Hi i think i choked my DeLonghi Dedica. My father brought me some coffee ground from someone working in a cafe. The coffee looked like it is very fine grind and i had this feeling that it might cause some troubles, because Dedica uses pressurized filter baskets. However he insisted to pull a shot with it. I tamped the coffee maybe too hard and when it started to flow it was very very slow, like drops and i panicкly stopped the brewing but stupidly continued it at insistence of my parents afterwards till the end. Now i have worries and very big anxiety that i might broke the machine and i quickly came here to ask you guys what choking can do to the machine? What it could damage? How can i know if everything is fine with my machine?

Choking is no more than coffee ground so fine, or too much in the portafilter that the water can't penetrate thru. Unless you left the brewing attempt on way to long with nothing coming out, you probably did no harm to to your machine.

Simple solution to check for damage is to brew another shot. Use less coffee, don't tamp too hard and see the coffee come out. One more thing. keep your parents away from sharp objects.

It automatically stops the brewing process because it has a single shot and a double shot buttons so it did not last very long probably?

I did that all the time with my Dedica.. no harm.. but you may have gotten grounds into the screen.. So take a Phillips (I think) and remove the screw in the middle of the screen and clean the screen and up around where the water exists. That happens somewhat often on pressurized baskets.

chipman wrote:keep your parents away from sharp objects.

I don't get it

Choking the machine intentionally won't hurt it, as others have noted, provided you don't let it run too long. For a vibe pump machine, this is usually about one minute, longer for a rotary pump machine. When you use a blind portafilter, you're in essence choking the machine. Intentionally choking the machine is a good test to see if your grinder is up to snuff when using standard baskets; the grinder needs to be capable of grinding fine enough to choke the machine. One then gradually backs off (coarsens) the grinder until the desired amount of coffee is extracted in the desired time.

Nunas wrote:provided you don't let it run too long.

I tested the double shot program which i used, without portafilter attached and it lasted around 23 seconds.

Bluenoser wrote:So take a Phillips (I think) and remove the screw in the middle of the screen and clean the screen and up around where the water exists.

Can i do this by just running water through the screen?



Тhis is what came out from the screen after running some water

Parents should never have advised to keep brewing when nothing was coming out. It was a joke.

Kristijan wrote:Can i do this by just running water through the screen?
Тhis is what came out from the screen after running some water

I think some grounds can get up there and get stuck.. so I always cleaned it.. which was a bit of a pain.... Try flushing it.. then take it apart and clean it once.. then you'll have your answer.