Elektra Microcasa a Leva double basket in La Pavoni

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thebentern
Posts: 5
Joined: 10 years ago

#1: Post by thebentern »

Pavoni Euro / Pro users who have the double MCAL and the double Pavoni basket, I'm curious to hear your comparison of them. Did you have to change grind or anything differently with the MCAL basket, other than the obvious increased dosing since it's a larger basket?

Thanks!

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rpavlis
Posts: 1799
Joined: 12 years ago

#2: Post by rpavlis »

I use Elektra MCAL basket from time to time on my 1999 Europiccola with 1974-2000 group, and the 12mm threaded portafilter. Some coffees are less dense than others, and using the Elektra basket on the Pavoni is especially a good thing to do with those.

The earlier portafilters with the 10mm threaded rod connexion to the handle cannot use the MCAL basket. (Again the post 2000 group La Pavonis are 52mm, so they cannot be used either.)

Apparently becauses tolerances are not super close on la Pavoni portafilters, some 12mm threaded portafilters may have difficulty with the MCAL basket. Some have carefully deepened them with things like the round ball dremel tool.

Some have chopped them to make them into Naked ones, but I do not do irreversible modifications of expensive parts without a good reason. I still regard naked portafilters as test devices, not for day to day use. Others vehemently disagree with that accessment.

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grog
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#3: Post by grog »

thebentern, what year is your LP? The early portafilters accommodate the Elektra double basket no problem (I have a 1963 and I only use the Elektra double with it). As rpavlis notes, it's tricky with later models as to if it will fit or not and you basically have to get one and just see if it fits.

I don't do anything different with the grind relative to other baskets - it's just a larger dose.
LMWDP #514

thebentern (original poster)
Posts: 5
Joined: 10 years ago

#4: Post by thebentern (original poster) »

thebentern, what year is your LP?
It's a '90s LP Professional, but I modified the portafilter to bottomless. So fit shouldn't be an issue. 8)

taildraggin
Posts: 35
Joined: 10 years ago

#5: Post by taildraggin »

I have a '93 Europiccolo with a 10mm-handled basket and it does (barely) take the MCAL 1x and 2x filter. Dosing begins at 8-8.5g and 16-16.5g, respectively.

The 2x is easy to tamp (I'm relatively light in this).

Tamping the to the 'shoulder' of the 1x basket is the trick with these, I believe. My method has been to mound in the middle and try to get the volume to bottom around the basket 'shoulder' (fewer grounds) at the same time the tamp gets to the 'right' pressure in the center. It's a bit of feel, trial and error.

-Charlie

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rpavlis
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Joined: 12 years ago

#6: Post by rpavlis »

I have six 49mm diameter double filter baskets. There are two that are the shortest that were certainly made for La Pavonis.

There are three that are taller, they, I am sure, were made for the Elektra MCAL

I have never figured out whether the sixth one is supposed to be used for MCALs or La Pavonis! It fits the MCAL, the 10mm threaded La Pavoni, and the 12mm threaded La Pavoni portafilters. It is about half way between the depth of the La Pavoni ones and the Elektra MCAL ones!