After pressure mod - still 10 second shot

[james10]

So I'm relatively new to this whole coffee domain, but recently purchased a Gaggia Classic.

I've upgraded the silvia wand today and also tinkered with the OPV pressure (big thanks to the instructions / info from other members on this forum).

My problem is that, my shot of espresso is still coming out in under 10 seconds...which leads me to believe that it's either my tamping or the ground coffee isn't fine enough.

So I measured another double in the filter basket and but most of my weight on the tamper...pulled the shot...same result (10 seconds).
So by process of elimination it must be the coffee grind. Here's the part where you may accuse me of being a fool as I'm currently using Lavazza Caffe Espresso (pre-ground).

I was under the impression that pre-ground espresso coffee has it's downside's (mainly it's compromise of taste and flavour) but I thought the coarseness would be close enough to whats required and therefore enable me to pull a 25 second shot?


Any help would be appreciated


Thanks

[bruceb]

James, there is really no way pre-ground coffee can be right for any machine. It would be a miracle if it happened to be right, since even with a good grinder one has to take a good deal of time and "waste" a lot of coffee to get the grind right. On top of this is the fact that pre-ground coffee is always dried out and stale, which results in too short extraction times. Sooner or later you are going to have to bite the bullet and get a grinder. Don't bother with a Solis or Dualit grinder as they are wholly inadequate for espresso. Save your pennies and keep an eye on e-bay for a good used commercial or at the very minimum a Rocky. Your espresso experience will be a whole new one, I promise.

[james10]

Hmmm...That's what I was thinking.

I was in the mindset that I would use pre-ground 75% of the time and ground the other 25% myself. Based on this usage I was considering Porlex or Kyocera hand grinder...
But with that being said. I came to this conclusion when I thought decent results could be obtained from pre-ground coffee.
Due to the fact I'll probably ground 100% of the coffee from now on, I think the hand grinder is pointless.

I've therefore been looking at Ascaso range / Iberital MC2 / Baratza Virtuoso... Just don't know which one to plump for (i know the ascaso i2 is 'very' similar to the Iberital MC2).

Any better recommendations?
(I'm looking for doserless models)

[bruceb]

In general the MC2 gets very good ratings in regard to what you get for your money. It's probably a good idea to consider that first.

[Aadje]

A hammer!

I'll get my coat, sorry, I can't sleep and although my brain somehow is keeping me from falling asleep, that same brain is also keeping me from posting something intelligent.