Lost Password?
No account yet? Register

Whole Latte Love!

What's New?

EspressoTec.Com


Baratza Inc.

Baratza.com - Creators of the Virtuoso!

Transcend Coffee

Home arrow Forum
Welcome to the CoffeeCrew forum for registered users. - feel free to make yourself at home. This forum is dedicated to coffee and espresso based issues.

Forum spammers, scam artists, confidence artists, crooks and obvious commercial shilling is discouraged. Violation of this one simple rule will result in you and your immediate geographical region being banned from the site so do not post ads here! Capiche?

Please keep any personal attacks, slags or rude comments to yourself - violators of normal Forum - Decorum will be promptly booted!

Thank you and enjoy the forums!

CoffeeCrew.com Discussion Forum and Guestbook  


Boardwalk :: Forum List The CoffeeCrew Social Area The Mailbag
colin
Admin

Admin
Posts: 697
graph
Karma: 18  
Sex and the Gaggia Classic - 2007/11/08 11:06 A reader from Toronto writes:
"I am absolutely thrilled with my new Gaggia Classic. I finally figured on my own what a
decompression duct is and what it is used for and I also learned on my own about
back flushing. I did not have to concern myself with either of these on the Espresso of
course because the Espresso does not have a Solenoid, so I am adjusting. The
decompression duct tube is only held by friction and its not in very securely--it doesn't
exactly stay in very securely- is that all right?
As well, when priming the pump the manual for the Classic does not state to run water
through the steam wand and group-head as is the case with the Gaggia Espresso. It only
alludes to running water through the group head. Is this OK? Or should I prime the pump
on the Gaggia Classic by running water through the steam wand and then through the
grouphead as is the case with the Gaggia Espresso?

Finally , do I need to back flush every so often when necessary depending on how often I
use my Classic? It seems rather tedious and will take some getting used to."

This is my cleaning habit when I use a Gaggia or Rancilio or anything with a 3-way solenoid:

I am always running OR flushing water through the machine when I am in the "process" of brewing a shot.

I could write an article on it but that would be, well... redundant.

What I mean is: I do a "flush" just prior to brewing my espresso - which is silly when you think of it... because the Gaggia (and Rancilio) do not have heat-exchanging heads (HX) and they
have moderately small boilers - so it is not like the water in the boiler is being starved of oxygen in short order.

That said, I do not like to have standing water in the boiler for too long.

So.

I flush a few ounces of water through the BREW group and PF to keep everything zippy hot.
...and, well... fresh!

Espresso is messy.

And with a 3-way solenoid, these things SUCK up spent coffee grounds and brewed espresso coffee and waste water.
Where does it go? Well - it goes through the 3-way mechanism and is exhausted into the drip tray
through a drain port.

Anything and everything that comes in contact with coffee is subject to regular cleaning
because it will taint the new coffee you are brewing.

So. How often to back-flush? I would say once a week.
Every time you brew coffee you should wipe everything down -- the group, the shower head
and the porta-filter. I toss my PF's into the dishwasher - not sure whether or not this
is good - but I do it.

I have been to so many cafe's that do not rinse their PF's regularly - it is disgusting.
Nothing taints espresso coffee faster than stale coffee oils and residuals.

Cleanliness is everything.

All the fittings in and around the 3-way, the boiler and the steam wand
should be VERY tight - nothing should be loose.

I made the mistake of pulling off the steam wand exhaust off of the boiler
when the unit was on once - and got a face full of live steam. I lucked out - no burns.

Everything needs to be tight -- or it has not been assembled properly
and this means: Early failure. Colin is the Senior editor and creator of the CoffeeCrew.Com Website
  | | Forum posting/replies are available to registered users.
Boardwalk :: Forum List The CoffeeCrew Social Area The Mailbag

Joomlaboard Forum Component 1.1.2 Stable
Two Shoes M-Factory
Special Poll Victoria's Best Overall Cafe?
 
Powered by Joomlaboard

Espresso Top 50