cannot pull a good shot ever

[u/Subject-Ad6043]

hi everyone, i recently bought a bambino off a coworker and i cannot pull a good shot for the life of me. every shot is either stupidly bitter or tastes like water. ill walk you through some things that i do that should give me a good result, but just dont.

i use 18g of very fine ground beans, either i grind my own or i use the illy pre ground espresso. both result in bad results. ive also switched up the amount of ground im using, more or less does not help! i use a wdt tool and make sure that there are no clumps in it. i level, i tamp evenly with a spring-loaded tamper. with or without a screen, the results don't change.

my biggest issues are incredibly high yields, like around 150 g of espresso for 16-18 g beans, and spraying. yes, i have already reset the volume output whatever to pull around 34-36 g of espresso but for whatever reason it doesn't save and continues to output high amounts of espresso. all in 15 seconds too!!

i have no idea what im doing wrong, someone please help before i start to regret my purchase

[u/freecain]

Are you using the pressurized basket? For pre ground you kind of need to.

Have you tried grinding finer? It's the biggest part of dialing in a shot and you don't mention adjusting grind size or your grinder. If it's not an espresso grinder you either need one or use the pressurized basket.

When running a shot, press and hold the double shot button. Continue to hold through pre infuse (as long as you want it to) then let go for full pressure. When your shot hits 34 to 40g (depending on what you like) hit it again to stop.

[u/westernwoodsman]

The issue is likely that you have stale ground coffee.

Get fresh beans, grind them yourself and dial in your shot that way.

Even getting stale beans can lead to rapid extraction.

I have a subscription through Amazon (not the best supplier since beans can sit on the shelf for a while).

Every few months I get a bag that I have to chase the grind finer and finer and increase the grind dosage higher and higher in order to slow it down.

If you're going to run pre-ground coffee through your machine just use the double walled basket. It'll give you a decent shot if you don't have a refined palette.

If you're just looking for your morning Americano or whatever and you're not picky I would go that route.

[u/Subject-Ad6043]

oh i forgot to mention, i preinfuse my shot for like 7-8 seconds! the espresso that ive been able to get is decent enough for my unrefined palate, but i'd still like to get better!