Blind Basket 58 mm

Description

A blind basket is a filter basket with no holes. Dropped into the portafilter, it gives the pump nowhere to send the water, so the three-way valve opens and the water washes back through the group head and out of the drain. That is the only way to clean the shower screen and the valve from the front of the machine.

This one is drawn from a single piece of stainless steel with a rolled rim, and it sits in a standard 58 mm portafilter with the same spring as a normal basket. The floor is dished slightly towards the centre, which holds the cleaning powder in place while the group fills instead of letting it wash straight out on the first cycle.

The routine we use: half a teaspoon of espresso machine powder, five cycles of ten seconds on and ten seconds off, then five more cycles with the basket rinsed and empty. Do it weekly on a home machine, daily on a busy one. Rinse the basket well afterwards, because dried cleaner leaves a taste in the next shot.

Only for machines with a three-way solenoid valve. On a lever or a spring machine the pressure has nowhere to go.