Olympia Cremina piston pressure gauge unboxing - Page 3
-
- Supporter ❤
- Posts: 1097
- Joined: 11 years ago
Look directly into my eyes...you are feeling sleepy...very sleepy...now order yours when you wake up.....shawndo wrote:I bet a bunch of orders came in just after this post from dominico
-
- Supporter ❤
- Posts: 1097
- Joined: 11 years ago
My gauge arrived yesterday. I'll add a few things - this kit is such a simple and brilliant idea that innovates a decades old machine to perform much more consistently than is otherwise possible. This kit deserves a patent in my view.dominico wrote:I've been using my Cremina exclusively all week. The gauge is not only fun, but I feel I'm reaching some previously unreached potential this week. It is very confidence inspiring. The coffee off of my Cremina / Pavoni's while good, has never matched what I could get from the President. With this gauge I am able to replicate my profiles from the President on the Cremina. The result? Really tasty coffee. They still have their own particular characteristics but I no longer strongly prefer the President like I did before.
If nothing else these piston pressure gauges will drastically reduce the learning curve on the Cremina or Pavoni's. And some of us veterans will discover some surprising things about our current technique as I was.
My Cremina was unused from 1985 until I bought it on eBay for $800 from an estate sale. The original piston came out uneventfully. I had stop to marvel that its piston seals are as pliable as a new set. There is zero wear on the cylinder or seals.
The precision of the machining in the parts of this kit are a thing of absolute beauty. Everything fits perfectly. I didn't feel any sense of hanging when I pulled out the original piston. But, when I attempted to install the new piston, it would not go in at all, even without the seals on. I was baffled, but on closer inspection, found a tiny ding on the lip of the group head cylinder. I used the original piston to gently persuade the ding out and voila the new piston went in smoothly.
After pushing in the piston abt ~1mm, I use elbow side of the 90 degree pick http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Precis ... 4-Piece%29 to push the seals into the cylinder. I know the kit comes with a sleeve to the do same thing, but I'm old school and I can see exactly what's happening.
As Dominico's earlier post and the installation video points out, if you've got a tiny little brass washer left over, look at this information again.
This morning I pulled the first half at 9 bar, then went to 6 bar for the last half of the pull. OMG!!! There is a subtle flavor I get occasionally but not consistently. I have chased it since I bought the Cremina but what was it, exactly? My blind tester, (aka Wifey) noted I had nailed it before I said a word. I tried the 9/6 idea based on some things I've read, but without the gauge, had no way to actually do it. Is there a better profile? Don't know, but am going to have a ton of fun finding it.
Gabor has a newsletter that you can subscribe to on the topic of pressure profiling using the kit, which is another outstanding idea. We'll have a community all chasing different profiling techniques - the ultimate, you go one way, I'll go the other and we'll meet back to trade findings in the supreme art of finding the perfect shot.
-
- Posts: 871
- Joined: 8 years ago
I'm curious if your experience is similar to Dominico's in that you actually are finding that you have to pull the lever with more pressure than you thought to reach 9 bar.
- naked-portafilter
- Posts: 698
- Joined: 10 years ago
This is really insane. It took almost three weeks.jwCrema wrote:My gauge arrived yesterday.
I'm really happy that some of really experienced coffee geeks are "testing" the kit. I've been using my Cremina just for 3 years. This week another 4 kits will be delivered. I'm looking forward for new experiences, reviews and perhaps even ideas.
-
- Supporter ❤
- Posts: 1097
- Joined: 11 years ago
I missed Dominico's observation on this point. Not sure how that could happen unless there was mechanical binding of some sort, but he'd have noticed that. The piston is traveling the same distance, into the same basket with the same grounds, etc.RyanP wrote:I'm curious if your experience is similar to Dominico's in that you actually are finding that you have to pull the lever with more pressure than you thought to reach 9 bar.
