I use a scale (like most hobby baristas who want to get it exactly right). Once you've set up the grinder correctly, you could just watch for your 25 seconds-shot time, or you don't care about getting it exactly right and then you just stop the shot when you have enough coffee in your cup. It doesn't have any automatic timer though - it is way to simple a machine for that.

There are a couple of things that can negatively affect heat in my experience. For instance, if you didn't descale the machine for a long time, the water might not be very hot anymore. Also, the water has the right temperature right when the orange lamp goes off. The longer the lamp has been off, the colder the water. A quick fix is letting water run through until the lamp goes on, then wait until it goes off (this doesn't take long), and then getting your coffee. Also, it is useful to put the portafilter in when the machine is heating up so that it is warm as well, otherwise you lose water heat when the hot coffee meets a cold portafilter.

Thanks for your comment and careful observation! The great thing about this machine is that something like this doesn't affect coffee quality if you get the timing and grinder setting about right.

Guter Tipp, Danke! Beim Leerbezug fällt ja die Temperatur ab, dann geht die Lampe an. Ich dachte, dass es ideal ist genau zu dem Zeitpunkt mit dem Kaffeebezug zu starten, wenn die Lampe gerade ausgegangen ist.

Ja, das ist das Standardsieb. 18Gr passen eigentlich gut rein; ist dann zwar voll, aber es geht. Vielleicht klappt das nur, wenn der Kaffee fein genug gemahlen ist und "dichter" im Sieb liegt (und ordentlich getampt ist).

Jo, das ist bei meiner genauso

naa, wobei so arg ist es bei mir nicht

Wenn es so "qualmt", kann man schon mal etwas eher entkalken, das kann das Problem sein (war zumindest bei mir so)

Thanks for watching! This Quick Mill 0820 does not have a pressure gauge; you get the pressure right looking at the seconds you need to get the desired amount of coffee, and by adjusting your grinder, e.g. too coarse -> coffee does not create enough resistance (pressure) and will need much less time than 25sec.