# Rocket Appartamento : "Mushroom & flow" post 1 year



## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Hello everyone,

I want to share my Rocket Appartamento experience with you all. I've enjoyed and benefited from this forum and would like to contribute back. While I am eons away from many of you, I can still contribute with my experience.

My machine is about a year and a week old. Its never been descaled.

The reason is the manual specifies not to and I knew my use would be fairly sparse and would therefore not need scaling very often.

Yes, I realize that water determines this. I had planned to professionally descale it in 9 months but because of circumstances I did not get to. Then this nonsense corona has been going on from early March.

I generally make 2 espressos a day. Once before work at 6 am and another when I'm home after work at about 3 pm. Half the month, on weekends I'm not home, the other half when I'm home I make 3 espressos a day. Thats 50 espressos a month or 600 a year. Thats comes out to 12 kilograms of coffee.

I've connected my machine to a wireless power plug that is programmed to turn on for 2.5 hours in the morning, then 3 hours in the afternoon.

This TP-link device is very helpful in keeping my machine from having to be on when I'm not home for 9 hours of the day.

I soak the portafilter, shower foil, and diffuser screw in cafiza for 30 minutes a month. Followed by a good scrubbing and I scrub the innards of the machine as well (gasket, shower foil area).

I lubricate the shower foil gasket with food-grade lubricant (molykote 111).

For reference, my portafilters (both) lock at 5pm on the clock and still do. The gasket must not be wearing thin nor are the "ears" on the portafilter wearing down much.

For 1 year I used this local mineral water (water produced by our local water & electric company)










The past month I moved from epsom salt/bicarbonate of soda mix to now only bicarbonate mix (14g Bicarb into 1l distilled water - then 5ml of concentrate into 995ml of water thanks to Rob1).

I have been using a Baratza 270wi from day 1 as well.

For the life of the machine and my 600 espressos, I had it on 6 or 7. I use a 20g basket.

90% of the time on 6 and would float from C to H (depending on how long I had the coffee transferred to a container).

This setting yielded me:

20 grams in

And between 28 and 34 grams out in between 26 and 34 seconds.

The 34 seconds starts from when I lift the lever to when I lower it. It includes about 6 to 10 seconds of nothing before espresso comes out.

Recently I decided to maintain the mushroom.

I purchased a replacement mushroom, diffuser, gasket, and shower foil.

In all honestly, the gasket and shower foil are fine. No residue, discoloring or disfiguration.

The diffuser screw is stained but I don't feel the stain effects flavor. But I changed it out today.









Before doing anything, I measured the flow of water.

The machine jettisoned out 100ml of water in 30 seconds.

Clearly something was blocked.

At this point, the replacement parts hadn't arrived and I was very apprehensive of taking out the full mushroom as I read that the ceramic mushroom would break.

Something about the rubber o-ring seizing to the machine and the torque applied to the metal nut on top would snap the ceramic.

Nope, certainly don't want a non-working machine during my self-opted quarantine at home. Who knows when I'd get the replacement part. Could be days and even weeks.

So I popped off the top, took out the jet and mesh filter.

They were not in bad shape IMO. But the jet orifice was partially clogged. Hard to tell, even with a magnifying glass, but I'd say 50% clogged.

So I soak it and the mesh in dezcal for 10 minutes. Give it a good scrubbing with cafiza and use a pin to poke through the clogged orifice.

Thrusting the orifice transpired to something akin to parting of the red sea.

Because flow went from 100ml in 30 seconds to 200ml in 30 seconds.

I wasn't quiet done yet but the progress was encouraging.

















This is what the top chamber looked like at this point:




























Again, not as bad as I expected it to be considering I was using mineral water with TDS and hardness that I personally consider high. But I am not a chemist.

Fortunately, a few days later the part arrived.

Having procured spare parts, I was sanguine to take apart the sinister-ceramic mushroom.

I was able to take it out without any effort.

This is what the innards looked like today:
































































The mushroom body itself wasn't as calcified or stained as I imagined it would be.

That appears to be the recurring theme.

Either I expected much worse or it is bad but I don't see it as bad?

The body itself was not gunked as you can see.

The o-ring area had a lot of crumbly calcification and a paste-like substance as well.

Of the 4 holes on the mushroom, only 2 were partially clogged.

I try to illustrate it with the following before and after photos:

(the 2 right hand holes are partially clogged)










After soaking in dezcal and poking:










At this point, I noticed that brew valve pin, jet and mushroom holes had the most calcification.

It appears to me that the water entering the mushroom chamber, flowing upwards to the 4-holes on the mushroom, past the mesh filter, into the jet and finally into the portafilter area is not filtered well enough.

