# DeLonghi EC15



## RossMcKay (Aug 11, 2011)

I was reading last night that you can make Delonghi porta-filter non pressurized which I still don't understand so can someone explain that please.


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

Ross, I am currently at work, and due to my out of date and terrible computing technology i cannot see either pictures of video's, so please excuse me if i fail misserably at answering your question.

A pressurized portafilter is essentially what it says on the box. The portafilter has a very small pin sized hole in the bottom. This forces the pressure up without your need for a decent tamp or to even have the perfect grind. If yours is like the delonghi ones i can think of then it's likely you cant make it unpressurized without a very small drill









Pros are that you should get a fairly consistent extraction, you dont really need to tamp and the courseness of the grinds do not matter so much. You also get a pretty much guaranteed crema (see the cons for more on this)

Cons are that you have little to no control over the quality of the shot. The crema is not 'real' crema and i would describe more as a foam, (crema is essentially carbon dioxide and emulsified oils) where as your foam is a result of being forced at pressure through the pinhole.

an unpressurized filter is (as you would imagine) the opposite, there will be a number of holes in the bottom. The build up of pressure to force the water through the grinds will depends massively on the courseness of your grind and your tamp. As you can imagine, when you first start this it can be much harder to pull a good shot and will take some trial and error.

If you are lacking crema then it could be from a number of reasons, such as freshness of coffee, or it could be that your shot is pouring too quickly. Try a finer grind or a harder tamp and as i said earlier, trial and error. You're aiming to start with around 14g of coffee to pour a double shot in around 25ish seconds.

Regarding getting a new machine, i'd say your technique is far more important than the machine. If you can get an unpressurized filter for your delonghi then see what results you can get with a liitle playing before you give up with the machine. If you cant get an unpressurized one, then whatever you do simply will make very little difference.

Hope this helps for now, i'll take another look tomorrow when i'm at home on a decent computer









Ben


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## RossMcKay (Aug 11, 2011)

Thanks but will using pressurized espresso be ok for making latte art because I'm trying to learn at the moment.


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

Personally i think you should be taking one step at a time. Firstly you need to perfect your espresso pouring technique and then milk throthing. Not to try and put you off, as latte art is a good identifier of good espresso and milk and something to aspire to.

Because of the makeup of the 'fake crema' through a pressurized portafilter I would be extremely impressed (and borderline shocked) if you could make any form of latte art with it.


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