New OPV in Nuova Simonelli Oscar II. Brew pressure to aim for?

#1: Post by **andreugv1** » September 10th, 2016, 11:35 pm

Several months ago I bought a Nuova Simonelli Oscar II. Although I love the design of the machine, it didn't came without trouble. First, I wasn't able to steam my milk properly due to the superquick steaming. I learnt to work with it, and adjusted the Sirai pressurestat to get a little less steam, and reduce the coffee temperature that was crazy high after 7 seconds cooling flush. Boiler pressure was 1.32 bar, which for my taste was quite high.

After adjusting boiler temperature, I was still tasting a burnt flavor, kind of ashy, bought a pressure gauge, built a simple pressure gauge for the portafilter, and tested the pressure. I was close to 15 bars, so I decided to buy an OPV and today I finished the installation.

I never had to adjust the pressure for a machine, so I guess better to ask what people is aiming for, pros and cons of high vs low pressure settings (I have read a lot of different opinions of pressures ranging from 5 - 9.5 bars.

I will appreciate if you guys could give me your 2 cents.

Soon I will post the guide on how to install the OPV, pretty straightforward, could be done in 40 minutes, and some reviews of different "upgrades", like Caffewerks shower screen, Cafelat XT portafilter, IMS baskets, Cafelat silicone group gaskets, or probably a big post on improving the Oscar II.

Thank you all!

#2: Post by **amh0001** » September 11th, 2016, 1:38 am

Andre,

I recently bought an Oscar 2 as well. I do notice that it does not like a cooling flush as the following shot takes much longer to get going. Let us know what you figure out in the end!

~Adam.

#3: Post by **olivers** » September 11th, 2016, 11:32 am

I would love a guide to the Oscar II, Andre.

#4: Post by **LukeFlynn** » September 11th, 2016, 11:36 am

I like around 8-9 bars. I find my espresso is more consistent in this range, not sure why.

September 13th, 2016, 4:42 pm

olivers wrote:I would love a guide to the Oscar II, Andre.

It is on the oven, but everything from a newbie to HX! Now technical stuff, just what seems to work for me!

LukeFlynn wrote:I like around 8-9 bars. I find my espresso is more consistent in this range, not sure why.

I am at 8 bars right now, just waiting for more coffee to come, the one I am using right now was roasted a month ago and there is no crema at all! The taste is really balanced though, not the burnt taste I was getting before.