Hi there:

I have a La Spaz S1 at work now. One of the quirks of the machine is that the dispersion block and screen stick down quite far into the portafilter. This reduces the internal volume of the basket, and also disturbs the top of the coffee cake, if the basket is filled particularly full. The disturbed surface seems to promote channeling. Consequently the La Spaz does not like to be updosed at all. UK barista champ, James Hoffman, mentioned to me that La Spaz makes several dispersion disks. A call to La Spaz in the USA confirmed this. The very helpful folks there pointed me in the right direction and sold me a dispersion disk a coupla millimeters thinner than the stock one. The benefit is that i can cram a little more coffee into the basket now - a good thing as far as I can tell.

The dispersion block is the thinnest of the three blocks made by La Spaz. The S1 is currently supplied with the middle thickness. Cost was 27 bucks including shipping and COD fee.

-Greg (Yeah, yeah, I crossposted this at alt.coffee too) Scace

I noticed the same tendency during the review and Chris sourced a thinner one. It's been over two years, but I think the replacement was 14mm versus the stock. Is that correct? To my knowledge, the thinner one I used during the evaluation is the same one sold as stock today. Prior to the thinner dispersion block, the dose was 14-15 grams; it was 17-18 grams afterward.

HB wrote:I noticed the same tendency during the review and Chris sourced a thinner one. It's been over two years, but I think the replacement was 14mm versus the stock. Is that correct? To my knowledge, the thinner one I used during the evaluation is the same one sold as stock today. Prior to the thinner dispersion block, the dose was 14-15 grams; it was 17-18 grams afterward.

I'll make measurements on Monday to see which one I'm using and which one is stock.

gscace wrote:A call to La Spaz in the USA confirmed this. The very helpful folks there pointed me in the right direction and sold me a dispersion disk a coupla millimeters thinner than the stock one. The benefit is that i can cram a little more coffee into the basket now - a good thing as far as I can tell.

The dispersion block is the thinnest of the three blocks made by La Spaz. The S1 is currently supplied with the middle thickness. Cost was 27 bucks including shipping and COD fee.

Greg:

Can you provide some LaSpaz contact info (email and/or phone) and perhaps the specific product number/code?

- Tom

Can you give me the contact info?
md

Try them here: La Spaziale USA