What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

[jamesayers]

I have been struggling with this machine for a year.  I ordered a 57mm tamper for this machine, but when I dose 15g of coffee, the tamper goes halfway down inside the basket and gets stuck.  The only way I can keep it from getting stuck is to overdose the basket using 18g.

The shots suck if I use 15g.  I dont know if its because its not getting tamped hard enough, but when I overdose to 18g, the shots look better, but the espresso is still thinner than what I think it should be.

Any ideas?

Thanks

James Ayers

[doug81]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

The same one all of them do - a custom fit pullman tamper

[gregpullman]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

Weve done a few tampers for larger basketed La Pavonis such as this (La Pavoni DMB was one IIRC but theyre probably the same as the Lelit / Imat / Quaha / Nemox range) and like all machines there is some normal variation in size from one basket to another. So Doug has a point; as the baskets vary a bit, and since theres no guarantee your 57mm tamper is in fact exactly that, its pretty hit and miss trying to say what is the right size. If you decided to get one of ours it would definitely be best to send in your basket for sizing and wed make a tamper to fit. Otherwise you could go for a drive with your basket to some shops that sell 57mm tampers and see if you can find one that does down far enough (some are probably made a bit smaller than others).

When you say half way down, do you mean that or is that just an approximation? Most of the time a properly distributed basket only needs to be tamped down about 1/3 of its full depth.

Of course, youll need freshly roasted freshly ground beans to get good espresso. If not, youll struggle to get espresso thats not thin regardless of the tamper you use. Where do you get your beans, and does your machine have a built-in grinder? How long does it take to get 60ml of espresso from a double basket, and how long after hitting the brew switch does espresso start coming out of the spouts?

Greg

[jamesayers]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

Thanks for your advice. When I said halfway down, I was serious. 15g of coffee doesnt get tamped nearly hard enough because the tamper gets stuck. When I get the tamper out, the top half of the basket is empty. Thats why Ive been overdosing to 18g. When I do that, there is about 1/4 inch space at the top of the filter basket.

The basket for this machine appears to taper inward towards the bottom. Thats why my tamper gets stuck. Ive been using inexpensive beans in an attempt to solve this problem. I would normally use Intelligentsias Black Cat, but that is way too expensive to experiment with.

Thanks again

James

[Bullitt]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

Well nothing inherently wrong with updosing to 18g, especially if it tastes better, some of us regularly updose to 20 or 21g in large double baskets.

If you really have to dose to 14g then suggest you might need to find a slightly smaller basket, but it would be easier to just updose.

Bullitt

[gregpullman]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

If you have the baskets Im thinking of (which are less than 58mm diameter), 18g is a fair bit of overload. However like Bullitt says, if it tastes good...

[jamesayers]

Re: What tamper does a la pavoni napolitana use?

If I could use 15g instead of 18g, Id be happy. 18g is quite a pile of coffee, and its hard to keep it all contained. Ill look to see if there are filterbaskets that will fit that arent tapered. That appears to be the only solution besides overdosing. Ive seen the Dell Nemox, it appears to be a nearly identical machine. Anyone have ideas as to where I could find a basket thats not tapered to fit this portafilter?

Thanks again

James Ayers
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma