rbh1515 Senior Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 1,054 Location: Milwaukee Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun May 18, 2008, 8:49am Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
SkyRyders90 Said:
My GS/3 arrived today. Interestingly enough, there appeared to be a fix for the vibration problem in place - not the white plastic one, but a rubber gasket-looking thing. I've attached a picture. This machine was shipped directly from Franke - it didn't even pass through my dealer.
Is the Fluid-o-tech pump vibrating? If so, that seems strange. The nice thing about rotary pumps is they typically don't make much noise or vibrate very much. I have an Astra Gourmet with a Procon rotary pump, and it is as smooth as can be. I've owned it for about 4 years and it has developed a gravely noise/vibration a couple of times. I was told by Astra to adjust the screw on the pump (the one that controls how much pressure you get) back and forth and that should take care of it. And it does! It happened again the other day, I made the adjustment (1/2 turn counter CW, run pump;1/2 turn CW, run pump;1/2 turn CW, run pump; 1/2 turn counter CW and you are back to your original setting) and it was back to normal. I have been seriously thinking of buying a GS3--I almost pulled the trigger last month, but I think I'll wait for a while till they work a couple more of the bugs out. Rob
JimWright Senior Member Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 158 Location: Los Angeles, CA
Espresso: LM GS/3, Estro Profi Grinder: Macap M7KR Vac Pot: Yama Drip: Other: Eva Solo, Press Pot
Posted Sun May 18, 2008, 9:03am Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
JacobS Said:
I find your question a little wired, you have the same machine and baskets as I/we do and there is no reason to believe that it would behave any different!
But I get contact with everything but the minimum dose that the 57.6mm tamper allows, but it's not a problem and I find the GS/3 very tolerant and forgiving!
Oh, I'm getting great shots out of it already - so much so, in fact, that I'm truly loathe to give it back to Franke. (I managed a shot of Kid O this week that tasted powerfully like cashews on the back of my tongue... so that's the nuts they're talking about!)
I'm just figuring that disrupting the puck pre-shot can't be a good thing (pull your PF out before running the shot - has the screw already disrupted the puck?), and wanting to experiment with more underdosing than I can manage to see what happens if I avoid this. The other option I haven't tried is a convex tamper.
roblumba Senior Member Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 346 Location: San Jose Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun May 18, 2008, 7:08pm Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
I don't quite understand the microfoam problem. I'll have to go to Barefoot and order a cappucino or latte and see what there's is like. I compared mine to the consistency I saw on the videos for the WBBC Championships and the consistency seems the same. I can usually get latte art although it sometimes doesn't have sharp edges but I figured that was my pouring technique. I haven't really been trying to make latte art by burning through gallons of milk, so my technique just slowly improves. Anyone have photos or even videos of what this badly steamed milk looks like?
JimWright Senior Member Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 158 Location: Los Angeles, CA
Espresso: LM GS/3, Estro Profi Grinder: Macap M7KR Vac Pot: Yama Drip: Other: Eva Solo, Press Pot
Posted Thu May 22, 2008, 10:10am Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
Update: Well, the wife talked me out of driving it back to Seattle myself this week (spending vacation on the interstate, though I also would've gotten to try Stumptown and some other well-knowns outside CA...), and UPS comes to get her this morning. Now I'll live without it until repaired/replaced. {Sigh}
Fortunately I'm leaving for the DR in 3 days and then will be up in the Bay Area for a few days and coffee touring there, so hopefully the replacement or repaired machine will arrive shortly after my return and I'll only be without her for a few days when I'm actually here. Cross your fingers for me folks.
bonanza Senior Member Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 20 Location: The Netherlands Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: La Marzocco GS3 Grinder: Mahlkönig K30 Vario
Posted Wed May 28, 2008, 11:22pm Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
Teme Said:
Wednesday this week I had the pleasure of trying a prototype of the new version of the steam system. I was impressed and I am happy to say that it eliminates the wet steam "issue" (and brings the steam performance onto the same level with other LMs). The new system will be retrofittable to existing machines. Availability and cost unknown, but it could be around July-August. You will lose the cool touch wand, but gain metal (stainless steel) wand joints.
