haunce wrote:Ah yeah, in the portafilter it has a cut out for what looks like where a pin/clip would be installed like a normal portafilter so the basket is held in place in the portafilter. Just wondering if anyone installed one/which to buy that would work!

gotcha. from my perspective the pin is superfluous, but i have my own way of doing things, so perhaps it could come in handy in some cases. in any case, i think he sells one on his website but for the double spout, not sure if its the same as a spring pin: https://shop.strietman.net/product/doub ... lterholder

It's not possible to get a spring that holds the filterbaket in place. The cut out is for the double spout and not for the filter basket.

is anyone else finding that with the larger (18g) basket and lighter roast profiles, you get the best results with the CT1 by having a roughly 15 second pre-infusion and a longer extraction, roughly 45 seconds? (total of roughly 1 minute including that pre-infusion stage)

im personally finding that with ~18.5g of ground coffee, ~15 second light pressure pre-infusion, then a slow/steady ramp up to ~9 bar, ~45 second pour after that preinfusion, and pulling the lever all the way down, roughly 36-38g of espresso output, i get the best extraction of flavors.

is anyone finding results radically different from this?
(its been about a year now that i've had the CT1, and ive landed on this "recipe guideline" through a relatively large array of trial and error.)

P.S. ive never really used the 15g basket because i just prefer pulling bigger/richer shots, akin to what i would get if i went to my favorite coffee shops.

I do something similar with the 15g basket filled with 17.5g: 5sec no pressure preinfusion, 10-15sec low pressure pre infusion and then 30-40sec pull for the full volume of the CT. The results are great and also look beautiful

The tall 18gr basket in combination with only 49mm does need a different profile as it hasn't got an optimal height to width ratio. Long PI helps get the extractions more uniform and greatly improves shot quality. So yes your observation is good.

I most of the time use the 15gr basket as it has the better height to width ratio for more uniform extractions. With light roasts you need to do long PI so it's easier to use the 18gr basket whereas medium/darker roasts tend to overextract or not be so uniform when doing a long PI. That's the trade-off of having a 49mm group.

I have my CT1 for over 2,5 years and pulled over 2500 shots with it. I almost exclusively use light and medium roasts.

They do not show a price since the current version is sold out.

That was the CT1 selling for?

Thanks,

Max./

The price on the web site is €1820+€50.

Thanks, I guess I didn't look in enough places.

Decent&fair price for the quality.

Max./

Max, it's a work of art (modern), incredibly and precisely put together. As a bonus, it makes TERRIFIC coffee!

It really is an amazing machine. It's so robust, simplistic, and stable, not to mention maintenance is minimal. If you are a pure espresso drinker, this would be the ideal machine in many respects.

Question about workflow for all the CT1 folks out there:
- Do you find that there is a difference if you pre-heat the portafilter by locking it in during some/all of the heat-up time? (for me i think i get better results if I lock it in for the last 2 or 3 heat-up cycles)
- Do you find that you get better results by letting the machine heat up longer than the user manual figure of 8min? (for me I found that 15-20min yields better results due to increase temp stability)
- Does the water in the boiler appear to come to a full boil briefly/momentarily during the first few heat-up cycles? (for me yes it does, but after about 12-15min this stops occurring)
- Do you find that timing the shots with the heat cycle (i.e. begin shot when red light ignites) yields better results? (for me yes it does)
- Lastly, has anyone come up with clever ways to minimize the idle time between grinding and starting the shot given the above timing restraints? (i just wait for the last heat-up cycle to be about 1/3 done (pure guesstimate) and then I grind the beans)

Thank for very much for any and all insight on the above guys!

Best,
Chris