Coffee Appreciation

Recent research (can't find it right now, sorry) suggests that coffee grounds should be composted first, they can inhibit growth and be harmful to worms if dumped straight onto soil.

It would deffo be going into a composter first. Or used as the substrate for mushrooms.
Makes me think that it would be wise to brew it first either way

Yeah I read the same thing, coffee grounds are good for vermi-composting if you've got a wormery, just be caffeine fiends.

Anyone want a bag of what was great coffee but is now very stale? Free obviously... It was from Calendar Coffee but purchased pre- March 2020 lockdown and stuck in a closed office for over a year! It does taste a bit 'supermarket', I tried it to see if it was ok - but maybe someone has a use for it...

I'm in SE23 as reckon it isn't worth sending / travelling for

Grinder is noticeably better after having around 500g of shit beans put through it. No sludge on top of grounds after brewing a cup of filter. Might need to grind a touch coarser, but a bit of a relief that I hadn't somehow managed to pick up a dud grinder.

Useful for some people with a new grinder to run in - maybe @Tenderloin?

Does anyone own one of these and have any idea how to dismantle it?

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So this happened

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Then this. It’s still tripping the rcd though

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But I did find out why the steam arm wasn’t working

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If there’s been a burst pipe inside the machine, there could be enough moisture somewhere to get earth leakage and thus tripping the RCD.

I spent quite along time with a hair dryer earlier.

What’s earth leakage?

What’s earth leakage?

?

;)

Current “leaking” from either live or neutral, to earth. This is what triggers your RCD to trip. The rcd measures current going out and what’s coming back in, so if any current is making its way out of the system (to earth or otherwise), it trips, as it can tell that current is being lost.

For example, if you have some moisture in the components that creates a link between a live component and a metal component (which will be earthed) it will trip the RCD.

So there’s possibly still moister in there. I’ll pull it apart again and have another look.

There could be a whole number of causes. My guess was only really founded on the burst/split pipe, and the fact that it otherwise works.

Thanks for thinking of me bro - ran the Niche in with some beans I got as a secret Santa in 2019. One thing I’ve noticed is it’s nice and quiet 😁

You could try doing cold brew with it, normally tastes OK even with old/stale beans.

The thing is you plug it in, the lights flash and it beeps. I then press the on button again then it trips.

Interesting idea, cheers!

My guess would be a problem/short with the heating element.
I reckon it’ll be tricky thing to sort out tbh. Good excuse for an upgrade?

My wife has given me the go ahead for a gaggia classic. However I would prefer to fix this one

I’m not familiar with the machine, but unless there are spares readily available, it’ll be a tricky thing to fix. Finding the fault itself could take a while. I’d probably endure for the sake of curiosity, but you’ll want a multimeter to start trying to chase down the fault.

I’ve got a continuity meter. But I’m not overly familiar with how it works

Armchair faultfinding is not a precise art and I'm certainly no expert.
That said, the part most vulnerable to earth leakage is the heater element.
The grounded boiler is typically protected from mains by ceramic powder. water dripping inside a machine where the heater element enters the boiler dampens ceramic and trips your RCD

disconnecting the element and checking resistance to ground would show a gross fault.
Another approach might be to replacing the element with a known good load (e.g. mains light pendant) if the bulb lights up then you know it's the boiler heater - if it still trips, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Repairs could perhaps include removing the boiler and sticking it in the over for a few hours at about 100degC... alternatively you'll need to find a replacement boiler

Needless to say go super-careful with mains power - also do a bit of googling, i doubt there's much difference in principle between this and more documented/discussed machines
Years ago I fixed a similar fault on a FrancisFrancis based on info from a Gaggia classic.

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