La Marzocco Swift Mini with Etzinger grind mechanism - Page 7

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
tglodjo
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#61: Post by tglodjo »

Here's a review from The Real Sprometheus. He's a self-proclaimed LM fanboy, but he doesn't hold back any punches at the Swift Mini. I really like his YT content overall, especially his LMLM-focused vids.

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HB
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#62: Post by HB »

iyiu wrote:The last thing is I find that the higher dose the better it tamps. When I rotate the dose to -2 it hardly tamps the puck. Is there something I can do to fix that?
Not sure about your first two questions, but you can unlock/lock and run another cycle. That will grind a little more, but it will tamp more firmly.
Dan Kehn

iyiu
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#63: Post by iyiu »

I received this email from la marzocco home. I thought it was pretty informative. Hope this helps anyone with the same questions I had.

I adjusted the dose adjustment screw about 7x as he recommends and it has been dosing and tamping great now. I still don't really understand what that has to do with the tamp pressure but It seems to work.

Fyi I'm using timbertrain gumdrop espresso beans.
The shims are for any adjustment in grind if you are using coffee that you are unable to go finer with. Haven't seen the need for them as of yet, but they are in there just in case.

The big thing with any grinder and especially with the swift mini is that if you are adjusting grind you will need to let the burrset even out before dose is consistent. Since coffee is the biggest variable in the grinder, you will have different result with different coffees but if you swing the top of the grinder over as if you were going to use the grinder for single dosing era pourover you will see a sticker with your serial number. Under that is the dose adjustment screw for the grinder. If you are finding that with a 17g basket at 0 isn't hitting 17g then use a 2mm allen wrench to adjust the screw so that you hit the desired amount of coffee. I know we had to adjust the screw 4-7 full rotations for the Stumptown coffee compared to the darker roast that Italy was using to calibrate them.

The swift mechanism tamps while it's grinding so it's not like a traditional tamper or puqpress where it doses then tamps, but rather doses and tamps from bottom to top. With a change, I would recommend making sure that there is nothing left in the grinder and maybe do a purge shot when adjusting the dose down just to ensure the changes were made and calibrated much like any other grinder.

geomasocco
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#64: Post by geomasocco »

Greetings all,

I have just received my Linea Mini and Swift Mini. I find it quite hard to remove the portafilter once the grinder has finish. Also I always have a lot of coffee retained in the impeller. I just hope that it will perform as they advertised. The weight is quite inconsistent. I'll try to adjust the screw and see how I go.

Also if I set it correctly that at 0 I get the 17 grams for example. If I put the 20 grams portafilter I will get 20 grams? Or I'll need to adjust it again?


Cheers,
Giorgio

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Jake_G
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#65: Post by Jake_G »

Hey Giorgio,

As far as portafilter lock goes, I would not insert the portafilter nearly as firmly as you do into the espresso machine. Gentle pressure should be all that is needed.

Yes, the retention above the impeller is substantial. The way I see it, you have 3 options:
  1. Ignore it and deal with the occasional mess and inconsistent dosing.
  2. Clear the impeller after every dose and deal with a constant mess and inconsistent dosing.
  3. Run 2 grind cycles every single time, and ensure that the retention from this dose drops into this basket, and the retention from the next dose drops into the next basket, and so on.
#3 basically eliminates the mess and so far seems to improve dose consistency considerably, but I don't have a large enough dataset to tell you by how much just yet.

Regarding basket changes, I have only used the 17g basket so far, so I can't confirm my theory just yet, but I think the grinder stops based on remaining headspace above the puck. I think this based on how the dosing mechanism works.The dose adjustment moves the bayonet ring up and down relative to the fixed (but floating) impeller. As the grinder grinds and the impeller spins, ground coffee is dispensed into the basket. At some point in the process, the impeller starts riding up the bed of coffee in the basket and eventually shuts off the burrs and then continues to polish the puck for a couple additional seconds. Based on the above, I think it is safe to say that the dose setting is really a headspace setting, as the impeller should finish the puck at the same distance to the rim of the basket each time, regardless of the actual size of the basket. In short, if you set the dose to leave a slight witness mark from the dispersion screw in a dry puck with a 17g basket, I would expect to get a slight mark with a 14g or 20g basket, too. I would not expect the dose to match up number for number between baskets, though, as the amount of headspace for a given dose varies quite a bit from coffee to coffee. I tend to set my dose based on headspace anyway, so the dose adjustment mechanism makes sense to me in the way that it works.

Again, the biggest driver of dose inconsistency as far as I can tell is the variable amount of coffee that hangs up above the impeller. If you consistently knock this down into the basket and adjust your dose accordingly, there is less mess and better consistency. Coming from a nightmarish single-dosing workflow, a quick twist of the portafilter handle and pressing the button a second time is a welcome improvement to me if it leads to less mess and better consistency...

Cheers!

- Jake
LMWDP #704

iyiu
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#66: Post by iyiu »

geomasocco wrote:Greetings all,

I have just received my Linea Mini and Swift Mini. I find it quite hard to remove the portafilter once the grinder has finish. Also I always have a lot of coffee retained in the impeller. I just hope that it will perform as they advertised. The weight is quite inconsistent. I'll try to adjust the screw and see how I go.

Also if I set it correctly that at 0 I get the 17 grams for example. If I put the 20 grams portafilter I will get 20 grams? Or I'll need to adjust it again?


Cheers,
Giorgio

Hey Giorgio,

If you change the portafilter to 20g it should give you 20g. That's what I have found so far. When I got 17g in and 40 out in about 25-28 secs I stopped messing with the grind setting and the heavy amount of retained coffee stopped pouring out. I'm sorry I don't really have any explanations of why this happened for me but this has been my experience so far.

geomasocco
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Joined: 4 years ago

#67: Post by geomasocco »

Thank you guys. I have contacted La Marzocco Australia and they have been quite helpful.
It has been quite ok in the last few days. By using a 17 grams portafilter I am getting 16.9/17/17.2 so isn't too bad. Every now and than I get an 18.
They have also suggested to adjust the volume with that screw under the serial number sticker. But they also told me that the grinder get tested in Italy and calibrated and once arrive in Australia they re test it before sending it out and calibrate if needs to.
I'll see how I go in the next days.

geomasocco
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Joined: 4 years ago

#68: Post by geomasocco »

Good morning,

Is it normal that for 22grams in and 42/44gr out in 27/30 seconds I have the grind size set to 10.
When I put the 14 grams to get 27/28 out in 25/28 seconds I had to put it to 6.
If for the 14 grams I keep 10 grind size I get coffee everywhere and I get 30 grams in 5 seconds.
It shouldn't be the same grind size when I reduce the portafilter?


Thank you

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