This isn't recommended at all. People do that with other brewers because they are deficient in some way. We designed Aiden to not need any mechanical intervention at all. Nick

Hi Paul, and welcome to H-B. So you have espresso drops appearing right after you start the pump? Shot timing considerations aside, that does not seem right. In my experience, it takes several seconds to saturate the coffee puck (which holds about twice its weight in water) before the espresso flows out. Any chance of channeling? That can happen

It seems like it's something simple to be rectified like the grind setting and after that it should work. The fun part is perfecting the quality of espresso. Good luck

I get something similar to this on my Profitec 300 after emptying the boilers. It goes away after a few shots. Is this affecting the ability to pull a shot or steam?

It's hard to tell from my end. Is it fully heated? (How long has it been on?) Has it had a chance to totally fill with water? Sometimes machines are a little weird when they are brand new and just filling reservoirs, boilers, lines, etc. How much water in total have you run through the machine?

"18 g in, 36 g out, in 25 seconds" or whatever is merely a benchmark that becomes familiar with time. Experience will get you to the point where you sense that, for example, for the amount of bitterness you taste, two notches finer on the grinder will get you closer to a good shot. Grind, dose, and ratio will

In addition to my post of the 15th, with the exception of a handful of traditional Italian roasters, "best by" is best avoided. Virtually all supermarket brands are crap. A good roaster is better than a mediocre local one. What does your local cafe that has espresso you enjoy use? I'd look for a medium-dark roast, not oily, that suggests

You might think that but you're wrong. And while reaching for the improbable don't forget to include infectious prions in the mix. It's not completely impossible that someone with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease washed their underpants in your hotel kettle. Of course it can happen. It's naive to think that strict regulations translate into strict adherence. There are certainly food workers

Why would a Mazzer be inferior as they have way more experience than Zerno and own tons of equipment for building gear that Zerno will never own. And you do know that the marker test is by far a good test for proper alignment as there's much more to alignment. I do think you're underestimating Mazzer. And as Jim