Anyone else feel like they are cheating with a portafilter screen? I went from using the Cafalet paper filters to now a metal screen I got off amazon. My shots come out perfect, no channeling or wet pucks. But am I sacrificing anything by using them?

I feel like its made life a lot easier and cleaner. Has anyone gone away from using them?

Cheating? I'm not in a competition with rules that I have to follow - I'm in pursuit of making delicious espresso. I much prefer the results with the metal mesh screen and haven't found that I'm sacrificing anything. For me it's been all positive.

I don't use the metal filters but I do cut aeropress filters slightly to fit on top, mainly b/c with the BDB and profiling especially long PI the puck really expands and will make a mess or stick to the group when unlocking (or I've seen channeling if puck fractured badly against the screen, I mean you can even see the indent in the filter). I noticed it did create a bit of a barrier meaning same grind setting, it'll take longer to flow.

I got a Migoozi screen from Amazon for $15. and it is great. No impact on my shots and prevents upstream contamination in my L Elizabeth. Works great.

I want to piggyback off this - Since using the BPlus screen I've noticed the flow start from the center and expand to the entire puck within one second. Does this mean I have centre channeling going on or is it the ideal situation?

"Wetting" and "channeling" are two, different things, at least to me.

"Channeling" is more of a dynamic thing, It is when the flow through the puck gets very uneven, spatially. One way of thinking of it is that there's a hole in the puck and the water is rushing through it, rather than through the bed around it.

"Wetting" is the process by which the dry grinds get wet as the basket fills. If you've got side-to-side differences, that is probably something that could be improved. Center out, outside in, or other radially symmetric patterns, as long as relatively quick, may or may not make a difference. Your basket's taper and hole coverage on the bottom may make a bigger difference than what you can see.

Uneven wetting can lead to channeling later on, as parts of the puck might present different resistance to flow.

I wouldn't call it cheating either...if so, then using a leveling tamper is cheating of the highest form. So it's a form of perfecting our craft in one way or another. Using the top screen was an interesting journey for me. I thought it was going to slow down my extractions (and I wanted it too, just like the LMLM guys)...but all my extractions, over several coffees, did not change even by one second. However, the reason I continue to use it is for the cleanliness factor...everything above the screen remains absolutely spotless (shower screen, group gasket). And all my pucks pop out of the pf dry and with ease. As for the screen itself, I've found that a few gentle taps on my counter top removes it from the spent grounds and then I use my knock box for the grounds. No fishing for a hot metal screen down inside my knock box.

exidrion wrote:I want to piggyback off this - Since using the BPlus screen I've noticed the flow start from the center and expand to the entire puck within one second. Does this mean I have centre channeling going on or is it the ideal situation?

And just to add to what Jeff said (which I totally agree with), if this wetting is moving to cover the entire basket bottom in one second, I'd say you're golden. Certainly center first then outward is probably better than outer perimeter inward (donut extractions are way too easy and totally unwanted). I would recommend watching the whole extraction several times to make sure you are seeing the entire wetting of the basket from center to perimeter with no "gaps" forming.

I continue to use mine, but I wouldn't miss it, I don't think.

An interesting thing about it that I don't know what it means, but whenever the pour is perfect the screen removes nice and solidly from the puck. When the pour is uneven or there is channeling the puck either sticks to the screen or the puck is soupy. Every time. (Ok, I might not take the greatest care making my wife's two to-go shots every morning so this is when it might happen!) The DE1 doesn't have the three-way valve that sometimes dries out the puck so maybe it's not evident on most machines. And it's not telling me anything I don't already know from watching the shot or seeing its timing. But it's Interesting.

Yeah, I think I get more even pours with it and it does keep things cleaner. The hassle of removing it isn't worse overall than the hassle of brushing the group clean (which I don't do anymore now that I use the screen). So I'll stick with it!