Nunas wrote:As you know, in place, the Bianca uses a pump preinfusion control. With the Bianca, when you move the lever, you are controlling the flow, which depending on the puck density, also controls the pressure. With the ECM/Profitec, the control at first controls the preinfusion time; turned right down, it can take even a minute to get up to full pressure.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions. This is the only part that confused me. I don't understand what the difference is, based on your description, between Bianca and Profitec's mechanics. By "lever," do you mean the extraction lever on the right side of the grouphead? I thought the lever was an on/off switch. Are you saying you can flow control with the lever on the Bianca?

I read that the Bianca's max steam temp went up to 265 or 267. The max steam temp on the new Profitec 700 is 272. They're close, but I'm thinking the 700 has more stamina for steaming larger milk drinks (8-12 oz) without losing as much steam power as the Bianca.

I agree with your assessment of ECM Synk. I read that it's the same machine as the Profitec, just with different skin, so I'm just gonna save and get the Profitec 700. I'm also not a fan of the on/off "joystick" for steaming. I like the control that the knob gives me.

Max temp on Bianca steam boiler will be 135c (275f).

By "lever," do you mean the extraction lever on the right side of the grouphead? I thought the lever was an on/off switch. Are you saying you can flow control with the lever on the Bianca?

Yes, that's the lever to which I was referring. It's more than just an on/off. With the lever totally down, the pump is off and the water flow is off. Halfway open the lever has a detent, where it will stay even if you let go. In this position, the pump is off and the water flow is on (assuming the pump switch is properly adjusted...some are not, but it's easy to adjust). All the way up the water flow and pump are both on. So, how do we use this...two ways:

1. Plumbed machine. With the lever halfway open, low-pressure water enters the e61. The pressure is regulated before it enters the machine to only a few psi. This gives a preinfusion.

2. Reservoir machine. The lever can be used to change the preinfusion time. Raise the lever fully for a few seconds (say about 5 for starters). The pump comes on and the e61 preinfusion chamber begins to fill and, assuming a dense puck, the pressure will rise to 8-9 bar (usually something a bit less than pump pressure). Move the lever to the middle position and wait. The pressure on the puck will gradually subside as water displaces the air between the grounds. Eventually, if you have given enough time with the pump on at the onset, a few drops of coffee will come out of the PF. At this point, it's safe to assume that the puck is fully infused and has bloomed (expanded). Re-raise the lever to the on position and pull the shot. You can mess with the amount of pump-on time and the amount of soaking time to suit your taste. NOTE: This has nothing to do with the flow control lever and this technique works on any e61. So, on an ECM or Bianca, you could set the flow control to a normal water debit (empty flow) and the machine would operate as a standard e61. With the Bianca, not the ECM, you also have the pump pre-infusion time you can mess with.

My Synk is not plumbed, but I have the ECM flow control. It was fun to play with at the onset and I really like having its pressure gauge on the group. But most of the time I just use the lever, as described above, with the water debit set to "normal" (on my machine this is 1.5 turns open).

Yeah, I don't plan on doing anything crazy and obsessive with flow control. I sample roast a revolving door of coffee from Sweet Maria's. I don't have enough quantity of any one coffee to be finding the sweet spot for each one via flow control; I'll run out long before that. It's just an option to toy around with it in the beginning and then set it and forget it.

So you're saying you raise the lever fully. Then you drop it to the middle position, and then you re-raise?

When you drop the lever from full extraction to middle position, wouldn't it cut off the extraction and suck up the espresso grounds into the shower screen?

And what is the difference between Bianca's "pump pre-infusion?" I thought it was the same thing as moving the manual paddle to 0 bars for dwell time?

slybarman wrote:Max temp on Bianca steam boiler will be 135c (275f).

Thanks for the clarification!

When you drop the lever from full extraction to middle position, wouldn't it cut off the extraction and suck up the espresso grounds into the shower screen?

Nope. The pressure gradually diminishes, but it does not go negative.