Its well aligned and calibrated to espresso.

erik82 wrote:That all depends on the alignment of you EK43 and not on the CT2 or any other machine.

Its well aligned and calibrated to espresso. I am using a 18g basket and dosing 16g. Would that make a difference?

What Erik said. But no, not with an EK. Paired with an EG-1 at first and now with 83mm conical burrs in a Malwani Livi. The EG-1 was very good and the Mazzers even better.

Forgive my ignorance but can't you just grind finer?

The grind setting is almost to the point where the burrs are touching. So, I'm not sure what's wrong. I'm not sure if I received a faulty product. Or this just goes for all lever machines.

Has absolutely nothing to do levers, I'd start with your grind/grinder and/or dose.

jley08 wrote: The grind setting is almost to the point where the burrs are touching. So, I'm not sure what's wrong. I'm not sure if I received a faulty product. Or this just goes for all lever machines.

A picture of the grinds and video of the pour may help.

It's pretty hard to see how the problem would be with the CT2. It's more likely that the grinder is not grinding fine enough. If you can borrow a grinder that a friend uses successfully for espresso, that may prove that the problem is with the grinder.

jley08 wrote:Its well aligned and calibrated to espresso. I am using a 18g basket and dosing 16g. Would that make a difference?

Do you mean you're using a VST or other high precision fine grind 18gr basket? Massively underdosing a basket that already needs a fine grind on a grinder that has some problems with grinding really fine is asking for troubles.

And levers in general require a somewhat coarser grind then normal espresso machines so levers are even better.

jley08 wrote:Its well aligned and calibrated to espresso. I am using a 18g basket and dosing 16g. Would that make a difference?

I have an Ek43s, a Strietman ES3 (wall mounted ct2 basically), and a Flare 58.

The flare 58 really needs meticulous puck prep, a higher dose (18g+), and keep pressure 8.5bar or lower with the EK.

The Strietman is far more forgiving to dose, puck prep, and pressure although I bet I rarely hit 9bar particularly with the lighter roasts I like.

Both shots taste great but I rarely use the Flare 58 (which I got a year after the Strietman). I've read over and over to get a slower flow basket on the Flare 58 to improve the shot and to allow for a bitter lower dosing but I haven't tried yet and I plan to sell the Flare 58 this summer.

One last note, since the EK is so uniform you may have peculiar looking shots as they flow out of the basket so it is best to gauge on taste first then perhaps volume.

Good luck!

truemagellen wrote:I have an Ek43s, a Strietman ES3 (wall mounted ct2 basically), and a Flare 58.

The flare 58 really needs meticulous puck prep, a higher dose (18g+), and keep pressure 8.5bar or lower with the EK.

The Strietman is far more forgiving to dose, puck prep, and pressure although I bet I rarely hit 9bar particularly with the lighter roasts I like.

One last note, since the EK is so uniform you may have peculiar looking shots as they flow out of the basket so it is best to gauge on taste first then perhaps volume.

Good luck!

Good point. The other thing to bear in mind is that, as I understand it, the EK doesn't produce the volume of fines that other grinders do (especially the conicals) which may make channeling a little more likely again.

If too fast, push less, to extract in the 6 bars range, this is the new black
And grind finer, the grind setting is specific for any machine, you grind different for a lever than for a pump machine.

jley08 wrote:Its well aligned and calibrated to espresso.

Calibrated for what ? a certain machine, a certain coffee, a certain roast ?
We change grind setting when any of the above changes.
The grinding for a 58 machine will not work for a 49 basket.