Hi all,

I am experiencing a random issue when making espressos and I would love some insights

My setup is:
- good grinder: eureka Specialitá,
- humble espresso machine: Delongui Dedica (I need more space in the kitchen before upgrading it )

After dialling in the grinder, I can get pretty acceptable espressos for some coffees. However, sometimes, if I make another espresso right after with the same grinder settings, the coffee machine clogs and the water tries to exit from the PF top. When I see that the issue is happening, I have to pause the brewing for 1-2s half way through to decrease the pressure. Then, I press ON again and the espresso finishes the shot as normal. In other words, I have to do the 2nd shot with a 2s pause in between, which is not good

I guess the Delongui is not a reliable machine, but I wonder if there is something I am missing as I find unusual that it will act so differently in 2 consecutive shots. Maybe, I have to dry things better in between shots? Not sure, any insight would be great!

Thanks

A couple of follow up thoughts:
- The fine grind is not choking the basket, because pausing the brewing for 2 seconds appears to work
- When I say "the first shot" works, I mean the 1st shot after turning on (heating up) the machine

The only thing I can think of is unstable pressure that causes an unstable water flow?

Cheers

it clogged today with the first shot of the day, so the hypothesis of choking not happening after heating up the machine from cold does not hold

Apparently, this machine does not have a release valve... to release the pressure when the machine clogs... so cannot backflush. i will try descaling it

Water drips or sprays from the top of the portafilter are indicative of a seal problem. You may have to replace the gasket.

thanks! I will check that out! I replaced it 2 months ago but that makes sense

what is you gram weight for the beans, and the gram weight after brewing?

When the machine does not choke, I aim for the grinder setting that gives me 34-35g of brewed espresso from 17.2g of coffee.
In summary, a 1:2 brew ratio in 25-30s

When the machine clogs, I have to stop the brewing for a few seconds (sometimes twice) so I will end up with the same 1:2 ratio (17.2g-35g) at 35s+, which affects the extraction and flavour

Thanks!

Do you purge the stale coffee from the grinder that's been there since yesterday?

I bought the single-dose accessory for the Eureka Specialitá. So, I use the below to reduce retention as much as possible

bgnome wrote:Water drips or sprays from the top of the portafilter are indicative of a seal problem. You may have to replace the gasket.

I have just checked and the seal is a bit damaged. So, that might be it...
Strangely, I had replaced it 2-months ago or so. (I wonder if the PF might be damaging the seal)