Anyone Having These Issues With Their Fellow
- Speed & Throughput-1 pts
If I use it within a few minutes of turning it on, as they advertise, I constantly get under-extraction
- Milk & Steam-1 pts
The auto purge wand won't turn off.
- Ease, Setup & Daily Workflow-1 pts
The menu knob jumps around.
- Cleaning & Maintenance-1 pts
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experiences with the Fellow Espresso Series 1 so far and see if anyone has had similar issues or has any advice. I appreciate any input. Here is my setup: - Fellow Espresso Series 1 - Eureka Mignon Special grinder - Normcore guided tamper with a 30lb spring - I aim for a standard shot: 18g of coffee resulting in 38-40g of espresso in about 30 seconds. I've had this machine for about a month, making at least two drinks a day, sometimes three for my wife and me. I've tried about four different types of beans since I live in Seattle, which has lots of great local roasters. I've gone through most of the troubleshooting, but I've only fixed a couple of my problems. I'm wondering if these are problems with my machine or if I expected too much. Keep in mind, this is my second espresso machine, with my first being a Breville Bambino Pro, so I'm not a professional by any stretch. I've contacted customer support, but their responses are slow and often not very helpful. The issues I haven't been able to fix: - Inconsistent shots. The machine is sometimes temperamental. If I use it within a few minutes of turning it on, as they advertise, I constantly get under-extraction, like 20g extraction. The next shot is usually 36-45g. Lately, I've been letting the machine heat up for about 10 minutes before using it, which has helped with consistency, but it still ranges from 32-45g. Pressure fluctuates between 8.3 and 9.5 bar. *Customer support called this a "first shot offset."* They didn't explain what that means or provide a solution yet. - The auto purge wand won't turn off. After steaming milk, the wand auto purges no matter if the setting is on or off. Since I use bottled water, I usually do a quick manual steam purge instead of the machine's 3-4 second water spray. *Customer support says this is a known bug.* - The shot guidance feature has only worked once. I have the setting on, but I've only seen it give me one piece of advice about grinding more coarsely. - The pre-infusion pressure settings don't work. I set the pre-infusion to 4 bar for 7 seconds, but it stays at 1 bar. *Customer support said it can't reach 4 bar in 7 seconds*, so I set it for 12 seconds, and it still only got to about 1.5 bar. This isn't a huge deal, but I'm worried there's something wrong with pressure regulation or the software-hardware connection. - The hot water spout randomly leaks while the machine is on. It's a slow drip, but it points to a bigger issue. - Wet pucks. This started happening randomly last week. I didn't have this problem before, and I haven't changed any settings. I thought it was my fault since I'm inexperienced at pulling the perfect shot. However, *customer support said this could be a clogged "3-way solenoid valve.*" This concerns me most since I've pulled maybe 70 shots and something's already clogged. *They recommended a backflush*, which I did, but it didn't fix the issue. - The menu knob jumps around. When I scroll through the menu, it skips randomly. This is minor since I don't change settings often, but combined with everything else, I'm getting frustrated with the quality of this machine.
- Reliability, Leaks & Safety-1 pts
Customer support says this is a known bug.