I’ve had this machine for 3 years now. For the past 3 months I’ve been having issues getting up to full 9 bars of pressure. For a long time it worked fine, with the machine getting to 9 bars after about 8 seconds.

Then it started to take around 30 seconds for it to get up to pressure. Coffee would slowly drip through and would not have right consistency. I adjusted grind and still had issue. Whenever I put in the blind porta-filter basket in it still takes the same amount of time to get up to 9 bars as it does with coffee in the basket. The pump gauge is showing 1.5 bars.

Thinking the issue was with the group head, I fully rebuilt the group head (kit from Clive). I cleaned everything, replaced gaskets, and cams included in kit. I also added flow control (kit from Clive). Still I am having the same issue.

When flow control is closed, it gets to 9 bars immediately. When I open flow, it still takes 30-40 seconds to get fully to 9 bars. This includes at the front of the group head on the new flow control gauge.

I do not see any leaks when I keep the blind portafilter in and keep the pump running for a while. Not sure what to check next.