Cleaning the Portafilter Basket

#1: Post by **goalerjones** » December 7th, 2018, 5:13 pm

In my travels looking for ways to clean my clogged portafilter basket, I came across this post and tried it. It worked, but I'm wondering, are there any long-term consequences to this approach?

I alone on the planet seem to have solved the endless problem of cleaning the fine holes of an espresso portafilter, or a Moka express fine steam filter. None of the liquid or abrasive cleaning apps work, period. Instead, in the past, one had to use a pin to poke out the minute holes - task so laborious and hopeless than most espresso and Moka machines in the world are hampered by limited filtration.

No longer. The pin-holes are plugged with coffee fibre, which burns. Place the filter over a gas flame, either side, for 10 minutes, tapping it with tongs occasionally, and bingo... A CLEAN FILTER. All the minute coffee fibre plugs burn or pop out. Best to use a small coffee pot rack on top of your smallest hob gas burner for this. And metal tongs.

Will I be knighted for this?

link to whole thread here https://cooking.stackexchange.com/quest ... ortafilter

#2: Post by **JohnB.** » December 7th, 2018, 6:14 pm

If you rinsed the basket/pf after each shot you'd never have clogged holes. Must be pretty damn clogged if you have to burn it out!!

#3: Post by **emradguy** » December 7th, 2018, 6:36 pm

Exactly. Clogged holes only come from serious negligence. Rinsing off the basket takes a few seconds. Can anyone really be so lazy or in a hurry as to find that too laborious or time consuming?

#4: Post by **jgood** » December 7th, 2018, 6:50 pm

I doubt this is a good idea!

#5: Post by **RockyIII** » December 7th, 2018, 7:52 pm

That has got to be a joke.

Rocky

#6: Post by **bgn** » December 7th, 2018, 8:06 pm

I have to use a pin once in a while for my group shower screen on my lever. The commercial cleaners (Cafiza)takes the stain off, but not the holes plugged with oils.

#7: Post by **Jake_G** » December 7th, 2018, 8:15 pm

emradguy wrote:Exactly. Clogged holes only come from serious negligence. Rinsing off the basket takes a few seconds. Can anyone really be so lazy or in a hurry as to find that too laborious or time consuming?

Buy a used consumer grade espresso machine to see how bad it can be

This is a reasonable approach for quick rehab of a neglected machine.

Cheers!

- Jake

December 9th, 2018, 8:06 pm

I rinse my basket after each use, but recently have increased my daily use, and found the basket (stock from Quickmill) about 30% blocked when looking thru the holes. Other than some discoloration of the basket, this actually works very well. My only concern was for potential weakness from flame exposure.

#9: Post by **jgood** » December 9th, 2018, 8:26 pm

The discoloration is obviously a reaction to the heat and affects the "temper" of the steel. Steel is tempered and annealed to balance various factors (hardness, brittleness, ductility, corrosion resistance etc.) depending on it's use, so I doubt that the basket will be improved by "retempering" randomly. Whether this presents practical problems is beyond my pay grade but I would assume a little soaking and use of a bristle brush would be a gentler approach to cleaning a basket.

December 10th, 2018, 11:03 pm

You can't harden 300 series stainless steel through heat treating. Heating can soften it, but it only hardens by work hardening, which in this case would be the drawing process. In any case, I agree that cleaning with detergent and a brush is preferable to heating with a gas flame for 10 minutes.

Rocky