Lever "catches" at higher and higher angle.

Laurence Kahn

I have one of the older single lever machines, from before you started applying the "R" designation. My lever has always jumped to about 2:00 before starting to apply spring pressure to the water and puck. It seems lately that the lever is jumping a bit higher than that. I've compensated by doing double pulls to get enough water, and never thought anything much about it.

But I just happened to watch a video of Reiss pulling a shot and noticed that his machine is applying spring pressure to the puck within a few degrees after releasing the lever from the cam lock position. Now I'm all worried that I'm missing out on the full abilities of my machine. For years!

As I read the forums, this seems to be a preinfusion pressure issue. But the answers I've read aren't completely clear to me. Should I adjust pressure higher or lower? (I haven't opened the machine to see the parts involved.) Do I need to adjust pressure in just one valve or two? Does anyone have a suggestion as to a starting adjustment?

Over the years I might have slid the machine around a bit. Grind/tamp seem to give a reasonable infusion time.

Thanks for any comments.

Reiss Gunson

hi laurence

your machine should grab at about 45 degrees, perhaps a little lower if it is a traditional dose

you won't get it to grab just above horizontal like the londinium r because the pre-infusion pressure in the londinium r is much higher at 3.0-3.5 bar, cf yours at boiler pressure of 1.3-1.4 bar

that said you would definitely benefit from fitting our high performance piston seals which we have machined locally

kind regards


reiss.

Laurence Kahn

Hi Reiss. Thanks for your quick reply. Yeah, my lever catches closer to 20 degrees rather than 45. The pressure reading seems about the same as always at about 1.3

Reiss Gunson

that's no good laurence - hardly any spring pressure, hardly any shot volume. a new set of piston seals and it will transform things for you.

Karl Ashman

Hi Laurence. Mine can also do something similar from time to time, even with the high performance seals the Reiss now supplies.

I've started doing a long preinfusion to over come this. I use the following routine:

1. Lock in portafilter.
2. Open steam valve to get boiler working to bring up pressure to what ever is set.
3. Bring down lever
4. Wait for pump to actuate.
5. After pump has finished, open steam valve again to bring up boiler pressure
6. Once boiler pressure is back to your nominal level, release the lever.

Doing this gives me around a 25 to 30 sec preinfusion (which some will say is stewing the puck), but it also means that there is max pressure on a saturated puck and your lever should grab at 45 degrees. Using this method, my lever has almost never grabbed higher than 45.

As I said, some will say that this is stewing the puck, but I haven't found it to cause to much difference in the cup. Mind you my palate is relatively unrefined and I home roast to suit this method.

Hope this helps.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Frans Goddijn

Assuming the roast date of the beans is between 1 and 4 weeks, grinding a little bit coarser and/or tamping a little bit less hard might also help to allow an easier pre-infusion.

Laurence Kahn

Thanks guys. I've never replaced the seals because I expected the sign to do so would be leaks. When I bought the machine I bought an extra set of seals. What's the consensus: should I install those, or should I try the precision version?

Frans Goddijn

The new type ones, absolutely.

Matthew Hoffman

Has anyone measured the actual spring pressures at ~90 and ~45 degrees?

Matt

Reiss Gunson post=13896 wrote: hi laurence

your machine should grab at about 45 degrees, perhaps a little lower if it is a traditional dose

you won't get it to grab just above horizontal like the londinium r because the pre-infusion pressure in the londinium r is much higher at 3.0-3.5 bar, cf yours at boiler pressure of 1.3-1.4 bar

that said you would definitely benefit from fitting our high performance piston seals which we have machined locally

kind regards


reiss.

Reiss Gunson

Laurence Kahn post=13901 wrote: Thanks guys. I've never replaced the seals because I expected the sign to do so would be leaks. When I bought the machine I bought an extra set of seals. What's the consensus: should I install those, or should I try the precision version?

the HP seals are night and day over the old. half my life used to be given to helping people struggling with seals issues. no more, as you will see if you run a search for the posts on this forum relating to seals and lever jump

once you have the HP seals in, dont confuse what was a bonafide seal issue (seal height less than the height of the piston groove) with lever jump induced as a result of grinding too fine and tamping too hard for any given dose - this is simply a function of the piston pushing the brew water down and hitting a dry area in the puck, which of course the brew water collapses down into and you observe this as an upward jump in the lever

best

reiss.

Laurence Kahn

Ok, I've installed the new seals. (Note to self: do not submit application for factory seal installer job.)

No success. The lever still jumps to about the same place.

Reiss Gunson

hi laurence

please FaceTime me on [email protected] and we can get it sorted pretty quickly i think

i expect you are grinding too fine on a L1(2012-2016), compensating for poor distribution

you need to wait for the first drip before releasing the lever and this time should not really exceed 12 seconds

kind regards

reiss.