Astoria Espresso?

[crholliday]

How do you program a shot?

How long should a single and double be?

Thanks,

Monito

Going off of memory....

There should be a little toggle switch behind the controller. Toggle it then push one of the preset buttons, start a shot then stop it at the *volume* you want for that preset then press the preset again. If you were successful, you should be able to switch the toggle back to where it started and after pressing the preset you just programmed observe that it dispenses what you set. You are setting volume not time. There is a formula for an unobstructed 2 oz pour of something like 8 seconds. I could be way off on the time but this number will let you know if your giculeur is sized correctly.

[Monito]

More news...

It works great!!!

However, there are a couple of problems:

The pump pressure its always at around 6.5-7 bars (not in the green zone)
when I pull a shot the pump meter needle vibrates at around 11-12 bars
There is only 1 leak, it is around the steamer, which can be solved with Teflon tape.
The black floater is at the top of the eye glass, way above Max level...hmmm?

I don't know how to program it  I don't see the switch that the book implies. I noticed a deep switch on the programing controller and when I pulled it out and hit the program the pump would not stop. I had to disconnected...

This is the 1st time I tasted an awesome shot, it was very sweet...

Monito

P.S. Here it is...

[crholliday]

Dont trust the pressure guage. It could be wildly off. To accurately determine pressure you need a portafilter based pressure guage that you can pick up from espressoparts.com or other places. Second, the "always around 6 - 7 bars" indicates your line pressure. Your pump is not pressurizing the internal lines, your mains water supply is. 6+ is pretty dang high for inside your house pressure. If that panned out to be accurate, I would try to find a simple pressure regulator to knock it down to 4-ish. My pressure guage reads 10 - 11 (bouncy) while pulling a shot. If I adjust down to the green zone, it is too low and the cup suffers.

In your picture looking down on the inside of the group head there is a big bolt (17 mm I believe). Under that bolt is the giculeur and group filter. You can tell alot about the internal condition by looking at that little filter and the surrounding hardware.

I wouldn't unscrew it hot. 

[Monito]

...snip... Your pump is not pressurizing the internal lines...snip...

What does that means?

In your picture looking down on the inside of the group head there is a big bolt (17 mm I believe). Under that bolt is the giculeur and group filter. You can tell alot about the internal condition by looking at that little filter and the surrounding hardware.

I wouldn't unscrew it hot. 

Is it that bolt showing on the astoria 041.jpg picture above?

Also, do you see on that picture the programming controller, there is a black pull off type switch.
It is right above the green connector.
When I took that out and pulled a shot the pressure went way above 12 bars and I had to turn off the machine to get it to stop.

My pressure guage reads 10 - 11 (bouncy) while pulling a shot.

Mine dances 


Monito

[crholliday]

...snip... Your pump is not pressurizing the internal lines...snip...

What does that means?

It means that while you are not pulling a shot (normal resting condition) the pressure displayed on your gauge will be your lines pressure. The pump does not keep the machine pressured up.

In your picture looking down on the inside of the group head there is a big bolt (17 mm I believe). Under that bolt is the giculeur and group filter. You can tell alot about the internal condition by looking at that little filter and the surrounding hardware.

I wouldn't unscrew it hot. 

Is it that bolt showing on the astoria 041.jpg picture above?

Yes, the one next to the controller box connection.

Also, do you see on that picture the programming controller, there is a black pull off type switch.
It is right above the green connector.
When I took that out and pulled a shot the pressure went way above 12 bars and I had to turn off the machine to get it to stop.

Monito

When you disconnected it, did you press the manual shot button or one of the controller buttons?

[Monito]

Here is the sequence of events:
Machine is on
pull out the pull out switch (it looks like the Hard Drives deep switches)
hit the prog/stop button
hit the double shot (pressure gage is just going way up)
Let water run...
Hit the double shot again, nothing happens
Hit the prog/stop (nothing happens)
turn off the machine switch (nothing)
Finally pulled the plug 

Monito

[crholliday]

Here is the sequence of events:
Machine is on
pull out the pull out switch (it looks like the Hard Drives deep switches)
hit the prog/stop button
hit the double shot (pressure gage is just going way up)
Let water run...
Hit the double shot again, nothing happens
Hit the prog/stop (nothing happens)
turn off the machine switch (nothing)
Finally pulled the plug 

Monito

Yep. That sounds broken.

