La Marzocco Linea Mini and Ceado E37S - uneven extraction/channeling solved!

#1: Post by **korzo1982** » April 28th, 2018, 11:45 pm

Hello everyone.

Wanted to share my experience of how I solved a terrible uneven extraction problem that I've been banging my head over for the past two weeks after upgrading my Anita Evo to La Marzocco Linea Mini.
Since I got the new machine, my extractions were consistently uneven, no matter what I did, as you can see in the video below:

As you can see, the extraction starts right in the middle, and extraction on sides starts by the time middle part is blonding. I'd also get channeling every other shot. The taste wasn't that great as you can probably guess.
So at first I didn't think it was the grinder. I own Ceado E37S, which should be broken in by now (ran the good 20lb of beans theough it in 4 months), the grind is nice and fluffy, and my Anita didn't have this extraction problem. Also when I went to La Marzocco lab in Seattle to check Linea Mini out, their extraction was fine, even though they use Mazzer Mini there, that produced terrible clumpy grind. At least that's what I thought

, so initially I removed my grinder from the equation.

I tried WDT, it helped a bit, but not a lot. Tried using OCD tool - no improvement. Tried both flat and convex tampers - same uneven extraction. Verified that my machine was leveled evenly, it was. Finally decided to lower pump pressure to 6-7 bars, channeling went away but my exteaction pattern was the same as before. Frustration kept growing more and more.

Finally I recalled seing one barista rotating the portafilter back and forth while grinding, and decided to give that a shot. So I rotated my portafilter 180 degrees while grinding my dose (tough with E37s as it's so fast

), and wooohooo - done!!! That was it!! Nearly perfect, even extraction, blonding uniformly throughout the basket, no channeling and great taste in the cup - shots are more complex and the flavors that I get from this blend in cafe are there. Video is below. Much better extraction, even though I didn't bother with good tamping. Didn't do WDT either.

I guess Ceado grind distribution pattern, or particles size is not the greatest, that's why when I initially did WDT, and manually redistibuted some of those grinds, it helped a little bit. I hope this helps some of you, who struggle with good extraction.

#2: Post by **keno** » April 29th, 2018, 1:23 am

korzo1982 wrote:Finally I recalled seing one barista rotating the portafilter back and forth while grinding, and decided to give that a shot. So I rotated my portafilter 180 degrees while grinding my dose (tough with E37s as it's so fast ), and wooohooo - done!!! That was it!!

Glad you figured it out. You could also try a trick that I use with my Linea Mini. Remove the spring from the portafilter. This makes it easy to drop the basket in and to remove it from the portafilter. When grinding remove the basket from the portafilter and dose just the basket by itself. This makes it super easy to rotate the basket as it fills in the grinder. I also tamp the basket outside the portafilter (which remains locked in the machine) until I'm ready to pull my shot.

#3: Post by **ben8jam** » April 29th, 2018, 2:07 am

korzo1982 wrote:Hello everyone.

Wanted to share my experience of how I solved a terrible uneven extraction problem that I've been banging my head over for the past two weeks after upgrading my Anita Evo to La Marzocco Linea Mini.
Since I got the new machine, my extractions were consistently uneven, no matter what I did, as you can see in the video below:

<video>

As you can see, the extraction starts right in the middle, and extraction on sides starts by the time middle part is blonding. I'd also get channeling every other shot. The taste wasn't that great as you can probably guess.
So at first I didn't think it was the grinder. I own Ceado E37S, which should be broken in by now (ran the good 20lb of beans theough it in 4 months), the grind is nice and fluffy, and my Anita didn't have this extraction problem. Also when I went to La Marzocco lab in Seattle to check Linea Mini out, their extraction was fine, even though they use Mazzer Mini there, that produced terrible clumpy grind. At least that's what I thought , so initially I removed my grinder from the equation.

I tried WDT, it helped a bit, but not a lot. Tried using OCD tool - no improvement. Tried both flat and convex tampers - same uneven extraction. Verified that my machine was leveled evenly, it was. Finally decided to lower pump pressure to 6-7 bars, channeling went away but my exteaction pattern was the same as before. Frustration kept growing more and more.

Finally I recalled seing one barista rotating the portafilter back and forth while grinding, and decided to give that a shot. So I rotated my portafilter 180 degrees while grinding my dose (tough with E37s as it's so fast ), and wooohooo - done!!! That was it!! Nearly perfect, even extraction, blonding uniformly throughout the basket, no channeling and great taste in the cup - shots are more complex and the flavors that I get from this blend in cafe are there. Video is below. Much better extraction, even though I didn't bother with good tamping. Didn't do WDT either.

<video>

I guess Ceado grind distribution pattern, or particles size is not the greatest, that's why when I initially did WDT, and manually redistibuted some of those grinds, it helped a little bit. I hope this helps some of you, who struggle with good extraction.

#4: Post by **lancealot** » May 9th, 2018, 10:06 pm

Thanks for this. This might be a little bit of an ask, but...
I would love to see a video of your portafilter rotation technique.

August 22nd, 2018, 10:16 pm

I no longer own that grinder

, upgraded to Compak E10 and much happier with the quality of my shots.

Basically you want to rotate your portafilter back and forth to get a more uniform grind.

#6: Post by **lancealot** » August 22nd, 2018, 10:26 pm

Started doing this back in May. Game changer for me. Seriously. I can't thank you enough.

#7: Post by **bdnr** » September 6th, 2018, 6:21 pm

keno wrote:Remove the spring from the portafilter.

Brilliant. This is even simpler then removing the portafilter holder on the grinder.

#8: Post by **danny31292** » September 9th, 2018, 1:01 pm

This post solved my issues as well. I noticed a similar uneven extraction with my pharos. Before I got the dosing funnel, I transferred the grounds into the PF and had perfect pours. As soon as I got a funnel and started grinding directly into the basket, all my pours were from one side. Now I rotate the basket a few times part way through grinding and everything is perfect.