Rancilio includes a plastic tamper with Ms. Silvia (tamper is used to compact the coffee grounds). This is probably responsible for more bad espresso shots and more frustration than anything else. Make life easy and get a decent tamper - I sell aluminum tampers starting at $18.99. accessory page

Read the instructions before you plug it in.  They are written by Italians and have a some weird translations. They do not help you get good espresso -- they do help you power up without destroying your new $500 espresso machine or burning yourself.

Temperature surfing made easy.  Home espresso machines do not have stable temp's like 220V commercial machines.  In fact, the Silvia is factory set to make the water hotter than is ideal for espresso.  There is an easy way to 'surf' your machine into a sweet spot.  When your Silvia has heated up and indicates it is ready to make espresso the water is going to be a bit too hot.  The best way to get that temp into the zone is to begin by frothing your milk - thus adding fresh water from the reservoir into the hot boiler (if you do not want milk, just shoot steam into a pitcher or cup for 30 seconds).  While the machine heats back up, you can grind your beans and tamp. Just when the machine indicates it is ready again the water should be perfectly heated.  Make your shot now!

You can use all of the stock parts that come with your machine but there are some items that can improve your results right away.  For instance, the double filter basket is a bit small.  I inserted a La Marzocco standard dbl. filter and found it worked better with the extra volume accessory page or upgrade the entire portafilter to a Marzocco or bottomless/naked, but I found the stock PF to be sufficient.  The steam wand is visually underwhelming but works well - actually Silvia has a lot of steam.

Hot water for tea or an 'Americano' is dispensed via is the steam wand and determined by which of the rocker switches you have engaged.  After using it for water you need to release the left over water in the tube before steaming.  I'd prefer to have a dedicated water dispenser - in case anyone at Rancilio is reading this.  Be careful not to shoot a bunch of hot water into your milk.

 

Step 2.

Level, Tamp and Load.

Use a good tamper to compact the grounds.  If you are new to tamping read this - how to tamp guide -

Lift the tamped PF into the Silvia's Group Head and rotate from your left to right.  The portafilter will turn past the 90 degree point.  It should be tight but if it's a struggle you probably have too much coffee in the PF (dump it out and start with new grounds).  If you cannot lift the PF into Silvia's Group Head you have too much coffee in the PF.

Step 3.

Making the shot.

The Rancilio Silvia Control Panel is strictly classic, old school.  No temp gage or pressure gage (if you want to really geek out you can look into PID conversion).

Operation is pretty simple.  

(Assuming you have switched the power switch to on & waited apx 15 minutes for the 'ready indicator' to de-illuminate  - to some people it's a little counter-intuitive that the light IS illuminated when the machine IS NOT ready)

Follow the instructions for Temperature surfing

At this point switch the top rocker indicated by a line art of a coffee cup - the round orange light will illuminate and the pump will engage pushing hot water through coffee grounds -- extracting the espresso.  Within the first 5 seconds you should be getting at least drips.  If you don't get anything after 10 seconds you should switch the rocker to off (pressure will release in drip pan) and start over with a coarser grind.   If you get a fast pale frothy shot you need to adjust for finer grind.  A good shot will have auburn 'crema' over black strong espresso.  Extraction time for a double filter can be 20 or 25 seconds - maybe a bit longer.  Watch the flow of espresso and if you see a blond color or bubbles in the flow you should stop the shot.  Switch the espresso rocker switch off to stop the extraction.  

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