I purchased my Appartamento about three years ago. About a year ago I installed Eric's thermometer My machine idled at 88 to 89 Celsius (190 to 192 Fahrenheit) It went up a few degrees during a pull I was aware of hx machines and needing to flush hot water, flush and go, flush and wait. I never needed to do all this ever. I just assumed people liked their espresso pulled much cooler than a stock Appartamento. Then I started reading about people installing thermometers. So I got a thermometer. Their idle numbers were much higher than mine. In fact, it seemed my machine was running at temperatures that they were flushing to get to. Decided to do some basic diagnosis : Flow rate : 7 to 8 ml/s Pressure gauge : always between 1 and 1.2 Nothing seemed amiss What's going on? How do I have the holy grail of hx?

@"hedonist222"#p6447 - it does look like it! The thing with HX machines is simple: the boiler temperature is at 125C or thereabouts. There’s a pipe which goes through the boiler. That’s the HX. Water goes from the tank to the group, through the HX. The water inside the HX will, eventually, get to the same temperature of the boiler. Now… the water inside the HX, circulates to the group and back - that’s the thermosyphon and that’s what keeps your group hot. But… as much as the group will act as a cooling sink, eventually the water will overheat. And that’s when you need a cooling flush. If you have a machine which has a flow restrictor of the right size, and the water circulates in a way that it keeps the temperature stable for your needs… happy days. However, this might also mean the recovery time in between shots is also longer. In comparison, I used to own a Rocket Cellini HX. Pressure was at 0.9 - 1.1 bar (low/high), and the would always overheat. Maybe Rocket changed things since. PS: good to see you here. 😉👍

Hi Thanks for explaining I understand how a heat exchanger works My machine is getting descaled now, asked the guy to check and photograph the restrictor It's welded on to the pipe that exits the hx and enters into the group head Im still curious How does my machine have less heat than other models https://imgur.com/a/ZmNUOI5

The most obvious answer is the boiler temperature/pressure is lower.

Is it? 1 to 1.2 is on the higher end of what typical Appartamento owners have theirs set to

I’d blame limescale. Maybe your flow restrictor is now even more restricted , allowing less water to circulate through, thus idling colder? But that theory would not explain a short cooling flush. But yeah, interesting question. I don’t know the answer.

How do I quote people? I'd have said scale but it's been like this from day one.

@"hedonist222"#p6475 select text to quote, hit quote, or hit reply if you just want to reply to someone. [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/65TI8Vy.png]

> @"hedonist222"#p6475 I’d have said scale but it’s been like this from day one. The only other thing I can think of, aside of you having a narrower flow restrictor, is that your machine’s gauge is over reading, or maybe the conditions where you keep your machine allows for that? Air con, a fan blowing or something?

I don't think my unit has a defective flow restrictor. I thought it could be the ac. But I turned it off and it's the same.

> @"hedonist222"#p6480 I don’t think my unit has a defective flow restrictor Who said that?

Fluke luck? Appartamento Temps

DavecUK

hedonist222 Just need to find someone to sponsor my business class ticket from Abu Dhabi 😁

It’s only about £7K!

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