Bought a Europiccola Pro on ebay and it came in a few days ago. I spent some time making a fixture to hold my tamp so I could tamp the grounds properly and then plugged it in to have a go. Initially I loaded it full of water, heated it up to 1 bar, then emptied it after it cooled to try to clean out whatever was in there; but its in fairly good shape for a used machine. Gaskets are still rather soft and reasonably compliant.

I don't trust my roasting skills yet, so I just bought a generic bag of french roasted arabica from costco (which I have used before in my 2 group Bar commercial machine). Its a reasonable bean, not great, but I can get by with it and it has reasonable crema.

My first pull with about 15grams was waaay too coarse; the pull went right through and the liquid was without crema.
I tightened up the ground size (La Pavoni commercial grinder) and got the next pull into the ballpark; still coarse, the pull took maybe 15 seconds. Little crema.

Third pull was too fine, the lever was difficult to pull and took perhaps 1 minute. Again, no crema and taste was bitter, obviously overextracted.

At this point I was running low on water (as I had been running copious amounts out of the shower screen to keep the group hot and turning the power off same time) so I'll pick it up from there next time.

I noticed when pulling the lever down, bubbles will appear at the joint bolting the group head to the boiler. Is there a gasket that is supposed to be here? I am also a little down on the lack of crema. I've used this bean before and know its capable of a small amount of crema, not decent, but ok... and I know that I'm not dialled in yet, but have to assume that I should have seen more crema by now; so I'm pretty sure I am doing something else wrong. I tried to take the group temp but my IR Fluke lased onto the group head may not be registering the correct temp as I did not see the 190F that people were reporting.

Any suggestions?

aloha,
walt

Yes, there should be an o-ring between the group and the boiler.

My gen 1's run at .8 bar, 1bar should be ok I would think, I'll leave Gary and other to comment here.

Crema, I find it is bean dependent, within a good roast date, try a few roasters and you'll find one you like I am sure. I am impressed that Costco beans got you some Crema . I am sure there some folk here who can recommend something in HI.

Pavoni is a great lever . Do you have the Pavoni Zip grinder? I have that one and it works well minus being a stepper. I usually grind 16-17grams in the Elektra double basket from Stephanos espresso care.

Sounds like you have it under control once you find a bean. You should get a temp strip for the group , all I use, some will tell you more thermomety, find a happy medium that works for you. You likely will need to cool the group after a two shots or so depending how long you steam milk... I heat mine to temp, pull a shot of water to warm up the group then I pull the shot,

Welcome to the club

I pulled my first shot on my Europiccola about a week ago and experienced the same issues. It just takes time to learn the nuances and my shots this week improved over last weeks attempts. I am an engineer and trying to piece together all the different variables (grind, temp, pressure..) is the fun part. I like the fact that my espresso journey started on a basic lever and if I decide to upgrade to a semi or auto, I will always have an appreciation for what it takes to create great espresso.

Remember to clean everything after each use of the machine! Espresso contains high concentrations of salts, even when made with the purest water, and leaving it on surfaces will cause corrosion. Chloride is particularly bad. Look into the boiler with a light at least once weekly, the water should be clear and not coloured. Brown water indicates leaking seals. If CaCO₃ scale be found to be forming rapidly do something about it! If you use a municipal water supply check with them to be sure that chloride is not too high. One can use distilled water, but, especially with light roasts, this tends to result in coffee that is too acidic. I have pointed out in several previous posts here that using distilled water with 0.1 gram of KHCO₃ (potassium bicarbonate) per litre will avoid scale and at the same time produce espresso with essentially the identical concentration of moderately hard water, because the beans contain massive concentration of Mg and Ca, far more than the hardest water.

The importance of using freshly roasted coffee and a quality grinder cannot be over emphasised. When coffee is ground too coarse it just runs through the coffee puck, and when it is too fine it can prevent water going through at all. I find that the grind that produces the most crema seems to be also the most tasty, others can comment on this?

Note the effort to move the piston up and down. When this effort increases it is time for servicing the group. This seems a terrifying prospect to some beginners, but it only takes a few minutes. There is a bit of a learning curve! You might check the length of the bolts that hold the group to the boiler. The 12mm ones on some machines are NOT what La Pavoni specifications call for, but it is what they provided with some machines. Do not replace them with ordinary steel ones. Mine with 12mm bolts was near stripping. I replaced the bolts with threaded rods by the way, I put "acorn" nuts on them.

Thanks, everyone. I will pull off the 2 bolts first and replace the O ring first, before trying to secure another source of good bean. I do have an assortment of green beans here, but as I've never roasted before, I'm still learning and currently in the steep part of the learning curve with my corn popper (interim machine while my proper roaster is under construction).

I do have an SAE and metric assortment of O rings; is the group O ring a standard Buna-N nitrile ring? or one of those exotic material ones for additional heat resistance like Viton or polyurethane? I know silicon (orange color) can go to 600F but I don't have any of those.