Because 2 of the 4 mushroom holes were clogged, the mesh (as you can see from my photo above) was near new and didn't appear to have filtered much out because the jet was severely clogged, the brew valve was also heavily calcified.

Not complaining, just pointing out my observations.










Anyhow, I then soak the mushroom, spring, brew valve, mesh and nuts in dezcal for 10 minutes.

I did not soak the teflon gaskets, o-ring or rubber parts in dezcal. Lest the dezcal break them down.

I did give them a good cleaning with cafiza.

Heres a before and after photo:










After cleaning everything, I decided that I did not need to use my spares today.

I'm willing to be corrected, but everything looked okay.

Sure the brew valve had some stubborn calcification left (see above), but nothing that would, IMO, affect flow or taste.

If you guys think otherwise, I'll pull out the brew valve tomorrow and plug in the new one. No issues.

After putting everything back in, I ran a flow test and got 270ml of water in 30 seconds.

The major finding was that I had to drastically adjust my grind.

Previously I was on 6 C, the scale goes from 1 (finest) to 31 (coarsest) with A to H in micro adjustments.

At 6 C after cleaning the above, I literally had americano coming out. Espresso came out in 2 seconds and I had 20g by 14 seconds.

I had to shift it from 6 to 4 C to get it back to how it was before.

It appears that my burrs have worn down now and are not grinding find like before. And the reason I did not feel it was because as the burrs were getting duller, the water flow was getting restricted as well.

So dull burrs (coarser grind) were offset by a weaker flow.

Now that flow is stronger, it blasted through my grind at my traditional setting.

I'm Hope the above will helps fellow E61 owners.


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## Stanic (Dec 12, 2015)

what are the green bits?


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## catpuccino (Jan 5, 2019)

Stanic said:


> what are the green bits?


 Think that's usually chlorine build up


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Stanic said:


> what are the green bits?


 Probably dissolved copper and scale.

@hedonist222

The mineral water you were using for a year didn't scale. Assuming the label is accurate anyway.

The scale is from the epsom+bicarb you were adding to DI for a month.

I'm surprised to see that much from such a short time but it does depend on use. If you've been making large cooling flushes before every shot and running water to clean the group I guess build up could be quite fast with a couple of mg depositing per litre depending on hardness, temp, alkalinity (40 in your case) -- can't be bothered checking exactly how much.

I did not advise a bicarbonate concentration of 50g/l for the concentrate.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Rob1 said:


> Probably dissolved copper and scale.
> 
> @hedonist222
> 
> ...


 Guys, I continued the original post. You may want to glance over it again.

Hi Rob, sorry, yes it was 14g not 50g. I'll edit it.

Hi Rob, how can you know the scale was from the epsom/BiCarb that I did for a month and not the mineral water?

I don't flush for very long before an espresso. About 2 seconds usually.

But I do backflush after the last espresso of the day.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

hedonist222 said:


> Guys, I continued the original post. You may want to glance over it again.
> 
> Hi Rob, sorry, yes it was 14g not 50g. I'll edit it.
> 
> ...


 The alkalinity of your mineral water is too low for it to scale even at 125c (approx service boiler temp and thus HX temp).

The alkalinity of your epsom/bicarb would scale with the hardness at those temperatures (something like 70?? from memory). I'm surprised by the scale on the lever as I'd expect it to be clean at 95c unless it's deposits from evaporation or deposits have been washed into the group from the HX and collected on the cam. Maybe on a HX the group can heat to boiler temp?? -- to be honest I've no idea. If your epsom salt measurments were out significantly you could have bumped hardness up to the point it scales at 95c but you'd have to do it consistently over the course of many litres to see that much scale.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

Scanned the pics at first and had to look again at the mushroom. Didn't know they did ceramic ones, thought at first it was white due to the sheer amount of limescale build up! 🤣

Learn something new everyday, assumed they were all brass or stainless.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Northern_Monkey said:


> Scanned the pics at first and had to look again at the mushroom. Didn't know they did ceramic ones, thought at first it was white due to the sheer amount of limescale build up! 🤣
> 
> Learn something new everyday, assumed they were all brass or stainless.


 Apparently Rocket Espresso has been supplying ceramic mushrooms for some time now.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

A week later and I noticed flow felt a little decreased.

So I checked how much flow I would get in 30 seconds today.

It was 215 ml.

Tried it twice. This was with a semi full tank and the machine had been on for hours.

So no peculiar variables.

Have one of the orifices gotten partially clogged again?

Will have to inspect again.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Cleaned shower foil - wasn't particularly soiled but flow increased to 220ml/30 seconds from 215ml. Nothing significant.

Pulled out the top mushroom

Jet and mesh filter were completely fine.

Expected the jet orifice to be partially clogged. It wasn't

Pulled out mushroom.

