How bad is scraping the portafilter basket?

#1: Post by **faberic** » February 4th, 2007, 4:08 am

Hello everybody, i'm new(b)!

So what I'd like to say first is that I like this forum

But I got a very strange situation here. I'm only 16 years old (got addicted very soon after birth) and a few years ago I started to wonder how I could make the best cappuccino ever and I discovered that I had a pretty good machine at home (my parents bought it), an Isomac Itala, the very unknown sister of the Isomac Zaffiro. I also discovered that the poor thing must have never ever made a proper espresso in his life here...

Now I've got a nice cheap grinder, gaggia MDF, for a while, and I came to read something about cleaning. So I immediately ordered some stuff to clean the machine thoroughly. How happy she was!

The only problem is this: my mother won't clean the portafilter after making her very weird 5oz untamped shots. And if I ask her to do it, and the coffee is in there for some time, she scrapes the filter with a knife to get the coffee out of it!

My question: How bad is this? Can this be the cause of some side-channeling stuff or something? The coffee blonds very rapidly (there's a topic about that already). I'm thinking of buying a bottomless portafilter for myself, because I think the old one is ruined after many years of bad use...

sorry for the story but I thought it might be quite funny

#2: Post by **another_jim** » February 4th, 2007, 5:11 am

My guess is that you'd be well advised to invest in a personal basket.

#3: Post by **chardinej** » February 4th, 2007, 7:51 am

Is that 5 oz of coffee grounds or 5 oz of fluid?!

I don't have a knock box and so use a round-edged metal spoon to dig out the used grinds from the filter then rinse with water. If you do this gently I don't see a problem. I can't see even a pointed knife being able to open up the holes in the filter and cause more flow. Filters made for good machines like yours seem to be well made and so long as they are not dented and the rounded top edge stays perfectly flat they should last forever. Having said this filters are cheap to buy so maybe you should have your own. How about giving your parents some espresso lessons!

John

#4: Post by HB » February 4th, 2007, 9:13 am

faberic wrote:The only problem is this: my mother won't clean the portafilter after making her very weird 5oz untamped shots. And if I ask her to do it, and the coffee is in there for some time, she scrapes the filter with a knife to get the coffee out of it!

Maybe she will accept a better method of dislodging old pucks? Dunk the portafilter in a bowl, let it soak for a minute, after which the puck will knock out easily. Or invest in several baskets and remove the retainer clip. Then she can simply turn over the baked portafilter basket into the sink and get a fresh basket from the drawer.

If she simply must scrape, find a hard plastic kitchen implement that suits her fancy. I hope she's at least removing the portafilter and not letting coffee bake onto the screen. That's a lot harder to remove. Clean equipment = better coffee.

From Espresso Machine Cleaning - Why, How, and When