All coffee guides · Troubleshooting
A fast shot can taste sour, thin or hollow when water passes through the puck too easily. Check grind, dose and puck preparation. Judge speed alongside taste and your intended recipe.
Compare shot time with the recipe and coffee you are using. For a conventional 18 g dose and 36 g yield, roughly 25–35 seconds from pump start is a useful starting point, not a pass/fail rule. A short time alone does not prove under-extraction. Taste the shot and measure its yield; some recipes deliberately use faster flow.
Weigh the grounds in the basket and use a dose within its intended capacity. If the shot reaches your target yield unusually quickly and tastes thin or sharp, try one small grind adjustment finer. Keep dose and yield unchanged for the comparison. There is no universal number of seconds gained per grinder click.
Distribute the grounds, break up obvious clumps and tamp level until the bed is compact. Keep the routine consistent. Do not use increasingly heavy tamping as the main way to slow a shot; adjust the grind instead. Check that the tamper and basket fit each other.
Spraying from a bottomless portafilter or erratic flow can suggest channeling, but visual signs alone cannot measure extraction. If shots vary markedly with the same recipe, check preparation, dose and retained grounds before making several grind changes.
Make sure you are using the intended basket type and the machine is prepared according to its manual. Pressurised baskets behave differently from single-wall baskets. Leave brew temperature steady while diagnosing flow unless the machine has a specific temperature fault. Seek service for leaks or abnormal operation.
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