Too Much Coffee

Right here goes. My long serving Silvia is in for a few mods in the coming weeks. Heres the list of current purchases.
1: new pump (already fitted)
2: Rancilio in tank water sofner (already fitted)
3: updated OPV (now in see below)
4: boiler insulation (now in see below)
5: Auber PID, for brew temp only (now in see below)
6: V3 Steam wand (now in see below)
7: Pressure Gauge 9now in see below)

Can anyone think of anything I'm missing? I'm not sure there's much more that can be done to a Silvia to improve performance is there?
Pics may follow if I remember to take them at the time of doing the mods.

Boiler insulation will mean it'll take longer to get back to temp after steaming (I'm assuming you're steaming a reasonable amount if you're fitting the new arm). If you're fitting a PID to maintain stability, I'd leave the insulation off.

Just my two penn'orth...

Colin

grchif wrote:Boiler insulation will mean it'll take longer to get back to temp after steaming (I'm assuming you're steaming a reasonable amount if you're fitting the new arm). If you're fitting a PID to maintain stability, I'd leave the insulation off.
Colin

My usual technique, if I'm doing more than one for myself is to do the milk at the end, the most I can remember doing in one go is 3 and thats probably only happened once.
You're right though that it will slow down the cooling, but thing is I'm cheap, and it should make it cheaper to run in the long term. Not sure whether it will ever pay off the cost of investment, but at least its a one off cost unlike the electricicty bill.

So the PID and wand are in. The wand turned up halfway through me doing the PID, so the pics start with the old uncleaned one and it turns shiny halfway through.

All finished

Congratulations quink, that looks impressive Are you happy with the results?

So far so good, I've got the set point at 105, which gives me shot temps of 96 starting, dropping to 92 by the end of a double shot. I'm trying to find the Dr Illy specs online, but that matches the SCAA recommendation for temperature range.

Anyway the new OPV valve is in and set for a static pressure of 10bar, hopefully giving a dynamic pressure of 9bar if the net is to be believed. I used the blanking basket and measured the flow back to the tank. It started out really low, it was factory set at 7 bar. I only needed the one fat washer to get the alignment correct, I did need to undo the steam pipe to allow the OPV to spin to mount up, that was the only annoying thing with this one, nice easy job really.

Just the insulation and pressure gauge to go.
I'm buying this in kit form online, and its designed to run off a spur from the pump, before the OPV wouldn't it just confirm the pressure the OPV is opening at? That is providing my puck is giving enough resistance to make the pump work that hard. Not that confirming this is a bad thing, it could prove to be really useful.
Anyone think it would be worth my while getting a m6 to 1/8"bsp adapter and plugging the gauge in to the brew head?

How does the coffee taste?

bruceb wrote:How does the coffee taste?

Honestly I'm seeing an improvement in flavour, but not that much. Its less hassle than it was before, as theres no temperature surfing, but I'm not having an "oh wow" moment. Then again I've lived with her for 7 years now and generally have no trouble with 25-30 second mottled doubles when temp surfing. I've not had a bad shot since its all gone in and been set properly, and I've been giving her a hammering so the consistancy has improved some.

The thing which has surprised me is the difference with the steam wand. I didn't expect much, other than making it easier to position, as the boiler temps and pressures haven't changed. There really does seem to be a lot more oomph behind the steam, and my technique has been thrown right off by it, 4 days and I still cant get the microfoam right. Must go and have more practice

Job done, insulation and gauge are in.

The insulation was a nice easy job considering the amount of disassembly involved. The PID has been re-trained, and is pulsing less than before. One thing i did notice is that the cup warmer. It started as next to useless, then with the pid holding the boiler at 105c started working well, and the insulation has knocked it on the head again.

The pressure gauge was a hell of a job to do, mainly as the stainless steel is a pig to drill through. So before I totally ballsed it up, I rang a local engineering shop, and got it done properly.
I set the pressure to 9.5 bar this time, as the gauge was showing 11 bar after being fitted, just shows the flow method can be a bit hit and miss, I was aiming for 10 bar.

It looks good.