La Pavoni - Eurobar series - group head issue

A customer came into our shop today who had a problem with their machine when he used a pod. Despite the flow of water appearing to be fine out of the group head, he was finding that when he used a pod, water pours out from around the top of the group handle despite it being properly located.

Now for those of you who know this machine, the group handle on this machine is in my opinion overly complicated. It's virtually impossible to pull apart and for most people who have tried, it has usually resulted in a new group handle being required. When they work (which is most of the time) they do a great job, but I digress!

In my opinion the issue here is one of a warn group head seal. Water will always try to find the easiest way out of the group head particularly when it is under 8 - 10 bar pressure. Any hint of weakness in the seal and you'll have water everywhere.

Again as is the the wont of La Pavoni changing the seal is anything but easy and will require the use of a qualified engineer, however it's perfectly possible, will put you back at most Sterling 50 pounds (labour and parts), and you should end up with a perfectly functional machine.

I will just qualify the above commentary with one caveat - I have assumed that the grind of the coffee being used is correct. To test this point, have your local coffee merchant change the grind setting the next time you purchase your espresso coffee to a coarser grind. If everything functions properly, your coffee merchant owes you a free pack of coffee!