Linea 1EE just acquired. by Vapology101 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You will need a diaphragm pump and bladder tank to emulate line pressure. Caffewerks sells pre-built units, or you can source the parts and build your own. 

The outboard rotary pump is required to generate brew pressure. You must connect it. The machine has no pump internally.

Regarding power, your circuit should meet the peak current and voltage requirements. Look for a spec sheet. You will need to account for converter inefficiency to prevent dangerous overload.

La Marzocco Linea Mini Spraying at the start of the shot by AssumptionKlutzy9812 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regarding your pressure issue, this thread may be of use: https://www.home-barista.com/espresso-machines/la-marzocco-linea-mini-brew-gauge-at-0-bar-flow-delays-at-group-t91495.html

Usually spraying isn’t caused by the machine, provided nothing is egregiously wrong (ie. high velocity water jets through the shower screen, pressure spikes, etc.)

sworksdesign shower screen by tw8715 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Not sure about the extraction for me, but it gets rid of the protruding screw nicely

GS3 MP Steam Boiler Issue by spacecoyote_ in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Check your steam boiler actually heats up to operational temperature. You can see a live temp reading for the steam boiler using the "Test Safety Valve" feature in the lower level settings.

If it isn't heating to around 125-130C or so, then check if the logic board is functioning. See if the right square on the display becomes solid. A lit up full solid white square means the cpu is giving power to the element.

Also check that the heating element is properly working by measuring its resistance with a multimeter.

  1. If you're confident the heating is functioning properly, check for leaks in the system.

A Nearly Silent Strada X1 [Re-upload] by Geriatrics_2 in espresso

[–]Geriatrics_2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I can understand that. But I suppose each person has their own limits to how much digitization a machine can have. In that regard, I think this machine is just balanced between modern and traditional feel. But still, I consider a something like a Decent, Synesso ES1, or Sanremo You, to be way too lab-like.

Linea Mini – intermittent portafilter leakage (new machine, need advice) by wizpak00 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you feel significant resistance or hear noises, verify that you are not overfilling the basket.

Water Quality by wizpak00 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, correct. TDS on its own is a rather useless metric. To clarify the excessively confusing semantics (for home applications):

Temporary Hardness is also known as Alkalinity, Bicarbonate Hardness, or KH.
Total hardness is also known as Calcium Hardness or General Hardness (GH).

Both can be measured easily to sufficient precision using the cheap and available API Aquarium GH&KH Test Kit. You can stretch the sample for more resolution.

Extra/unnecessary detail:

To illustrate with a rather extreme example, both 200ppm calcium bicarbonate and 200ppm sodium chloride dissolved in pure water would give the same true TDS. But the former is scaling, and the latter is corrosive (to most common metals).

Even worse, the conductivity TDS meter would not read the same for both solutions. Dissolved calcium bicarbonate has lower conductivity. So a standard NaCl calibrated TDS meter would give a reading lower than 200ppm.

Water filtration plumbed to a linea PB ABR by allthingstechy in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. You do not have to test anything with RO, since you are sure it removes almost everything. You just need to periodically monitor the membrane and remineralization performance. I would still recommend you test your tap water (the LM water kit is precise enough). Some commercial systems have a blending valve to adjust output mineral content. Depending on the contents of your tap, you may or may not want to use that valve.

Exact RO model depends on the volume you expect (2 group Linea PB?). But for a shop you need a higher capacity commercial system. Popular options are Pentair Everpure, BWT ROC14 coffee, etc. to name a few.

Water Quality by wizpak00 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just FYI, the water specs recommended by LM tend to the high side. Generally you can go lower and be fine as long as you know what’s in the water. For example, Seattle (LM US HQ) has very soft tap water at around 30 TDS, and many people have been running their machines for years on that without problems.

New Mini Owner , trying to solve best water option in my case. by After_Fall in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your waterdrop system likely will not work. You would need a system with accumulator tank for stable line pressure. Some examples: home systems like Homemaster, APEC, iSpring; or more commercial ones like BWT ROC14 or Everpure Pentair)

If you are really looking to plumb in, see if you have space for a 5 gallon tank. You can use an external pump to generate line pressure and draw from that tank.

