Post by tony on Feb 18, 2010 12:52:13 GMT -6
My wife and I love our morning espresso and sometimes even an afternoon macchiato. I had a Gaggia espresso machine around for 20+ years when I decided to upgrade to a new one two weeks ago. The Gaggia was simple, but did the job, no bells and whistles but for a $65 investment it really made it through some rough times.
The new machine is a Nemox Dell Opera that came with a built in grinder, 90% SS, brass inners and a bit more on the heavy duty side. It normally sells for $500 or so, I got it for $300, what a deal. I ordered it from a company in NJ that imports them from Italy. After two weeks it finally arrived, all shiny and spit polished. I could wait to pull my first shot.
Actually the first shot and the second were great, but after that it all went to $hit. The machine would do nothing but drip. It should normally take a shot only about 25-30 seconds, mine would take about 2 minutes.
I joined a coffee forum online. Between PM's and posts they were telling me that I was tamping too hard (which should be between 25-30lbs), the water's not being hot enough and that I had to wait for the pressure to build up enough, or grinding the beans to fine and so on. I read dozens of reviews and posts. I changed coffee beans and kept them out of the freezer. I thought, "this is ridiculous", it can't be this much work to pull a stupid shot. I thought it was a pressure thing and that the machine was defective, but with the help of the people at that forum we finally figured it out.
It seems that the US Product Safety Commission has there hands into everything even if it hinders a products performance. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate on safety especially with having two little ones around. I even unplug the toaster and turn off the dryer when I go out. Well it seems that some morons must have been sticking there fingers up into the grinder and flipping it on. In all reality it's not that easy, your fingers have to be long enough to go all the way up two shoots and even if you could get a finger in there the grinder itself is still a ways up around curves and what-not. So to fix this "problem" they installed these small steel bars that, while keeping your stupid fingers out, also keeps the grinds in, enough so that they get ground over and over again and again until you have a nice fine powder that packs like clay and clogs the whole system until it's completely useless. That coffee is so fine that if you put it in the portafilter it won't allow any water through.
Again, safety I'm all for, but to release a product that's so overly safe-tified is asinine. There's got to be a common sense limit. I was about to ship this thing back until I read several posts saying to pull these things out to get on with life. I did so and now it works as it should, but what a week or so of absolute unnecessary frustration.
Tony
The image below shows the bars that made life hell. This is after the main shoot is detached.
The new machine is a Nemox Dell Opera that came with a built in grinder, 90% SS, brass inners and a bit more on the heavy duty side. It normally sells for $500 or so, I got it for $300, what a deal. I ordered it from a company in NJ that imports them from Italy. After two weeks it finally arrived, all shiny and spit polished. I could wait to pull my first shot.
Actually the first shot and the second were great, but after that it all went to $hit. The machine would do nothing but drip. It should normally take a shot only about 25-30 seconds, mine would take about 2 minutes.
I joined a coffee forum online. Between PM's and posts they were telling me that I was tamping too hard (which should be between 25-30lbs), the water's not being hot enough and that I had to wait for the pressure to build up enough, or grinding the beans to fine and so on. I read dozens of reviews and posts. I changed coffee beans and kept them out of the freezer. I thought, "this is ridiculous", it can't be this much work to pull a stupid shot. I thought it was a pressure thing and that the machine was defective, but with the help of the people at that forum we finally figured it out.
It seems that the US Product Safety Commission has there hands into everything even if it hinders a products performance. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate on safety especially with having two little ones around. I even unplug the toaster and turn off the dryer when I go out. Well it seems that some morons must have been sticking there fingers up into the grinder and flipping it on. In all reality it's not that easy, your fingers have to be long enough to go all the way up two shoots and even if you could get a finger in there the grinder itself is still a ways up around curves and what-not. So to fix this "problem" they installed these small steel bars that, while keeping your stupid fingers out, also keeps the grinds in, enough so that they get ground over and over again and again until you have a nice fine powder that packs like clay and clogs the whole system until it's completely useless. That coffee is so fine that if you put it in the portafilter it won't allow any water through.
Again, safety I'm all for, but to release a product that's so overly safe-tified is asinine. There's got to be a common sense limit. I was about to ship this thing back until I read several posts saying to pull these things out to get on with life. I did so and now it works as it should, but what a week or so of absolute unnecessary frustration.
Tony
The image below shows the bars that made life hell. This is after the main shoot is detached.