My lever will not stay at the horizontal position by itself, it will sink down slowly. Is this an indication that the piston O rings need replacement? Also, what kind of lubricant to you use for the piston shaft?

Lastly, where do you buy the service kits from? I know there are several vendors, but I've seen prices swing wildly from one to another and I'm in Hawaii, where we share in common with Alaska the dreaded "We do not ship to AK and HI" thing...

Hi Walt:

Lever not staying in the same place means it doesn't have a spring because it's a manual lever. If you've bought a used machine that isn't in new condition you should service all the seals anyway. You might want to check out support threads like Refeathering the Peacock for servicing the group. There are rebuild videos on Orphan Espresso at the bottom of this page. They can supply you with parts and have gone big time into the hand grinder manufacturing business with superb offerings, so it can take awhile to reach them with questions, but you may not need to ask much with your technical know-how. If you're considering a better grinder and don't mind hand grinding, you might also look at their LIDO E and Pharos grinders on their grinder website. Stefano's Espressocare can supply you with parts and responsive technical support. I expect that they both ship to Hawaii.

And Costco French Roast or an early attempt home roast are likely to hamper your attempts to dial in the machine. Among other issues, a roast that dark needs to be brewed very cool (175F) to avoid extracting bitterness. Let me suggest another course. Go to the very best local cafe, the one that makes the most delicious espresso in a medium roast. Buy their beans. Ask them for brew parameters and how long after the roast it reaches peak. Aim for the way it tastes in the cafe. If they can't tell you the roast date that's not a good enough source. If there's oil on the surface of the beans it's dark enough that you're tasting mostly roast flavors instead of what's possible in those beans.

Thanks Gary, well spoken as always and eminently practical advice. I'll order a seal kit asap. I just found out I have a Millenium model (60mm bell)... do you recommend replacing the piston at the same time? And, does anyone offer a brass sleeve to replace my plastic one? Does anyone have schematics for the piston so I can make one for myself? Mostly I want to know if the central hole is metric or SAE as I only have SAE taps and dies. I think I have a couple pieces of old brass lying around that will be large enough to cut down to shape into a piston. I've just ordered a digital thermometer and thermocouples as well.

My grinder is a commercial La Pavoni, its large and the pictures look the same as the ones I see now, I guess you call it the Zip now? not sure. It must be around 20 years old, but has less than 3 years' actual use on it as it was put into storage soon after getting it. Nevertheless, I'm not that happy with it as the step adjustment isn't immediate; it has always required a few pulls to settle in and become consistent. I just checked out the Pharos; pretty interesting, except I don't like the plain bearing surfaces, I would have used sealed bearings. If I'm that desperate though I can always convert one of theirs. Reasonably priced too. I might get one just to save on counter space.

The pistons on the La Pavoni are quite easy to machine from brass. The easiest way to do it is simply to make a brass copy of the plastic one, using the same dimensions. The top needs to be recessed like the plastic one, but below the recessed part it should be left solid without the "fins". The threads are M10x1.25. (You might want to check yours to be sure I wrote it down correctly.) You need to use a bottoming tap to do it right. Also the slots for the seals need to be the proper width, and they need to be in the same places that they are on the plastic one. This is not an American machine so it does not use anything SAE. Note that the only non standard metric things are the British pipe threads. (Whitworth).

I have not seen anyone producing brass replacements for the sleeve. The problem with the polyphenylsulphide one is that this polymer, though stable to high temperatures, is subjected to pressure during use that results in slow creep. This also happens to the piston too. The forces on the threads are very high, and they slowly deform. This is why they become unscrewed in time. Making a brass sleeve is a much more serious machining project than a piston.

The piston length should be 23mm. The diameter of my original plastic one is 43.1mm. The former owner of the machine I had with a plastic piston used hard water that covered the walls with CaCO₃ deposits that wore it down some. You might measure the one on yours before turning one down.

My thanks for the info, rpavlis! Your post stated:
"I have not seen anyone producing brass replacements for the sleeve. The problem with the polyphenylsulphide one is that this polymer, though stable to high temperatures, is subjected to pressure during use that results in slow creep. This also happens to the piston too. The forces on the threads are very high, and they slowly deform. This is why they become unscrewed in time. Making a brass sleeve is a much more serious machining project than a piston."

...is very interesting. I have the ability to produce a 'blank" sleeve in brass quite easily, if I have a good working model to replicate... but if the threads on the outside are metric, I won't be able to cut them. I can do all the sizing up to final diameters, just not the actual thread cutting as my lathe won't cut metric threads. (I'm assuming the mounting thread pitch is metric even though the thread pattern may be Whitworth and not the now-standard V thread) So saying, is there anyone out there with a metric lathe willing to cut the threads on such a barrel? Pretty please??

Are you sure that you cannot cut standard metric threads? If you have a lathe that you change gears if you can get one with 127 teeth you can cut threads of all types with the same lead screw. This is because an inch is defined to be 2.54 cm. 254=2*127

I always thought that a late Model La Pavoni without the plastic would be a wonderful thing!