Hi,

I've had a few problems with my bottomless PF. I was finally able to stop a major spraying problem I had earlier with my last two shots, however, now I have a new issue. I finally got the shot to pour a nice slow steady, narrow, striping stream, there was some channeling involved, but overall it was decent. However, the flow just seem to end about 1oz into the pour and started dripping out. I used 14g of coffee because my PF is on the smaller side and seems to hit the group head if I use anymore (I have the delonghi dedica 680 and took the bottom off the pressurized PF's.. not best machine I know but it's what I'm working with for the time being)

Any ideas what would cause a normal looking shot to stop like that midway through? Thanks!

what grinder and what coffee?

Using a Baratza Virtuoso on around setting 4. Freshly ground at time of brew, roasted a few days ago.

Interesting. Could be a massive fines migration through the puck plugging up the basket grid or an OPV valve opening and dumping pressure (or a failing pump). Tried a different basket or coffee with the same result?

Maybe your machine is losing pressure halfway into your shot? I think this really is a machine issue.

So my latest shot was better. I reset the machine using the reset function. I noticed it was a long extraction. Some channeling spots where no coffee was coming through. Seemed to turn blonde with about 1 oz left to pour. Also noticed the "cone" was kind of bulging.

What do you see? How would you adjust this to fix it?

Going coarser may help.. but in past attempts, coarser has led to more spraying, faster pours. My tamp may be too strong. The attempt prior I tried using 15g of coffee and I definitely tamped a bit strong because I worried about it hitting the group head as the basket is not the biggest and seems to do that too much.. The attempt ended up choking the machine. I decreased the coffee to 14.5g and lessened my tamp this attempt. I don't know.. just trying to share all relevant info to get best incite. You're thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Looks to me like maybe the 14G dose is really more toward a single dose, and the blonding is occurring about when I would expect. You might try a finer grind, larger dose, but if the basket size is really limiting, here, there might not be much latitude. I think the first part of your pull looks good for a 14g dose. A coffee change might be worth exploring, too.

If you stop the pull just as blonding begins, how does the shot taste?