Cafelat Robot User Experience - Page 128

August 25th, 2019, 12:22 am

And store your beans when they're at peak, in the freezer. They grind and brew perfectly well.

#1272: Post by **tuxxie** » August 26th, 2019, 10:06 am

For those having problem locking in the portafilter, you might want to take a check on the condition of the silicone seal. I pulled the silicone seal with fingers only, without using any blunt tool, to clean the groove on the piston a few times, and the seal was stretched bigger than the original diameter. That's when my portafilter becomes harder to lock in.

After I've changed a new seal, it becomes smoother to lock in the portafilter, just like when the unit was new. I puzzled as to why the seal affects the locking of the portafilter though, as the piston is high up when the arms are raised.

August 29th, 2019, 2:03 am

A discussion began here about whether the Robot's filter basket fits the 58mm portafilters used in other machines. I split that off as a separate discussion.

Does the Cafelat Robot basket fit a regular 58mm portafilter?

August 30th, 2019, 10:13 pm

davidhunternyc wrote:Just as you were saying NOT to use a whirly blade I used my Krups whirly blade with my Robot. My Rosco Mini Mill is out of service and the Krups is all I had. Even though there was channeling and the espresso was somewhat bitter at least I was able to grind 40 grams of espresso in seconds, enough for two cappucccinos. My hand grinder is great for French Press coffee but for fine espresso grinds hand grinders are a pain. I'm thinking about getting the Niche Zero or the Baratza Sette 270Wi. I love the built-in weight calibration with the 270Wi and consider this feature a game changer. Weighing out espresso manually takes a lot of time. So I'm leaning towards the Baratza 270Wi. Any other suggestions are welcome. Because of the size of my small kitchen I need a small electric mill that doesn't take up a lot of room and I don't want to spend a fortune.

As a side note, Ross from Portapresso is being an angel. That locknut on the Rosco Mini Mill is a pain. He is trying to come up with a solution to fix my mill. The brass is all gashed to hell but he seems open to fixing it.

The Baratza Sette 270 works great with the Robot. Very little retention and very fast.

August 30th, 2019, 10:18 pm

yakster wrote:They compared electric grinders costing $200 or less, really lowering the expected grind quality. The test that I saw was for brewed coffee, not espresso.

America's Test Kitchen Equipment Review: The Best Coffee Grinder and Our Testing Winners

Yep, big difference between drip coffee and espresso. Don't skimp on the grinder if making espresso.

#1276: Post by **Nate42** » September 4th, 2019, 10:03 am

tuxxie wrote:For those having problem locking in the portafilter, you might want to take a check on the condition of the silicone seal. I pulled the silicone seal with fingers only, without using any blunt tool, to clean the groove on the piston a few times, and the seal was stretched bigger than the original diameter. That's when my portafilter becomes harder to lock in.

After I've changed a new seal, it becomes smoother to lock in the portafilter, just like when the unit was new. I puzzled as to why the seal affects the locking of the portafilter though, as the piston is high up when the arms are raised.

Anyone else experience any stretching of the silicon seal? I have been meaning to take it off for a more thorough cleaning, but this post is making me think maybe I should leave well enough alone.

September 4th, 2019, 11:31 am

I think if you use a tool to pull the seal out shouldn't be a problem. I use Cafelat's seal on my LP and I frequently take the piston and the seal out (with a blunt tool) for cleaning without any degradation. Since they're of the same material and from the same company, I assume and expect the seal to be of the same quality.

The stretched seal on the Robot might have been from me pulling it out without using a tool and pulling it too hard / much.

#1278: Post by **AZRich** » September 4th, 2019, 2:00 pm

tuxxie wrote:For those having problem locking in the portafilter, you might want to take a check on the condition of the silicone seal. I pulled the silicone seal with fingers only, without using any blunt tool, to clean the groove on the piston a few times, and the seal was stretched bigger than the original diameter. That's when my portafilter becomes harder to lock in.

After I've changed a new seal, it becomes smoother to lock in the portafilter, just like when the unit was new. I puzzled as to why the seal affects the locking of the portafilter though, as the piston is high up when the arms are raised.

I had the same lock-in issue a couple months ago after removing the original seal to clean. The problem was the exposed "skirt" portion which is visible when installed had flared out just a bit after re-installing which made inserting the portafilter more difficult. Replacing with a new seal, it was obvious the new one was laying flatter and so lock-in was easy. (I was careful removing the old one.) Anyway they are inexpensive.

Thinking about the mechanics, each time you insert the basket/portafilter the seal must compress to fit inside the basket without rolling the edge over. This is analogous to when you replace the seals on a regular lever machine and carefully insert the piston back into the cylinder. But you only do that once, whereas on the robot you are doing that *every time* you insert the basket/portafilter to pull a shot. I suspect that using greater care in removing and cleaning the seal might avoid this, but honestly, removing the seal to clean is likely not necessary as a routine maintenance.

September 10th, 2019, 5:54 pm

I'm looking forward to getting a Robot. One of it's biggest upsides for me [and probably for many folks] will be never needing to crate it up and ship it anywhere to get fixed. I live in the boonies so have steered clear of complex machines for this very reason.

September 11th, 2019, 2:51 am

I love my Robot with my Sette 270. Simple design that just works! Low maintenance, easy to clean and well built.