# Having problems with a Dualit 3 in 1 (newby)



## JoePeddos (Feb 8, 2016)

Hi all just joined today. Have recently bought a Dualit 3 in 1 espresso machine and am having a few problems. I have a Dualit EL60 burr grinder that I have been using on the finest setting with an old Krups XP4050 which is on its last legs and always produces a decent coffee.

With the Dualit I am using the filter papers and 9g of illy coffee in the single shot basket.

Giving the machine plenty of time to heat up

Heating the shot glass and basket holder

When pulling the shot it runs really quickly into the single shot glass (its white lined at 30 mills) a lot of videos I have looked at suggest it should take 22 seconds for a single shot but I am not sure if that's from the time you turn the water on or the time the coffee starts to run.

The grounds always seem very wet when I empty them even though I have tamped the coffee, I only have the plastic one that came with the machine. The coffee never seems as strong as I get from the Krups.

I have got the hang of the milk frother so have managed a halfway decent cappuccino.

Would appreciate any advice unfortunately chucking the machine away is not an option







Joe


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

We tend to start counting from the moment you switch the pump on, and expect first drips maybe around 5 seconds. Not many people here use single baskets. There are 2 main reasons why not.

1 - a single basket is quite temperamental due to the small amount of coffee, so getting the grind right and the tamping spot on becomes much more critical.

2 - I think it's fair to say that a good proportion of people here pull shots at about 2:1 (eg 36g of espresso made from 18g of dry grounds). 9g at that ratio gives you 18g of coffee which is one sip!

I'm tempted to say that if you're getting 30g from 9g grounds your grinder is just not grinding fine enough (or consistent enough). Tamping could also be an issue if you are using the plastic thing but I think it's the coarseness and the small quantity that is making it hard. The only reason I can think of, why the other machine gives better results is basket design, if the quantity is the same for both.


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## JoePeddos (Feb 8, 2016)

hotmetal said:


> We tend to start counting from the moment you switch the pump on, and expect first drips maybe around 5 seconds. Not many people here use single baskets. There are 2 main reasons why not.
> 
> 1 - a single basket is quite temperamental due to the small amount of coffee, so getting the grind right and the tamping spot on becomes much more critical.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your suggestions will try the 2 cup basket and time it from turning on the water and see how it goes Joe


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Cool. Even if you are using the double, you're still looking to find a grind setting that gives you roughly a 25 second contact time for your 18 > 36 (the time isn't hugely important but much less than 20 seconds is likely going to be sour and if it takes much longer than 40 it probably would benefit from being a bit coarser).

Don't worry about the puck being wet. Pucks don't tell you a huge amount. That may even be a good thing - dry solid pucks *can* be a sign of an overloaded basket which means there isn't enough headroom in the basket to let the coffee extract properly. But just be guided by taste really.


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