let me know if you run out of ones to try. i have a shamefully impressive library of them

"Side" channeling? Curious how that's detected: visible holes around the top perimeter of the puck, no flow observed from the interior disk of the basket, odd-looking stripes? Or am I misinterpreting what 'side' means? I like the suggestion of putting filter paper at the bottom of the basket, and it could be instructive to examine

Definitely don't go to Costco. You will be extremely frustrated with the results as the beans will be too stale to produce anything worthwhile. For some reason that's a common idea, buy cheap old beans to learn on. But it's a very bad idea. If you're looking for cheap and a good dark roast, check out Nossa Familia's

For reference. Own a bunch of hand grinders. Older ones are from the 50's or maybe older to my most recent purchase. The 1Zpresso K-Pro. Some of the older ones are more than slow at >2 minutes for a 20gm dose. Fastest grinder is the K-Pro at around couple seconds a gram set at the ~3.5-4 setting

my understanding: the rotation is caused by un-evenly distributed forces, including 1) friction forces on the plunger o-ring, and 2) the forces applied to the plunger through the stem. With current design - plunger and stem are separate parts there is no way to stop plunger slow rotation unless the plunger and stem are joint together using a pin

Hasn't been a real issue with the machine. Guessing maybe couple dozen pulls before it has rotated ~30 degrees. Sent off an email to Flair today. Received a quick reply from Flair explaining the why? "The plunger rotates since there is no linkage on the lever to make the drive of the piston linear, the whole system

yea I aware that p100 isn't best for dark roast. I keep sette 30 or may be get niche or 64mm flat burr for dark roast future but would like to explore with p100 light to dark bean espresso. any recommendation for dark roast?

I'll sometimes check the Sprudge site and their city guides if I'm traveling, not so much for ratings but just to see what shops I may want to visit. {link}

All good! I'm glad I found out which type of burrs we have. I'll also take a video of the puck prep later in the week

Both have been carefully used and maintained. I bought these about four years ago and enjoyed using them daily for my four morning shots for a couple of years, but have gradually drifted back to other brewing methods. I'd like to pass them on to someone who would enjoy taking advantage of everything they can do.