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DIY

Saeco Aroma – Hidden defects [updated]

By Cleaning, Coffee, Current Projects, DIY, Espresso 37 Comments

As you might have guessed i snagged up another espresso machine. I was told the machine started leaking water after being descaled and that somehow it wouldn’t switch off anymore. Having seen some of the pictures of the machine before committing to the sale it seemed like an easy fix. When i picked up the package it came in this afternoon it all went south though.

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This Astoria grinder needs help

By Current Projects, DIY, Grinding 2 Comments

With this Astoria badged Mazzer Super Jolly i’ve started a new category on my blog. You will find this and my other current projects under, you guessed it, “Current Projects“. I found this grinder locally on a classifieds website. The seller didn’t specify which brand or model it was, but i recognised its shape immediately. The grinder was cheap enough but somehow it was still listed after being on that site for about a month. When i asked the seller if he still had it for sale i was quite amazed he still hadn’t sold it yet. It did look quite beat up, but these grinders are known to stand up to just about any kind of abuse…

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Descaling a La Pavoni Professional

By Cleaning, Coffee, DIY, Espresso 22 Comments

Every now and then your espresso gear will need cleaning. You wash the portafilter and baskets after every use, clean the driptray at least once every few days (i hope) and wipe down the rest of the machine every so often. But what about the inside of the boiler? You can’t just reach in with a brush and start scrubbing around. Well you could but it’d be a lot more trouble than i would want to go through. Especially on a Tuesday morning before (!) i had my first espresso.
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Restored Mazzer and La Pavoni Professional

Restoring a used and abused Mazzer Super Jolly

By Coffee, Current Projects, DIY, Espresso, Grinding 46 Comments

I’ve been looking for ways to get more consistant shots of espresso from my La Pavoni Professional and one of the few things that kept holding me back was the quality of the grounds. Knowing full well that my Nemox Lux was already producing the best grounds it could, I started looking for a new grinder. I found my grail in Italy, read on for the full story.
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Adjust the La Pavoni manometer

By Coffee, DIY 2 Comments

Ever since I picked up my La Pavoni Professional it bothered me that the manometer always showed 0.4 bars of pressure even though the machine was turned off, the boiler was completely cold and there was no (residual) pressure in the boiler. Even when I disassembled it to replace all the gaskets it still showed 0.4 bars of pressure. When another member of the Kaffee-Netz forum mentioned the exact same phenomena I thought we both needed new manometers. But we really didn’t…

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DIY La Pavoni Steam wand Nozzle

By Coffee, DIY 12 Comments

I’ve had mixed success using the standard La Pavoni Professional steam wand to create the illustrious microfoam with regular milk. The La Pavoni comes with a 3 hole nozzle (see pictures). To get decent microfoam you need to be able to direct where the steam goes. The simple fact that the standard nozzle has 3 holes all pointing in different directions makes it virtually impossible to direct the steam into a single direction.

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