Hi Jason.
Renate at Strietman has gotten back to me and confirmed that the machine is all solid brass, SS etc.

They suggest that some copper can leach to the surface of the brass if an overly strong citric acid mix is used to descale.
I haven't descaled it at all but I don't think the previous owner treated it quite as well as I do.

I use rainwater with a particulate filter and a "BWT bestmin B" filter.
This was advised after my water was tested by Bombora specialists in Sydney.

My concern was that I would remove a brass coating by polishing it off if that is what it was.
No problems with that now so I'll have it back together soon.

Hello! I just joined the club!

Actually acquired two levers in the last month. I was wondering about outside care. I have the polish paste, and Walter packed some grease with the machine but how and when to use it?

The manual mentioned putting some grease over the group and copper parts, do I do it immediately? Like put a small amount on a clean cloth and rub it in? Or when to do it?

Also did you guys treat wood with something like bee wax? I went with Zebro wood at the end...

Welcome to the club! The light film of grease helps minimize tarnishing of the brass and copper

Thank you, ok so to apply now, understood. I am getting the hang of the machine. Mostly I need to get used to the workflow. Mostly thinking about emptying baskets, the fact that I would like that tamper is just a bit wider etc. Other then that I am getting solid cups.

The supplied tamper might actually aid in edge extraction.

Kindly informing the group on a new (rumoured?) Strietman product. Meet the Strietman IMS Competition basket with a Super Fine Mesh Filter welded to the bottom which is now on the website!

It's particularly suited for big flat burr grinders which produce little amounts of fines. I am going to try them on my conical Niche Zero. In case they don't work well with a conical grinder, another option is looking at 49mm IMS competition baskets without the added mesh for old-group Pavonis that recently became available (will try as this well and keep you updated). Or, splurging on a Sworks design 49mm 200$ plus cnc-machined basket when they come out.

Greetings from London

New Strietman Mesh basket: https://www.strietman.net/shop/p/ims-co ... ter-basket
Pavoni 49mm IMS competetion basket: https://www.bluestarcoffee.eu/en/gb/IMS ... -5518.aspx (10% on email signup)
Sworks design 49mm : https://sworksdesign.com/Billet-Basket-p515767358

I've been using the Strietman IMS Competition basket with a Super Fine Mesh Filter for over 3 months now and love it. I think I've pulled around 200 shots with it. It's a bit taller and has very sharp corners at the bottom like the Weber Unibasket instead of the normal rounded edges on the standard Strietman basket and most other filterbaskets. It can hold 1gr more then the standard Strietman basket as I've been dosing more like 16gr instead of 15gr on the standard basket.





Shots pull great with more body then on a normal basket and pours look great. Pulling light espresso roasts with a nice looking pour just went super easy and it's like if you're pulling dark roasts. Somehow that mesh filter does this and shots taste great with more body and mouthfeel so it makes the Strietman even more easy to pull great shots with. It does seem to blend flavour a tiny bit as with the standard filterbasket I did get more pronounced tasting notes but a lot less body and mouthfeel.

I've used it on both my EG-1 and Commandante with light and medium espresso roasts and it just does a superb job. It does need a finer grind then the normal Strietman basket (16gr on the mesh filter is same grind setting as 14gr on the standard basket). Been switching back and forth between both but keep coming back to this new filterbasket as it performs so good. I love it that we 49mm lovers have more and more high-end filterbaskets like 58mm. Wouter did a great job here and I'll be ordering more of these baskets. It's a very welcome upgrade to an already great machine and other 49mm espresso machines can also benefit from this nice new filterbasket.

The only downside is that pucks come out very hard as they seem to stick a bit but I take that for granted for what it delivers. You have to knock it out pretty hard for the puck to come out. After using it a couple of months it does seem to get a lot better but just to give you a heads-up.

Would love if you had all three of those baskets and could give us a review.

I was ready to pick up a couple of the new Strietman baskets but want something a bit bigger than 14g.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences.

The Strietman IMS Competition basket with a Super Fine Mesh Filter as that was what Nemos posted.

Gpinch1 wrote:Would love if you had all three of those baskets and could give us a review.

I was ready to pick up a couple of the new Strietman baskets but want something a bit bigger than 14g.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences.

I'll probably never buy the Billet basket because I see no use for it for me. I don't use extremely light filter roasts for espresso. If it would be a really significant improvement then I would consider it but reading through what others have experienced with all of these very high end baskets is that they only perform better in very extreme situations and even then they only perform marginally better. New toys are always fun but $300 dollar after taxes and import duties is just way too much if it doesn't offer a very large improvement.

The Strietman IMS Competition basket with a Super Fine Mesh Filter is a great filterbasket and I wouldn't like to be without it as I do think it's that good and the standard double was already very good. Having the ability to dose 16gr instead of 14.5-15gr in the normal basket is nice and dosing more doesn't make sense on a 49mm basket as it becomes too tall and that impacts extraction in a negative way. I do think both the standard as the new mesh filter both have there specific use cases as they both give great results.

I did update my post with some more information.