Help Please: New Jura owner (S8) - questions

[mooch91]

Hi all, new member here,

My wife is a fan of milk-based drinks and has been longing for a Jura machine - the S8, as highly recommended by a coffee-loving close friend. This was a good year at work for her, and a bonus allowed us to purchase this machine.

I am more of a "just coffee" guy, but I will be using the machine too.

I had one question and maybe looking for some tips/tricks for the coffee maker too.

My question:
Each time we go to empty the grinds container (when prompted by the machine), the drip tray is full to the brim with water too. We've been finding this strange as we catch all the rinses in two 12-oz stainless milk containers. The Jura hotline told me "it's normal", but I wanted to check with experts here too - does your drip tray fill with water to this extent too? We make about 5:1 coffee to espresso drinks.

Second, to tips/tricks:
For the cost of the machine, I've been a little disappointed myself (I won't dare tell my wife as she loves it). I feel I'm always filling it with water, dislike all the rinsing (we have it set to power off after 1 hour), and hate that I'm locked in to all of the cleaning supplies/filters when the unit feels it's ready for them (likely programmed to keep me buying expensive supplies). I'm also not loving the coffee and espresso all that much, maybe because I'm a "just coffee" guy. We are trying different varieties and grinds for the coffee and espresso, as we have a local roaster where I purchased half a dozen varieties to run through the machine. Even some of the features and engineering seem counter-intuitive - would like a timed "on" that brews me a cup as I'm walking down the stairs, I don't see the reason for two stations on the machine (one for coffee, and one for coffee/milk drinks), and the need to swap out nozzles seems as if it could have been eliminated. Anyone have any tips/tricks to share that might help me fall in love?

Thanks!

 

[CupaGil]

Mooch 91:
I was a "just coffee guy" and got interested because of the passion some people had, there must be more to it. I bought a Z6 the first of this year. I have become a coffee fanatic. First, what you said is pretty much true there is an overhead to get really good coffee. The tray gets internal overflow in it, just pour it out when you clean the milk system. At the end of the day, it takes 5 to ten minutes to clean the system.
For me, the key was continuing to try and taste different beans and roasts. Working with a custom roaster we found a bean we liked but the roast wasn't quite right and ended up with two different roasts which we have mixed together. The flavor is great.
Lifes too short to drink just coffee, live larger with great coffee.
CupaGil

 

[I.Fix.Jura]

If you don't want to move the cup when you make cappuccino kind of milk drink, you have to buy different models, like ENA 8, Z6/Z8 something. Water down there is normal because you want fresh water to make coffee each time and don't want to reuse the water sitting in the machine for days.

 

[BijouMan]

Hi all, new member here,

My wife is a fan of milk-based drinks and has been longing for a Jura machine - the S8, as highly recommended by a coffee-loving close friend. This was a good year at work for her, and a bonus allowed us to purchase this machine.

I am more of a "just coffee" guy, but I will be using the machine too.

I had one question and maybe looking for some tips/tricks for the coffee maker too.

My question:
Each time we go to empty the grinds container (when prompted by the machine), the drip tray is full to the brim with water too. We've been finding this strange as we catch all the rinses in two 12-oz stainless milk containers. The Jura hotline told me "it's normal", but I wanted to check with experts here too - does your drip tray fill with water to this extent too? We make about 5:1 coffee to espresso drinks.

Second, to tips/tricks:
For the cost of the machine, I've been a little disappointed myself (I won't dare tell my wife as she loves it). I feel I'm always filling it with water, dislike all the rinsing (we have it set to power off after 1 hour), and hate that I'm locked in to all of the cleaning supplies/filters when the unit feels it's ready for them (likely programmed to keep me buying expensive supplies). I'm also not loving the coffee and espresso all that much, maybe because I'm a "just coffee" guy. We are trying different varieties and grinds for the coffee and espresso, as we have a local roaster where I purchased half a dozen varieties to run through the machine. Even some of the features and engineering seem counter-intuitive - would like a timed "on" that brews me a cup as I'm walking down the stairs, I don't see the reason for two stations on the machine (one for coffee, and one for coffee/milk drinks), and the need to swap out nozzles seems as if it could have been eliminated. Anyone have any tips/tricks to share that might help me fall in love?

Thanks!


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Sorry if this is late, but the reason the drip tray fills with water is because whenever you use the frother, the machine's boiler has to purge out the water so that it can produce steam to send to the frother. If you have ever used a single-boiler "Kaffeevollautomat" with a steam wand, you noticed that water comes out of the wand before steam can come out. This water is the remaining water in the boiler that is being purged out so that the boiler can easily generate steam using tiny amounts of water. However, with a machine that froths directly into the cup, you do not want that remaining water in your cup. Therefore, this water has to go somewhere else. The solution to this problem is a valve inside the machine that flips whenever the boiler gets ready to steam, directing this water straight into the drip tray. Once the water is purged, the valve flips back, and the steam goes to the frother which makes it supply frothed and/or steamed milk into your cup. Once the frothing/steaming is complete, the boiler has to be primed with water again and the excess steam must be purged from it. That valve will flip again and the steam will be purged internally into the drip tray, which is why you hear the steam sound when the machine is getting ready to extract the espresso into your cup after the frother has been used.

Also, the only nozzle there is to swap is the frother with the hot water nozzle. You only need to do this if you are dispensing hot water as you do not want any residue in the frother to end up in the water.