# Silvia + Rocky - sudden change in behaviour, any clues?



## ivt (May 13, 2018)

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has run into this issue before. I've had my Silvia (w/ Auber) + Rocky since Spring, and I think was getting pretty decent coffee last few months. This Tuesday something odd has happened: the machine choked on the grind settings I've been using, despite the day before producing working well with exactly the same settings (30 seconds, 18.5 g in VST 18g, 32 g out). I have not changed beans, I always weigh in (i.e. portafilter) and out (espresso) plus use a levelling tool. So I am sure I have not changed anything in the process. To get it back to producing decent coffee I had to move 2 steps coarser (from 2 to 4) and even then dose 0.5 g less. Two steps on Rocky is actually quite a lot. The problem is that I am still not happy with the quality (it is drinkable but cannot get it balanced enough), even though I tried playing with dose / grind in the last few days.

I am wondering if anyone has some idea what could have happened? Any suggestions really appreciated as, being inexperienced, I do not want to start messing up with everything. At least would be nice to know if it is my grinder or my espresso machine.

Some extra info:

-- I clean the machine weekly (backflushing). I am in Scotland so the water is pretty soft, so I have not descaled it year. I have not disassembled the grinder to clean yet (was done in April) but I regularly use Grindex (each 3 weeks). I make about 3 espressos a day, on average

-- I know that I am not always dialing in grinder properly: I do sometimes dial it in when it is not running (in theory, I think, you are supposed to go to finer grind only when it is running; however, it is next to impossible with Rocky if you only have 2 hands). However, since I weigh and time, I think, it worked ok.

-- The grind setting seemed too low in the past, until Tuesday: I rarely used setting coarser than 2-3 (and the real 0 seemed to be at marked 0, judging by the sound; not 100% sure about it)

-- Since I mostly used a levelling tool recently I have not touched grind that much, so I cannot be sure if it became finer or not

-- Rocky is oldish (2008?) and Silvia V3 is from 2012 but was almost as new when I bought (I changed gaskets though back in May)

My theories:

-- Something was stuck between the burrs and got out now, so before I was not using setting 2

-- Pressure dropped in the espresso machine


----------



## UbiquitousPhoton (Mar 7, 2016)

Does the pump sound any different? I suspect you should be descaling more regularly as well - even with bottled water some scale will build up, and it won't help your flow at all. Also I presume you are backflushing with cafiza or something similar fairly regularly.

Basically, short of something nasty having happened to the grinder, I suspect your flow is reduced. Vibration pumps do die, and that could well be the problem, but the good news is that they are cheap enough and easy enough to replace if you have installed an auber pid. I would descale and backflush with cafiza first, though, and see if that helps.


----------



## ivt (May 13, 2018)

Hi @UbiquitousPhoton,

Many thanks for the reply! No, I do not hear any difference in the pump sound. That's the thing -- I do not see any difference whatsoever with neither machine nor grinder, except for the flow. It happened between brewing two cups - for me and my wife.

Yes, I do backflushing with cafiza weekly. I should try descaling. I am not using bottled water but the water here is soft.


----------



## UbiquitousPhoton (Mar 7, 2016)

I would also measure your flow rate as per https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?32259-Water-debit-(Flow-rate)-on-espresso-machines

That will at least show if the pressure is the problem.


----------



## ivt (May 13, 2018)

Thanks for this! Yes, I'd love to check the flow. In fact I bought a gauge already a few weeks ago, even before this new issue. The problem is that I am really stuck removing sprouts from the portafilter ;( So far I tried many advices I can find on the web (e.g., using gas burner before doing it) but have not succeeded. Maybe I need a proper vice. I already scratched the portafilter slightly, do not want to damage it even more. I'll think how to proceed.


----------



## Nikko (Aug 20, 2014)

Could be the OPV. Check that you are getting the right pressure at the outlet.


----------