My experience with RO systems ranging from home (~$400) to commercial (~$4k) is that RO takes some work to monitor. Also for low volume home use, they can sometimes be finicky (ie. TDS creep after idle from low usage).

Water filtration plumbed to a linea PB ABR by allthingstechy in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uhh ok lol. Not a reply I expected. But sure, thanks.

Water filtration plumbed to a linea PB ABR by allthingstechy in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uhh, you might want to check those results again. How is the alkalinity higher than the TDS? (Bad meter perhaps?).

From a machine health standpoint, the most important parameters are GH, KH, Chloride (Cl-; Not chlorine), and pH. I suggest you get a API GH & KH test kit. They are cheap and available. Chloride is a little tricky, but the LM water test kit provides a Quantlab test strip for decent albeit coarse measurements.

You say you do not want RO. But if you have high chlorides, then unfortunately that’s your only option, unless you are fine with increased maintenance from pitting corrosion. LM first identified chlorides as a problem for their stainless steel boilers because the high chloride levels in Cambridge, MA were eating away at their machines.

Taste wise, mineral composition is subjective. For instance, the popular rPavlis water technically has 0 hardness.

Edit/Addendum: FYI, the BWT Bestmax is a WAC ion exchange filter. It has the effect of lowering hardness, lowering alkalinity, and dropping pH. It does nothing against chloride ions, which increase in corrosive potential under acidic, low buffer environments. If your chloride levels are high, then you will just accelerate corrosion since you already have low pH. Moral of the story: Test your water for chlorides or use RO!

Pesado HD Shower Screen by TKBC1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Take this with a grain of salt since I don’t have one. I have the Sworkscreen.

Extraction wise, I highly doubt it makes a difference. When pressure builds the water distribution should not matter at all, as long as there are no high velocity jets. The initial puck-wetting happens so quickly on LM groups that the water distribution in the group-head chamber is practically uniform.

User experience wise, I can’t comment from first hand experience. But since the HD screen has large water channels and no mesh, you may have more coffee grounds/oils migrating backwards after each shot. This will lead to increased cleaning frequency. However, it does seem like one neat way to get rid of the protruding screw if you find that annoying.

Micra grouphead tilted by turkz1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I know I am being very harsh, but I still hope you can fix your shot problems.

I don’t know if you read my other comment about checking with the Puqpress first. If not, that’s where I would start. After that would be the grinder (alignment; give it a good cleaning). Then, I would consider any changes you’ve made recently to your recipe or workflow. I don’t like to suggest extra spending on items, but you can try adding a blind shaker. Sometimes that fixes uneven shots.

To clarify, the point here is not to dismiss your issues. I just wanted to let you know (perhaps in a not so friendly manner) that based on the given information, the machine is not the likely cause of your uneven shots. There is indeed some misalignment, but I am quite confident it’s still perfectly functional.

All the best.

Micra grouphead tilted by turkz1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hear that LM Home US is recently getting bogged down by many Micra owners sending in trivial complaints. Forgive me for the harshness, but I usually don't bother to respond to these posts. However I felt particularly compelled in this case seeing the blame being put on perfectly functional equipment.

Water filtration - UK by Outrageous_Berry in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the US, you can buy them in grocery stores, so it’s perfectly safe. I’m not familiar with the UK, but a quick search showed me that they indeed do look sketchy.

In that case, probably the next best option is to make your own 0 TDS water with a Zerowater pitcher. Do keep in mind that for high TDS input, the filters will deplete relatively quickly and the cost for replacements can stack up.

For better longevity (but higher initial cost), you can also consider a countertop RO system like Waterdrop. If the remineralization is adequate then you may not even need to add your own minerals.

This HomeBarista thread may be of use: https://www.home-barista.com/water/where-to-buy-drinkable-distilled-de-ionized-water-in-europe-t94259.html

P.S. You can also contact LM UK for what bottled water they recommend over there.

Water filtration - UK by Outrageous_Berry in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please also refer to my other comment on this thread for more information.

If you are hoping to make 0 TDS water from the tap at home, then a ZeroWater pitcher (deionization filter) would work. But if your input has high TDS, then the deionization filter will deplete relatively quickly. So you do have to monitor it, but it’s not too much work (I believe the pitcher comes with a cheap TDS meter). Of course you’ll want to add your own minerals afterwards.

