How Much Pressure does the Dedica really Have? Prep for 9 Bar Mod

15 bars is the advertised pressure of the DeLonghi Dedica, which is way too much for a conventional Espresso! In this video, we look at how to make a manometer out of a pressurized filter from the EC685. We will quantify how much pressure my EC680 and EC685 have respectively, and then do a shot comparison. We will draw taste conclusions, and look forward to the next video in the series, where we try out a couple of springs in the OPV, to try reaching a pressure of 9 bar.

CAUTION! Use this video as entertainment purposes only, as the brew group and portafilter are under high pressure!

Stückliste:

Part List:

-- Products used/recommended in this video --
(these are affiliate links that help fund videos like this, at no extra cost to you)

**These accessories fit for EC680, EC685, EC785 and EC885***

Impactful Accessories, starting with the most important:

► Double Basket by IMS (H26):

► Bottomless Portafilter, for diagnosing shots:

► Calibrated Tamper, to compact coffee puck:

► Timed Espresso Scale, to measure shots:

► WDT Stirring tool, to distribute grounds:

► 51mm Dosing Funnel, to avoid mess:

► Puck Knock Box (made in Italy):

Last but not least, a capable grinder is necessary. Here are some suggestions:

(*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Chapters:
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0:00 Intro
1:27 Building a Manometer
4:24 Measuring our Nominal Pressure
7:07 Low vs High Pressure Shot Comparison
10:17 Looking Forward to Part II: Replacing the OVP Spring
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#TomsCoffeeCorner #DelonghiDedica #9BarMod

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

[TomsCoffeeCorner]

15 bars is the advertised pressure of the DeLonghi Dedica, which is way too much for a conventional Espresso! In this video, we look at how to make a manometer out of a pressurized filter from the EC685.
0:00 Intro
1:27 Building a Manometer
4:24 Measuring our Nominal Pressure
7:07 Low vs High Pressure Shot Comparison
10:17 Looking Forward to Part II: Replacing the OVP Spring

[bartekbarwicki]

Nobody has done such experiments to dedica on YT or anywhere else until now. This is fantastic. You're a blessing, Tom.

[afong]

Greatly appreciate that we got you to take care of this lower cost machine! Creative and entertaining contents! Can’t wait to see Part 2 ；）

[marexmal]

Thanks a lot for that! I was recently looking for the info about actual pressure achieved by Dedica, since marketed 15bar didn't seem right. And didn't find any, until this wonderful video of yours :) Looking forward for next parts

[FlatEarthGod]

Awesome video! Never would've thought to do that. I recently traded up for the new Dedica Arte and I gotta say it does save you time on doing the steam wand mod. It makes great foam out of the box. Biggest difference though, is just the newer machine is making much better pressure. I had the old Dedica for years and it finally started crapping out.

[gianlucaugolini]

You’re simply the best, i know that you can made this modification. Now i can sell my old coffee machine and buy a dedica! Thank you so much for your video, i can’t wait for part 2! 😉

[andrejluznik]

Thanks for the tutorial! I'm planning to do this pressure test on my machine as soon as the bottomless portafilter arrives in the mail. I have a Krups Virtuoso, which looks almost like a copy of the Dedica, both exterior dimensions and internal components - so your solution regarding the 9-bar-spring may be applicable on my machine too :)

[marcosaltran]

I'll do it for sure! Thank's Tom!!!
A Big Hug From Brazil!

[randallr]

This was an interesting video. I was wondering what the pressure would be on the delonghi ecp 3420. I watched that review and that machine looks great.

[CharlieLui]

Thank you for this video! I'd definitely like to try make this and looking forward to the 9 bar mod!

[hathzorz]

Tom, very nice video. I actually just made a portafilter pressure gauge, but I took a double spout portafiler and actually unscrewed the spout using a bit of force and pliers. There are male G3/8in threads (3/8 BSP, but 3/8 NPT fits too) there natively. I just took a simple elbow reducer 3/8 to 1/4in and a gauge, used a bit of thread tape to be extra sure and it was good. I actually added a cheap 1/4 valve for some extra horizontal distance because my gauge needed more clearance.

I see people say that the pressure of the basket might be higher since the water would normally have somewhere to flow out through the puck, but the water still flows out the overpressure valve drain hose back to the reservoir on my machine, so i think it's the same type of thing.

[LuisLopez-wqrh]

Hola Tom, en primer lugar felicitarte por lo ingenioso del experimento, es un buen método para medir la presión. Sin embargo, la presión que estás midiendo es la máxima que puede producir la cafetera, no tiene por qué ser, y de hecho no lo será, la presión a la que se está "cocinando" el café. Si quieres saber la presión cuando el café está saliendo, tienes que dejar salir la misma agua que cuando hay café, ya que la presión depende del caudal. De hecho, si pones la bomba de presión a funcionar sin filtro, no hay presión en la cesta ya que no hay resistencia, tengas la bomba que tengas.
Sería interesante que repitieras en vídeo dejando salir la misma cantidad de agua que cuando haces el café, éso sí que sería indicativo de la presión. Gracias de nuevo.

[harkostroef]

amazing work! your videos have been a great source of inspiration and iI now feel confident modding my ec680

[cricocoo]

Loved the video! Was looking for this kind of information a few months back and now finely I know, ... or at least I know now how to make a pressure gauge myself for my dedica, as apparently we are all getting different pressures :) thanks!

[daveyes]

Really great series. However - and this is not really a criticism - but how did you calibrate your tool? I learned from this that an old machine loses a material amount of pressure vs a new one and that alone is helpful, but absent proper calibration I don't really buy into the absolute figures stated. Still great videos tho, as a Dedica owner you are doing a LOT to answer some of teh questons I have! Thanks

[ChuckHenry-zqyu]

I noticed the descaling light was flashing on the old machine. Would the 7 bar result be higher if it had been descaled prior to the test?

[Ercan]

Very nice experiment, i was really curious for real pressue for my dedica. Thaks for that.

[ktalin]

Does your 7 bars machine extract coffee still using a original pressurized filter? My new dedica pressure can not go through after 5 months of use. Filter not clogged. No bubbles in the reservoir. Pump going way more silent like your machines goes when they reach max pressure they can deliver. I did replaced the ball and gaskets from pump repair kit i did purchase. I did notice improvement but i still can not use fine espresso grinded coffee. I need to grind a bit coarse than that and I have to avoid tamper it too hard. Any ideas? I did not touch the OPV valve since does not seems water goes back to reservoir. If OPV lose pressure back then we will not have that pump sound reduced when the pump reaches the pumping limit. I am using the original pressurized filter which is not pressurized anymore. I did enlarge the tiny hole up a 5mm diameter now. It helps but still not ok. If i use a depressurized filter bought from amazon machine works. My point is that the machine should work with the pressurized one as well. Any ideas SIR?

[bencheung]

Well done Tom. this is fantastic experiment. I will try to make a Manometer.

[silverteak]

My EC680 started to do weird things. It just stops pulling a shot if I grinded a bit too fine. I've seen videos where Dedica even it was choked (dripping very slowly) but it kept pumping water up to 50 seconds. I replaced the pump, cleaned the flowmeter, descaled the machine, and changed the OPV valve. It still doing the same thing. Steam works just fine, I can steam my milk as long as I want. Just hot water also coming pretty quick out of the brewing head. And it can finish a shot if it not very fine (usually it takes just about 20 sec for 16g of grounded coffee, anything finer will force machine to stop). The machine does that "pre-infusion" pump, wait, then it pumps for a while (3-6 sec maybe) and stops. Any ideas of what it could be or what I could check further? 😬😬