Doram
My v1 boosts to 1.5 bar and holds for a few minutes (medium temp setting).
Regarding the boiler refills, it happens for me after 3-4 milk (100ml) drinks…and sometimes it happens mid-steaming which can be super frustrating. I don’t see how this can be addressed in the firmware with the type of water level probe being used…maybe someone can enlighten me. There would need to be some sort of time based logic that doesn’t perform a refill within x seconds of a shot pull as long as the water level is within a range. This sounds feasible, but without a continuous level sensor, there would be a damage risk if the controls are calling for steam boost while there is a boiler fill condition (but delayed because of this time based logic). Imagine a situation where the heating element is exposed to air during a steam boost because water was pulled off of the hot water tap immediately after a shot, or there is simply not enough steam generated despite heating because the water is too low. Maybe they could add another level probe that creates a minimum and maximum level, and the boiler refill is suppressed for x seconds after a shot pull only if the water level remains between those two thresholds. This would allow uninterrupted steaming, and could also make sure the boiler is aways topped off after steam boost. Actually, the introduction of cool water into the boiler could speed up the cold down to idle.
An observation I have with my machine is by the 3rd or 4th milk drink, I sometimes see that machine is slow to reach 1.5 bar. I believe this is caused by the amount of water in the boiler…just enough to prevent a boiler refill, not quite enough to get to the desired amount of steam. Maybe I could mess around with the length of the fill probe to tweak this.
I am really curious about how long it takes V2 to settle back to idle temp…does it still take about 15 minutes? We need someone with a group head thermometer to weigh in on this. If I can get more steam with the same or less recovery, that would sell me on the purchase of a V2 Gicar.