tweak the grind and feel it's consistent. I'm also using AWS scale that measures to the .01g and I'm dosing within .02g each time. Although, I've found that most of my prior practices and preconceived beliefs have been enlightened recently. Maybe I'm going to end up with a new grinder and a scale that goes to .001? I do know I really like the precision I'm seeing in the machine, and once I figure out the end to end game I'm going to have a nirvana espresso.

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HB
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#2: Post by HB »

This post in the ECM Technika IV Profi Review explains the Technika's flush routine and includes a video:
The more general "HX Love" article is located in the site How-Tos. I didn't have the benefit of Eric's thermocouple adapter, but I found the Technika easy to manage. The only significant caveat is that it needs a fair amount of time between shots to recover because it's thermosyphon is tuned for home usage.
Dan Kehn

jwCrema (original poster)
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#3: Post by jwCrema (original poster) »

Thanks Dan! You should get Eric's thermometer - my wife would never go for the wires.... :)

I saw this post during my purchasing decision process, but missed the flush by sound note
Keep in mind as you watch the video above that the "sss-s-s" sound is the best indicator of how long you should flush (long, short, or mini) rather than keeping track of idle time. To put it another way, long "sss-s-s" sound = long flush + mini flush, medium-short "sss-s-s" sound = short flush, no or little "sss-s-s" sound = little or no flush.
I did the sound approach on my previous gear, but I confess to being I am enamored with the precision the ECM idles - it's the same within .5F after idle for an hour (or more) per the probe. So I sort of abandoned that - I'll coordinate the sound with the temp and see what happens.

My flush strategy was to get rid of the spike that is shown in Dave's post Sep 13, 2007, 6:54 pm in this thread: Theory behind flushing an E61 HX machine I can see exactly when the curve flattens out due to the precision I see temps through the temperature probe.

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keno
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#4: Post by keno »

Congrats on the Technika and smart move to pick up Eric's thermometer, definitely very helpful.

I have a Technika, though mine has been modified slightly (HX was tweaked) after having an initial brew temperature problem. So I'm not sure how well my machine compares to other Technikas, such as yours. However, my flush routine is pretty similar to what Dan posted in his video above. I think that should give you a great starting point. Keep in mind that Dan's temperatures are recorded with a Scace device which has a thermocouple in the basket at the location of the puck and that these temperatures may differ from what you get with Eric's thermometer. I found the following chart from this thread to be very helpful to understand the relationship between the two temperatures and therefore how to use Eric's thermometer effectively to achieve your desired brew temp.



This shows the typical "HX hump" you will see with Eric's thermometer where the temperature spikes, then declines, and finally stabilizes. Note that the Scace (red line) and Eric's thermometer (blue line) converge around 15 seconds or so. So when describing the temp the shot was pulled at I would typically use the temperature recorded by Eric's thermometer at about 15-20 seconds into the shot.

Here's a description of my technique, for what it's worth, with the Technika. After an hour or more of warmup (note that the Technika needs a really good warmup so use a timer if you need it ready shortly after waking) my thermometer indicates a grouphead temp of 201 F (+/- about one degree). I use the flush and go technique and will typically flush around half a cappa cup or slightly more (so about 3 to maybe 4 ounces). During the flush the temp may spike to 211-213 F and then drop to around 206-208 when I stop the flush. If I then immediately pull the shot the hump is fairly small (or in some cases non-existent) and the temp tends to go from around 204-206 F down to around 201-202 F where it levels off after 10-20 seconds.

That's for the first shot, things get a little trickier with the second and subsequent shots. After the first shot is pulled the group temp will continue downward for a bit and then slowly start rising again (this is why Dan noted that you need a little more time in between shots with the Technika than some other E61 machines). The grouphead will recover fairly slowly and when it climbs back up to around a temperature of 197 F, I would do a very short flush like Dan shows in the video and then immediately pull the shot. In this case the temperature rises from 197 F and equalizes around 202 F, since the cooler group head is being warmed up with the hotter water from the HX before reaching equilibrium. Ideally, it equalizes at your desired brew temp. However, I have to say that I find perfecting the second shot more challenging than the first one, but experiment and see how it goes.

Hope this helps.

jwCrema (original poster)
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#5: Post by jwCrema (original poster) »

Thanks Ken! We had some great espresso this morning. I like the probe feedback better than sound as I can easily execute on the number. I too have found the second shot to be more interesting to dial in, and applied your technique this morning. The wife (the Ultimate Judge) said the second shot tasted the same, so things are happy at my house.

I'm eagerly awaiting the VST baskets, and will reset my grind with a new batch of beans from my favorite roaster.

Are you using the stock steam tip? I used a single hole tip on my previous machine and I think I like that better than the stock ECM two hole as I could get a faster swirl going.

I lived in PDX for years - nice city.