Sakae, the Semi is a great machine, too, and what I had before the T1. It was what I was going to suggest if you have tight quarters (but not a height restriction).

EricS, thanks for the tips, I was planning to try bringing down the temp to check it out, but figured I would follow the advice from another thread (I think it was Jim and Shadowfax on a Strega thread) and try it in stock form first before doing so. It does make sense to me, though, that on an HX lowering the boiler's temp is a reasonable idea if it is not adversely affecting steam.

malling wrote:Untill now I have just used the flushing rutine described in the review, and it works okay, allthough I need to be faster In loading the pf after the flush.

Maybe not so much.

Try this instead:
1. Load, distribute and tamp;
2. Do the "flushing routine" with the pf OUT of the group;
3. Quickly lock in the loaded pf; and
4. Immediately draw the shot.

As for the flushing routine itself:
A. With the pf out of the group, use the free pour button to run water through the group. Stop the instant you hear the "flash boiling" stop;
B. Quickly and without delay, start running the free pour again for your count of five. Use a trick to make your count consistent and prevent rushing, such as one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, four-one-thousand, five-one-thousand; or, one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi...; or...; and
C. Immediately lock in the pre-prepped pf and pull the shot. (Use whatever technique you like to get the right extraction level -- like watching the stream for blonding.)

When you taste the shot, taste critically for sour or bitter. Bitter means the shot was too hot, and you want a longer count. Sour means the shot was too cold, and you want a shorter count. If the shot is not very close to your liking, sink it and try again with a different count (but the same extraction level).

Temp is only one of the three blunt instruments for fine tuning your pull. The other two are grind and dose.

If the shot runs very fast or very slow, you may have to forget about temping for a shot or two until you getting the grind right. I forget off-hand what's "right" for a big Elektra; but I think you're shooting for something in the 25 - 33 second range.

You may also want to make some sort of adjustment in the grind to get your preferred brew ratio. My experience is that once you've adjusted for brew ratio and shot time, the combination of time, watching for blonding and volume will be "good enough for government work" to control brew and extraction ratios as variables.

It goes without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway) that you want to keep your doses very consistent, and will probably want to scale every darn one of them at least while you're learning your machine.

What's you get the grind right, go back to temping.

Try and find the right temp for your coffee without using milk or sugar -- they confuse the issue. If you can't taste the nuances through straight, black espresso -- then go ahead and dress the coffee as you like. You can only do what you can do. So it costs you an extra tasse or two to be sure... no biggie.

Use lots of water and lots of coffee during this process. Don't worry about waste.

This should get you on your way to consistently controllable results, at least as far as grind and temp are concerned.

Dosing tends to be very basket dependent. I think the best advice might be to purchase a couple of VST or Strada baskets, and use the recommended dose. Once you've got everything else set, you can niggle around in the plus or minus 1g area. The 18g Stradas sure worked for me (and not just because they told me the right dose). Otherwise, you're going to have to use trial and error and a scale until you've figured out your baskets.

The process of getting everything fairly well dialed in won't be instant, but shouldn't really take you more than a week or two as long as you're methodical and don't try to fool around with too many parameters at once. Once you've got your baseline techniques settled, you can use an HX to make very fine, on-the-fly changes easily.

A final thing to remember is that machines like the T1 are incredibly revealing of any flaws in the other three "M"s. If any of those aren't up to snuff, you'll know it.

BDL

The T1 and A3 ship with no plug. They are commercial machines and as such are designed to be hard wired into the power not plugged. The plug on the end was added unless Elektra changed their default setup. Normally a 20 amp plug has one horizontal and one vertical blade but you can get a 20 amp plug with two vertical blades. If the plug really is 15 amp, you will want to change it, or rather need to change it. The 20 amp draw through the 15 amp plug could lead to a melted plug and pile of ashes where your home use to be.

boar_d_laze wrote:Try this instead:
1. Load, distribute and tamp;
2. Do the "flushing routine" with the pf OUT of the group;
3. Quickly lock in the loaded pf; and
4. Immediately draw the shot.

+1

Thanks Dave, it is definitely a 15 amp plug (it is printed on the plug), but it is a high quality one. I'd had a contractor look at it and my wiring to be safe and he wasn't worried, but your description is enough to convince me to play it safe. Following your advice I just went off to pick up a 20 amp plug at a big box home store and the store had many cheap plugs for around $2, but the two most robust looking and most expensive ($11) consisted of one that looked like this one and one that looked like it, but was a 20 amp plug. I picked up the 20amp one just to be safe. Conveniently I wanted a new plug for my drill press, so I'll take the 15 amp plug and move it there so there is no waste in the conversion.

cannonfodder wrote:The T1 and A3 ship with no plug. They are commercial machines and as such are designed to be hard wired into the power not plugged. .

Dave no code that I KNOW OF will aloud a commercial machine to be hardwired,
machine need to be quickly unplugged just like any other electrical device (or most of them at least)
the 20 A plug for home use should be sufficient or
you use nema locking plug which the locking twist will prevent the machine to get accidentally unplugged

stefano65 wrote:Dave no code that I KNOW OF will aloud a commercial machine to be hardwired...

It's common for manufacturers who supply the "international" market to ship without a main's plug attached, so the user may supply the appropriate plug for his location and use. I have no idea who attached the 15A plug to the T1 in question. A gremlin or English major, most likely -- not that they're mutually exclusive.

I have it on good authority that Dave knew that and wrote it, but his spellcheck software substituted "hardwire."

Hubbell plugs -- if you want serious quality without compromise, buy Hubbell. At $11, you probably did. If you're really obsessive, you'll replace your wall plate with Hubbell "hospital grade." Don't ask.

BDL

Correct most Italian supplier do not have a clue of the many different types of plugs we use in the US
or they do not have access to them so they choose NOT to installed them
I have my first "new T1" on the way we will see if the plugs are from factory
( if so I will contact them and the main importer in regards of the next patch) or
was a distributor mounted one
S