Silicone portafilter gasket for Nuova Simonelli Oscar is great!

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bluesman
Posts: 1594
Joined: 10 years ago

#1: Post by bluesman »

It's been about 10 months since I changed the grouphead gasket on Oscar. I'd bought 3 more standard rubber ones last year because there was no silicone version available for my machine. But (ever the optimist!) I checked again before doing the job and discovered that Cafelat now has one for Oscar. So I ordered 3, as I was concerned about reports of easy damage during installation.

Never fear: these slip in as smoothly as microfoam flowing across the tongue! And they seal perfectly with very light pressure on the PF handle - it offers so little resistance to seating that I was tempted to overtighten it. But I fitted the blind basket first and discovered that it seals completely without forcing at all. The "softness" of the resistance to rotation of the pf handle was a bit disconcerting, and it took me the better part of the weekend (I did this on Saturday) to get used to it. But by this morning's second cappuccino, I felt right at home.

Every time I replaced a standard rubber pf gasket, I had to lever it slowly and firmly a few times with the PF to get it to seat and seal completely. And the pf handle would slowly migrate rightward a bit from 6 o'clock over a year or so to seal fully, as the rim impressed a recessed channel into the gasket. Heat shouldn't affect the silicone at all, so I expect the seal to remain stable in strength and position over time. So far, I love it!

LukeFlynn
Posts: 1293
Joined: 10 years ago

#2: Post by LukeFlynn »

I really love Silicon gaskets. I believe the BDB uses one, it was a year old, and I'm sure it would've lasted another year had the machine not bit the dust.