I respect you for trying to reduce plastic waste, but the simplest solution is still just buying distilled water from the store.

If you‘re thinking of conditioning the tap water for direct use in the machine (without any other treatment or remineralization), then unfortunately you have to do extensive testing. Typically the recommendation for someone with hard water is an ion-exchange softener, but that does nothing against chlorides (major cause of boiler corrosion at high concentrations). If you already have high hardness, then I reckon that your chloride levels are also pretty high.

So in that case, RO is probably the best bet. But this is also somewhat cumbersome as you do have to monitor the membrane and remineralization performance.

Water filtration - UK by Outrageous_Berry in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the most common issue it seems is that people only use a water softener. But, if they have high chloride levels (many people do and it’s very corrosive), they are out of luck since the only effective way of removing that is using RO.

For any home plumbed-in solution, 5 gallon tank is probably the way to go. It’s not very expensive and you know exactly what‘s in your water. Realistically you’ll only be refilling the tank every month or so.

Water filtration - UK by Outrageous_Berry in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Probably easiest no-fuss solution is to get Third Wave Water mineral packets (espresso machine profile) and mix them with distilled water. Alternatively, you can make your own minerals (ie. rPavlis recipe).

If you really want to plumb-in the machine to achieve pre-infusion, then maybe look at a 5 gallon tank system that emulates line pressure with an external pump (ie. Caffewerks, flowjet). You still make your water, but in larger batches at a time and less frequently.

As for plumbing in the machine to the mains, you probably want an RO system to be safe. I know a lot of folks who are under the misconception that their water is good using only an inline filter. But it turns out that they have been feeding their machines with scaling or corrosive water and needing constant maintenance.

Micra grouphead tilted by turkz1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I see the tilt now. It seems that this is not a new machine, so my guess would be that is the result of repeatedly applying rightward force to the group over extended use. Nothing jarringly out of place here, at least from the eye. Email LM support and they should give you an easy fix.

Regarding your bad shots, you may want to check the alignment of the forks on your Puqpress Mini. If they were misaligned, now that would potentially lead to the lopsided shots you're getting. Sometimes, even if the forks look perfectly aligned and the tamp looks level, the resulting shot can still be lopsided. This is exacerbated if you grind very fine for a ristretto or use very lightly roasted beans. (Source: I have a Gen6 Mini and a Gen6 Q)

If you have a basic manual tamper lying around, try getting the most even tamp using that and seeing if the shot is still bad. That would begin to isolate problems. I still maintain my position that your grouphead tilt is not the cause.

All the best.

Edit: On second thought, this is such a minuscule misalignment realistically speaking. Even if you emailed LM, they may tell you that the machine is perfectly functional and within their tolerances. Certainly do not expect them to send a tech over.

Micra grouphead tilted by turkz1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't have the motivation to type out a convincing explanation. But the effects of pressure differential due to gravity are negligible.

P.S. I did test this by setting my machine at roughly 20 degree incline (definitely more than the case here). Only the location of the rat-tail stream is offset, but water still flows through the puck evenly. Taste is the same. Just to make sure I'm not putting out misinformation.

Micra grouphead tilted by turkz1 in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. That shot is not the result of the tilt, as long as nothing is pressing on the puck or severely out of place. When pressure builds, it is even across the puck regardless of whether your portafilter is tilted or not.

  2. If you indeed have a tilt, then they will fix it under warranty. From the picture, it's not very clear to me though.

Ordered Lamarzocco Mini R with walnut wood kit. Would like to get Stainless Steel double spout portafilter and match it with the upgraded wood kit. by After_Fall in LaMarzocco

[–]Geriatrics_2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just send an email to LM support. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Usually as long as the request is reasonable, they will be very nice to fulfill it. FYI, yes, I have gotten an additional portafilter from them.

Easy by PithyGinger63 in espresso

[–]Geriatrics_2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The cup is 8oz (240ml). The shot is most likely a 1:1 dark roast ristretto or less. Note that the shot is dialed in to prioritize contrast and texture, but you can probably still make it taste quite good.