Olympia Cremina piston pressure gauge unboxing - Page 10

#91: Post by **grog** » April 10th, 2017, 9:51 am

Decided to try OEM PF, same beans and grind setting. My thought was it might hold higher pressure more easily vs bottomless PF. Well,
it didn't seem to make a huge difference. I was surprised to discover that two hands vs one does make a readily discernible difference in ease of maintaining pressure. With one hand, it drops to 5 bar if I'm just 'following the flow' aka my muscle memory from 5+ years of my routine. If I have both hands on the lever, it hovers right above 6 bar with no additional effort.

While it's not an earth shattering revelations that more weight on the lever adds pressure to the brew chamber, I'm continually fascinated at how this tool illustrates how small changes in routine impact quite noticeably what's in the cup.

#92: Post by **jwCrema** » April 13th, 2017, 10:05 pm

I am not sure what we'd call Redbird from a roast perspective, but we know it's really quite tasty when pulled @ 9 bars. I've been so pleased with the consistency the gauge has produced, I haven't thought of doing anything differently.

I have found a sort of amusing way to pull my shots very consistently. Left hand goes on the boiler for stability, then I lean on the lever with my right forearm just below the elbow. It's quite easy to hold a desired pressure for as long as needed. Doug at OE coined the term "slap shot", I'm calling this the lever "forearm shiver."

Morning update:
I pulled Redbird at 6 bars this morning, while it was good, we were both left with a mild sour after taste. I'm not precisely sure where my pStat is at, but 9 bars is definitely better for Redbird on my machine.

#93: Post by **Tonefish** » July 7th, 2017, 4:09 pm

was this a one-off custom build or are these generally available for purchase?

Thanks and Happy Pulls!

July 7th, 2017, 5:00 pm

They are for sale on naked-portafilter.com. It looks like sales are doing well, they all seem to be waitlisted at the moment.

July 7th, 2017, 10:15 pm

Thanks Dominico!

July 9th, 2017, 5:45 am

@Tonefish: We've been focused on the lunch of the Strietman kit (Piston pressure gauge for Strietman CT1) but now we have stock on all (Cremina, Pavoni, Strietman) versions.

#97: Post by **Tonefish** » July 9th, 2017, 11:26 am

naked-portfilter wrote:@Tonefish: We've been focused on the lunch of the Strietman kit (Piston pressure gauge for Strietman CT1) but now we have stock on all (Cremina, Pavoni, Strietman) versions.

Good to know you are catching up. Will check them out. Thank you for the heads up!

#98: Post by HB » July 10th, 2017, 7:35 am

naked-portfilter wrote:We've been focused on the lunch of the Strietman kit (Piston pressure gauge for Strietman CT1) but now we have stock on all (Cremina, Pavoni, Strietman) versions.

We've often given a pass on the "commercial posts" rule for hobbyists that make and sell one-off items, since they're really providing a service for the HB community. But if a hobbyist passes from one-off to mainstream production, the regular Vendor participation in the forums rules apply. Your wares are now available at naked-portafilter.com and it's clear you've passed from hobbyist to bonafide business. That's quite an achievement! But with it comes the expectation that you'll exercise caution when posting so as to avoid the slippery slope between "just being helpful" and posting regular sales pitches.

Please note that you can become a sponsor and gain access to the Marketplace, where none of these restrictions apply. Successful business like Orphan Espresso have benefitted from this flexibility during the design/creation phase of their products. If you're interested, please contact me offline.

July 10th, 2017, 9:11 am

HB wrote:If you're interested, please contact me offline.

Thanks Dan. I've done already.

#100: Post by **haunce** » September 4th, 2017, 11:05 pm

Great work, super cool mod kit.

One question though - how much 'nimble' control does the Cremina actually have? Can you nimbly move between 0-9 bars when pulling a shot, or does it force/lock into ranges and not give you total control? From the videos I've seen, it looks like the machine almost automatically goes high, then slowly drops around the 6bar.

I'd love to see a video of someone manipulating the full, wide range of bars while pulling a shot, to show how much range and control one actually has.