Posted Sat Nov 26, 2011, 4:44pm Subject: Re: bottomless portafilter for Olympia cremina
When I first saw this I thought it was an item for sale. Now that I see you are looking for one I'll have to tell you that you'll almost never find one for sale. A Penney bottomless is one of the finest crafted espresso items you'll find. Yes, $150 is steep, but when you see it in person you'll find it to be a bargain. If you really want one, just bite the bullet and order it from OrphanEspresso. You'll never regret it.
Posted Sat Nov 26, 2011, 5:13pm Subject: Re: bottomless portafilter for Olympia cremina
uscfroadie Said:
When I first saw this I thought it was an item for sale. Now that I see you are looking for one I'll have to tell you that you'll almost never find one for sale. A Penney bottomless is one of the finest crafted espresso items you'll find. Yes, $150 is steep, but when you see it in person you'll find it to be a bargain. If you really want one, just bite the bullet and order it from OrphanEspresso. You'll never regret it.
+1. It's kinda expensive at first but it's almost worth it eventually, because you will always be using it (at least in my case). Another possibility is to chop your stock portafilter into a bottomless one. It's cheaper but you don't have the luxury of going back into a spouted pf when you want to. If you're not sure about doing it yourself, just ask around here and I think, there'll be someone around here that is willing to help out. Good luck!
Endo Senior Member Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 804 Location: , location, location. Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: machine is < important than... Grinder: !
Posted Sat Nov 26, 2011, 8:15pm Subject: Re: bottomless portafilter for Olympia cremina
I bought a new Olympia PF and simply had OE cut a hole in it for an extra $15. This way I keep my original PF.
Ends up being a bit more than the Penney, but I find it looks nicer since it matches the chrome grouphead much better. And also it won't wear the expensive group as quickly.
Endo Senior Member Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 804 Location: , location, location. Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: machine is < important than... Grinder: !
Posted Sun Nov 27, 2011, 11:47am Subject: Re: bottomless portafilter for Olympia cremina
Bottomless is fun, but it has a few problems.
1 - It's hard to see it on a lever machine due to body position (I use a shot mirror). 2 - It's less effective as a heat sink if you use it to cool down the grouphead.
Although there is a nice workaround. I use the bottomless for shots and keep the regular PF in cold water for cool downs.
Using a bottomless portafilter, it would give you feedbacks (channeling, spritzer, or slanted flow etc) to hint whether you've done anything wrong in dosing/distribution. So from that feedbacks, you can improve/modify your workflow/technique to help develop a technique that gives you consistent and superior result.
uscfroadie Said:
What????? Why do you think the Penney will wear your group? Mine fits just as well as the original Cremina.
That's probably because stainless steel is a harder material as compared to the material(brass?) of the group. But so far there's no proof or evidence that it actually wears the group head at all. Plus, most(me) don't even tighten the pf super tight so I suspect even if there's an effect, it would only show after centuries of use. Haha. So I guess Endo is taking an extra precaution just to be on the safe side.
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