CoffeeGeek - Espresso: Espresso Machines, La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

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La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

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slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sun Jul 29, 2012, 9:11am Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

I had the same problem with the valve sticking when I first got my machine. Jim from 1st line can email you instructions on how to clean it. Mine seemed to free itself up after I used the machine a couple of times and I never had to clean it. It has been fine ever since. Since then I have had a couple instances of thermosyphon stall where the boiler was hot by the group head was cool. That is easily remedied by a long flush of the group head. With regard to recovery - yes, at the factory Pstat setting, the Cuadra is something of a dragon. It has tons of steam pressure and the temp bounces back very quickly. As to whether or not to adjust it, it is question of how you will use the machine. I preferred to turn mine down a bit. I lost a small bit of steam pressure and lengthened the recover time, but my flushes are smaller. This works fine for me because I tend to make only one or two drinks at a time. If you will be cranking out a bunch or drinks back-to-back, you might prefer a higher pstat. Many ways to skin the cat - just a matter of finding what best suits your liking.

Frankieg
Senior Member

Joined: 26 Jul 2012
Posts: 6
Location: New York
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Sun Jul 29, 2012, 10:56am Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

SlyBarman, thanks for the advice. I'll give it a couple days to see if the anti-vacuum lossens up. Yeah the bar pressure settles between 1 & 1.1. I'll give it some practice to see if I can prepare my PF for the next shot more quickly so I catch the HX before it returns to temperature. In case I want to dial it down, I know I have to remove the body panel on the side of the steam valve, but to turn it down to I screw to the left or to the right? And I'm figuring it's just a slight turn right? I'll email 1st line just to make sure also.

slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sun Jul 29, 2012, 11:04am Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

I do not recall with absolute certainty - best to ask 1st line. I can tell you that the adjustment amounts are quite small. Make a small change then wait a bit to see result, then make another small adjustment if necessary and wait again.

slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Fri Aug 3, 2012, 9:03am Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

New HX descaling video from SCG. It seems generally consistent with 1st lines instructions - with the exception of only drawing 4 oz at a time through the hot water wand. Click Here (www.youtube.com)

r_g
Senior Member

Joined: 1 Jan 2012
Posts: 10
Location: chicago
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Preciso

Posted Sat Aug 4, 2012, 12:13pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

Which descaler are people using here? 1st line recommends Ascaso but there are lots of others on amazon (Urnex, Calcaf, etc.). any recommendations or experiences? i read that Urnex is fairly strong and might also take some oxidized copper off the boiler. Any suggestions would be helpful.

slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sun Aug 5, 2012, 2:38pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

I used Dezcal for no particular reason. I don't enough about one from another to say what makes one good or bad.

Frankieg
Senior Member

Joined: 26 Jul 2012
Posts: 6
Location: New York
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2012, 6:03pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

Well I went ahead and adjusted the pressure-stat so that now it settles at nine bar. It used to settle between 1 and 1.1. However I don't see any noticeable difference in amount of flushing needed, both for 1st shot and also between shots. In total, 3 shots requires about 16-18 oz of water to be flushed. I don't want to adjust lower than 9 bar because I want my steam power to stay strong. I also noticed that my boiler is fully insulated. I don't think version 1 has insulated boilers, but version 2 does, and this is a feature I didn't know about. I guess this is a desirable feature for temp stability, am I correct? This might also be the reason why I need to flush so much between shots, because the boiler and hx stay super hot because of the insulation? What do you guys think? Here is pic. (Click for larger image)

slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2012, 6:14pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

Correct - that is a change from v1 and I do not recall seeing that mentioned either. It should help the efficiency, but the temp inside the boiler should not be any different I don't think. It is what it is based on the pressure set with the Pstat. This was the V1 insulation: . (Click for larger image)

Frankieg
Senior Member

Joined: 26 Jul 2012
Posts: 6
Location: New York
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2012, 6:22pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

Thanks slybarman. So is my boiler temp lower at .9 bar than it is at 1 or 1.1 bar? Are my shots being pulled at a cooler temp?

slybarman
Senior Member

Joined: 3 Nov 2011
Posts: 344
Location: usa
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Wed Aug 8, 2012, 6:34pm Subject: Re: La Nuova Era Cuadra Owners Thread

As I understand it, yes, the boiler temp would be lower @.9 than it would be @ 1.0. As to whether you are pulling the shot at a cooler temp, I think that would still depend on your cooling flush of the HX. I do not think you are inherently pulling the shot at a cooler temp. The brew water is coming from the HX, not directly from the boiler itself. When I lowered my Pstat, the resting temp of the group head did go down slightly, but the water that gets purged from the HX is still well above shot temperature. The difference I see is in how quickly the temp drops from say 212 to 205 on the grouphead thermometer when doing a flush. Once the temp starts to drop, it does so more quickly now than it did before.

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