# New DTP Owner



## RSRoss (Feb 3, 2018)

Hi all,

Have just purchased a DTP which is arriving Monday (very excited!). Spent a while weighing up this or a Gaggia Classic but I feel the DTP will be the best fit for me.

I'm also on the lookout for a Mazzer SJ (let me know if you see anything!) but just wanted to check what other bits you guys are using alongside the DTP to get the most out of it.

So far I've worked out I will need the following:

Scales - any recommendations? I see the AMIR amazon ones seem to be good value?

Tamper - 53mm - will any aluminium one do or is there a favoured one by DTP owners?

Beans - still researching, any recommendations most welcome. I drink Flat White, Latte, Cappuccino in the main.

Frothing Jug - is the one that comes with the DTP fine for the drinks I'll make?

Are there any other "essentials" I should look to get now?

Thanks in advance.

Ross


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Welcome

check the forum sponsors for coffee suppliers, will depend on the kind of tastes you want to try.

Foundry are excellent for one recommendation, as are Long and Short .


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## RSRoss (Feb 3, 2018)

Thanks MrBoots, will check them out now. I'd rather go with decent coffee beans from the outset as opposed to supermarket etc.


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## Banjoman (Apr 18, 2017)

The DTP is a good choice - congratulations! The tamper with the DTP is OK to get started with. After a few months I added a Motta 53mm tamper from Amazon for about £22, significantly heavier and nicer to use. A tamping mat is useful to rest your pf on while tamping (I've got a nice yolococa one from Amazon). The milk jug supplied with the DTP is good quality, nothing extra needed there. I'm by no means experienced with beans, but I've tried Rave (and would recommend their Signature Blend), and just about to try Foundry's Finca - San Francisco, which is very well liked by forum members. Remember that you will need to 'rest' the beans for 7 - 10 days after their roasting date before using them, so you might like to order some soon. But you'll need to get yourself a grinder too. I've got a Mazzer SJ, which you mention and I'm happy with it. There are a couple on the For Sale forum here I think, and are a good buy at around £200 or less, or try eBay. Good luck and report back soon with your progress.


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## RSRoss (Feb 3, 2018)

Thanks Banjoman. I'm going to go with a new tamper, mat and scales now I think so I'm ready to roll by the time the beans are rested.

Still need to get myself a grinder but the Mazzer is looking favourite at the moment. How do you find it for home use? I'll be single dosing mostly so interested in your thoughts...

I'll get pics of my set up on here as soon as the bits arrive, but machine will be with me tomorrow - can't wait!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

These scales will take your PF & fit nicey on the drip tray

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dipse-Digital-Laboratory-Precision-Resolution/dp/B00UJK98PO/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1517749083&sr=8-8&keywords=Dipse+0.01g+scales


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## joey24dirt (Jan 28, 2017)

The SJ's are great for home use, I love mine. Will probably need a couple of daft mods doing for single dosing (if not done already) but there's plenty of info on here showing these.

53mm motta tamper is a great option for the DTP and will make a big difference.

The jug that comes with the machine is pretty good so I'd say there's no rush there unless you just fancy another.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I haven't managed to find anything wrong with these scales so far. They state over load protected which could be a big help. Small pocket scales are known to have fragility problems.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00XGUHPSG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The reviews on the 2kg versions of the one mentioned earlier aren't too good.

We make 300ml or so drinks. For milk based the sage jug is a bit small for making 2.

The Sage knock box is well made and I wouldn't fancy knocking into a bin unless it's a pretty strong one. I found it a bit on the small side so bought one of these. Solidly made but I wonder about the rubber trim around the rim. I've bought it late december no problems at all. Sold out on Amazon but they are around elsewhere.







The rubber rim thing might last for ever. I think that the knock box will.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071NCR6JT/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Main reason is grinds appearing on the counter top at times using the Sage one. Also with 3 people drinking the Sage could fill up pretty quickly.

Personally I like the Sage tamper,







I do a multifinger two handed tamp before using it the normal way - helps keep the tamper level with the filter basket. The portafilter doesn't sit square so I found that I had tamped at an angle at times. I do have a calibrated tamper to turn down to fit but haven't bothered so far. These are about in Sage size but tend to be rather over priced compared with the more common sizes..

I also bought a filter basket extractor tool off amazon due to problems with a basket on another machine. I've also found it's brilliant for removing Sage's shower screen but if some one damages the rubber seal don't blame me. It needs easing in between the seal and screen with a little bit of care.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073JP7KLD/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll probably round off the corners on it eventually. Basket extraction - should have bought one immediately. Had been using a spoon or the razor tool. It will probably make getting the seal out easier as well but I'd only expect to need to do that when it needs replacing.

John

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## Banjoman (Apr 18, 2017)

As Joey says, the SJ is great for home use and I do exclusively single dosing with mine. Joey has done loads of mods to his to help with single dosing, but I have done practically none - unless you consider removing the hopper and replacing with a collapsible rubber camera lens hood to be a mod! This sounds a bit bizarre but you use it to push air rapidly through the grinder mechanism to blow out the residual grinds after grinding - still sounds bizarre! The idea is that with single dosing this process allows you to get very nearly all your weight of beans out as grinds - you can get down to a difference of 0.2g or 0.1g. In terms of value for money, a second hand SJ has got to be extremely hard to beat, particularly for us newbies (i.e. we don't want to commit £1000 on a grinder, yet).


