Thank you for this detailed info. You have sold me. Will go order some from Wouter now.

Corgo wrote:Just a note to anyone else that may read through this thread regarding the portafilter being difficult to insert. Mine came slightly difficult to insert with the basket and I also noticed that water would seem to leak between the grouphead gasket as water was coming out the side of the basket and portafilter. I took the grouphead gasket out, relubed it, and put it back in. The portafilter now inserts much easier and I did not notice leaks between the basket and portafilter anymore. Not sure if these just sat too long and maybe the lube dried up? The grouphead gasket was slightly sticky but didn't really have any noticeable lube on it.

My portafilter is now very hard to lock. Anyone else tried this, is this the solution?

My portafilter is now very hard to lock.

Hmmm - was it easier previously, with the same, empty, basket?

kidloco wrote:My portafilter is now very hard to lock. Anyone else tried this, is this the solution?

I had that problem and I solved it by putting a used-old gasket from my Cremina, it fits better than the original Strietman o-ring and is softer and no more leaks.

The Strietman group gasket is 5.5mm thick and the Crimena is 7mm. Does it fit?

Fits perfectly but with a bit of work with the sandpaper.

You're right, Strietman is 5'50 and very tough.
Cremina, which is nominally 7'00, is actually 6'75 and much softer.
I had forgotten that the old one from Cremina was 6'30 and I reduced it with sandpaper to 6'00.
I think a new one will have a little more work to reduce it.

kidloco wrote:My portafilter is now very hard to lock. Anyone else tried this, is this the solution?

Happens to me every 3 weeks and is a sign I need to clean my portafilter. The fit is so snug that a bit of scale can already make it hard to lock in. I usually brush the top off with a dishwashing brush and it's fine again.

Erik, I can't picture what your portafilter looks like with scale. I do use a Q-tip on the group gasket.

My new strietman mesh basket came in. I was afraid of grounds getting stuck in the mesh liner. So I placed paper bottom. Clean after shot clean up.

I then pulled a shot without paper bottom. There are now fines stuck in the mesh. I tried rinsing it out as much as I could. But it's still in there.

I'm using a Lagom P64 MPv2 burrs.

Any tips on removing fine ground in the mesh lining?

John49 wrote:Erik, I can't picture what your portafilter looks like with scale. I do use a Q-tip on the group gasket.

It's black stuff on the brass and if you brush it with a dishwash brush it comes off a bit and then I'm fine. You can also lube the upright pieces of the portafilter a bit.

jley08 wrote:My new strietman mesh basket came in. I was afraid of grounds getting stuck in the mesh liner. So I placed paper bottom. Clean after shot clean up.

I then pulled a shot without paper bottom. There are now fines stuck in the mesh. I tried rinsing it out as much as I could. But it's still in there.

I'm using a Lagom P64 MPv2 burrs.

Any tips on removing fine ground in the mesh lining?

Takes a bit of getting used to but I just rinse it under the tap and everything is clean. It did take me a couple of tries to get the right technique as you need to flush everything out of the top keeping the basket in a 45 degree angle using a pretty big stream of water. It works so just keep trying. These types of baskets just need more maintenance and cleaning (as did the Reneka Microsieve) but they do work well. And a tiny bit of fines left there doesn't do anything so don't overthink it.

And using a paper filter just doesn't work as the mesh filter is the paper filter so then you could just use the stock basket instead. That's the whole point of having this filterbasket.