Expected 4 mushroom orifices to be partially clogged. None of the holes were clogged.

All that's left is to check the shower foil screw. But I doubt that's clogged either because I put in a brand new one last week.

Because the previous parts would be clogged first.

Now I'm stumped how I got 300ml in 30 seconds after the initial clean/unclogging last week.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Blockages in other parts of the circuit maybe?


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

MediumRoastSteam said:


> Blockages in other parts of the circuit maybe?


 I doubt it because

last week prior to cleaning I got 200ml

after cleaning, I got 300 ml and my machine sounded a bit louder

it was louder till yesterday, so I checked flow again and it went back down to 200 (215ml specifically)

Has something gotten blocked over the past week? Could be but unlikely.

Last thing to check is the valve.

Still stumped.


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## kozesluk (Apr 28, 2019)

so much work for such a little effect, sorry.

1) buy a needle file in 0.6 and 0.7 mm size to clean the gicleur (jet). they are usually sold as a set of different sizes.

2) looking at the picture of your top HX entering the mushroom chamber - its severely blocked. clean that hole up, it should be 3 mm orifice (integrated in the pipe). this is definitely decreasing your brew temperature.

3) the four mushroom holes have negligible effect on the free flow, that is determined solely by jet dimensions.

4) lube that red o-ring well, also lube all mating surfaces on the valves (the pin tops and the most protruding sides of the cam).

5) stop cleaning stuff with cafiza that isn't in contact with coffee. just use water or dishwashing detergent, if you must. makes no sense.

6) program your timer so that the machine is 45 mins up before brewing. anything more is useless and just causing additional scale build up.

7) stop lubricating the group gasket (you call it shower gasket).

8) 280 ml in 30 s is about right for these machines, Rocket tends to equip them with too large jet. your injector (the bottom pipe that injects water in the HX) might be clogged, try 1) first and if that doesn't help, check the injector. there is nothing anywhere around valves that might cause more substantial restriction than the 0.7 mm jet. oh, maybe check the brew path from the cam chamber to shower screen, but that's unlikely unless you don't backflush at all...


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Hi kozesluk,

Thanks for your input.

I was hesitant to lubricate the red o-ring on the mushroom because it comes in contact with water. I do have food-grade lubricant (molykote 111) but remain hesistant.

4) Which mating surfaces are you referring to? The cam the raises the valve allowing water to flow to the portafilter when I raise the lever?

7) why?


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## kozesluk (Apr 28, 2019)

Just lube the O-ring, it will prevent further seizing of the bottom part of the mushroom.

Moly 111 is food-safe, no problem with water contact. The whole cam mechanism needs to be properly lubricated (again, Moly 111 is fine there) and your brew water passes through there as well so the same water contact... You don't need to squeeze excessive amount there, just smidge it with your finger to spread the lube around.

4) although not the best guide, this explains it https://support.clivecoffee.com/e61-cam-lubrication-brew-lever

7) your PF will one day just unlock itself out. The mating surface between the portafilter and gasket should provide additional grip.

Also, I was thinking about the whole thing, it's highly unlikely your injector pipe is so scaled up. I would get the needle file and just open up the jet, and maybe descale the whole coffee brewing circuit. It's easy to do - overfill the boiler a bit (so it won't suck acid in the boiler), then fill tank with descaling solution, run it through the group in few phases (like 200 ml each time and wait 5 mins in between) and after you empty the tank, rinse it and rinse the machine through group (run at least 2 full tanks of fresh water straight through the group, no phasing, just open up and let go). At any moment make sure not to let the pump go for more than 60 secs (if its vibration pump, they have 30 sec wait interval to cool down after 60 sec on, usually) unless its rotary.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

kozesluk, thanks

Also, forgot to mention earlier.

You mention the top orifice where water enters the champer from hX is clogged.

True, but it was also clogged when I got 270ml in 30 seconds after my cleaning in the beginning of this post.

It is clogged and was clogged when I got 270 ml then 5 days later it dropped again to 215 ml.

How do you suppose that happened? Other than , by happenstance, I got a pump failure or further clogging in the lines in the 5 days.

I just delicately unclogged it as much as I could. I did this by gently placing a cloth just under the opening, then used a needle to scrape out some of the clog. I then turned on the machine and lever and let some water run through the orifice onto the cloth - to catch any sediment.

I'm hesitant to descale the machine in the traditional way (descaling solution in the water tank) because Rocket doesn't suggest it and also because large sediment may clog other parts along the route.

I just tried a flow test - it was the same

215ml in 30 seconds.

Still wondering how I managed to get 270ml in 30 seconds earlier.

Very very very last thing I can do put in the spare mushroom or spare jet.

But like I said, the 4 mushroom and jet orifices aren't clogged.