Don't do that anymore 

[Monito]

Here is the sequence of events:
Machine is on
pull out the pull out switch (it looks like the Hard Drives deep switches)
hit the prog/stop button
hit the double shot (pressure gage is just going way up)
Let water run...
Hit the double shot again, nothing happens
Hit the prog/stop (nothing happens)
turn off the machine switch (nothing)
Finally pulled the plug 

Monito

Yep. That sounds broken.

Don't do that anymore 

The gauge is broken, It has a value of 2 bars before there is water. As soon as I put water then it goes to 6 1/3.
$60... ouch!!!

I haven't been able to program it, but I think I know how to do  it now.

Is it normal for water to come out from a line behind the shot glasses when pulling a shot?

Monito

[crholliday]

Is it normal for water to come out from a line behind the shot glasses when pulling a shot?

Monito

Can you elaborate on this a little more? Line? Where are your shot glasses?

[Monito]

Is it normal for water to come out from a line behind the shot glasses when pulling a shot?

Can you elaborate on this a little more? Line? Where are your shot glasses?

Look at the "Astoria 044.jpg" above (the last picture) You see that pipe behind the hole? Water comes out from the bottom of that pipe when I pull a shot!

Thanks,

Monito

[ButtWhiskers]

Look at the "Astoria 044.jpg" above (the last picture) You see that pipe behind the hole? Water comes out from the bottom of that pipe when I pull a shot!

Thanks,

Monito

Is that where the expansion valve drains?

[Monito]

Is that where the expansion valve drains?

It could be, there is that large one and there is a tiny one next to it made out of copper.  If you you look at the picture, it will be next to it.

Thanks,

Monito

[crholliday]

Is that where the expansion valve drains?

It could be, there is that large one and there is a tiny one next to it made out of copper.  If you you look at the picture, it will be next to it.

Thanks,

Monito

That is the 3rd way of the 3-way solenoid. Usually it only come out of that when you stop a shot (pressure releases via that route) or when you put too much pressure on it. Drop a blank in a portafilter, lock it in and pull a shot... water should come out. Then try a coarse grind in the portafilter and see if it comes out of that pipe with less pressure on the puck. I think that if it continues to come out during regular shot pressure, you have a leaking solendoid which may need to be descaled. Mine did.

[Monito]

Here is the latest! The pressure was way to high at the pump...adjusted to 10 when pulling the shot.
The gauge is broken, but all I have to do is subtract 2 to the value.
Group screen changed and clean underneath (dirty)
Cannot find that programing switch, I don't believe that jumper on the programing control is the on/off switch.
May be missing all together...
The only thing left is the sight glass, where the float is always on the top.

Pulled the shots and there is no water coming out of the expansion valve drains, only at the end.
It takes 24 sec to fill the shot glass to the line mark, do I stop when the crema gets there or the liquid?

Thanks,

Monito

[crholliday]

If the float in the site glass doesn't move at all, even after you let the water wand run for a while, then it is just stuck up there. Can you see the level of the water? Is it moving? If it is stuck and it annoys you, you can replace the whole site glass zone for less than $25. If you decide to take this approach, make sure you buy one of everything (gasket, float, bolts, etc) and two site glasses as they break very easily during installation.

The most likely culprit for exceedingly high water levels is the autofill sensor is scaled up at the bottom. This is a cheap fix as a new autofill sensor is around $20. The sensor is bolted into the top of your boiler and has the orangish cable attached to it. Just pull that cable off the top (tab connector) and unscrew (after the machine cools all_the_way_down). If it is scaled up, you can try cleaning off the scale or just buy a new one.

The intricacies for pulling shots is a subject worthy of pages of debate. To me, what is more important than pulling to a specific volume is pulling until the stream tells me it is done (blonding, striping dissipates, the crema begins to thin). You will probably need to pull about 40 million shots to recognize the line between what you like and what you dont. So many variables and so few ways to objectively measure them.

A good place to look for resources on this kind of discussion is home-barista.com.