La Pavoni 3rd gen mods from Coffee Sensor.

February 24th, 2022, 9:50 pm

So I mainly bought a second pavoni to keep my daily espresso flowing but also partly because the Stradivari does not have much in the way of mods.

The original style of euro and pro do though and this is my eventual goal for my new professional. While the differences are pretty minor overall and I am pretty much working this beast exactly like I would the stradivari, I am having to alter some of my routine for the pro.

The drip tray for one is so tiny. I mean I felt like my Stradivari's was teensy but now I feel like it's a swimming pool compared. And while the lever feels pretty much the same during pulls it also is straight compared with the slight tilt of the stradivari so I find my usual grip isn't very workable on the pro. Lol. It almost makes me want to try fitting the stradivari group on the pro.

Really this post comes down to temp surfing which was so much easier on the stradivari. Some of this I think is due to my present altitude (600 ft) compared to where I was for most of the years with my Stradivari (4150ft ). It seems to have changed how fast the grouphead dumps heat or could be just vastly different boiler temps at different altitudes. Idk. I just know it's not behaving how I am used to it.

So down to the mods. I plan to do the Teflon gasket mod and definitely the on group heat sink in hopes it will help drop temp faster. Along with the thermometry that goes with it. Though even just the Teflon gasket might be all I need. Don't see a reason to go for the bong isolator.
Is the heat sink overkill with the Teflon gasket mod? Increase group heat time significantly?

I was looking at the group pressure gauge too, but honestly I don't really care about pressure profiling. I tend to vary it depending on feel more than anything else anyway and have gotten quite good with declining through the second pull. It feels like one more thing to over focus on. My thermometer presently is hand held and I had my boiler temps basically memorized for my previous altitude. Now I guess it's back to the steam tables again for some refreshers

#2: Post by **jtrops** » February 24th, 2022, 11:41 pm

I haven't seen any convincing arguments for the Bong Isolator on the V3 machines. It's a way to spend money, but no real improvements that I can tell.

I'm at altitude, and never have a problem with my group overheating. That being said I think that if you are at 600' a group heat sink is not a bad idea. The teflon gasket may help too, but I wonder how much heat is really transferred from the boiler to the group at that connection. It seems like moving water into the group has sudden dramatic impact on the heat.

I couldn't imagine using my machine without a thermometer. I'm using a thermocouple on the group bell with a digital thermometer.

February 25th, 2022, 12:01 am

What I am really wanting is to be able to set the thermostat higher on this machine for better steaming while using the heat sink to hopefully keep the group at a lower idle temp This was also my thought with the Teflon gasket. It would also be nice having the temp reading right on the machine. I always figured my temp reading was more ballpark them precise but I could relate it to boiler pressure easily enough that it didn't need to be accurate.

#4: Post by **bas** » February 25th, 2022, 2:10 am

jtrops wrote:I haven't seen any convincing arguments for the Bong Isolator on the V3 machines. It's a way to spend money, but no real improvements that I can tell

On the contrary! I helps to keep GHT BELOW target in the ~75 range. So you can "dry pump" your GHT to your desired target. After the shot the isolator helps with the cooling down so it returns to ~75 again. Generation 3/4 machines are less prone to overheating than generation 2 machines but it is not easy to keep GHT <85. At least you have to run in with low boiler pressure (~0.8 bar) meaning less effective preinfusion and mediocre steaming performance. With Bong's you can easily run your machine at higher pressure.

In the Pavoni owners group on FB Bong has presented detailed temperature studies.

#5: Post by **hifier** » February 25th, 2022, 9:50 pm

The heatsink and thermometer work well on my 1999 ep8 pavoni w/water heated group mod. My boiler runs at 1.5bar and the group idles at about 85-87c. The Teflon insert did not fit or at least I did not feel comfortable trying to make it fit. Maybe it's better on the millennium models.

1.5bar is too hot for pulling shots with group temps above 80c in my experience so I manually temp surf at 1bar to pull a shot with the group around 86-87c and it takes about 30 seconds after flipping the boiler back on to get back to 1.5bar for steaming. Boiler pressure below 1bar does not fill the group completely when the lever is raised for brewing.

I just turn it off in between shots and it takes a few minutes for the group to drop from 92c back to 85-87. Honestly the heat sink is not the best, I'm sure it helps but it doesn't add that much surface area since the fins are so thick and there aren't that many of them really. Visually it looks good though especially if you get some wood accented handles.

February 25th, 2022, 10:59 pm

I used to have a little desk fan I would run aimed at the group when I used a wet towel to cool it. It did help speed it a bit. Especially if it west with the lower humidity.

Seems to me it might help some since that's what those fins are designed to do in other applications. Always paired with a fan of some sort.

Definitely not as quiet though.