Laruso is ok to deal with, I would call on the phone to make your order. The person I dealt with says this price is a limited time offer but I just looked and its still at this price. Free shipping and they only charge GST a plus for me being in Quebec.
I will play around more but my initial impressions are the double basket is useless, I dose it all the way grind a fine as possible and my shots are watery and the pump reach 5 bars max, single basket I am getting consistent 8.5 - 9 bars and average 20-25 second shots.
you're wrong there, mate. as we have been raving about our BDB's, and rightly so, you shouldn't think for a minute that breville has overlooked proper design of it's baskets--and they haven't. in fact, the breville baskets are made to highest standards of quality control, as we have seen in earlier posts. it is doubtful that even VST baskets are higher quality, (just different design). bubbadude has given you good advice about going back to basics to figure out why your shots are too fast. grind not fine enough is the first path to follow.
coffeesykes Said:
I have ordered a VST 18 gr double basket so I can tamp properly.
wrong again. you or anyone can tamp properly with the breville baskets. you just have to understand tapered baskets . they are a tapered wall basket. but they are not that way because breville is stupid. they have advantages. advantages that some of us like, such as a nice, easy, clean release into the knock box . anyhow, the key to getting a good tamp from a tapered basket is to have the right amount of beans in the basket--neither too much or too little. a lot of us have good luck with 18.0 grams, (which means NOT 17.5 or 18.5). not to mention that a whole gram of delta from one shot to another is not in keeping with geek standards.
I do love Coffeegeek people. I appreciate the feedback, I have packed the double basket with as much as coffee as it will take, I assume my Baratza Maestro cannot go fine enough, will retry things with Azkoyen dosing grinder, its does very fine grind. Like I said I just starting playing with machine, I can always us the VST basket on my Nuova Simonelli. Will post my results.
The Maestro is "iffy" at best for espresso, and nowhere near consistent enough for VST baskets. The Azkoyen may fare better but I'm not familiar with the model you have so I cannot say for sure.
It's not just how fine the grind is. Most great espresso grinders exhibit a (consistent) particular bimodal particle size distribution.
What's the difference between a "different design" and a "different technology?"
They're both made out of metal with holes in the bottom. The Breville baskets have a smaller number of very regular round holes and a wall at an obtuse angle to the floor. The VSTs have more holes with a less regular shape and a wall at a right angle to the floor. The VST is a faster basket than the Breville (has less resistance to the flow) so any grind/dose that gushes in the Breville will gush in the VST.
"I've Scaced many HX/E61 machines, seeing shot variances of up to 8-10F or more. [The BDB] stays within 1F." - Mark Prince
What's the difference between a "different design" and a "different technology?"
They're both made out of metal with holes in the bottom. The Breville baskets have a smaller number of very regular round holes and a wall at an obtuse angle to the floor. The VSTs have more holes with a less regular shape and a wall at a right angle to the floor. The VST is a faster basket than the Breville (has less resistance to the flow) so any grind/dose that gushes in the Breville will gush in the VST.
The VST basket has been engineered to an incredible level of precision. The basket is centered to with a millimeter and the holes are consistent to within 20 micrometers.
The hole pattern in the VST basket is specifically designed for even extraction. If you're getting that much of a gush, you might want look more at your grind or tamp.
So you're calling the QC process a "technology" and the actual product a "design?" That's interesting. I've seen pictures of the Breville basket's holes under high magnification, and it sure doesn't look there's a whole lot to improve on.
And having used both the Breville basket and both the 18g and 22g VSTs, I don't taste much difference either. The advantage of the Breville basket over the VST to me is that it's easier to knock the puck out, and the disadvantage is that the dosing has to be precise.
agoldberg Said:
If you're getting that much of a gush, you might want look more at your grind or tamp.
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