Help! Choking vs. Channeling on new Breville Barista Express Impress – Need help finding the sweet spot!
Hey everyone, I recently picked up this beautiful Barista Express Impress and I’m having a hard time dialing it in. I am single-dosing exactly 18g of beans into the single-wall double basket, using Manual grind mode (which makes the dose level light turn red, totally normal).
I am stuck in a loop between choking the machine and intense channeling/spraying:
At Grind Size 20: The shot pulls, but it's way too fast and it sprays/splashes everywhere out of the portafilter.
At Grind Size 15: The spray stops and the crema looks great, but the machine chokes or cuts off way too early, leaving me with half a shot and a completely soupy, watery mud-pie puck.
I’ve tried hitting the middle ground at 17, but I’m still struggling to get a full, consistent yield without it either cutting off short or spraying my counters. I am tapping the portafilter to level the fluffy grounds before using the built-in tamp lever, and I just did a factory reset on the machine to make sure a weird custom volume wasn't saved.
Any tips on how to stop the spraying on the coarser end, or how to keep it from choking/cutting short on the finer end with this specific built-in grinder? Thanks in advance!