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## kozesluk (Apr 28, 2019)

Rocket doesn't suggest traditional descale because if you get shit clogged you would sue them for instructions but what I have described is what we routinely did in workshop. First run a descale, then open everything up, clean, replace worn parts, lubricate, test, done.

The top pipe to group chamber has nothing to do with flow, it just drops your brew temp by restricting the termosyphon action.

As I don't have the machine in front of me and miss my crystal ball I'm really unable to tell where is your machine exactly clogged. It's usually the jet, sometimes the filter. If not you just have to backtrack the hydraulics and check all.


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

kozesluk said:


> The top pipe to group chamber has nothing to do with flow, it just drops your brew temp by restricting the termosyphon action.


 How does it drop by restricting thermo siphon?

I thought that the top pipe inlet, in the mushroom chamber, brought water, from the hX, into the group head.

If the lever to brew isn't raised, it goes back into the hX from the lower pipe outlet.

What's peculiar is today after taking out the the mushroom,I turned on the lever and barely any water came out of the top pipe hole thing in the mushroom chamber.

But somehow water filling at the bottom of the chamber?

If I didn't water out the top chamber, was it coming out from the bottom?

I thought the top was the outlet from the hX and the bottom was the inlet back to the hX?

Thank you for your input koze.


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## HowardSmith (Jan 21, 2018)

hedonist222 said:


> How does it drop by restricting thermo siphon?
> I thought that the top pipe inlet, in the mushroom chamber, brought water, from the hX, into the group head.
> If the lever to brew isn't raised, it goes back into the hX from the lower pipe outlet.
> What's peculiar is today after taking out the the mushroom,I turned on the lever and barely any water came out of the top pipe hole thing in the mushroom chamber.
> ...


A clogged top thermosyphon pipe will drop the temp of the Grouphead. Grouphead temp is the main determining factor in actual brew water temp with an e61 machine.

The thermosyphon is a big loop. Water is injected into it when the pump is on so the whole loop is presurised meaning water will likley come out of both top and bottom pipes which would explain why you are seeing it out of the bottom one since there is no real additional pressure as you have an 'open circuit'.

Small changes to the dimension of that thermosyphon restrictor in the tip pipe can make big difference to the idle temp of your machine... I'd advise getting a group head thermometer regardless.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk


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## hedonist222 (Apr 19, 2020)

Thanks Howard

But I honestly doubt water will reverse or even can reverse back into the group head from the lower return pipe (return to hX).

I'm not being argumentative but I cannot visualize this.

Unless you mean because my chamber was empty , so water being pushed by the pump went into both pipes at the fork (fork: manifold where returning water joins pump water into hX then into top outlet in mushroom chamber).


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## HowardSmith (Jan 21, 2018)

hedonist222 said:


> Thanks Howard
> But I honestly doubt water will reverse or even can reverse back into the group head from the lower return pipe (return to hX).
> I'm not being argumentative but I cannot visualize this.
> Unless you mean because my chamber was empty , so water being pushed by the pump went into both pipes at the fork (fork: manifold where returning water joins pump water into hX then into top outlet in mushroom chamber).


Think of the thermosyphon as a copper pipe that loops back on itself in a full circle. One half of this circle would be the upper HX pipe, the other half would be the lower.

Once side of this circle has a little bit coming off it, a valve to the shower screen. When you lift the lever the water can flow to the shower screen.

The other side of the loop has another little bit coming off it, a pump.

If the upper tube of your thermosyphon is severely restricted water will be able to flow the other way.... During an extraction once at pressure water likley flows out of both upper and lower as the whole loop is going to be pressurised.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk


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## HowardSmith (Jan 21, 2018)

Come to think of it, when this is all 'open circuit' it makes sense water would come out of the lower pipe....

Water will take the path of least resistance but it will also flow downstream vs upstream if it can....

I can't see any reason why this would not be the case but I may be missing something in the internal design that may change this ( I really cant think of anything other than the fresh water injector being literally almost on the upper thermosyphon pipe in the HX...)

If anyone can prove me wrong please do so and let me know what I am missing.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk


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## kozesluk (Apr 28, 2019)

hedonist222 said:


> What's peculiar is today after taking out the the mushroom,I turned on the lever and barely any water came out of the top pipe hole thing in the mushroom chamber.
> 
> But somehow water filling at the bottom of the chamber?


 It should fill the chamber quite fast when you press the microswitch behind the lever. Keep the valve closed and try it (with machine on, but it shouldn't be hot otherwise you risk scalding). If it just fills from the bottom I'd guess you might have something blocked in the top HX pipe.

To increase your confusion, most water during the brew comes from the bottom pipe (and the exact blend is dictated by the ratio between top and bottom HX pipe orifices), there is no one-way valve inside the thermosyphon.


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