 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Been given one by a mate who's moving back to Canada. Bean to cup, nice looking bit of kit.
However.... I can't get it to make a shot half as good as my old Gaggia Coffee (pre-classic) which is 10 years old and bar a descale/clean every few months has never been serviced!
I've got the grinder set to the finest setting but I guess the inbuilt tamper isn't doing much, and the pucks that come out are half the size of the Gaggia's. (I guess this is the issue?). I was expecting it to produce better shots. It does have a facility to use pre ground coffee so I could give that a try - perhaps the inbuilt grinder is worn out? Can this be replaced? It's ceramic I think.
Not sure you should expect a bean to cup machine to produce better coffee than a manual machine. Obviously if there is a fault then you can improve it. I've recently got a DeLonghi bean to cup - it makes very nice coffee, but not necessarily as nice as my old Krups manual machine, close but not quite there, however it is very convenient and just alot less faff so the flavour to convenience ratio is better than a manual machine.
Might be worth reading the manual and seeing if you can change the dosing amount and any other settings.
I've got it set to 3 (highest dose) and the finest grind. It might be the beans I'm using (Lavazza Oro) that may not be the best (but at 9pm last night was the best I could get!)
I stripped the grinder and cleaned it - didn't look too bad - no oily build up.
I do like the milk frother though - produces a really foamy milk and good temps so I guess I should perfect my macchiato's!