How to use the Ascaso Dream One and Dream PID Home Espresso Machines

The Ascaso Dream One and PID are retro styled espresso machines within the Dream Series in the Ascaso Home Line. These compact espresso machines have a single thermoblock which can heat up water quicker, is more energy efficient, and has a better thermal stability than a traditional boiler. The thermoblock allows you to extract an espresso shot after 2 minutes of turning the machine on and have constant steam pressure.

Let’s get started!

Priming:

After unboxing your Ascaso Dream One or Dream PID home espresso machine and getting it all setup, the most important part of starting up a brand new machine is to make sure that it is properly primed. 

Before starting the priming process, ensure that the water tank is filled with fresh filtered water and the discharge tube is placed over the drip tray.

1. Turn on the machine and attach the empty portafilter to the machine with a cup underneath
2. Wait for the machine to get up to temperature and the lights will stop flashing
3. Press the coffee switch and let approximately half of the tank of water run through
4. Turn on the espresso machine and open the steam knob
5. Turn on the water switch and release some water through the steam wand into a cup
6. Turn off the water switch and close the steam knob
7. The machine is now primed and ready to make a coffee.

Programming (PID Version Only):

As the PID version of the Dream allows you to customize certain parameters like the coffee temperature and pre-infusion time.

We recommend setting the coffee temperature to 93ºC (200ºF) and the pre-infusion to 1 second.

Setting Dosing Time:

Before we start extracting an espresso shot, we will set our 1 coffee and 2 coffee settings.

Place an empty mug underneath the portafilter and hold up (1 coffee) or down (2 coffee) to the desired shot time and release once the desired time has been reached.

We recommend 15-20 seconds for 1 coffee and 25-30 seconds for 2 coffee.

Grinding and tamping:

For adjusting the coffee grind size, there are a few factors that may differ how fine or coarse you may need to tune your grinders to.

1.) Roast level: light, medium, and dark roasts may cause your grind level to differ. Darker roast tend to be oily and generally need a more coarser grind level 

2.) Humidity: if where you live is humid, you may need to adjust for a coarser grind

We suggest setting it to a medium grind (5 on an Ascaso grinder) and make adjustments there. Ascaso grinders are preset to 5.

To determine how much coffee grounds you need in your portafilter, the dose size is on the side of the filter basket. We recommend using a bench scale to ensure you have the exact dose needed for the basket you are using.

We recommend tamping with 30lbs pressure or tamping the coffee grounds a 1/4 of the way down.

Extracting:

Place the portafilter with the tamped coffee back into the grouphead of the machine and place either a shot glass or cup underneath the portafilter.

Based on which basket you use (1 coffee or 2 coffee) press the corresponding switch.

When extracting, you will be able to see the pressure gauge, the pressure should be within 8-11 bars.

You should now have a beautiful espresso shot with crema.

Troubleshooting:

If the pressure is not within the optimal range, it could be the coffee ground size or your tamping pressure. 

If it is under 8 bars, the coffee grounds could be too coarse, adjust for your grind size to be a bit finer or you may need to tamp a bit harder but ensure that it is only 30 lbs of pressure.

If it is over 11 bars and you notice that the coffee is not extracting properly, it could be that your grounds are too fine and that you need to adjust for it to be a bit coarser or that your tamping pressure is too hard.

Steaming Milk:

Press the switch for steaming, the lights should start flashing meaning that it is heating the water to temperature for steaming. 

Once the machine is ready for steaming, you should hear a pumping noise. Purge the steam wand once before you start steaming. After steaming your milk, make sure you immediately wipe the tip of the steam wand and purge it to ensure that there is no residual milk in the inside of the steam wand.

Press the steam switch again to stop steaming.

You can now make your preferred choice of specialty coffee!