Quick show of hands:
Do you pre-heat your portafilter before pulling a shot?
Me: yes.
Do you pre-heat your portafilter before pulling a shot?
Me: yes.
Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread
- Thread starter Siliconslave
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Caporegime
The portafilter lives on the machine so naturally, yes.
Last edited:
pre-heat everything 
portafilters in the machine while it warms and the puck mesh is resting on the E61 mushroom so its a little cooler - all helps with the temperature stability 
portafilters in the machine while it warms and the puck mesh is resting on the E61 mushroom so its a little cooler - all helps with the temperature stability 
always a bit weird how hot pf gets, alone, with a piece of rubber seperating it from head - machine warm up 15-20mins first
then since I have an hx, always run a cup to also pre-heat cup & maybe helps a bit on pf too (but it's brass mass is massive)
then since I have an hx, always run a cup to also pre-heat cup & maybe helps a bit on pf too (but it's brass mass is massive)
Next question: I’m troubleshooting a pal’s Sage Barista Express. They say it’s fine most of the time but it trips the breaker in the kitchen when it’s set to steam. Tripping breakers is usually a short or current leak to ground. I’m measuring the resistance of a few things using my DMM. Resistance of the heater coil is 34.6R (cold). That looks fine (1400W give it take). Resistance between the heater coil connector and the boiler body is 4.3M. That should be near infinite resistance shouldn’t it?
I just let the boiler heat up a bit for a few minutes and the resistance dropped down to under 1M and is now creeping back up as it cools down. Same resistance shows between live and earth so I think that’s it. So failed or failing heater leaking to earth?
good descaling may either fix or terminate it ... and I'd look at the state of ceramic material at the end of the element - hygroscopic
my machine (bezzera) was in storage for a while and must have had some damp there so tripped several times ... had used a hairdyer a bit on the element ends
my machine (bezzera) was in storage for a while and must have had some damp there so tripped several times ... had used a hairdyer a bit on the element ends
Soldato
I have the machine turn on a good half hour before I use it, and the portafilter sits in the group-head, so gets hot that way. I don't specifically pre-heat it.
Caveat - unless I'm in a rush to make a drink, then I'll wait for the boiler to get to temp then shoot some water through the grouphead etc