I also tried playing with the dose, the grind coarse/fine (tried fine, tried a high enough dose to just allow locking with firm pressure)

We used SB espresso beans, and had to set the grind much coarser (10) than the recommended starting point (5)

It comes preset to number 5 on the grinding scale but its very easy to adjust from number 13 (coarse) to number 1 (very fine).

the finer the grind (turn knob left), the more pressure there will be during extraction (needle goes higher), and the coarser the grind (turn knob right) the less pressure there will be (needle doesn't go as high)

I have found that the darker the roasts, maybe because the beans have less moisture, need at least 1/3 more ground beans, and you'll want the grind to be a little finer vs. a light roast, probably because the bean has retained moisture, will use fewer beans, the the grind should be more coarse

I think this is an improvement b/c the old one failed to meter the correct amount (which is why we replaced it).3

I love the different settings and I love that you could store the beans and the being hopper and then grind them as you use them; very convenient

We finally set up everything manually and it works great now as long as we adjust the grind setting when we add new beans

so it clogged a

I also have some pre-ground decaf and Cuban expresso that I use with the double wall filters and get very good results, although not as good as with the fresh beans

Coffee was not as good as with this

It still works as well as it did the day we got it

every time, you can grind as fine or coarse as you wish

I do the cleaning with phosphate free tabs every time the light lights up, and periodically I do a general cleaning of the machine and the burr grinder cleaning as per the

In practice this machine has delivered excellent coffee as good as that found in good commercial outlets, and better than many

and I gotta say it works great as of the day we bought it

The expresso doesn't come out quite as strong as that made by the Francis Francis.

I had fun learning and still have much to learn, but overall am so super happy that I received this (albeit exchanged but still the thought was nice), hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Worked great for about a year but started stalling as of recently

I unpacked it, washed all the parts as they recommend.

I can't stress enough to get fresh beans, such as from a local gourmet coffee shop and look for the "produced on" date and not the expiration date

We also pretty much gave up on buying beans from local brewhouses, we found the quality and taste not as good as we could do ourselves, so off we went and bought a small roaster (Fresh Roast SR700 Home Coffee Roaster), and frankly, this make the cycle complete - not only can we buy green coffee beans via amazon very cheaply, but we can also control how much we roast, and when we use them, making it a very turnkey and enjoyable experience

I bought a basic Delonghi model, which gave me a good cup but nothing as great as I was hoping for.