Hi everyone,

It's been a while since our last post, but we've had a lot going on this year, some things that have been behind the scenes, as well as big events within the industry. We have worked closely with ECM/Profitec over the years, offering our advice and feedback to deliver what we consider to be essential improvements to the machines' performance and functionality. Things like the improved steaming power on their dual boiler machines or the ECM and Profitec E61 flow control devices.

As we continue to work with them to make improvements and changes, we thought it would be a good idea to make this thread so we can keep the community better informed about upgrades and changes as we learn about them. We might also have some of our own surprises down the line too!



Over the last few years, we've realized that brew water flow rate control is an incredibly powerful variable in extracting the best flavor and nuance from your coffee. For our first update in this thread, we're excited to announce that for a limited time, we are offering free E61 flow control devices on our ECM and Profitec espresso machines throughout the month of July.

To help you find them, we've created a collection that we'll link here.

And to help you get started, we made a video to help you get the hang of pulling shots with flow control:

You can also think of this thread as a direct line to us to answer any product or tech support questions you might have. We look forward to hearing from you!

Will you be selling flow control kits to customers who didn't buy their machine from WLL? I chatted with CS earlier this week and they required an order number for a machine to sell me the part.

+1 on this question

Love all your maintenance vids Todd. Keep up the excellent work.

What an excellent video. First piece of media I have seen attempting to make flow control more accessible to newbies like me.

I purchased a "refurbished" ECM Classika w/flow control from WLL which I received back in April. I think something is wrong with one of the gauges.
My Dynamic pressure is never lower than the static (per the gauges). Soon after I received the machine I realized the pressure was too high per my shots and the pucks. I'm getting tasty shots now but still don't understand the gauge readings. With a blind filter, I have the gauge on the face of the machine (static) set at 8 bar and then the grouphead gauge (dynamic) will read 8 & 1/2 bar. When pulling a shot, the two readings will be very close to each other, but like I mentioned the Dynamic pressure is NEVER lower than the Static on my machine. If one of my gauges is bad I don't know which one it is or which one to set my pressure with. I hope this makes sense.

BTW, since over half my drinks are Ethiopian naturals that I roast myself, I mainly use the "fresh & light roast" FC profile with great success.

heavyduty wrote:With a blind filter, I have the gauge on the face of the machine (static) set at 8 bar and then the grouphead gauge (dynamic) will read 8 & 1/2 bar. When pulling a shot, the two readings will be very close to each other, but like I mentioned the Dynamic pressure is NEVER lower than the Static on my machine. If one of my gauges is bad I don't know which one it is or which one to set my pressure with. I hope this makes sense.

There's nothing wrong with your brew head gauge. When you use a blind portafilter the pressure can't drop in the brew chamber, and the brew gauge remains pegged at the pump output pressure. The brew gauge will (or should) reflect flow adjustments when you are extracting coffee in your portafilter. I may have misunderstood your question. If you can't see pressure changes in the gauge while you are actually extracting coffee, there could be a problem with the needle valve itself or its adjustment (you need to set its start point at the closed position). Your lack of apparent pressure change with flow control adjustment does sound like it could be due to improper initial setting of the flow valve.

sungvary wrote:Will you be selling flow control kits to customers who didn't buy their machine from WLL? I chatted with CS earlier this week and they required an order number for a machine to sell me the part.

Unfortunately we will not be selling the kits to anybody who did not buy an ECM/Profitec machine from us.

heavyduty wrote:I purchased a "refurbished" ECM Classika w/flow control from WLL which I received back in April. I think something is wrong with one of the gauges.
My Dynamic pressure is never lower than the static (per the gauges). Soon after I received the machine I realized the pressure was too high per my shots and the pucks. I'm getting tasty shots now but still don't understand the gauge readings. With a blind filter, I have the gauge on the face of the machine (static) set at 8 bar and then the grouphead gauge (dynamic) will read 8 & 1/2 bar. When pulling a shot, the two readings will be very close to each other, but like I mentioned the Dynamic pressure is NEVER lower than the Static on my machine. If one of my gauges is bad I don't know which one it is or which one to set my pressure with. I hope this makes sense.

BTW, since over half my drinks are Ethiopian naturals that I roast myself, I mainly use the "fresh & light roast" FC profile with great success.

Love to hear that you're having success with the light roast profile! Yes, it sounds like one of the gauges is off calibration by around a half bar, as the pressure at the group should not be higher than at the pump when the pump is operating. And it makes sense that the gauge on the group head would be lower during brewing as there is a big pressure drop through the coffee puck during the flow, and there is always a pressure loss due to friction in the hydraulic system. We normally recommend setting the pump pressure (static) at 9 bar and then you can vary your flow/pressure as desired with the flow control device. It is impossible for me to tell which one of the gauges is accurate to the 1/2 bar. I am happy to send you a new gauge for the group if you would like to install it.

WholeLatteLove wrote:I am happy to send you a new gauge for the group if you would like to install it.

Thank you for your reply Todd.
PM sent.

Pressino wrote:There's nothing wrong with your brew head gauge. When you use a blind portafilter the pressure can't drop in the brew chamber, and the brew gauge remains pegged at the pump output pressure. The brew gauge will (or should) reflect flow adjustments when you are extracting coffee in your portafilter. I may have misunderstood your question. If you can't see pressure changes in the gauge while you are actually extracting coffee, there could be a problem with the needle valve itself or its adjustment (you need to set its start point at the closed position). Your lack of apparent pressure change with flow control adjustment does sound like it could be due to improper initial setting of the flow valve.

Thank you for your reply Nick. I'm coming from a Silvia with no gauges so...still learning!