I put what I thought was the same pressure on the lever, then looked at the gauge. I was very surprised it was dead on 9 bars
- dominico (original poster)
- Team HB
- Posts: 2007
- Joined: 9 years ago
To clarify, I was simply stating that because before the gauge I didn't know what 9 bar really felt like, I was surprised to learn that my standard pull from muscle memory was actually about 6.5 bar. I'm not stating that the gauge makes it harder to reach 9 bar; I'm fairly certain it hasn't changed hw the Cremina behaves at all. Another frequent Cremina user tried out my machine with the gauge and was surprised himself to find that his normal technique pulls at around 7 bar. So while you think you may be pulling at a certain pressure, you really don't know until you have something giving you that specific feedback. Now I've been learning what 9 bar, 7 bar, 4 bar, etc "feel" like, and playing with some more profiles.
One I've been enjoying lately is to take a relatively light roasted coffee at medium temp, preinfuse at boiler pressure for 15 seconds (1 bar in my case) then go to 8 bar, slowly backing off to about 6 bar for the first 18g of the shot, then dropping down to <4 bar for the last 6g to come out with about 24g total shot weight. I've found the shots are very sweet this way.
A convient thing I found with this gauge is that when you are preinfusing with the lever full up it is actually reading your boiler pressure, so if you have an older model like me I can adjust my pstat and check my new boiler pressure by pulling a shot.
One I've been enjoying lately is to take a relatively light roasted coffee at medium temp, preinfuse at boiler pressure for 15 seconds (1 bar in my case) then go to 8 bar, slowly backing off to about 6 bar for the first 18g of the shot, then dropping down to <4 bar for the last 6g to come out with about 24g total shot weight. I've found the shots are very sweet this way.
A convient thing I found with this gauge is that when you are preinfusing with the lever full up it is actually reading your boiler pressure, so if you have an older model like me I can adjust my pstat and check my new boiler pressure by pulling a shot.
https://bit.ly/3N1bhPR
Il caffè è un piacere, se non è buono che piacere è?
Il caffè è un piacere, se non è buono che piacere è?
-
- Posts: 61
- Joined: 9 years ago
Nice side benefit!dominico wrote:... A convient thing I found with this gauge is that when you are preinfusing with the lever full up it is actually reading your boiler pressure, so if you have an older model like me I can adjust my pstat and check my new boiler pressure by pulling a shot.
This piston gauge has inspired me to find a Cremina to put one of these kits on
-
- Supporter ❤
- Posts: 1097
- Joined: 11 years ago
Had not noticed this - how convenient. I will sell my custom made boiler pressure gauge. One less "thing" in the tool chest.dominico wrote: A convient thing I found with this gauge is that when you are preinfusing with the lever full up it is actually reading your boiler pressure, so if you have an older model like me I can adjust my pstat and check my new boiler pressure by pulling a shot.
-
- Posts: 124
- Joined: 9 years ago
On myfirst pull it was very interesting to see how close I was to the optimal 9 bar when I started the pull, and even with trying to maitain that pressure I failed badly, ending the pull wit approx. 6 bar - like a spring driven lever .jwCrema wrote: This morning I pulled the first half at 9 bar, then went to 6 bar for the last half of the pull. OMG!!! There is a subtle flavor I get occasionally but not consistently. I have chased it since I bought the Cremina but what was it, exactly? My blind tester, (aka Wifey) noted I had nailed it before I said a word. I tried the 9/6 idea based on some things I've read, but without the gauge, had no way to actually do it. Is there a better profile? Don't know, but am going to have a ton of fun finding it
.
Lately I'm experimentimentig with "V" profiles (relatively fast, but not immediate increase to 9 or even 12 bar, than slowly decreasing the pressure to 1 bar during the rest of the pull). It really works well with certain light roasted coffees. Dark roasts can benefit from lower (peak pressure of 6-7 bar) max pressure.
- naked-portafilter
- Posts: 698
- Joined: 10 years ago
A time lapse video about how do I make the Strada gauge NAKED: