Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

It's a heat exchanger, isn't it? That would mean the water coming out of the group head is coming direct from the resevoir - the pipe passes through the boiler (to allow the exchange of heat) but the water doesn't actually leave the pipe/enter the boiler.
 
Raymond Lin said:
£1800 is a bit too much (right now)...plus I think the Elba wins on the colour, features (lack of hot water is a plus), and also cheaper than the Bianca.

I can't see a UK dealer though, someone in NI is a dealer does ship to the UK...
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Dj_Jestar said:
How would one go about descaling the Elba without a water outlet? Usually the water outlet is useful because that feeds from the base of the tank whilst the steam feeds from the top. Without that water outlet would you have to like flip the unit over or something to drain it? :)
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Use boiler friendly water and never descale is your best bet.

I have a Bianca and it makes wonderful coffee and flow profiling allows you to save more shots that would otherwise be undrinkable and I wouldn’t be without it. Flip side is the endless pursuit of better shots and the possible frustration of no real ability to repeat a shot accurately. If you go that route on flow profiling goes in with your eyes open as it can become an obsession trying to tweak and improve.

It’s great value but my personal view is the reason is the build quality is just not that precise I.e. panel gaps, welding on the drip tray isn’t the best.

For me, I probably should have got a decent espresso but I couldn’t quite justify the 2x price and the nag that it is more of a development platform than a finished product.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
It's a heat exchanger, isn't it? That would mean the water coming out of the group head is coming direct from the resevoir - the pipe passes through the boiler (to allow the exchange of heat) but the water doesn't actually leave the pipe/enter the boiler.
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yes you are right - I was thinking it was a single brew boiler, like sylvia.
I descale bezzera hx, first syphoning out the boiler via the disconnected boiler anti-vac valve, descaler goes in via water tank, and I syphon the descaler back out finally.
even using its hot water tap it would take a while to dilute the descaler and pull it all out.
I am less diligent about descaling the hx core, which you can't easily syphon, but the calcium carbonate should be next to the element in the main boiler, anyway.

https://www.hoc-hamburg.de/media/pdf/b5/a6/29/969-coffee-AG-Libretto-Elba-Bedienungsanleitung.pdf
-> drain valve 'beneath' elba 1
 
the daily espresso at elevenses always improves thinking -
I'm now wondering with an hx, if you rairly use hot water do you get much scale build up ?
once the caco3 has deposited on the heating element in the main boiler , and is out of solution, that water is impotent.
meanwhile, the hx tube wasn't I thought, a targret for scale with lower temps and bigger surface area versus the element.
 
The boiler refills. Especially so if you're steaming milk. After ~1 week I can smell the scale in the steam, and after ~1 month I can start to notice the taste in the coffee from it. I (try to) descale every month.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
The boiler refills. Especially so if you're steaming milk. After ~1 week I can smell the scale in the steam, and after ~1 month I can start to notice the taste in the coffee from it. I (try to) descale every month.
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London water?

I get next to no scale in my area, i have never descaled my kettle. I once took my Anova sous vide down to my sister's in Bournemouth and after 1 use the heating elements were covered in it. It does not happen where i live. A friend came to stay last summer, i bought some Evian for her, but she tried the tap water instead and commented how nice it is and didn't open a single bottle of the water i bought. Very lucky.
 
mid_gen said:
Any good? I've got a kg of beans coming from 47 Degrees tomorrow though so it'll be a couple weeks before I order any more.
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Really enjoyed it this morning. They warned me in the shop this one does have a little longer extraction time (I got 31 seconds using my usual fresh bean settings, usually I get 26-30s) but it's a really nice coffee - only had 1 cup but I do think I preferred the honey processed Costa Rican from last month but it may change after a few days
 
Sorry if this has been covered. Just wanted to know if anyone has a manual espresso machine such as the flair or rok rather than the full electronic system.

How are they on a daily basis? Seems a lot more affordable than a full system but a bit more hassle. At the moment I'm just using a v60 and preground coffee. Just interested to hear an owners view

Thanks
 
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Journey said:
I'll get some pictures of it up as soon as it's unboxed, and I have cleared the space in the garage to complete the necessary work... see you in 2025 :D :p
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Quoting myself, the machine (Gaggia Paros) is now lost somewhere in the couriers box pile at DHL, possibly never to be seen again. :(

Do missing socks go to the same place as missing courier parcels? The only positive is it was insured up to £400 which is a lot more that it was worth in the state it was it at the time of being shipped. I can put that towards some parts to repair my current machine.
 
Ordered another 3 bags from Rave as I did enjoy the first lot I got. Opened one and found a piece of rubber inside with some hand writing on it, raised an email more than anything to just let them know and they offered me another 3 bags and a partial refund so pretty chuffed. Pretty set for a while now!
 
First cup from Wogan is right in front of me. I opted for the Nicaragua Finca La Bastilla. Delicious. Easily on par with HasBean but slightly cheaper :)
 
Dj_Jestar said:
It's a heat exchanger, isn't it? That would mean the water coming out of the group head is coming direct from the resevoir - the pipe passes through the boiler (to allow the exchange of heat) but the water doesn't actually leave the pipe/enter the boiler.
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I believe in a HX, that the water from the group is pulled through the heat exchanger, and the steam comes direct from the boiler. That's why you need to pull a cooling shot through, as the water sat in the HX is at boiler temperature. Then the water pulled fresh through the HX is at the right brew temperature.

Got my bean ordering a bit wrong, let levels get too low! Hopefully I've got enough to last tomorrow before next Wogan order arrives. Trying the Bristol Team Canteen Collab, and Peruvian Dalia Flores Venegas.
 
This is what I seem to repeatedly order from Rave nowadays for my automatic Delonghi Autentica machine. A lovely smokey/earthy hit, so I try and put a single portion into my hopper in order to get a proper fresh grind as I find it tastes a lot better this way.

https://i.imgur.com/I2mDbIy.jpg
 
freedom from scale day yesterday for the HX -
I now make sure I pull enough citric solution through the hx element so that is filled, as well as boiler ... even if I'm not sure there is scale there
I think flow rate had dropped off prior to descale, next time I will do some blind flushing during descale which should push solution through the OPV too ?

I realised using Brita filtered water may not be ideal - the carbon filter strips the chlorine, so you could get algae in the hx water tank, as I do in the brita jug, if I don't clean that once a month.
 
Finally got round to adjusting the OPV valve down on my MaraX yesterday - don't know why i've been putting it off so long. Took about 10min all in to pop the top off, get a spanner in and loosen it slightly while holding the pipe to stop it twisting too much. Now running at 9.5 bar which has massively improved the crema, just trying to get the coffee dialed back in perfectly again now :)
 
 
the weber EG-1 was the expensive niche before the niche existed ;) - theres defiantly a part of me thats very temped for £1160, if it weren't for the crazy tax bill i just had :(
 
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