Your advice has really helped, I've made the grind finer, and increased the pre-infusion time to 10 seconds and using 18 grams in and about 28-30 going out, the taste has improved significantly but still just a bit sour. I'll try dropping the temp to 249 to see if that helps. Appreciate the great tips.

I've kept mine at 252° - works well for both my beans (generally light-ish medium & medium) and the dark beans that my wife favors.

I also do the gentle wetting/pre-pre-infusion mentioned in the HB Pro800 reviews - I've found that it helps. Just find the point in the downward lever travel where water starts to trickle out and let it sit there for a few beats before proceeding to the pre-infusion, at full boiler pressure, at the full downward position.

Oh, and I'll sometimes retard the lever's upward travel for the first few seconds, to decrease puck pressure, on my wife's darker roasts; full pressure will often cause a bit of spurting, no matter how much I fiddle with grind.

Other than that, yeah - generally in the 1:2 range and 25-30 sec and I've been really happy.

Mine was set at 255F out of the box. This seemed to work well with the lighter roasts I tried initially, but I've lowered it to 250 lately for some medium roasts I'm drinking. Steam power is still fine at that temp setting.

I would agree that you most effective adjustments are grind and dose. Use Jim's diagram to get rid of sourness, bitterness, blandness or harshness.

I'm brewing 1:2 ratios, so a normale, with pretty good success.

Puck prep is paramount as always. I dose 18-19 grams in a 20 gram VST or IMS basket, I've found that with these size baskets I don't hit the dispersion screen.

Keep pulling that lever!

Appreciate the input, it's getting better but finding the shot time closer to 40 seconds from the 1st drip to get it tasting better for these beans. I'm doing the pre-wetting but very short time, so I may try to leave it a bit longer and see if helps.

Thanks,

Thanks, I'll give that a try,

Watching this thread. My brand new Pro 800 is my first ever machine.

So I'm also looking forward to advice from long-term owners regarding not only shot quality but machine performance and maintenance. My municipal water is very soft already, but so far I've only filled this new boiler with distilled+Third Wave Water packets. Is it true I need only flush at the end of the day, remove/clean the screen every two weeks, then check/replace piston gaskets just once a year? That's it for regular scheduled maintenance? That sounds too good to be true...

Is it worth replacing the stock rubber rings with Cafalet silicon seals?

When I had my Pro 800, I also used distilled water plus Third Wave salts. Never had any scale. You will need to lubricate the piston seals periodically. When the machine arrives, pull the screen and make sure it isn't full of grease.

You should get a set of Cafelat silicone piston seals and a few screen gaskets, tube of silicone grease, scale, wdt tool, Wemo plug (so the machine can turn on a hour before you get up and be ready to go), a good tamper (I like self leveling tampers), and some Cafelat filter disks to place on top of the puck preventing minimizing grinds entering the machine.

Don't forget you can also use less beans and grind finer. 18 grams isn't necessarily the magic number. Many people use 14 grams. Your choice of grinder is perhaps the most important piece of equipment to making good tasting espresso. Good luck on your journey.

Hi !!
Been using the 800 for 6 month here are my advices:
- Temp 248F since I dont steam milk and didnt notice any major change of temp in the group
- Pre infusion between 10-15 sec. Dont use the "gentle technique.
- Only weight the coffee beans. Dont weight the espresso and brew until blonding.
Have fun

My new 800 is delivering tomorrow