erkal MediumRoastSteam bit of an unrelated question but do you find your steam wand getting hot after steaming some milk? today it was almost untouchable from top to tip and I am not sure if that was always the case or is it meant to be cool to touch all the time?
MediumRoastSteam erkal - 😊 They will get hot after steaming - but you can touch them. If you ever touched a non-insulated steam wand, I expect you to have scars of 3rd degree burn in your fingers. The only reason they would heat up is if steam is getting between the inner tube and the wall of the steam wand. Do a test: bring machine up to steam temp; onto a large jug, or bottle or glass, empty (to catch the steam - or don’t bother) open the steam wand for 30 seconds. can you touch the steam arm? You should be able to. If you can’t, you most likely has a leak on the top of the steam arm. Did you manage to contact Bella Barista?
MediumRoastSteam erkal do you find your steam wand getting hot after steaming some milk I checked mine today. Usual steaming lasting approx. 40 seconds. Then I just open the steam wand and let it run steam. I was able to hold the steam wand comfortably at all times. It was warm, but it was not hot. The closer you get to the tip or the top the warmer it gets due to condition from the non-insulated parts. erkal I am now noticing temp drop and then spike to 101 Checked this to after a 6s flush: as expected, temperature went from 93C (set temp) to 87C, then quickly recovering - about 1 minute - back to 93C. Make sure your PID parameters are what’s recommended by @DavecUK .
erkal MediumRoastSteam Thanks for the test! So maybe I am being a little dramatic but I am pretty sure there was nearly no heat on the wand after frothing. I just made two drinks back to back and yes the tip is scorching which is normal but the middle elbow bit is also warm and as you get closer to the top nut it gets very very hot again.
erkal MediumRoastSteam Yeah I have now noticed that it’s not even due to the flush anymore, it shoots up to 101C right after pulling a shot. I am going to go through the settings again and compare them with Dave’s.
erkal KPc = 0.2 (PID Proportional value coffee boiler) KIc = 0.07 (PID Integral value coffee boiler) These settings on mine are much different to Dave’s. I found another value which was very different (Bs) and set it to Dave’s. It seems to get even hotter now
MediumRoastSteam erkal - Can you please list ALL the values here, of all parameters, please? The derivative and band/range values are also important. (e.g.: KDc and Bc), as well as the offset value (EC). And same again for the Steam values, so KPs, KIs, KDs, Bs, Es) Many thanks.
erkal Sure, here we go: KPc 2.0, Klc 0.04, KDc 1.0, Bc 30, KPs 2.0, Kls 0.00, KDs 0.0, Bs 1, Ec 10, Es 0, F01 1, TR 1, ToT., EVS 1, BLS1 3, BLS2 3, BLP1 2, BLP2 5, PRG 3 What do you think?
MediumRoastSteam erkal - Well… erkal I believe, copied from Dave’s settings. I think you haven’t copied the settings as suggested by @DavecUK :-) See below, key in the correct values and we go from there :-) (e.g.: KPc should be 0.2, KIc should be 0.07) https://sway.office.com/S5J4d9Jp4Y9LdVFx Let me know if that fixes the issue :-)
erkal MediumRoastSteam Right! This is pretty perfect now, thank you so much for your help! I don’t know why I didn’t think I could change the initial values, totally my stupidity, I have adhd and reading instructions doesn’t always lead me to the intended result :) I pulled a shot and it dropped to about 88 and slowly creeped back up (about 30-40s) and its lingering around 93-94 now. Never went above the set value of 94. I guess this is what we wanted? Now I just need to upgrade my grinder, get a bottomless portafilter and I will be rocking, get out the way James Hoffman!
MediumRoastSteam erkal Good stuff. I’ve tried many different settings before, but just kept coming back to these ones. Give it a go, see how it works for you. Enjoy the machine and have fun in choosing all the accessories!
erkal MediumRoastSteam Hello again, So it seems I have a new problem now which I cannot decide whether if its the Elizabeth or my grinder. But it seems that when I pull back to back shots, the second one always seems to run faster. I use my scales to measure the time/weight manually in the hopes that I can repeat it by setting one of the programmable buttons to the same time length, yet this hardly ever works. For example, I have just measured a pretty decent tasting shot which took about 33s to yield 38g of espresso. I record 33s on button 2 and then set up a second shot, press button 2 and I get about 54g of espresso. Where do you think the issue is? Thanks! PS. I have a Baratza Encore with the Virtuoso burrs which are relatively new (replaced them about 1.5 years ago)
MediumRoastSteam erkal But it seems that when I pull back to back shots, the second one always seems to run faster. Try flushing the machine for a couple of seconds - until water comes our of the group - before your shots. I found that for the first shot, it takes approx. 2 seconds for water to drip from the shower screen once the button is pressed. - Which could be leading to your slower first shot. Saying that, I had a similar issue with my Profitec 700 back in the day. Annoying as it is for the perfectionist, I wouldn’t loose any sleep over it.
erkal So how do you make consistent shots? Do you weigh every single time? About 10g extra water at similar timeframe is quite a big change in taste as well
MediumRoastSteam erkal So how do you make consistent shots? forget timed buttons. Weigh in, weigh out.
erkal MediumRoastSteam Ahh OK. That’s a shame as I chose this machine part for the timed buttons so the others in the house who don’t know much can easily pull programmed shots. Bit of a let down then :/ Anyway thanks again for the tips!
erkal Cuprajake Hey! No unfortunately not. They are Americano drinkers. I cannot believe that the whole programming feature of these machines is just a fake gimmick. Why even bother putting these features in if they cannot work with consistency
DavecUK erkal Hey! No unfortunately not. They are Americano drinkers. I cannot believe that the whole programming feature of these machines is just a fake gimmick. Why even bother putting these features in if they cannot work with consistency There are 3 other sources of inconsistency not being mentioned grinder puck prep and tamping roasted bean quality/age If you do everything the same and are consistent in the 3 things above, then the volumetrics on the buttons should be right be within a couple of seconds or so.