Mack21 - what happens if you adjust the pump pressure up? There’s a screw which is accessible from the bottom of the machine. See if you can get to 9 bar without portafilter. If you don’t want to waste water, use a blind portafilter and adjust the screw and see what happens.
the best thing you could domos to ask someone to film their Synchronika for you, focusing on the gauge:
- Activating the pump blind basket;
- Activating the pump portafilter engaged.
Then you can compare.
take this video for example: note how the pressure goes to 10 bar straight away.
or here, but you have to be rather eagle eyed at 5 minutes.
IMO something is not quite right with your machine unless something has fundamentally changed with those machines.
@DavecUK - shouldn’t the needle go straight away to the configured pressure at the head of the pump? That’s been my experience with rotary pump machines at least. In other words, it should register 9bar whether there’s a portafilter locked or not.