Quick Mill Achille 0996

dpiette

Yes, the switch is flipped. That only changes where the water comes from, it doesn't stop the pump. I wrote to the Chris Coffee folks and they said the pump still charges the boiler. (interestingly, there is always a little water in the tank from overflow as the boiler heats) I am using the EP baskets, and am very happy (still) with the machine and the espresso it makes. If only I could bypass the pump...

Lacehim

I'm not too happy now! I've been under the impression that this machine bypassed the pump when it's plumbed in! 🙁

dpiette

So was I! But it is still more convenient. Just not as quiet as I had hoped.

Lacehim

You could bypass the pump and disconnect the pumps power, but there might be some electronic that stops us doing that. The flick switch must just bypass the float valve in the water tank for mains power. Anyway I've emailed jack about it to see if Quick Mill have a solution.

Paolo5

Hi Lacehim and Dan, How are things? How is that Achille of yours going? In an effort to rectify the erratic sightglass behaviour in mine, I had a bit of fun with mine today and disconnected the pipes from the bottom of the boiler to the sightglass and from the top of the sightglass to the top to the boiler. I blew the pipes threw and couldn't find any swarf/grit etc but when I started the old boy up again, found that the water level didn't rise like it has since I bought it. Great success?? I hope so. Only time will tell with this one. When at operating temp. the water level DOES bounce up and down a bit. About a centimetre each bounce. Does your machine do that? All the best, Paolo

Lacehim

Hey Paolo, My water level doesn't move at all from what I can see, but it's purely cosmetic, because it has auto fil anyway. I think you might have had an airlock or something, and hopefully it's fixed mate! 🙂 Mine is going okay, but I just saw a nakid shot of Dan's on G+ and my shots need a heap of work compared to his! Put me to shame big style. I tend to get coffee seeping through around the outside of the basket, and dead spots if it's tight, and explosive coffee if it's not. I've had a couple of good ones, but not consistant. Any tips? I'm using the EP baskets, double around 15-16gm, and triple about 20-21 depending on the beans. The double is a gusher even with a fine grind, and the same grind chokes the triple. Fair enough I suppose it's got more coffee packed in there. Still playing and having fun though. I might have to buy a HG One to pair it with. 😉

Paolo5

Hi Lacehim, Kinda disappointed to hear that the bouncing water column isn't normal...oh well... I use an EP basket (double) exclusively with my Achille. It is SO much better for this machine for the way that I prepare a basket than the one that came with the machine. I use between 18.5 and 19 gms of ground coffee in mine and it seems to be spot-on at that dosage. Agree that Dan is the man...saw a still photo on HB the other day. Wow! Cheers, Paolo

dpiette

Hi Guys, Thanks for the kind words. I am still very happy with the machine, and have been getting very good and consistent shots. My sight glass doesn't bounce either, but that is a big step up from having it always show you over filling. I like the sight glass, especially now that I am plumbed in. I would like to be able to manually add water when needed (flipping a fill switch, or some such) so that you don't lose temperature when you are pulling some shots or steaming. The fact that it has such a narrow dead band (should it really refill after one shot? I think not) frustrates me a bit. I talked to the guys at Chris Coffee, where I bought the machine, about bypassing the pump. They said they don't know how to do it, and don't recommend it. They implied there was some logic built into the controls there. Probably that narrow dead band. I sound like I am complaining, but I am not. My shots taste as good as they look. I generally dose a little lighter than y'all do (closer to 15g) and use a pretty fine grind. I have a Malkoening ProM (which has its own issues) and it had been pretty good to me. I now use a little rubber blower (A Giottos Rocket) that folks usually use to clean camera lenses to clear out the grounds chute after each shot. I get about 0.7g out each time. I take movies all the time, but don't post many. They all look pretty similar... Cheers!

