The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

Hello all,

My mini is now one year old and I'm still proud of it. Since a couple of days I noticed that preinfusion delay was now 11 sec. It was previously 6-7 sec as intended with the chamber.
I don't see any real change in taste but I just want to make sure it is not the tip of a more serious problem.

Yesterday night, the group pressure was well below 9 bar and it has been realy easy to adjust the pressure. But it seems it was not related to my pre infusion problem. This morning, the pressure was OK but pre infusion time was still 11 second.

I did a search on the forum but did not found anything related to my problem. Does someone has an idea ?

A wild guess - water flow may have decreased. Make sure the water reservoir is pushed back all the way then run with no portafilter in place for a few seconds. Do you have blind basket? This would remove the coffee grind as a variable in your measurements.

GDK wrote:A wild guess - water flow may have decreased. Make sure the water reservoir is pushed back all the way then run with no portafilter in place for a few seconds.

This is a good place to start. If this doesn't work, try removing your reservoir filter. That might also cause restriction.

If things don't work. Check your OPV valve for a worn seat that might need replacing.

Last thing to check would be the vibe pump.

Endo wrote :

If this doesn't work, try removing your reservoir filter.

Thanks Endo, you were right. It was the filter. Everything's back to normal. I was afraid it was the OPV seat after only one year using the Mini... Hopefully, it was almost nothing. I will investigate a little bit about the filter. My former filter had been operational for sixty refils. I checked in my logbook and this one had only be used for forty-five refils. I tought it was still OK for 5-6 weeks. Before I replace it I will try something. The filter's plastic line was strangely banded. On my former filter the line was longer so there was no bend. I will try to cut it a little bit and install it in a more straight way. Maybe it will helps. Anyway I will order a new one but it reminds me that those Bestcup filters do a fine job but are expensive and do not last very long.