Lelit Elizabeth. Pressure gauge's needle not moving

Juanjo

HI,

I’ve recently purchased the Lelit Elizabeth. I’ve been a fan of Dave’s site for a while, specially his. vast knowledge of the Lelit Mara X and Elisabeth, something that helped me decide to purchase my machine.

After the initial flush I set all parameters from the advanced menu to his suggested settings. After doing this I noticed that the pressure gauge’s needle did not move at all–not during preinfusion, not during infusion; zero… nilch… nada… After panicking I did a factory reset, but to no avail: the needle was still frozen at 0.

I noticed that the coffee poured out was very “liquidish”, without any texture, and FAST!!.

Before I return it, I wanted to get your input as of if there is a setting or something I am missing. Could it be that tweaking with these parameters damaged the machine at all?

Thank you

MediumRoastSteam

Juanjo - Do you have a video please? I remember someone on CFUK having this exact issue.

Can you do the following;

Turn machine on, let it get up to temp;
flush some water through the group;
Set button 1 to have no pre-infusion, i.e.; disable pre-infusion on button 1;
put the blank disk on the portafilter;
lock the PF into place;
film it, focusing on the pressure gauge.

Report back.

DavecUK

Juanjo I noticed that the coffee poured out was very “liquidish”, without any texture, and FAST!!.

Are you getting pre-ground coffee from the supermarket?

Juanjo

No pre-ground, only medium roast third wave coffee beans.

I will do this and film it, as you request.

Thank you

DavecUK

Juanjo how fast is fast, although I guess we will see on the Video. Don’t forget to do a shot against a blind filter as well, to see if any pressure registers when you do.

Juanjo

One quick question: how can I upload a video to this site?

DavecUK

The best way is to upload it to YouTube as unlisted, then simply paste the link here and the forum will take care of the rest. Or use google drive etc.. to link to it there…but YT is the best option.

Juanjo

Here is a dropbox link. I hope I’ve done this right:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/34x65uwcdutpo1z/AAA5RJWuGFU9Po40jxtP6x_aa?dl=0

Juanjo

Forgot to mention I have a Wilfa grinder set to 2 for fine grinding.

DavecUK

Juanjo Forgot to mention I have a Wilfa grinder set to 2 for fine grinding.

OK as soon as I saw this I guessed the problem would be the grind…the Wilfa is a pour over grinder not an espresso grinder. I looked at the Videos, the shot against a blind filter generates just over 10 bar, proving there is absolutely nothing wrong with the machines

Rob1 Judging by the flow you need to grind finer, quite a lot finer really. Not to state the obvious but if the coffee can’t offer resistance the pressure won’t build up.

As Rob says, the problem is you need to grind finder, trouble is that grinder is really not suitable, and you need to purchase a better grinder (sorry). The minimum standard for a prosumer machine is really something like a Eureka Mignon. It will make all the difference. If you can stretch to something like a Solo/DF64, or a Niche, even better.

Get that grinder sorted and you won’t have any more problems.

Rob1

That video shows the needle moving…

Juanjo

Here is a shot with NO preinfusion–needle stuck in the preinfusion zone of the gauge

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkzq05np16bk5wk/Shot%20with%20no%20preinfusion.mov?dl=0

Another shot WITH a 10″ preinfusion

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qa8udhz8qno1fcq/Shot%20with%2010%22%20preinfusion.mov?dl=0

In both shots the needle is stuck within the “preinfusion” part of the gauge

Rob1

Judging by the flow you need to grind finer, quite a lot finer really. Not to state the obvious but if the coffee can’t offer resistance the pressure won’t build up.

Juanjo

The grinder setting is set to 2… 1 is the minimum… I doubt that just one notch down will make such an impact …

Rob1

Juanjo

As Dave says above, the Wilfa isn’t suitable.

You may have had success with a darker roast or just a different bean in the past but some origins/varieties need a very fine grind, especially when light or medium roasted.

Grif

Something weird going on with your grinder, even though the uniform is a filter grinder, it should be able to pull an espresso shot without gushing like that, maybe it needs cleaning out/calibrating?

MediumRoastSteam

Grif that, maybe it needs cleaning out/calibrating?

Juanjo - my money is on the above. As it was said, it can grind for espresso.

drdre89

My 2 cents. I agree with Dave. It all depends on the blind shot. If you’re getting 10 bar blind shot that came from factory, then there’s nothing wrong with the machine.

Get an espresso grinder like Sette 270 or Niche Zero 👍

Then if you can later, adjust the OPV to just over 9 bars on a blind shot.

Juanjo

I bought a Niche Zero; waiting for its arrival “some time in March”… No second hand market for these that I could find around.

Since I can’t use my machine until the said date I decided upon a Wilfa Uniform (275€ on Amazon Spain, yes, there are much better grinders out there, but if I had to sell/store it after the Zero arrived I opted for something on this price range). Saw the Hoffman review where he prepares an espresso with the Uniform, and where he says that it could ALSO work for this type of coffee, and decided to purchase it.

If you assure that this is the problem I have no option other than to return it to Amazon and buy another one. I don’t want to get crazy on the price though since “the expensive one” is coming a few weeks later. Any recommendations?

Grif

Juanjo Any recommendations

If the grinder is new and you can send it back then I would do that, your pressure needle is not getting ‘stuck’ on preinfusion, the coffee in the basket is simply not providing enough resistance for pressure to build which is why water is gushing through and hence the need to grind finer. As Dave said above, your shot against the blind filter shows the Elizabeth is working properly.

Maybe a hand grinder whilst your waiting for your Niche to arrive, JX-pro or similar? Dialing in espresso on a hand grinder can be a little tedious but you won’t have to do it for long!

limelight

As someone suggested I think the minimum viable is something like the Sette 270. If you can find a Sette 30 for > $100 less than the 270, you could buy the 30 and purchase the 270 adjustment ring from the manufacturer. You could then retrofit it on the 30 and have the same grind capability.