Here are the pictures from the 'Copenhagen GS/3 face to face session', which can be seen on: click here
By chance I had the oppurtunity to have a closer look at the prototype of the new steam wand, which Mr. Henk Langkemper of Espresso Service West brought with him to The Netherlands. The steam wand assembly has improved dramatically and can be controlled in a very smooth way!!!
Personally I can't wait to install this new steam wand on my machine...
DUCKy Senior Member Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Utrecht (The Netherlands) Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu May 29, 2008, 2:59am Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
Hi there,
Just signed up as a coffee-geek member and GS/3 owner from The Netherlands. I received my GS/3 this Monday and I must say I like it :-)
My dealer has informed me that the steam upgrade should be available promptly and will be installed on my machine free of charge.
Setup and pulling a shot is a breeze and the flavour is excellent and surely surpases my 'old' Jura F90. It will take some more practice to get a perfect shot though. The main issue I am having at this moment is that I am getting a wet puck. For a double I load the portafiller with ~14 grams finely ground coffee and tamp it firmly (checked the pressure I am exerting on my scales and it looks OK). Extraction takes about 28 seconds with a brief pre-infusion. After the shot the puck is still wet though and won't come out easily and/or in one piece. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?
Look forward to making better and better espressos with this lovely machine!
Lennart (alias DUCKY after my 2003 Ducati M1000, which might be even more pretty than the GS/3 but it is a close call.....)
Posted Thu May 29, 2008, 6:16am Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
bonanza Said:
Here are the pictures from the 'Copenhagen GS/3 face to face session', which can be seen on: click here
By chance I had the oppurtunity to have a closer look at the prototype of the new steam wand, which Mr. Henk Langkemper of Espresso Service West brought with him to The Netherlands. The steam wand assembly has improved dramatically and can be controlled in a very smooth way!!!
Personally I can't wait to install this new steam wand on my machine...
Does it replace the plastic piece in which the arms articulate? My steam wand broke last week and to put it mildly I was not pleased to see a cheap piece of plastic expected to take so much strain. Franke and my dealer both said the part would be overnighted to me last week, haven't seen it yet. :-/ Second disappointment. The weak point is that the spring is held in place in the plastic housing F.1.015 by a little clip that seats in a recesssed groove at the bottom of the plastic part. My machine doesn't have the little ninja star I.1.024 but has a little c-shaped washer instead. The force from the compressed spring ripped out the thin plastic rim holding it all in place.
I would gladly give up the cool steam wand for something more substantial. This plastic part is pretty junky and cheap for such an expensive machine. :-(
roblumba Senior Member Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 346 Location: San Jose Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu May 29, 2008, 1:33pm Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
laservet Said:
The weak point is that the spring is held in place in the plastic housing F.1.015 by a little clip that seats in a recesssed groove at the bottom of the plastic part. My machine doesn't have the little ninja star I.1.024 but has a little c-shaped washer instead.
Perhaps you just need that little ninja star part? Of course, now that the housing is broken you need a replacement housing too. My understanding is that they did make a change to the attachment, even prior to this steam wand upgrade that strengthened that joint. The earliest GS3's probably didn't have that on there. But if you received yours around the time that they started shipping to the US, then it should be the strengthened joint version.
SkyRyders90 Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 78 Location: Dallas, TX Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: LM GS/3 Grinder: Cimbali Max Hybrid, Versalab
Posted Thu May 29, 2008, 2:00pm Subject: Re: New GS/3 owners thread
DUCKy Said:
Setup and pulling a shot is a breeze and the flavour is excellent and surely surpases my 'old' Jura F90. It will take some more practice to get a perfect shot though. The main issue I am having at this moment is that I am getting a wet puck. For a double I load the portafiller with ~14 grams finely ground coffee and tamp it firmly (checked the pressure I am exerting on my scales and it looks OK). Extraction takes about 28 seconds with a brief pre-infusion. After the shot the puck is still wet though and won't come out easily and/or in one piece. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?
I've had my GS/3 up and running for about a week now, and I have the wet puck issue as well. I'm tried updosing and underdosing, and neither seems to significantly change it. Any thoughts anyone?
Also, any US owners hear anything about how we'd get the new steam arm?
-- Steve
All of life’s big problems include the words ‘indictment’ or ‘inoperable’ - everything else is small stuff. -- AB
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