In hindsight it may be the "sleeve" around the group that needs to be full of water, not the group itself. In the first video above he runs a lot of water through the group before releasing the lever. I am sure that DaveC will confirm at some stage

Up until the point you reach the middle of the cup, you are doing a great job. Here's a screen shot from one of your videos, and it truly looks great. The pattern is forming in nice wide open leaves. {image} But then moments later the flow becomes too thick and the pattern gets squashed.

Price seems to only slightly more than the Mini, if you take their Instagram clue seriously

Now that I actually *have* the beast, I have some comments and questions. There is a lightbulb icon next to the on/off button instead of a C/F. I suspect I have some Vostok software in my machine? Th group and brew temperatures were both set to low 90 degree celsius, very far from the manual's recommended 92/101 for brew/group

Their website says it's designed for modern light roasts if that helps in any way

When I had one I looked around too. Mine was fine, but flaking. I thought to maybe get one machined or cut out of brass, then nickel plating it. But seemed much too expensive. One place to try would be ipoktala on instagram. They make other aftermarket parts for the peppina. I bought a tamper and

That makes sense. I wonder how it is demonstrated in the above videos. I guess the water is running. I'll try it and see

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Hey Pete, I have it little tap and still bubbles, so I removed it to inspect, didn't see anything out of the ordinary? I did post a video of it and the gurgling bubbles travelling through the hoses. {video}{video}The annoying thing is it still produces a great coffee, I just need to preinfuse a little longer until water starts

The safety system only works if the group is full of water. If you pull the lever with no portafilter and release it the safety system can't work as it requires water in the group for back pressure IIRC. It is designed to work if a portafilter is not inserted fully and falls out during extraction. At least that is