# Smart Grinder/ Bambino



## poppalarge (May 26, 2021)

I am using a bambino pro with unpressurised basket. I am using a smart grinder to grind my beans, and my beans are medium roast fairly fresh.

When trying to dial in my espresso I was advised to set the smart grinder between 7-13 to make espresso but at these settings I get no coffee, it eventually gives up as if its blocked and depressurises. I can increase to 17 or higher and I get a decent pull, but with a soupy puck. The Espresso itself tastes decent.

I am assuming its the Coffee and Grind settings causing this but I am left wondering whether I am doing anything wrong. I've wasted lots of coffee faffing around trying to get a decent pull at a fine setting, but its not happening.

Put me out of my misery please.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

It's not possible to compare numbers on grinders and from memory you could go even coarser.  It's pretty normal to get through bags of beans when starting.

More info really. What grams of grinds in and weight of shot out and shot time. Soupy pucks can be down to fine grinding, low tamping pressures and possibly even beans.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Just add. My SGP was calibrated pretty well - setting of 15 or so not that unusual.


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

I had the SGP and the Bambino and the advice in the manual for the SGP was to start at grind setting 12 for espresso and dial in from there. I very rarely found myself ever going below 10


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## 24774 (Mar 8, 2020)

poppalarge said:


> fairly fresh.


 How fresh? Rested appropriately?



poppalarge said:


> soupy puck


 I'm not sure about 'puck science'. I've had pucks that are a bit wet and the coffee tastes great. How wet is it?

What beans are you using? This sounds hard to judge but in the beginning I changed to an 'easy bean'. I had one from Caravan that was hard to dial in, I was very frustrated. I then tried some Rave beans and it all clicked. From there, once I knew what I as doing, I was able to adjust to other beans more easily.

Don't worry about wasting beans at the start, everyone does that, it's just the cost of learning. Just make it easier on wallet and buy £5ish bags rather than the more expensive ones. Rave offer a forum discount btw if you wanted to try them.


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