Greetings - first post here, but been doing some reading & lurking in the homeroasting section for awhile (been roasting South & Central American beans in a whirleypop setup for awhile - really enjoying the pourover & french press from those beans!) In the interest of trying something new though, I've decided to give espresso a try, and picked up a Breville 800ESXL (I know it's not a super great machine, but I got a lightly used machine for almost nothing, so it's a start. Upgrades will happen when my skills are at a point where I'm limited by my machine.... and I can afford the upgrade xD)

Anyways - that said - the machine came w/out a portafilter, so I'm needing to pick up a portafilter before I get started. Breville sells a 50mm portafilter that appears to be pressurized (http://www.brevilleusa.com/50mm-portafi ... 820xl.html) I could go the easy route & just pick that up & grab the Breville filter baskets as well, but... I'm wondering if I can push the machine a bit farther. I've heard of people using parts from the La Pavoni Millenium machines on these (specifically the filter basket http://www.amazon.com/La-Pavoni-Milleni ... B00IAEQJTO) - wondering if that might be a better option then the stock baskets...

Does anyone have any experience modding the 800ESXL, (swapping out filter baskets, or even the portafilter?)

Thanks in advance for the advice!

I think new machine came with 4 different Filter Baskets. Do you have only 1?

I actually purchased a used model, and the previous owner had lost the filter baskets, so I currently don't have any.

I did actually just stumble across some single-wall (depressurized) filters for the Breville (from the manufacturer - www.brevilleusa.com/single-wall-filters.html) which I'll just go ahead and purchase.