Thanks for the tips! I'm planning on doing the same to my handles.

About removing the heater, my boiler is free floating, held in place only by the copper tubing. Even with a little force, I can see it twisting against the tubing. So its not coming out without a ton of work!

About my wiring, everything looks proper. But I see that the pressostat has been moved from before the relay to after the relay. The schematic has the pressostat before the relay.

Time for some descaling

There's one screw in the bottom of the boiler (if it hasn't fallen out) that fastens the boiler to the frame. You still have to support the boiler with a strap wrench or something while pulling on a socket wrench. A large deep socket is required (I can't remember the size).

There's one screw in the bottom of the boiler (if it hasn't fallen out) that fastens the boiler to the frame

That makes a ton of sense, thanks. It isn't there.

I'm looking to get a single basket, and I have these two IMS choices (at the moment). Any thoughts on which would work better? The Baristapro has 269 holes, while the other has 253.

https://www.diecrema.de/zubehoer/siebei ... gle-by-ims
https://www.diecrema.de/zubehoer/siebei ... asse-7/9-g

See: 7 gram single shot?? Mission impossible! and
What's the best single basket.

Ah, nothing is ever simple with espresso. I ended up buying a La Marzocco 7g X-filter basket, F3029X, and a 41mm tamper. Thanks for the heads up!

Marcje wrote:Hi all, I was curious about the actual extraction pressure of my Strega, so fabbed a manometer on the group head.
It was not a straight forward job, but seems to work really well.

It's plumbed so I don't use the pump, and the inner (small) spring is also removed, so the pressure is 7.5bar. I will put back the inner spring the coming weeks and do some comparsison shots. Feels like I have a new toy...

Here's what it looks like:

image


video

What's the purpose of the inner spring, any difference in tension pulling the lever without it?

It looks like you drilled though the brass right above the springs am I correct?

Can't you measure the pressure from the OPV like the regular machines? Which should be less invasive

Don't have the Strega but the Pro800.
Removed the inner spring a little while back, and I'm not planning to ever put it back in.
To my taste the espressos are smoother (have to admit that at the time I also upgraded the stock burrs to SSP), the lever group is very quiet now, and is much easier to pull down. Not that this was problematic before, but this is definitely nicer.
I only see upsides to removal of the inner spring, no downsides. But that depends on personal preference/taste I suppose.

I actually would like to see espresso machine shops offering to sell these espresso machines with a choice of 1 of 2 springs - as part of their service..

Flitzgordon wrote:What's the purpose of the inner spring, any difference in tension pulling the lever without it?

It looks like you drilled though the brass right above the springs am I correct?

Can't you measure the pressure from the OPV like the regular machines? Which should be less invasive

The inner spring adds about 1.5 to 2 bar to maximum extraction pressure.

The OPV on the Strega is pretty much only to prevent the HX from being damaged from overpressure. The OPV is cut off from the brew water circuit once the lever is lifted.

There is an available port available on the manifold that the OPV is connected to. A pressure gauge attached to that port gives pre-infusion pressure (assuming that the OPV doesn't open), but cannot show extraction pressure (because that hydraulic circuit is cut off from the group once the lever is lifted).

Maybe Bezzera uses 2 spring to be 'in balance' with the relatively high pre-infusion pressure by the pump?
I agree with BSdV that the lower pressure makes for smoother shots.
There is a pressure transducer on the way, so hopefully I can measure the pressure profiles of 1 and 2 springs within a couple of weeks.