When I raise the lever there is resistance. When the lever is fully raised water starts to go though the portafilter, not leaks but regular brewed coffee and when I pull down the leaver there is not enough pressure and there is almost no resistance.

You can watch the problem here I changed the piston gaskets, the portafilter gasket and the washer gasket and the problem persists. Am i missing something?

hi,
it seems like your problem is the coffee itself...
what type of beans are you using? (pre-ground will not work on this machine)
the main advice would be to get fresh beans and grind finer.
cheers,
Rob

Hi Rob, I just got the machine so I was testing it with regular pre-grind coffee from the supermarket. I thought it would be bad but that it would work. I ll try that then I guess.

she is quite a demanding machine in terms grind size and of freshness of the coffee. You'll most likely get way better results with freshly ground beans.
For additional tips and tricks just use the search option on this site, there is tons of information to be found.
cheers,
Rob

You are either using pre-ground coffee or supermarket beans.
Both would better be avoided, since they are stale.

If you want to have maximum joy out of your LP, get yourself a good grinder, freshly roased beans and prepare yourself for a delicious surprise.

Btw, welcome to the forum.

Everything was already said

I'll add some emphasis on the quality grinder. You'll do yourself a favor getting a good grinder, hand crank or electric. Less issues, better coffee, more fun. There are tons of threads on grinders but here are some options:

Manual hand cranks:

- Kinu M47
- BPlus Apollo
- 1ZPresso JX or K Pro
- Comandante C40

Electric:

- Niche Zero
- DF64
- Eureka Mignon, Specialità is better I think

Many options out there, and my single dosing bias shows perhaps. Do invest and think forward for example if you'd be venturing to light roasts etc.

Also, the pressure when pulling up is just the water pushing on the piston.

Thank you all for your comments!

You were right! I just bought some freshly roasted beans and grind them in a local store for espresso/pavoni style. Now I am able to get an espresso out of it!
Will check out some decent grinder under a budget.

P.d: When I mounted it I put the lever upside-down, which in theory is the wrong way. Changed it and now it does not hit the bottom.

approdriguez wrote:Thank you all for your comments!

You were right! I just bought some freshly roasted beans and grind them in a local store for espresso/pavoni style. Now I am able to get an espresso out of it!

That unfortunately will not last long. Grounded coffee gets stale very quick and the result will be the same trouble as you already had.
At least you now know where it is coming from.

approdriguez wrote:Will check out some decent grinder under a budget.

Super! The grinder is more important than the gear. If possible try to strech your budget.

approdriguez wrote:P.d: When I mounted it I put the lever upside-down, which in theory is the wrong way. Changed it and now it does not hit the bottom.

That happened to all of us....