Interesting technique. I will give this a try. But wouldn't it be more logical to enable the steam switch at the end of the pull?

... a couple ounces through the group before the extraction. Technically the boiler idles above the boiling point of water, as you can see from the PID readout in this video: [gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3865724457823593662[/gvideo] But the water cools on its way from the boiler ...

... controls are located right above each group and not in the chassis, LCD display to show system status, infusion, error reporting, and it boasts a PID and temperature resolution of 0.25C. The computer

I don't know whether anyone should PID their Junior. I have PID'd my Juniors and in general I get very predictable and reliable shot temperatures, but this has resulted from a lot of work on my part (with gazillions of graphs a small portion ...

Ken, you got me thinking... should I use a PID on my machine? I think once I get a good idea for temperatures on the group head, I should be alright. I do flush the head before hitting my first shot of the day, but now more recently I've had a terrible time with dosing the correct amount

It doesn't matter whether you use the Cimbali plastic drip tray or something else that you modify yourself. The discharge tube from the (group) 3 way valve (solenoid) will splatter outside the drip tray if it is not adjusted precisely. I'm using the original plastic discharge tube thing on my old vi...

I guess I would also want to know his experience and history as a reputable dealer. Does he have a good track record of LM repairs and support? Does he support repairs, etc of local LM machines? Does he have experience with the PID'd machines?

after having played with the machine for a year and then getting a PID, I definitely think it's the way to go. It makes a big difference in terms of getting predictable results. Mine also improved steaming significantly. In terms of the original post, I would ...

Ed, you seem to have something I've been mulling on doing: -- Gave the heater on an environmental temperature PID -- Put the airflow on a bean temp PID -- Run a dual profile. The reason I haven't tried it is that the require SCR for the fan is expensive, and I wasn't sure how finicky it

The technique that worked best for me on the new generation Silvia was when I started reverse temperature surfing and hitting the brew switch about 1 min 30 seconds after the heater light goes off (which is an estimated beginning brew temperature of 201-202 degrees). I also adopted turning on the st...