Do filter baskets degrade with use?

by **cai42** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:59 am

Greetings,

How do you know if you have to replace your filter basket?

Cliff Isackson

by **Spironski** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:05 am

When there are grinds in your coffeecup, either the holes in you filter are too big or your grind too fine. So when the grind is right and there are still grinds in your cup, it must be the filter!

I think a little grind in your cup is okay, though.

by **shadowfax** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:01 am

I believe that most baskets are made from stamped stainless steel. They may need to be scrubbed pretty regularly, as the oils do seem to discolor the bottom side of the filter ever so slightly even if you are an anal cleaner like me, but they will probably last longer than your boiler. They won't corrode and should not deform.

by **cannonfodder** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:32 am

They will wear out, but in a home environment it will take many, many years. In a café where the same basket pulls a couple hundred shots a day they will wear quicker and need replaced every year or so (educated guess). The holes will slowly grow from erosion.

by HB on Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:40 am

If baskets wear out, I've never noticed.

by **cannonfodder** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:51 am

Barry has (or had) a stack of them in his basement lab from his shop. They were worn out baskets. You could hold them to the light alongside a new basket and see a very noticeable difference in the hole size. Personally, I have never worn a basket out; I have worn the chrome out of a few portafilters, but never a basket.

by **zin1953** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:23 am

Ditto. (And some of my baskets are 15+ years old!)

by **another_jim** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:22 pm

I don't know about the holes wearing. However, over time, the bottom of the basket starts sagging or bowing down, probably from being tamped inside the PF (I tamp the baskets outside the pf, with the bottoms resting on a mat, and they have stayed flat). The bowed bottom will distort the hole profile. Whether this affect the shot or not I don't know; it would make a good experiment.

by **TimEggers** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:32 pm

Watching the basket closely I've seen the basket bow from the pressure of the shot making. Could this lead to basket wear via flexing?

by **Spironski** on Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:26 pm

Water being the fluid that it is, wouldn't mind that the holes are at a slightly different angle, I guess. But let's remember the OP asked how one would know when the basket is worn. Or do we tell him that basket never wear out?
I have poked the holes of my filter with a toothpick once, in the early days :oops:

. Purpose was to clean them, but afterwards I got grinds in my cup, they became just too wide.


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