Hey Kevin,
Ahhh I see, so you are using the brew cones. In that case, I would stick to using the shower heads. Both Purple or Grey are fine to use with the brew cone, and I would still recommend giving the heads a good flush with water before brewing. The biggest change that has helped me with those brew cones was tinkering with my coffee and water ratios. I actually does a bit heavier then I would usually do with a V60 or Kalita. Since the brew cones “drip out” spout works off of a siphon concept, the brew cone will retain a small amount of liquid. So for example, I usually do a standard hand pour over with a 16:1 or 16.5:1 ratio, but with the cone I much prefer a 14.5: or 15:1 ratio. So for a 12oz cup im usually dosing around 23-25g of coffee. Also be sure to give a good amount of pause time after your initial bloom water, and dont worry if the stream of liquid stops coming out of the brew cone, I know some people think something is wrong if that happens, its just a momentary delay in the “drip out” until the liquid level in the basket fills to the appropriate level to start coming out again. If you want to send a pic of the recipe you have that would be great, I can play around with it here with one of our machines.
Cheers!