Further Information; Troubleshooting - ELEKTRA Espresso Equipment Training Program

4.FURTHER INFORMATION

Troubleshooting

Use this section to help solve
problems with your espresso
machine or with the quality of
coffee it's making.
PROBLEM
1. Coffee quality
poor coffee taste
(assuming blend is correct)
Poor crema
Extracted
coffee levels
incorrect
24
SOLUTION
Taste • Group heads and handles not cor-
rectly cleaned and primed after
start-up or after a chemical clean.
• Machine not worked enough to
bring it up to proper operating tem-
perature.
• Group head too cool, often due to
excessive and unnecessary flush-
ing of group heads, resulting in a lot
of cold water being introduced to
heat exchanger.
• Grind texture too coarse or too fine.
• Insufficient grounds in handle.
• Pressed wrong button (eg, pressed
long black for a cappuccino).
•
Coffee cup not heated before use.
•
Milk too hot (boiled) or too cold.
• Milk frothed too much or not
enough for the drink. (Eg, milk is
frothed less for a latte or flat white
than for a cappuccino.)
• Handle not fitted firmly on group
head.
• Grounds incorrectly tamped in filter
basket.
•
Stale coffee.
• Coffee grounds too coarse or
extremely fine.
• Level of grounds in filter basket too
low: was a full cake produced
when basket emptied?
• Handle not firmly locked in position.
• Group heads running too hot
(generally only on very busy days).
• Poorly tamped grounds, or not
tamped at all.
• Wrong button pressed for type of
drink. See page 24 for details of
Elektra pushbuttons.
•
Preset levels need adjusting by
service agent (not a typical cause).
4.FURTHER INFORMATION
PROBLEM
2. Grinder Coffee grounds
in cup
Insufficient dose
of coffee
grounds being
supplied to handle
Grinder switched
on but not
running
25
SOLUTION
• Group head seals not cleaned
properly, causing incorrect seal and
allowing grounds to flow outside
handle and into cup.
• Coffee grounds on bottom of han-
dle spout. This can be caused by
excess grounds on grinder tray.
• Filter basket fell into dumping box
when handle was being emptied.
(Rinse filter basket and handle.)
• Handle too loose in group head.
• Excess grounds in filter basket
• Incorrect use of dosing lever (make
sure to operate the lever over its
full stroke).
• Human error in which you filled a
double cup filter with two doses of
grounds rather than three. Often
happens when you are busy —
slow down.
• Dosing chambers in grinder not
completely filled. Check that
grinder is switched on and operate
dosing lever to cause level switch-
es to operate grinder motor. Then
operate dosing lever up to 16
times, observing that each dosing
chamber is being filled by grounds
as you operate the dosing lever.
Catch dispensed coffee in a con-
t a i n e r, a n d r e t u r n c o f f e e
to dispenser.
• This can also be due to the grounds
being light and airy, often caused
when the grinder is turned on after
having been turned off overnight or
during the day, or if coffee has not
been dispensed for some time.
Switch on the grinder, remove lid of
dosing container, place under dos-
ing hole and dispense eight doses
of grounds, and return to container.
Repeat if necessary. That is "work"
the grinder.
• The level switches inside the
dosing container may be held off
by the way the grounds are sitting
in the container, whether it's nearly
full or empty. To remedy, "work" the
grinder.