# Bar Retro pressurised portafilter - how to lose?



## chrisNI (Sep 22, 2009)

I have had a Kenwood Bar Retro for about a year a half or a bit more, I've never really liked it but at the moment it's all I've got (not quite I have a Bar14 Delonghi which is a good wee machine, better in some ways but currently trying to stop it leaking) so what I have just discovered is that the reason the thing always makes everything so foamy is because it has a pressurised portafilter or "Perfect Crema Device" in marketing speak, which as I'm sure a lot of you already know is a double walled portafilter basket with only 1 small hole in the bottom although it looks normal from the top.










I've seen threads on other forums about this set-up on some Gaggia machines. The Bar Retro is marketed by a number of different companies, including DeLonghi, under different names. My question is this - has anyone had one of these and replaced the pressurised portafilter with a standard one, or does anyone know if any Gaggia portafilters are the same size (they look very similar in photos) so that the ppf could be replaced with an ordinary basket from a Gaggia or if the Delonghi version or some of the others has a normal portafilter option? It appears to be about 52mm across the bottom of the basket and about 60mm across the wider part at the top, below the flange that rests on the top of the portafilter itself. The basket has two dimples at each side that fit into the holder.

I don't know where the perfect crema notion comes from this thing just makes foam, it will foam water on preheat....


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