I'm a new owner of a 2002 Europiccola, which I as I believe it has the 3rd generation group. I've done a ton of searching on how to eliminate air in the chamber, and I have tried a lot of things but have not had much luck. On almost all of my pulls, I meet resistance about half of the way down with the lever. When I finish the pull, the lever bounces back up about 1/4 of the way. I believe that this must mean there is air trapped above the puck. Here is my normal routine:

- Wait for the light to go out, then purge any air by opening the steam wand for a few second.
- Pump the lever to let water and steam out.
- Grind, dose, light tamp.
- Pull lever up until water leaves group, then back the lever down just enough for it to stop. Lock PF in and pull the lever all the way up.
- Preinfuse for about 10 seconds.
- Pull straight down slowly with even pressure.

Doing this with 14 grams in, I got 21 grams of espresso out. I would like to get more. I've had a bit more success using the Fellini move. However, I think that I should focus first on a solid single pull before using other techniques. Any ideas what I should do to have a better pull?

Try this: Once you lock in the PF and raise the lever do several tiny pumps, moving the lever tip only a couple of inches up and down until it's solid. That usually expels the air in my experience.

Hope that helps.

Are you sure that the group is hot enough? With my generation I, which is very much like your generation III, moving the handle up and down after the bleed operation two to four times, much of the travel brings boiler water into and then pushes it out over and over again heating it. It is nice to have a thermometer system to tell where you are on the temperature scale. I like IR thermometers, unless you have a brass machine with polymer coat, you will need to put a piece of tape at the spots you want to measure. They seem to cost about $US10 to $US15. Bare metal has very poor emissivity and reads badly. Group needs to be hot enough because the vapour pressure of water forces the last air out of the space under the cylinder. My 1964 always gives greater than 30 gram shots. A little pumping action after the lever is up also helps expell air from it, and I presume it would from the similar generation III models.

rpavlis wrote:Are you sure that the group is hot enough?

I do believe that the group is hot enough because after letting some water out of the group head, I wait around 2 or 3 minutes before pulling the shot. At this point the group is very hot to the touch. In addition, if I pull a shot where the group is too hot, resulting in an obviously burnt shot, I still have the spongy issue.

It has taken me a while to find a consistency in removing sponginess. I had tried all sorts of things but could not eliminate it all the time. I now have a consistent solution. After I bleed the wand of air. I also "try" the lever to close to the top. As you bring the lever up it causes an increase in pressure in the boiler which in the early stages of the heating stops the water from boiling. That is, if the boiler is venting from the release valve, it will stop venting when you raise the lever, because of the increased pressure. It will start venting again the water gets hotter despite the increase pressure with the lever up. I take this as a sign that we are up to proper temperature. I think raise and lower the lever several times, sometimes releasing a little water, (to heat the cup and the group) But just raising the lever up and down without allowing any water to come up seems to clear the air.

Take a look at this thread... it definitely solved spongy on my lever.'

Requesting some troubleshooting advice for La Pavoni Europiccola

Thanks for the link, I've read it once before. Since there are several tips mentioned in it however, may I ask what technique helped you solve the spongy pulls?

When I have access to a workshop over thanksgiving, I'll be cutting the portafilter to a bottomless to make sure that I get beads after preinfusion. I think my grind is okay as I am able to firmly pull the lever down with one hand without any fear of tipping the machine or anything. Initially, I used a fine grind and really had to work to get the shot, but I have since adjusted.

DanoM wrote:Try this: Once you lock in the PF and raise the lever do several tiny pumps, moving the lever tip only a couple of inches up and down until it's solid. That usually expels the air in my experience.

Hope that helps.

That's what I do and it doesn't mess up my shot. I put an aero press filter on top of the puck so nothing gets sucked back in, my Pavoni would filter back some fines into the boiler, the Cremina doesn't do it with the same technique (must be the group differences).

So I preinfuse and then I pump the lever versus you do it earlier in the process. It doesn't disturb my puck, no cracking, all is well. Spongy pull gone. May not be for everyone as it's not the purist thing to do depending on what thread you read. Mine is not the Fellini, it's before the pull starts.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely try that tomorrow morning. When I have done the Fellini pull, I stop when I meet resistance, but it sounds like these pulls are much smaller and wouldn't really meet much resistance. Does this lever movement happen during the 10 seconds of preinfusion or after?

I do short, quick usually right after in fusion before I pull. It stiffens up and I pull the shot. I'll have to take a quick video later.

Edit: these are before the pull, up in the no resistance area, it seems to get the air out, to the top, to the spongy and back and forth, doesn't take much.