wet/sloppy puck and preinfusion questions...
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 2:17 pm
hi there -
i recently bought the vivaldi ii along with a baratza vario grinder and previously had an e61 heat exchanger machine. with my previous machine, i used to examine the puck after pulling a shot to help diagnose my technique. looking at the puck would help me notice holes that might be causing channeling, etc.
i'm finding that on the vivaldi ii that the puck is often too wet or sloppy to knock out intact. i've tried changing grind settings and dose amounts. in terms of dosing, it's typically right at the indented line of the portafilter basket after tamping (usually about 16g by weight). it seems that the problem is more pronounced when i grind finer and the shot takes longer to extract (say, like 35 seconds). and but on my e61, even those kinds of shots would result in a puck that could easily be knocked out.
any suggestions/thoughts on what's going on? is it normal or does it indicate some problem either in my technique or the machine's operation? if there's some issue with the machine, then i'd want to make sure i had it addressed while it was still relatively new.
oh, and one other question, about preinfusion. i noticed a couple of suggestions to pre-infuse for 6 seconds and was wondering if that was a common setting as a default. also, i don't have a good way to measure pressure on my water line (the plumber put in a restrictor but it doesn't have a gauge or anything), and was wondering if there's another way to calibrate that. for example, if i knew that a 6-second preinfusion at xxx psi/bar yields 3 ounces of water, then i could adjust my restrictor to get the same amount of water in 6 seconds.
thanks,
cc
i recently bought the vivaldi ii along with a baratza vario grinder and previously had an e61 heat exchanger machine. with my previous machine, i used to examine the puck after pulling a shot to help diagnose my technique. looking at the puck would help me notice holes that might be causing channeling, etc.
i'm finding that on the vivaldi ii that the puck is often too wet or sloppy to knock out intact. i've tried changing grind settings and dose amounts. in terms of dosing, it's typically right at the indented line of the portafilter basket after tamping (usually about 16g by weight). it seems that the problem is more pronounced when i grind finer and the shot takes longer to extract (say, like 35 seconds). and but on my e61, even those kinds of shots would result in a puck that could easily be knocked out.
any suggestions/thoughts on what's going on? is it normal or does it indicate some problem either in my technique or the machine's operation? if there's some issue with the machine, then i'd want to make sure i had it addressed while it was still relatively new.
oh, and one other question, about preinfusion. i noticed a couple of suggestions to pre-infuse for 6 seconds and was wondering if that was a common setting as a default. also, i don't have a good way to measure pressure on my water line (the plumber put in a restrictor but it doesn't have a gauge or anything), and was wondering if there's another way to calibrate that. for example, if i knew that a 6-second preinfusion at xxx psi/bar yields 3 ounces of water, then i could adjust my restrictor to get the same amount of water in 6 seconds.
thanks,
cc