Paul_Pratt wrote:You know I just realised earlier this week the pressure/weight table does not mention where the person is holding it. I should add I am measuring from where the main arms meets the robot claw and I will update the manual accordingly.

I had a crazy plan to make the base into a scale, an analog scale if possible that would show both weight and pressure. It would really speed up my production and eliminate pressure system issues and enquiries. But a) no one would take the project on and b) the readings will differ unless you are holding the arms at the same point as everyone else :shock: So back to the drawing board.

I forgot to mention that as well. When I hung 10kg weights on each arm I tied them to the same claw/arm junction that you're talking about.

How did you actually create your graph? Was it calculated? Did you hang weights like I did? Or did you pull a few shots with your hands and do a linear best fit?

When I pull shots my hands are not in one spot. They are spread out over the arm/claw area. I don't know what a bathroom scale would read. If the average of where my hands sit were off by 2cm that would translate to a difference of almost 1 bar. Additionally, as the shot progresses, the pressure decreases for a given downward force because of the angle of the arms. So it seems to me that using a bathroom scale is inherently imprecise. But good enough to get within a couple of bar and hence get the feel of it.

A scale in the base? Although not to estimate the pressure this guy did that.

Guys I did it. Today I bent my screen nipple so it's like 60 degrees angle, It was wiggling for some time and today finally it died. I'll wait for the newer iteration of screen filter that will be flat, and order couple of that. In the meanwhile paper filters it is.

Something was off about that filter screen from the day 1. I guess I got a dud, and I don't blame Paul the product, I get that it is a fragile part. Don't get it wrong. Just wanted to share, and I love Robot and the espresso it makes. My living situation is a tough one as I can't really settle down, grab a couple thousand dollar lever machine and enjoy it. Thank you Paul for making such an awesome product that is portable enough and makes killer espresso!

The tampers are back in stock.

I put together a nice kit last night with a white barista, leveling tamper, both baskets and extras of everything. Really looking forward to it. I'll be pairing with an EG-1 (Core and Ultra Burrs). But can do some comparisons with Lido ET and a Vario Ceramic that I also own, if anyone is interested.

I've been mostly heavy on v60s for years but do occasionally pull shots on my really old Silvia and parent's La Spaziale (they have a cafelat tamper). My first home machine was a la pavoni which I bought used/cheap, fixed, loved, passed on to a friend and have missed!

I do plan to build a coffee bar in a new house this fall and get a profiling machine like a ECM or Decent or Lelit, but I can just tell the robot is something I will love and cherish long after I buy something more expensive. Maybe it will ultimately save me $3K!

Best

I also put in an order when the tamper upgrade became available. I currently have a Lido 2 with Italian burrs, I am curious to see how much work that is going to be. Please report how the Lido ET works out with the Robot.

My silicone piston/seal started having issues after about a year / 700 shots. There was some visible change in its appearance but only on one side of the seal. The rest looked really good. I don't know what happened. But seals are cheap so I'm not worried.

Seals aside, what will wear out or even break first on a Robot? Will it happen in my lifetime?

Jonk wrote:CoffeeIsJoy: generally these levers do well with a finer grind.

Generally espresso machines need a fine enough grind to create resistance for a good tasting and well timed extraction. With a manual lever you can get away with a coarser grind by lowering pressure than with pump espresso machines that deliver constant pressure. In any espresso machine you tune the dose and fineness of grind and temperature also to best showcase a particular coffee.

Sure - but speaking from my own experience - to reach 9 or even 6 bar on a Robot, Europiccola and MiniGaggia a finer grind is more or less required. Made obvious by using the same dose and basket on a MiniGaggia and regular pump machine.

Of course, in the case or the Robot there's plenty of space to updose if a finer grind is not possible for some reason.

Any idea why this has been your experience? Could it somehow be related to preinfusion? Or something else?

I have noticed others posting that the Robot generally requires a finer grind than machine X, Y, or Z. But I've also seen people report the opposite, that it requires a coarser grind. And then there are those who say it isn't fundamentally different than any other machine in terms of the grind. The maker of the Robot falls into the last camp. I haven't kept a tally but it seems to me that there is no consensus on the subject.

Further reading: Question on grind size for Cafelat Robot

In the end it comes down to what kind of dose you're using with the Robot, the grind will vary greatly from say 12-25g. I normally use 16-17g and the same grind I was using with 19-21g in a 20g VST basket for my pump machines before deciding to sell them in favor of the Robot.

Unless someone will modify a basket to fit in a pump machine with normal headspace we won't know for sure.. But with the MiniGaggia I could compare apples with apples by using the same exact basket.

Part could be because of pre-infusion, but with the spring the only reasonable pre-infusion is just gravity fed for a fairly short duration (say 5s). Perhaps a greater factor could be the lower pressure, pulling shots at 6 bar should lead to greater flow. What Gary wrote about coarser grind and lower pressure only applies to <4 bar afaik.