Probably she put it crooked and the piston force bent it?

While you wait for the metal screen, you can use paper filter over the puck. I use everyday paper and metal.

notarealbarista wrote:Just out of curiosity..how was she able to achieve that? seems like she would have had to apply quite a lot of force but how does this bend like it did?

I was surprised as well. She had put the screen in upside down, but apart from that she reported that the pull was unusually easy. So she apparently did not apply much force, and she is quite petite. The screen was pretty badly bent.

I bent the screen back as best I could with a pair of pliers. It fits well enough to slide down the walls of the basket, and I used it to make coffee this morning. Thanks for the suggestion to use paper - between that and my partially fixed screen I will probably be able to get by until I can find a replacement.

Maybe the coffee bed was at an extreme angle, and if she threw the screen on top (upside down), it would have been at an even more extreme angle, and might have gotten stuck between the piston and the cylinder and bent? And perhaps the reason the pull was so easy was because of significant channeling from an uneven bed (or the hole poked in it by the screen handle)?

Dogshot wrote:Absolutely loving my Robot. It is probably the best espresso machine I have ever owned (which includes an Elektra Semiautomatica, Ponte Vecchio Export, and Expobar Brewtus II). I have purchased a Bellman stovetop steamer for my wife's morning cappuccino, and together with my Vario, the combination is unbeatable in terms of value for cost.

My wife made coffee yesterday, and when I got home I found this:
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Do any locations in the US carry shower screens for the Robot, or am I going to have to order directly from Cafelat? The only problem with ordering direct is that I have no idea how much import fees will be to Canada, and more importantly the shipping can take anywhere between 10 - 60 days. I'd rather not wait 2 months for the part.

I have a tip for you. The gasket for the Robot fits perfectly on top of the Bellman steamer if you need to preheat it.

Having said that, I just made the best shot today after NOT preheating it.

By the way, there is a facebook group for cafelat robot owners if anyone is interested in joining.

when using the Robot while travelling I do take the tamper but reckon not using it will not be a major issue. I always eyeball the amount of coffe AND confess that I take preground and that I'm even not changing the grind setting. The thing is that the Robot is so forgiving, no preheat, minimal care, just feed it great coffee and hot water and it creates stellar espresso

I no longer feel bad not weighing the yield, but not weighing the beans... yeah, for a trip I no doubt can "go with the flow" there too.

And I did try a light tamp with the shower screen just now instead of the tamper. It definitely works so I do think I'll leave it at home. Flow was a little faster than I remembered but the results were great.

Ski trip to Colorado with young kids means a lot of other gear so the more I can trim from my espresso setup the better.

Thanks!

Facebook group... interesting... that might get me back on there.

Just chiming in to also express my satisfaction with my Robot. Really pleased with the ease of use and clean-up. I'm a relative newbie, and paired with a Kinu M47 Phoenix I've been pulling better shots than I can get from any of the best shops around me pretty consistently. I've been lightly preheating the basket and portafilter with warm water, then using the 'overflow' technique for few seconds with just off boiling water (sometimes not for a darker roast) and I've quickly been getting great results without having to think about it too much. I do find the filter on top to be beneficial, but have not had a chance to experiment with a filter on the bottom as well.

I got the barista version, the blue one which was actually my last preference from the photos but I love it in person. The pressure gauge was nice initially just to get a feel for it, but I've got best results by just using a mirror and intuition and being consistent with pressure, varying depending on my dosage. It's really hard to go too wrong once you dial in your grind. Amazing Job, Paul.

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I finally got the robot that I was expecting. This is my first Home-Barista's post!

Robot's body was very hard and good. Espresso is also very impressive.

Sadly, however, there was a problem with the shower screen and the lever.

I asked them on message, but they said there was no problem extracting coffee because they were always checking before sending. And I was told "please read the manual correctly".

I just wanted to get the best product as a customer. I'm really really satisfied with the espresso performance, but I don't think it's enough to manage it after the purchase.

It is not easy to buy any additional purchase or refund because I used international shipping. I'm just worried that there won't be any bigger problems in the future.

If anyone wants to buy this, be sure to purchase a few spare parts and carefully inspect the product.

Customer service is NOT good.

Paul Pratt is top class and considered by many amongst, if not the best in his field.

If he tells you, everything is fine with your unit because he built it himself, then everything is absolutely fine with your unit.

If you don't know the man, do a little research on his contribution on Home-barista and check his Instagram. If this doesn't reassure you, then nothing will.

Since you have dealt with the issue and received answers from Paul Pratt, both in here and elsewhere, I would suggest using this thread to exchange about your experience with your new robot. You'll find lots of useful info; techniques, recipes, maintenance, etc.

Good luck on your new journey!

Have been lurking around for several months, now on with the first post: I wanted decent coffee at work (preferably espresso), 1 or max 2 cups a day, with the least possible amount of waste. Lever machines looked like an obvious choice and after comparing machines and reading here I went with the Robot. Zero regrets so far. Coffee is not just decent, it's superb. As others in this thread mentioned: most of the time it just tastes better than the espresso shops here serve even when using the same beans. Then again I don't live in Italy or so so not sure how much that means :] And that's all without even having a decent scale (resolution 1gr and not very accurate), and looking at flow rate/color to decide when to stop pulling. Also I'm not too hardcore when it comes to bean age etc and like experimenting so I love that with the whole manual process I can just vary grind/pressure a bit and still get tasty beverages. All in all: 'a machine made by engineers for engineers' wouldn't be a bad description for the robot. Quality, built to last, simplicity yet as versatile as you want it to be. Can't believe I wasted many years of my life drinking crappy filter and even Nespresso (yeah yeah god forbid).

Some small details:
- Robot arrived with some metal shavings/filings around the piston and on the seal. Some extra pressured air blows or brushing during assembly would get rid of this.
- the clamp which holds the pressure gauge on the arm has a piece of plastic under the allen screws. This piece sticks out a bit and has a fairly sharp corner. Could be solved e.g. by laying the Robot on it's side when assembling so the plastic stays in place better and doesn't fall out before tightening screws. Then again, this is a detail, and if I has to produce a couple of Robots a day I probably wouldn't do better.
- what's the idea behind the relief lines where you place the cup on the baseplate? It's an extra design/production step but I'm not sure if it does anything funtional. The rubber mat would stay in place without it since it's rubber, without the rubber it doesn't seem to do anything for holding cups in place, only makes it a bit harder to clean the plate.

Question: in one shot a couple of weeks ago something went wrong. The shot itself wasn't the problem, but after I pulled levers up again and placed another cup for flushing the remaining water through, I pressed down and suddenly heard a 'clunk' sound. Turns out the screen got all tilted, enough so that the pin on the screen didn't go into the hole in the piston but instead next to it and as a result got bent quite badly when pressing down. Shot preparation was same as always and I really doubt the distibution/tamp could be so uneven/off-center that this tilting happened during the shot already. Only think I can think of is I raised the lever fast enough to cause suction to lift the screen leaving it tilted. Anyone else had this? Other ideas about cause? Luckily the screen is steel so bent it back without braking, though I do have the impression the dimple is more than it was i.e. screen isn't completely flat but pin is sunken a bit. Doesn't affect shots though, or not in an observable way.