Long delay during extraction

December 8th, 2018, 11:18 am

Over this past few weeks, I've noticed my machine taking longer between starting the extraction and seeing the espresso come out of the portafilter. It used to take about 5 seconds, but now it's taking up to 13 seconds. Once the espresso does start coming out, it's coming out fast, not syrupy, and blondes in about 15 seconds. This seems to be happening regardless of the coffee beans I'm using. I clean my espresso machine regularly. Any ideas on what's going on with my machine?

December 8th, 2018, 11:37 am

Grind is too fine, distribution is uneven. Under pressure the water finds its way through weakest part of the puck and channels.

Grind coarser, distribute more evenly using WDT

April 3rd, 2019, 1:23 am

Update: I've since tried adjusting the grind and distributor tool to no avail. There is still a long delay in my espresso shot. The pump also sounds like its under high load. I've already tried cleaning with a backlash with Cafiza and cleaning the shower screen and dispersion plate. Any other suggestions? Could it be an airlock?

April 3rd, 2019, 2:18 pm

Try a different coffee from a different outlet.

I have a coffee blend that takes a long time for the first drop and then goes fast. Every other coffee behaves normally so it maybe a coffee issue if you have adjusted the grind size, temp pressure etc already.

#5: Post by **piperman** » April 3rd, 2019, 3:44 pm

Check your water pickup tube and/or filter. It sounds like it might be clogging.
Other than that, maybe the pump is failing. Also possibly getting air in the line?

Not sure, things to check though.

#6: Post by **mokava** » April 4th, 2019, 2:46 pm

Does your machine have a pressure dial?

A wild guess, you may be getting too much steam in the group head, thus it takes more time for the water flow to begin.

Try to run the brew without PF, do you get it steam out before the flow?

Another test is with empty PF, no coffee. Same delay?

#7: Post by **another_jim** » April 4th, 2019, 2:59 pm

morecoffeeplease wrote: ... I've noticed my machine taking longer between starting the extraction and seeing the espresso come out of the portafilter. It used to take about 5 seconds, but now it's taking up to 13 seconds. Once the espresso does start coming out, it's coming out fast, not syrupy, and blondes in about 15 seconds.

How's the shot taste? What are you doing differently?

What you are describing is what happens if you grind finer and dose too low, but the puck is fine. The extra head space and finer grind of low dose/fine grind shots creates longer dwell times. The long dwell time pre-extracts the puck and dissolves most of the fines, so the flow rate is increased. This is the way Turkish grinds are done on profiling machine,s where the lower preinfusion pressure makes the process more tractable.

If this is what is happening, the shots should still taste good, just milder.

April 23rd, 2019, 1:38 am

I spent a few hours working on the machine over the weekend and finally got to the bottom of it. By following the water path and running the pump to check the pressure at each section, I was able to find a clog in the tubing filter between the water tank and the pump. There was actually a bunch of gunk stuck inside. Who knows how long how much of that stuff was getting into my espresso! Once I bypassed the filter, my machine was back to its normal self. My shots haven't tasted this good in a long time!

#9: Post by **mrjag** » April 24th, 2019, 11:41 am

Any idea what the gunk is? I know my water reservoir can develop a bio-film along the wet surfaces if I dont clean it frequently.

April 24th, 2019, 3:11 pm

Probably some sort of biofilm. The strange thing is the actual water tank and pre-filter tubing is clean. The gunk was on the side of the filter that feeds directly to the pump.