Hello everyone!

My wife and I just purchased a GCP last week. My wife was a barista for 10+ years so I was selfishly looking forward to some expertly crafted at-home beverages to start the day.

We have been unable to get anywhere near an appropriate espresso with the GCP. We have used espresso ground 10 minutes earlier from our local shop through a bottomless portafilter, regular portafilter, and have also tried using the pressurized basket with both the coffee from the local shop and store bought espresso. Every time in 30-ish seconds with 18g of espresso we are getting anywhere from 130-150g of output. The first drips happen almost instantly, and it becomes a milky-watery output after only a few seconds. The retailer has assured me there is nothing with the machine that could cause that issue and our problem must be grind related. My wife and I don't see how this can be the case given the number of ways we have tried.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated before we insist on a return/replacement.

You should probably get an espresso grinder so that you don't have to rely on someone you can't trust. I'm sure your wife told you that that was the reason for settling on a Gaggia... The machine that matters is the grinder.

If you have some way of measuring pressure, you should confirm that your Gaggia is able to open its OPV without stalling, while not exceeding 10.5 bar against the back-flush disk.

Your wife was a barista, she should should probably dial the grinder in roughly to try to get a decent flow rate (Like 40g is 25-30 seconds including at least 3 before first drops). Once you get a flow-rate that isn't silly, you can begin adjusting by taste. Dosing more to get more flavour, of course, slows the flow, so you can adjust slightly coarser if that's the direction you have to go (and vice versa applies).

I think your wife can probably guide you better. These are just the basics a technician needs to know. I was never a barista.

Have you used the pressurized basket? If you won't be grinding your coffee and using preground, that might be your best option. I agree with the second post, a viable grinder can help with this and your wife will be able to dial it in. I used a sette270wi with my GCP for two years with no issues. But after a year or so, I changed the OPV spring to 9 bars and installed a PID, but neither of these are "necessary."

We have used the pressurized basket, both with the "coffee shop" espresso and with the store bought. Still pulling 145g in 30 seconds. I don't get how that is possible.

This one is easy and the pure basics of espresso making and that's you don't have a grinder. Buy a decent grinder and all of your problems will disappear. And don't buy a 200-300 dollar grinder but a decent grinder or else you'll still have all kind of problems!!!

cs0430 wrote:Still pulling 145g in 30 seconds. I don't get how that is possible.

Your machine is going to pump water through the circuit. If there isn't a good coffee-prep at the end to restrict the flow, the water is just going to easily fall through the store-bought or coffee shop grounds, and fill the cup with 140 g of darkened nastiness in 30 seconds.

The good news is that your machine is trying, so the machine is probably working well. But maybe we're missing something.
If you run the machine against a blind filter instead of through coffee, does it seem like the OPV is working, or does the pump stall?

If you're certain that the machine is somehow failing, maybe post a video of what you mean.

No grinder = no espresso.
Maybe GC has OPV set a little bit too high in factory. But I repeat: no grinder = no espresso.

cs0430 wrote:My wife was a barista...

Where on what gear?
Trained by whom?

In many cases the difference between pro and amateur is the paycheck... at both ends of the scale

JRising wrote:Your machine is going to pump water through the circuit. If there isn't a good coffee-prep at the end to restrict the flow, the water is just going to easily fall through the store-bought or coffee shop grounds, and fill the cup with 140 g of darkened nastiness in 30 seconds.

The good news is that your machine is trying, so the machine is probably working well. But maybe we're missing something.
If you run the machine against a blind filter instead of through coffee, does it seem like the OPV is working, or does the pump stall?

If you're certain that the machine is somehow failing, maybe post a video of what you mean.

Thanks for the reply and the suggested test, I'll try that tonight.

Henry_k wrote:No grinder = no espresso.
Maybe GC has OPV set a little bit too high in factory. But I repeat: no grinder = no espresso.

Certainly not trying to be argumentative, but Gaggia specifically provides the pressurized basket and has instructions for using their machine with store-bought coffee or a pod. It should still work without grinding at home, albeit a less than ideal tasting espresso, I'm sure. We do have a grinder on the way.