emradguy Senior Member Joined: 31 Mar 2011 Posts: 1,803 Location: Houston Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Izzo Alex Duetto II Grinder: MacapM4T, Macap M4, OE Lido,... Drip: Espro press; Aeropress Roaster: internet
Posted Mon Jan 21, 2013, 8:24am Subject: Re: francis francis x1 issue
I took a look at that gauge on the front of the machine, and well...it sort of tells you the boiler temp. Where is it reading when you are pulling the shot? I'd take a guess, given the description of your problem, that it's in the steam range, rather than the cup range. If so, you probably need to do a cooling flush before running your shot.
Hah ;) Well... unfortunately the gauge broke (which is why we were able to afford the unit for our office in the first place ;) ) I've got an old VDO car / water gauge I've been thinking about swapping in (in part because I have this around, in part because its a cool gauge), but that's another thread.
emradguy Said:
Where is it reading when you are pulling the shot? I'd take a guess, given the description of your problem, that it's in the steam range, rather than the cup range. If so, you probably need to do a cooling flush before running your shot.
I do a cooling flush before each pull. That said, I'm wondering if something might have burned out and now this is only running in steam range? The two lights (which the Francis Francis X1 uses to tell the user when the unit is at the "right" temperature for both espresso and steam) are working as think they should be.
Testing the temperature of the water coming out (say in a shot glass) what *should* it be?
My less than scientific measurement concludes the water is approx 83 C coming out of the boiler. I suspect letting the unit warm up a bit more would bring this up a bit closer to the desired temperature, however this exercise indicates the water is roughly at the right temperature for espresso.
While taking the unit apart (to check the electronics for anything that might of burned out) it seems there is an internal PID that can be adjusted. I've never read anything about adjusting Francis Francis X1 temperature levels before. Considering how down I am about this unit right now, that seemed like a pleasant surprise.
erimille Senior Member Joined: 16 Jan 2013 Posts: 10 Location: columbus, oh Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Mon Jan 21, 2013, 3:07pm Subject: Re: francis francis x1 issue
erimille Said:
While taking the unit apart (to check the electronics for anything that might of burned out) it seems there is an internal PID that can be adjusted. I've never read anything about adjusting Francis Francis X1 temperature levels before. Considering how down I am about this unit right now, that seemed like a pleasant surprise.
Bookmarking the following in case this may be of use to others
How to adjust the temperature on a Francis Francis X1
"...Not many know that you can actually adjust the temperature on a Francis Francis X1. While the little machine isn't the greatest machine, being a really bad steamer and it's the lack of a three way valve, it's really not that bad at all. With a little tweaking and experience it is capable of brewing some delicious shots. Some Francis Francis machines are equipped with a PID (Proportional–Integral–Derivative) controller. In simple terms a PID is capable of controlling the temperature with a much tighter dead band (dead band being the top and low of the boiler temperature), than a traditional thermostat is. ..."
erimille Senior Member Joined: 16 Jan 2013 Posts: 10 Location: columbus, oh Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Tue Jan 22, 2013, 9:40am Subject: Re: francis francis x1 issue
I gave my francis francis x1 another decalcification run (just in case) and ran this with new pods (again... just to confirm that running with old ones somehow might be a problem). No change. ESE Pods still exploded / imploded and dumped coffee grounds / water out the portofilter. The pressure seems too much as it shoots into the cup and then spurts out everywhere.
I'm thinking the problem is with the boiler pressure (simply being *too* much) but I have no idea how this could happen. I could understand how leaving the unit on might create less pressure, but *more*? that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Does anyone have any idea on how one might test the pressure on one of these units?
still grasping (but thankful for the helpful suggestions thus far),
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