Profitech flow control on my brewtus

[Eric Christoffersen]

Went to order water softener from whole latte love - they're actually in stock! And at top of page they were advertising 'free flow profile with machine purchase', implying they have them in stock too.

Guy on phone was super nice, asked manager and was able to sell me the profitech e61 flow profiler for $200.

Arrived, nicely chromed, includes pressure valve and stronger spring.

Took about 30 minutes to install, 10 minutes of that was finding my plumbing tape to seal the pressure valve, 10 minutes was boiling the old assembly in cleaner.

Flow control knob replaces the top bolt on glicleur.

It looks exactly like the valve and flow adjuster on this profitech machine:

Profitec Pro 500 PID Espresso Machine with Flow Control - Whole Latte Love

Ok. So first thing surprising is that pressure gauge shows something really close to brew pressure at puck. In my case thats 6.5-7 bar, even though my brewtus brew pressure shows 9.5. I tightened up my grind and was able to get the brew pressure higher but channelling became a problem and when it wasn't the coffee didn't taste good.

Is that weird that actual 'good' brew pressure is 6.5-7?

Been playing with it a few weeks now. Fallen into a local minima. I start with it fairly open, then when brew pressure rises to about 6.5 I start reducing flow until I see the brew pressure start to drop. Thats when flow is below what is wanted by the puck, I adjust flow up and down and sort of ride the shot until its fully extracted.

Coffee is different, more aggressive and brighter tasting, like it was brewed at higher temp - compared to a normal pull where I just leave flow wide open. Those shots are softer and generally have shorter pulls.

Current state:
I'm glad I can try it, not sure its necessary. It does mean I can still make a passable shot even if I screw up the puck prep. Its a way to avoid channeling. I literally haven't had a sink shot since I started messing with it.

[studiocommercial]

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all going well!

Long time member and I've found this group very useful over the years, especially when problems arise as someone has always fixed it here!

I've had a mk2 since new (2006?) and installed the same flow profiler a couple of years ago.  I was just about to upgrade to another machine that does pressure profiling (Rocket R9-one), but decided to give the flow profiler a go as I really love my machine (and save a shit load of money if it works!).

I use a 28g Pullman basket most of the time to make a large cappuccino (and occasional big short black) and find that the flow profiler has completely changed the machine for the better.  I started weighing the beans before grinding and weighing the output a few years ago, and combined with the flow profiler, I'm making the best coffee I ever have, there's just so much control over brew pressure that the only variable with new beans is to get the grind right (I have a manual Mazzer Mini that I've converted to single dose, similar age to the mk2).  I normally wind the flow in tight to start off for 15-20 seconds at about 3-4 bar to slowly saturate the puck, then wind it out to 9 bar til the weight in cup is about 50g, then wind it back down to 3-4 bar for the last few grams for a total of around 56-60g, and a total of about 45-50 seconds.  This seems to work so well that I haven't really experimented with anything else.

I've fallen in love with my machine again and won't be letting her go any time soon!  Definitely try it if you haven't already.

Cheers, Jason.

[Eric Christoffersen]

Was thinking about this flow control this am, thought I should give an update.

I pretty much always use it now, every shot just to keep brew pressure in the 7-7.25 range. Without it the brew is incredibly susceptible to small changes in grind or tamp, and there's just no correcting mid shot.

Is just so completely trivial and natural to manage brew pressure that I now think this upgrade is very worth it.