Misbehaving Krups - HELP!!!

pcur1

Hi folks,

Firstly let me apologies if this particularly problem has been covered before but I'm new (figure I can use that excuse maybe one more time??) and this is my debut post.

dan480

:D Hello I would sugest you take the machine where you have bought it from and ask for a full refund. If you can afford a bit more try to buy a fully manual machine,without electronic gadgets and make shure it has a coper boiler.Most of machines have aluminium boilers ,that kils the taste of the coffee. The Rancilio Sylvia is a good investiment under 800$.Good luck. [email protected]

Lovey

G'day Lw2 and welcome to the forum. Some observations and also some questions for you in order of your questions. 1. Extraction. - That model of Krups (as do most 'appliance' branded machines) use what is called a 'crema enhancing basket' or 'pressurised portafilter'. These are used to give the impression of crema from stale and/or incorrectly ground beans. - Coffee beans are best ground immediately prior to use, not a few days in advance. Coffee goes stale within a few minutes when it's ground. What I suspect could be happening is that you've followed conventional wisdom and have used a grinder to grind the beans and then tamped, then tried to extract. How fine are you grinding the beans? This method works on machines without a pressurised portafilter, but in your case it seems to be building up excess pressure, which is exiting the portafilter as steam. This can be very dangerous if the portafilter decides to 'let go'. You could have hot coffee, steam and bits of metal flying everywhere

admin

Hi Lw2 - don't want to sound negative, but we've done a number of domestic machine reviews over the years, and to be honest, we've never had great results from any of the Krups machines we've tested. To be fair, we haven't tested the model you mentioned, and i would be very interested to know if any of the other very experienced people on this site have other opinions (eg FC?) but if it's under warranty and still not performing as you would expect, you might like to consider returning it for a refund?? Let us know how you get on. -A

pcur1

Hi Admin, Thanks for your post and info.  From reading this and other forums (which I discovered only recently) I'm getting the distinct impression that Krups in general are not the best even for the price (putting it very kindly).  Pity I didn't research the net before I bought it but my old machine died and I was seduced by the machine and grinder package at a good price. I spoke to Myer earlier today and I'm bringing it back to them on Saturday.  The appliances manager said they'll have to send it back to Krups so I might need to practice my negoitiating skills to get a refund, but hey, I'm up for it!   Cheers

pcur1

Hiya, Update (for anyone who cares).  Initial negotiation for a refund failed but Myer were sympathetic but said they couldn't do anything until it came back from the Krups hospital with a diagnostic report.  I should hear in a few weeks.  Borrowed friends $60 cafe ristretto that hasn't missed a beat and makes a shot no worse tasting than the Krups. I'll let you good people know what happens. Ciao