Learning with inherited Elektra Microcasa a Leva - Page 2

#11: Post by **IamOiman** » September 19th, 2020, 1:58 pm

Your gaskets are installed correctly. I am not noticing anything like a leak, unless you noted a lot of water coming out when you pulled out the piston (a little is fine).

I would say a good way for us to help diagnose what is happening is to film your process from grind to pull of a shot on this machine. I would expect from your description the grind is too course, but your experiences indicate otherwise. Try doing it with a finer grind and I want to see what happens on a video.

for comparison here is my piston when I was switching out my spring. I had the opposite issue where my spring was worn and needed replacing

September 19th, 2020, 1:59 pm

Heres a picture of the inside of the brass housing, looks pristing, no pitting.. very smooth to touch..

Now what I did discover is the shower screen is in rough shape!
From outside it looked fine, but looking down I could see some buildup on it.
It was stuck in pretty good! Had to bang it out from above with the handle of a screwdriver..
This is what I found..

The center area is where I was hitting it with the screwedriver head. Obviously pretty blocked up! The o-ring is intact but feels a bit brittle..
Could this be the problem?? If anything I would have thought that would contribute to choking the machine, not the other way around??

#13: Post by **IamOiman** » September 19th, 2020, 2:02 pm

I would definitely clean the shower screen since you have it out, it looks very grungy. You can try replacing the gasket with it but I would expect water to be leaking from the seal between that o-ring and the portafilter and could occasionally even cause a PF sneeze.

The cylinder looks fine to me as well.

#14: Post by **wkmok1** » September 19th, 2020, 2:16 pm

You might want to check for channeling. When I accidentally grind too find, there is no way I can move my lever at all.

#15: Post by **caeffe** » September 19th, 2020, 2:30 pm

muranomike wrote:Thanks for reply.

.........

It takes about 6 seconds for initial drops. I cannot choke the machine, even with sugary icing grounds tamped very hard, and a rock hard puck.

Beans have been every age. I have tried about 15 different roasters. I have had roaster grind at 'finest' setting which is no where near what my grinder can grind to. There is no way to choke my machine that I have found so far....... and that is frustrating.

Mike - as everyone here is saying; it appears the seals are fine, the bore and piston looks ok.
I have bolded and italicized what leads me to guess that you're grinds are just a tad too coarse. 6 seconds tells us that even without the piston pressing down on the water above the puck the water is already dripping down. A good rule of thumb IIRC, is to aim for around 10 seconds.
The other potential could be as Ryan (IamOiman) has shown - you might have a newer spring which could be stronger and longer than usual. However, if you do have a stronger spring than normal, you should be generating plenty more crema but with a fast stream which leads me to believe even more that your grounds are coarse. These 2 factors - stronger spring with a coarse ground could be what you're experiencing

BTW, once you've cleaned up that screen it may exacerbate the "fast" pull symptom. You'll definitely need a finer grind then.
My guess is the grinder burrs may be misaligned leading to a grind that's has coarse and fines but not enough fines.
If you can, bring the machine over to your local spro shop and see if they can give you finer and finer grinds to either choke the machine or at least get you to a shot that you might prefer. Or you could possibly as for some turkish grinds and try that at home.

I really think your machine is fine, we might then have to move to helping out with your grinder.
But, for now it sounds that at least you like how it tastes so all is not lost.

#16: Post by **peacecup** » September 19th, 2020, 2:43 pm

You could plug the holes in the portafilter to stop all pressure. If that still allows the lever to rise, that pressure is either leaking back past the piston seal, or above the portafiler seal to the group head gasket.

Do you ever notice water leaking out above the portafilter? Sometimes a faulty group head gasket will allow pressure to escape between the portafilter and the grouphead.

September 19th, 2020, 2:47 pm

Ok thanks.

I just replaced the shower screen and o-ring with new one (I ordered all the parts I thought I'd ever need including pstat, extra seals, etc! from Stefanos).

Here is my 16 gram basket and tamped to 40ish pounds.

Pressure looks good

And result after fellini pull. 47 grams total. Again lever just went straight up, no crema.

Shower screen replacement and o-ring replacement did not make difference..

Ok i'll try and get some turkish grind and see if I can choke it out..

September 19th, 2020, 2:54 pm

Hard to photograph grind, but this is what I've got right now.

I don't know if this is important, but at the finest grind there is a fair amount of grinds that have been pushed through into the espresso..

#19: Post by **peacecup** » September 19th, 2020, 3:03 pm

Well, it could be that the grind is too fine, and when you pull down the lever it creates a vacuume and distubs the puck. That would lead to a gusher and no crema. Might be worth trying a coarser grind and filling the basket to just below the rim. Only a light tamp should be needed, no need to put a lot of pressure on it. Could also try skipping the Fellini pull until you get things sorted out.

#20: Post by **ilVecchio** » September 19th, 2020, 6:34 pm

Well, you're in Vancouver. There should be no lack of espresso machines and state of the art grinders. I own a Micro Casa a Leva of the same vintage and have absolutely no problem choking it with my Niche Zero. I'm thinking that it's most probably the grinder.

Joel