I recently got the Robot and was trying to dial it in last night. The problem was that the shower screen came in bent very slightly. I first noticed this when I place it flat on the counter and it can wobble a little. Visual inspection from the side confirmed it was very slightly bent. I ignored it, hoping this won't be an issue and began dialing in anyway. Dialing in was not easy, I couldn't get any pressure to build up, the pressure gauge is barely moving (I got the barista version), the arm has very little resistance and coffee very easily shot through the coffee. Even my attempt to choke the machine by grinding very fine (3-4 on the Lido 2) and tamp very hard yield at most 1.5-2 bars of pressure. Tried switching coffee to a darker roast helps a little, but not much. Then after the may be the 10th shots, the shower screen broke as pictured.



I'm going to order a replacement, but I'd like to ask if this was the problem of the bent shower screen screwing up the puck and floats around during pre-infusion, or did I just tamp really badly that the pole on the show screen couldn't even go into the hole in the piston? Also, how likely can this issue happen again with a new shower screen (thinking if I should order a few spares just in case this happens again)?

Thanks all in advance for helping out a newbie!

I don't think the slightly bent screen would impact your ability to generate enough pressure. I'm not sure how 'slightly' bent your screen was. Also did you see your screen actually floating over the buck when you added water or are you speculating this happens during pre-infusion. I'm not familiar with Lidos but it doesn't sound like your grind is fine enough. Further you shouldn't have to tamp hard. It doesn't seem likely in either case. I don't know if your tamp was level, was it? The level tamp is more important than the pressure.

I have pulled in the vicinity of 200 shots and my screen looks like the day it arrived. I would think if you are using the machine correctly you would not need to replace the screen very often, if at all. From your description I wonder if you slammed the piston into the screen while trying to generate pressure. After pulling a shot I have about 25-30 ml of water left in the portafilter, on top of the puck--between the piston. I'm not sure the piston and the screen are really supposed to touch. Have you watched the video of Paul Pratt pulling a shot?

was, "The level tamp is more important than the pressure." Should read 'level tamp is more important than the firmness of the tamp.' Don't want to confuse firmness of the tamp with the pressure during the shot.

The shower screen was only bent by may be 1/3 mm on one side, it still look round enough, but you can definitely tell it's bent when looking from the side. The shower screen definitely broke because the piston is pushing into it, but the pole didn't line up with the slot, I could see a dent in the piston as well.

I suspect the shower screen might moves around because the coffee was quite fresh and it might have begun to bloom and push the shower screen out, but this is all just speculation though. I didn't see any leaks, from when I pull the shots, but sometimes if I tamp too lightly, coffee would spray out from the portafilter and create a bit of a mess.

Oh, and yes, I've watch the video of Paul Pratt pulling the shots many. I did try to mimic what he does, but apparently I still failed

Also, I would love to take videos of me pulling the shots, but now I have to wait for a new shower screen first

Are you able to choke it with the Lido? At some fineness it should choke. I know the Kinu I use can choke the robot easily.

If not are you distributing well? I find a knock or two of the filter helps settle the grinds. I then tamp nutate a bit.

I was not able to choke it. The finest I tried was 3 notches and I got like 2 bars of pressure and a full shot. The grind at this point is almost Turkish. First I thought the slightly bent shower screen shouldn't make that big of a difference, but now I'm thinking I might be wrong?

thirdcrackfourthwave wrote:was, "The level tamp is more important than the pressure." Should read 'level tamp is more important than the firmness of the tamp.' Don't want to confuse firmness of the tamp with the pressure during the shot.

Hi , may you please share some tips of "level tamp" ? It bother me long time , I really want to improve it at this deep basket.

How many grams of coffee are you putting in?

Tried 15, 17, 20. More coffee seemed to give slightly more pressure, but not much.