I had similar problems with transitioning to an E61 with bottomless PF. Things that significantly improved my ability to get a good, even extraction were pretty simple. I started with weighing everything, thoroughly cleaning my equipment (shower screen and grinder), grinding into a cup and then pouring that into my PF, and if all else fails I do WDT.

Get real fresh coffee to start, kittel fullum blend or ethioian is excellent(can buy direct at the roastery), st henry, pilot academy(big bro), darker roast: 49parallel, italian roast: faema on jean talon. By a 5lb that you try in a coffee and like and dial it in, practice and test until its great. then buy different coffee and try to find their sweet spot once everything else is dial in. A 340g bag will go quick if you spend 100g dial it... also your burrs can still look sharp and start to be dull.
Bon café,
Nicolas,

Luvlatte34 wrote:#1) With the bottomless, 4 times out of 5 theres a stream of water pissing in a 45degress angle ( creating a mess lol..) It's frustrating because I read that the Bottomless is the ''newbie'' PF, but I can't get it right. With the double cup, I can get crema and clean extraction.

When I get that channeling, its usually because the grinds are too coarse, and/or the tamping isn't packed enough. Is your tamped puck actually levelled? I see a lot of videos of people tamping only once and then pulling a shot with their non-naked portafilters, and that's ok.. cause you cant see channeling, but with a naked portafilter, a sturdy levelled tamp I find is essential to minimize the spurts. I use a 58.5mm tamp and it tamps pretty close to the edge of the basket. Since I have upgraded to that tamper, I rarely get channeling when doing the naked portafilter shots.

Luvlatte34 wrote: #2) Taste is average, Can't really say if it's too bitter or acid, but it's not the best ! Could you recommand me a ''neutral'' roasted beans I could buy online ? Right now, I used lavazza espresso (red one) blend and it was NASTY. CIMA blue label, which produce the best cup. And a local coffee shop who has good reputation over here ; it's their ''caramel', soft espresso blend ( perfect for latte). Which is OK, but produce very little crema.

Similar to your problem 1, if your shot is channeling, you probably not extracting correctly, thus maybe less crema. Also, I roast my own beans and I find when I am doing a pull with my own roasts, the shots are usually more amazing (slow motion globlets of coffee coming out of the basket that seem to defy gravity). I don't see this type of effect much on store bought beans.

Luvlatte34 wrote: #3) I can't get nice foam. I tried 1% and 3.25%fat. We've looked at a few youtube video and we seems to be doing the samething, but it doesn't really work. I'm wondering if the machine isn't powerful enough for that ? Seems like the milk gets way too hot before producing any type of foam. Espro said their special design is best used if you aim the steamer right in the middle of the jug, but that didn't really work. Then we tried kissing the milk on the surface which produced some foam on top, but very short-lived.

I tried using the Espro V2 jug and I had to return it. It was way harder to use than a regular jug I find. Perhaps you don't need full power of steam when you begin. I sometimes still botch up the frothing cause I turned on full blast at the beginning of the froth and that burst blows a tons of bubbles and I can never have enough time to submerge them during the remainder of the froth. From other members that helped me with my technique, less time frothing sometimes is better at producing the silky texture. I always seem to over stretch the milk.

Hope this helps!

Thanks all. Been working like a MOFO.. about 80-90hrs a week so no times to play with the machine within the last week.

But I'm glad to see so mnay local, montrealers around !! Thanks for the suggestion on coffee beans, I will try them.

3 things ;

1) What is your trick to EASILY insert PF in the grouphead without destroying the puck because of mis-aligned the PF ? I'm having a lot of trouble with engaging / locking in the Head. Is it possible that my PF is too tight and I should buy another one that move more freely (i.e the tolerance isn't as tight so it would be easier to ''lock and brew'' lol) ?

2) My San Remo only have a gauge that goes up to 3 bar. Should I be worried that maybe the pressure isn't strong enough. How can I verify that ?

3) Seems like no matter how I do it, tap it hard or not, fill it or leave some space, I always get a ring with a center dot which look exactly like the shower. Is it suppose to be like that or it means that i'm getting channeling ?

1 & 3 - sounds like you may be overfilling the PF relative to the space your grouphead and shower screen allow. You might try bringing the dose down and that could help with ease of placement of the PF into the grouphead. Also, if you disturb your surface by hitting the shower screen when you're locking the PF in, then all of your work for distribution is a bust.

2 - I've never owned a HX machine but I'm fairly certain that pressure stat is connected to the main steam boiler and it would be normal to have only a single pressure gauge on a HX machine. I'll wait for others to confirm/expand upon the pressure gauge situation.

Given that your machine is a single boiler, the range of the steam boiler pressure gauge seems fine. I would expect to see a pressure rating of 1.2 or 1.3-bar. If you're able to steam milk with relative ease, then I would imagine that the boiler pressure is fine.

Regarding the locking in of the portafilter, perhaps the shower screen gasket is the wrong thickness. Perhaps a thinner or thicker one might solve this problem.

I would also suggest using at least an 18g basket, such as a VST.

I will look at the gasket, could be wrong size ! Thanks for the head up