Welcome to the first Community Q&A at Seattle Coffee Gear!
Here we'll feature questions sent to us at questions@seattlecoffeegear.com, the best question will receive a $10 SCG gift card!
This month's Community Q&A question comes to us from Sam!
Sam asks:
I bought a lovely Breville Barista Express and every now & again the basket will get stuck when removing the portafilter. Any Ideas Why? Great machine, still dialing in my shots.
The Answer:
This could be one of a few things! For starters, you'll want to check your grind consistency and texture. A very fine grind can lead to the puck developing an adhesive, cement like texture after pulling your shot. This, combined with the 3 way solenoid in the Barista Express' sucks air through the brew head (as its designed to) can lead to pucks getting stuck! A particularly sticky puck could even take a basket with it!
To remedy this, you could try a coarser grind.
The other potential issue is temperature. If you're leaving your portafilter in the brew group (as many do) and leaving the machine on for long periods of time, the expansion of the metal from the heat could be causing the basket to get stuck.
A fix for this would be to try leaving the machine off, or the portafilter out of the brew head, and see if you're still running into issue when you power it on to pull a shot.
There is, of course, the possibility that the issue lies in a warped basket too! Though Breville makes very consistent products!
Sam's excellent question this month won him a $10 Seattle Coffee Gear gift card, so what are you waiting for? Send us your coffee questions now for a chance to have your question answered here, and a gift card from Seattle Coffee Gear!
