# new member, project necessity



## Farquare (May 22, 2020)

Hello all.

i'm a new member, i've been reading the forums for a while. I tend to lurk, and hoover up information on-line rather than post a lot, largely because a lot of the stuff is already covered. I've been working overseas for a few years and currently live in the middle east.

I'm fairly certain what my next steps will be, and which bits of hardware i will pick up when movement and commerce return to my bit of the world, however in the mean time i need to work with what i have.

By nature i like to pull things apart and modify them, if i'm feeling sensible i might even get round to putting them back together as well. Before the year is out i'll have a half decent modded machine and a decent grinder.

For now, i have a cheap cappuccino machine which i picked up with a gift voucher i got in Jan. I'll start by saying it was a free toy, so i've got nothing invested in it except time. So far i think its done a good job of making a short espresso "style" coffee and steaming milk. In fairness to the machine its been getting used pretty hard the last few months given the current situation and working from home and apart from 1 incident where it blew the flexi hose off the steam wand inside the machine, it has worked well.

I'm aware of the limitations of the machine, but thats not to say there is not room for improvement, unfortunately, i'm currently hamstrung by the following:



location, while coffee culture is strong here, its more focused on turkish / arabic style. therefore getting stuff locally, whilst possible is harder and more expensive than in the UK;


Lockdown, a big 1 for everyone at the moment i'm sure, we have dipped in an out of total lockdown for the last few months, meaning going anywhere is hard and a lot of the shops are closed;


a postal / courier system which means ordering equipment is prohibitively expensive and takes an age to arrive (if vendors ship here at all)


When travel restrictions are lifted i will get some decent hardware on my next trip back to the uk and bring it back with me i luggage. While the lure is there to buy a machine in the £000s, i think i'd get more enjoyment from picking up a used gaga classic, and modding the opv, wand, fitting a pid etc. as well as picking up a decent grinder. i think the journey will be more fun than the destination.

Hardware wise i've a clear idea of what i'll probably end up with, what's less clear is the actual coffee i need to buy to achieve the results i'd like. In the short term i'd like to be able to pull some shots which put me in mind of the kind of coffee you'd get in the alps of France/Italy, As to the characteristics or what this type of bean/roast is called i'm unsure. But i've the time and the resource to learn.

As for the current hardware, the machine is branded Homix, although a quick google would see it also branded delta (perhaps available in aldi at some point in the past), cookworks, donlim, gemini and even sainsburys but more commonly capresso ec100 in north america.

I've searched the forum quite a lot and unless the machine is known by another name in the UK, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of info on it readily available, unless of course, there is another more popular brand name on it somewhere that I've missed. So far, i've messed around depressurising the basket with mixed results.

i have a carrefour supermarket downstairs from my apartment, i've been going there and buying a scoop of beans every week and getting the assistant to grind them. I found the finest grind setting would choke the machine with the basket as intended. With the basket depressurised, the pour would either start slow, then blow through the puck very fast after 10 secs or so, or come through very slowly for about a minute. I will keep playing around with grind size and type of bean till i find a sweetspot, i guess this is where an OPV can really help.....

i think i'll be limited to the beans in carrefour for the next few weeks until restrictions are lifted somewhat. After that i'll get out to some of the local coffee roasters and see what they have got.

In the mean time i'll keep experimenting with grind size and preparation/pressure to get the best results i can from the current setup. At least by the end of it i'll know what works for me and what i like and don't which should make the jump onto better hardware a bit easier.


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## Farquare (May 22, 2020)

well, i managed to make 1 of the seals in the pressurised baskets tear by applying a little more force than it was designed for.

i have ordered some 51m baskets so i can continue on the journey.


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## Skizz (Feb 10, 2020)

Hi. Stick with it. If nothing else you'll have developed some hard core coffee resilience for when you get some better equipment 😀.

Gaggia Classic is a good choice for your next machine though, especially if you enjoy tinkering, which it sounds like you do. While most mods (PID, Silvia V1/2 wand, OPV adjustment) are non-destructive, others (Silvia V3 wand, panel-mounted pressure gauge and internally fitted pump-dimmer) can involve some drilling and/or machining of the stainless case, but it sounds like you're tooled up for that, so have at it!

Let us know how you get on, and whether you have any luck coaxing more out of your existing machine.


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## Farquare (May 22, 2020)

Got new 51mm unpressurized basket delivered today.

Might be beginners luck, but a pretty decent shot to start with.

I also ordered a tamper and a tamping mat, the mat arrived but unfortunately the tamper didn't, which is a shame.

Lockdown has let up here for a bit. Plan a visit to some local coffee roasters this weekend to see what I can find.

The classic and all those mods are pretty much exactly what I'll do.

Currently thinking about grinders. Might be easiest to get a hand grinder in the mean time which can handle espresso grind sizes. Should be able to find 1 locally.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk


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## Farquare (May 22, 2020)

Phase 1 complete.

Gaggia classic awaiting me in the UK.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk


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## Bob Geldof 85 (Sep 7, 2020)

Did you manage to get good results with your machine? I think I have the same machine.Cookworks / Sainsbury's Home in the UK. But physically the same at the Capresso EC100 in North America, as you say.

How did you take the pressure down from 15 bar to 9 or 10?

And did a regular non-pressurised 51mm basket work just fine?

Having said all this, I am due to pick up a Gaggia Classic tomorrow haha!


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## Farquare (May 22, 2020)

Hi, unfortunately I don't think you can physically change the pressure in this machine. There is no opv so it's very sensitive to dose, grind size and pick prep.

I don't have a grinder, so am getting the bean supplier to grind for me.

Also don't have a scale, so am using the scoop that came with the machine as a dosing guide.

After a lot of trial and error I have found the following works quite well and is in order of importance:

-good fresh beans. Probably the biggest difference in terms of an ok shot vs a good shot. I found a local roastery, and have been buying their burundi beans. It got a dark chocolate and cherry sweetness. Very nice.

-puck prep. I got 1 of the cheap Amazon 51mm distribution tools. Cost about £10. I use 2 level scoops in a depressurised basket then distribute with the tool. Previously I was using 1 scoop and was getting very inconsistent results (puck resistance all wrong). No tamping, coffee fills basket to about 6mm below the "2" marking in the basket. At a guess approx 15g dose.

- grind, needs to be fine but not too fine to choke the machine. It's quite sensitive to pressure. I get the shop to grind to the 2nd finest setting on their giant industrial grinder.

-depressurised basket, gateway to better coffee/days of frustration...... Just a cheapy off Amazon. Does the job.

Puck prep is by far the hardest thing as you've so many variables. I was going to get s bottomless portafilter but can see the pour is more consistent after the prep got sorted.

Only other thing that had an impact is humidity. We are 45°c + for last 5 months. When the humidity gets above 70% the results are interesting, but that doesn't happen too much. I am getting pretty good results so I think I've reached the end of my experimental stage.

I have a gaggia waiting at home so when borders open I can get some better hardware. But I think the lessons learned on this machine will stand me in good stead.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk


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## allikat (Jan 27, 2020)

Here's a possible tip for you: Any grinder that can grind for a decent Turkish style should be entirely capable of going slightly coarser for an espresso grind. As you're in the homeland of such things, then it should be reasonably easy to find someone to sell you such a grinder.


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