JRising wrote:The values measured don't seem odd to me. At closed there's no flow and it seems you can easily get any flow restriction you are going to want to try for practicing your flow profiling in less than a full rotation of the knob. Don't worry about the flow beyond the first turn, by that time the needle is so far out of the seat the valve's barely affecting anything, but it's so far from the range you need it doesn't matter. At 1 full turn you're getting 10.9 g/s... Do you really think you would ever want to be extracting a half-pint espresso in 24 seconds?

I think I screwed up my install, as an engineer by trade, I feel ashamed. I am fixing now and will update post afterwards.

Here's a link to a video I made of using the flow control for pre-infusion on my Profitec

Manual Pre-Infusion Flow Profile with an E61 - Video

I purchased mine from Bellabarista.co.uk

Even at a lower flow rate you ramp up to 9 bars no problem if your grounds are fine enough and tamp is good, so
I'm curious if anyone experimented with keeping flow rate lower vs higher flow rate and if it makes any effect on the coffee, like mid shot if you're getting 9 or 10 bars (whatever your max is) if a setting of 6g/sec vs 11g a sec makes any difference since brew pressure is the same.
I might experiment with the naked portafilter and see if higher flow increases channeling or not (once shot already starts I don't think it would unless you go too extreme with the flow rate maybe).

LindoPhotography wrote:if a setting of 6g/sec vs 11g a sec makes any difference since brew pressure is the same.

Yes, huge difference. I was using a medium light Kenyan bean, with tasting notes of lemonade, blackberry and succulent..it was a gift so I was making the best of it. At stockish flow of 10g a sec it was super bright and sour, with those tasting notes I was expecting sour but no real other flavor notes. I ran it at 5g a sec and it was beautiful! I got sweet citrus with definite notes of berry, eventually got a bit of green note with some grind adjustment but went back as a i liked it where I had it.

I've got a Synchronika on order - the supplier is fitting an ECM flow control valve pre-delivery using the replacement spring which comes with the FCV.. I will report on my experience once it is up and running.
Meanwhile, has anyone used John Guest 1/4" pipe to connect their machine up to a BWT Besthead (the ECM braided pipe as supplied is not long enough).

Coffello wrote:Meanwhile, has anyone used John Guest 1/4" pipe to connect their machine up to a BWT Besthead (the ECM braided pipe as supplied is not long enough).

Depending on where you are buying it from, you should be able to get a longer braided hose that attaches to the ECM hose. This might save you from changing things over to the John Guest system.

The BWT kit will be in the same room, needing about 3m of pipe to connect to the Synchronika (so just out of reach for the ECM braided pipe supplied by ECM).

I am getting a technician from the retailer to plumb everything in as I have mobility issues...and, more importantly, know nothing about plumbing .

I just got my ECM E61 Flow Control Device, and I am wondering about the pre-brew lever spring it comes with. My understanding is that you keep the stock spring in place at the top mushroom cap, and this is the spring provided that would install into the lower pre-brew chamber, under the grouphead.

Is this spring install optional? Can I leave the stock spring in place?

My understanding is that the stiffer spring simply bypasses the line-level pre-infusion capability, thus making the machine a bit more intuitive to use. However if this doesn't bother me, and if I'd like to maintain that functionality, can I skip the spring install and only drop in the new FCD at the top mushroom cap?

Thanks!