PID my Silvia

donnacha

I'm currently getting ready to invest in a PID for my Silvia. Auber instruments appear to get fairly favourable reviews and the current retrofit kit sits nicely beside the steam wand so I think I'm a few clicks away from investing with them.

There is a kit w/ pre-infusion and one w/ steam control. Though I haven't got into doing the latte art thing yet I could see myself trying to acquire this skill down the road. What I'm totally unfamiliar with is pre-infusion for the purpose of making espresso's. Are any of ye doing this right now? What are the pro's and con's of pre-infusion? How important in a silvia would you see steam temperature control when it comes to doing latte art?

All advice appreciated.

Doodee

I do a bit of a half assed Pre-infusion on my current Un-PID'd silvia.
I Flick the shot switch on and then off rather quickly.
From what I have read it helps with extraction as the puck is moistened before the pressure is applied. I'm sure someone else can give a better insight into it.

As regards the PID's. I'm very fond of the Faustino PID mod due to the minimalistic style. You do pay for it though :eek:
I recently fitted an Auber to our Gaggia Evolution here in work and as functional as it is, it is rather ugly.

There are some other kits that I (or my friends) have come accross.
I'll list them here for convinience sake:

http://pidkits.com/kits.html
http://www.murphyslawonline.com/silvia/silvia.html
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/BarebonesPIDForEspresso
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/CoffeeTronics

and of course
http://growdown.blogspot.com/2008/04/arduino-and-silvia-two-italians-one.html

donnacha

cheers doodee - i'll check those links out tonight.

donnacha

I tried that manual pre-infusion thing yesterday evening and it negatively affected the flavours I was getting from my current espresso (hasbean perfetio). I'll keep trying to see the affect on different beans - it could of course just been the temperature.

Anyone else got experience with these PIDS and opinions on the benefits of going down the PID steaming/infusion route?

llatsni

No experience, but very interested, as I'm constantly tempted to PID my Isomac Zaffiro ala this dude:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrfuss/

Keep us updated if you take the plunge.

Paul