Paolo5

Just turned my Achille on this morning for some coffees, hoping to see the dance (or even a still column of water in the sightglass) again....and it's back to the old behaviour of rising way too high. At least I have eliminated from the equation the theory that foreign matter might be embedded in the tube above the glass. I guess it is a bit of uniqueness and "character" that my machine has. Thanks for your input, Lacehim and Dan. P.S. Dan...do you use the 15gm in the OE basket...or is it an EP double basket (or other)? Cheers, Paolo

dpiette

I have been using 15 g in all my baskets. I have taken to using the ridgeless EP basket with my single spout and my chopped, and the ridged basket with my dual spout. No particular reason, as far as I can tell. Sorry to hear that the glass is back to its old tricks.

Lacehim

Today I used 17gm in the double EP, with a really fine grind (as fine as my vario will go without burrs touching ??? ) and I finally got a pour without it starting off with a ring around the outside of the basket. The coffee was average though so still needs works, the pour looked nice at the start though. That seems to be the norm with my nakid pours, during prefusion I can get about 4-5 secs then drops appear around the edges of the basket. I'm wondering if my dose/tamp/distribution needs work. It's been a slog getting my skills back up to scratch after being so lazy after my lusso days. Initially I thought it was my Vario but having used the nakid a bit I think the water is finding an easy route down the sides. 🙁 I thought ridgeless baskets might help, but no. Any tips?

dpiette

When I first started using the chopped portafilter I discovered that the curved Reg Barber tamper works MUCH better than the flat one. They are both nice fits in all my tampers, so I don't need to do a NSEW type of tamp. I have seen the coffee coming through a couple of times before I released the spring, but that was usually because of a too coarse grind. I will go back and look at some of my early videos to see if I can discern anything that might help. There are not too many variables you can play with, so if you could get a different grinder for a test, I would do that. Good luck!

C-man

I have the same exact basket and it works fine with the nakid, beautiful pours, I dose 19.5 gr in it though. different machine and different grinder so I guess that does not help any. I do like the basket though......

IMAWriter

Dan, I can't remember if this was covered in this thread (I started back a few weeks ago), but does the pump come on during EVERY every shot, or only sporadically, as in when it is topping off the boiler? BTW, nice folks here. I've enjoyed several threads. This is my first non "introduce myself" posting. 🙂

dpiette

IMAWriter wrote:

Dan, I can't remember if this was covered in this thread (I started back a few weeks ago), but does the pump come on during EVERY every shot, or only sporadically, as in when it is topping off the boiler? BTW, nice folks here. I've enjoyed several threads. This is my first non "introduce myself" posting. 🙂

Hi Rob, Only occasionally. And my pump is quiet, as opposed to some of the ones described here. d

Lacehim

The pump on these Achilles is only used to fill the boiler, that's it. It sometimes does kick in (just about everytime you do a video eh Dan!) but it's certainly not every shot and if you use HW or steam too, it can cause it to run more. I does tend to kick in when you pull the lever though because it's drawing water out of the boiler. The Strega on the other hand uses the pump for prefusion. Even with the noisy pump which I'll have to look at one of these days, it's a cracking machine and I'm happy with it. 🙂

IMAWriter

Thanks Dan and Lace.

QM0996

This reply from the factory, did assist with reducing the noise some what. visto che

Lacehim

And for all your non Italian speakers, Google Tranlate helps! 😉 "since it is quite technical .. what is set to the pressure of the pump? If you decide to use the machine with water tank, I suggest you remove the solenoid input, by doing so eliminate bottlenecks early, reducing the noise of the pump .." I noticed that on CS there was talk of making the solenoid bore bigger, but if the manufactures are suggesting to remove it you kinda wonder why they put it there in the first place! ???

dpiette

Lacehim wrote:

And for all your non Italian speakers, Google Tranlate helps! 😉 ... If you decide to use the machine with water tank, I suggest you remove the solenoid input, by doing so eliminate bottlenecks early, reducing the noise of the pump .."

I would sure like to see how they recommend doing that. I haven't opened up mine in quite a while (since I plugged it in) and have gotten use to the pump. In the summer, our water pressure sometime gets quite low, so I would worry about backflowing from boiler to my line. I guess I need to understand the P&ID a little better. d

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