# New Delonghi B2C set up



## Someuser (Dec 9, 2020)

First post after reading the forum for a little while. I come from a Nespresso pods background: first originals and then compatibles, for the last year or so I was using 9p a pod from the Amazon brand. Not fussed too much about my coffee, drinking mainly with (microwaved) milk 1-2 times a day.

Now I wanted to venture into B2C, so got myself Magnifica S Smart (ECAM 250.33.TB). Spent a couple of days playing with different settings (went through half a kilo of beans), so wanted to share my experience and see what I am (likely) doing wrong.

I've started with Lavazza Rossa beans (more on that later). Settings on the machine:



Temperature: max


Water hardness: max (although I'm using Ashbek water so far which should be soft, but I found extraction time almost halves if I set that)


Grind size: 4 (out of 7, default was 5)


Coffee strength: close to maximum


Double shot


This gave me extraction time around 18 sec for 75-80ml of drink. Crema is nice and does not go away for a long time, but the taste is very bitter. I have to say here that I have no reference point with regards to the taste as I never drink straight espresso. I have not ventured into milk making just yet with the machine as I wanted to get the espresso part right.

I tried to get better extraction time by setting grind size to 3.5 and that resulted in immediate poor flow of the drink, so I had to pull back the amount of coffee to 2/3 to make it flow better. Its now doing double shot in 22 seconds with very bitter taste (I did try to add milk at point, but the bitterness is still there). What confused me at this point is that many reviewers are saying Delonghi machines have usable grinding size from 2 (1 and 1.5 is not usable) and I am still 3 stops away from that. Also Lavazza beans just look garbage to me - they smell over burned and dated and that's probably why its so bitter. Not sure if its just this batch had issues (I got it from Amazon) or its supposed to be like that, but I'm not going to drink that ever!

At this point it was time to try some other beans. I'm still waiting for a batch of different BackCat ones, but luckily I had "Grind house blend" arrived a few days before. Sure its much nicer coffee: the burnt smell is gone, looks more medium. The physics hasn't changed though - 3.5 is till the lowest I can go with grind size and extracts time is the same. As for taste - its drinkable with milk now, but not to a point I really like it (still too bitter for my taste).

So now I have a few questions:



Anything I'm doing wrong?


Should I be setting grind size back to something larger to decrease the bitterness and not worry about extraction time (which will reduce obviously)?


Are there beans out there that would allow grind size to be smaller? I will try BlackCat when they arrive obviously.


What does water hardness settings actually do? The result of softer settings is much quicker extraction. Can I use hardest settings with soft water without issues?


Thanks for reading this far!


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## Fraser (Nov 23, 2020)

Explain poor flow?

The flow of an espresso should not be 'fast'. 18 seconds is too fast for that length of shot. Espresso is usually around 30ml double is 60ml. Your looking at an extraction time of around 30 seconds. This can vary depending on the bean, grind size etc.

im not an expert just giving my opinion on what I have experienced and learned. I am still relatively new to all of this.

Someone with more knowledge will likely pop up and give you lots to go on.

look at trying 30 seconds at 60ml of liquid. Let me know how you get on. Change the water hardness setting as there won't be any in the bottled water.


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## Someuser (Dec 9, 2020)

Poor flow is when it drips instead of flowing and it takes 40+ sec for extraction.

I realised what I was doing wrong - using double shot instead of single. I have assumed they are the same in terms of beans volume as many said on this forum for b2c machines. But clearly this delonghi is not like that. As soon as I went to single shot I was able to go to down to grind setting of 2 with no issues. Extraction time is still not great - just 12 seconds, but the taste is much better - I hadn't had such a good cappuccino for ages!

I will try to go down to finer grind to see if that slows extraction a bit more, but I'm wary of blocking something in the machine as some people report.

I will also experiment with the hardness setting again - if it radically reduces the extraction time then it's not great, hence me asking if that setting can be left on hard even for soft water...


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## Zoltan83 (Apr 25, 2021)

Hi,I would like to hear hiw you got on with the machine and extraction time as I got the same machine. I just been using the 2xespresso button for myself and you are right, I can't go down to grind size lower than 3. I'll try single shots instead of double. Tia


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Some Bean to Cup machines I have come across (Jura is one) think a double espresso is putting twice the amount of water through the same amount of coffee. If your machine works the same way, call for 2 singles instead.


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## Eiffel (Apr 3, 2021)

The Delonghi (at least my ECAM 4200s, and most probably the other Magnificas) add a bit of coffee (I'd guess around 30%) and significantly more water when making doubles... which usually means that if you have it tuned for single espressos it will choke with doubles.

My Magnifica makes OKish single shots (using around 120g of coffee beans to make 10 shots, or 12g/shot, to brew 24-27g espressos in 26-35 seconds). I've tried making doubles, but this requires changing grind settings and playing with the water quantity settings and I'm not sure that the brewing chamber is designed for significantly more than 12g of coffee. I should also say that it's not super consistent from shot to shot and that there is little one can do about it!

Some Gaggia machines (like the Titanium and Brera) make two consecutive single shots when asking for doubles, which is a much better solution!


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Eiffel said:


> Some Gaggia machines (like the Titanium and Brera) make two consecutive single shots when asking for doubles, which is a much better solution!


 The Melitta BTC machines do the same, and you're right about it being much better.


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