Hi there,

As the title says, I'm looking to upgrade my portafilter basket for my Elektra MCaL, which I bought this past year. The stick basket is fine, and I'm pulling good shots, but I'm just curious about the difference this basket can make, as the difference was noticeable with my Gaggia Classic.

I'm pretty sure the model I want is the IMS B582TH29E competition basket. However, I can't find it available anywhere in Canada. Do any of you Canadian lever users know where I could get one without doubling the cost because of shipping costs? If no better solutions come up, I'll probably eventually order one from Stefano's.

Thanks!

Yes, it would be for a bottomless portafilter, so the 29mm basket wouldn't pose a problem.

a lot of the bottomless baskets are not perfectly open on the bottom so a tall basket cannot always 'stick out' as it runs into a small lip.

you will find with the weaker spring on the elektra a large basket doesn't yield that great of shots. You can fellini move your way into a larger shot but each lever pull will send super heated water into the chamber that will increase the temps a lot. So 1 fellini is probably all on a medium to dark and maybe 2 on a light roast I've found. I have a teflon spacer to help with stability but fellinis overide this heatbreak since the water arrives through the dipper tube.

If you think an elektra single is really only 6(up to -8gr) or so and a double is 12-14, then 16-18 like a strietman basket is or IMS tall is really a triple which is more in the commercial lever piston size category.

The most important part of this machine is temp management and slow infill of water as the rush of water easily distrubs the puck and so there are many tricks to lower just right to that whisper type sound and let it feed a bit of water in slowly. A disc puck screen does seem to help a lot.

That's a good point, thanks. The stock basket is around 25mm, it seems (I could only find an imperial measuring tape just now), and I definitely wouldn't want a deeper basket. So I guess the 22mm one would be a better choice.

I don't like the quality of shots with the fellini move....

I think a small fellini right after preinfusion does the least disruption and sort of refills the chamber after the preinfused water has saturated the puck

i am debating doing a double spring on this machine as discussed in old forum posts. It is not necessary as the machine makes great shots but I wouldn't mind another bar or or 1.5bar boost.

There is a deeper option as you are mentioning for both the portafilter (in the Chrome with Pavoni sharing looks and definitely in the Brass original MC leva version and the basket,
we in Oregon and other espresso parts supplier sell and stock and no necessary have any marketplace with Amazon