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The other answer to large commercial grinders is a tube instead of a hopper with weight over the beans. It allows a timer to produce the same dose all of the time to close limits according to some one that does this. It could also produce a better quality grind as beans get ground rather than being bounced about first. Some grinds will still be retained. How important that is depends really on how often the grinder is used / the amount retained. Also if the same amount is retained each time the dose wont vary anyway.







I've just bought another grinder and intend to find out. Some say I will get a better drink.

I have used a Sage grinder rather a lot mostly via the timer on them, A constant dose can be maintained within close limits but the time setting does need small changes now and again. Often when they are settling down from clean or a new bean. Of late I have bean weighing beans in. Often what went in is what comes out. Variations +/- 0.1g except when the setting is changed but it soon gets back to that. I've weighed so many doses this way I only check this now and again now. Drink quality compared with Jolly etc pass. I will be finding out. I've gone for a Mazzer Mini. Same size but different burrs than the ones the Jolly uses.

John

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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

ajohn said:


> Variations +/- 0.1g except when the setting is changed but it soon gets back to that. I've weighed so many doses this way I only check this now and again now.
> 
> John
> 
> -


That's a very impressive tolerance, it would make the grinder an industry leader if typical?


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

MWJB said:


> That's a very impressive tolerance, it would make the grinder an industry leader if typical?


It's what found over a lot of shots. One qualification. I usually use oily monsooned. These are so oily and sticky that they can stick to the hopper and prevent beans from falling onto the burrs so the hopper needs washing very 500g or so. I've only recently started using beans where a lot of them are like that. Usually they all are so I do need to check weights again.

Really the main thing about these grinders is what they do to flow rates according to some. From where I am siting I see that as fact or fiction because one thing is factual about them. They do need to grind a fair few beans from all clean before they start behaving properly. I'd estimate around a 100g or more with some variation in grind settings. I'm using the one in the BE at the moment. All of the measurements were done on an SGP but the DCP would be a cheaper option for weighing beans in. The BE grinder went awol after cleaning as I mentioned in another post. It's back on stream now so time to check some weights on that one. The only thing I have noticed on the BE is some evidence of beans bouncing. Light clumping when the beans are about to run out but it really is slight.

The other aspect about them is steps rather than continuous adjustment. That can be a problem at times. For instance I'm currently running shots just short of the OPV opening. I had to find an odd way of doing it. Slightly coarser grind and a slightly overfilled basket. Works but exactly the right grind setting would be better or I could pull with the OPV opening and get more water going into the drip tray.

John

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## RSRoss (Feb 3, 2018)

Right so machine arrived today and has been unpacked, set up and I've flushed through several times. Don't yet have my coffee beans or grinder so will spend some time practicing milk frothing while I'm waiting!

Also on the way are some scales, Motta Tamer, Grindenstein Knock Box and tamping mat.

I'm looking to get a supply of the water filters - do you guys usually get them direct from the Sage website (around £13) or is there anywhere else?

Cheers


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## joey24dirt (Jan 28, 2017)

RSRoss said:


> Right so machine arrived today and has been unpacked, set up and I've flushed through several times. Don't yet have my coffee beans or grinder so will spend some time practicing milk frothing while I'm waiting!
> 
> Also on the way are some scales, Motta Tamer, Grindenstein Knock Box and tamping mat.
> 
> ...


I get my filters from amazon, along with the cleaning tabs. Both are great quality so I have no issues using these and not the sage ones.


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## jimbocz (Jun 5, 2015)

You could consider using bottled water only, especially if your water is hard. I think that it protects my DTP from scale and tastes better than London water but since I haven't read the hundreds of pages of threads on the matter I could be wrong. At least I don't have to bother with those filters.

I also really like the aluminium funnel designed to fit the portafilter I bought from this forum. It really helps minimise the mess.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I'd be inclined to descale even if I used bottled water. My tap water is 2.7 Clark or if you like 3.9 French and 2.2 German. Bottled water can be harder.

One option on descaler







a bit anal is to make your own. Sage use 30-60% Malic acid, 10-30% Sulphamic Acid and 1-10% Tartaric Acid. Puly don't want to tell us what's in their descaler. Many companies don't. One I use on a hot water dispenser by Astonish just states fruit acids. It's very slow acting but effective.1/2 hr in a very lightly scaled kettle for instance. It took several years to get even that in our kettle. I descaled to use Joey's idea - any in the kettle bound to be some in the machine.







Then we switched to a hot water dispenser.

Sulphamic acid is seen as a safer alternative to hydrochloric acid but isn't used in all descalers. It could be faster acting and the water doesn't spend long in a Sage thermoblock machine when it's descaled. Maybe the answer is to add some to Puly or







if desperate use cement cleaner as it comes. That is usually a solution of hydrochloric. Might be of use when machines are stripped.







Sort of thing I might try if I found something really bad.

John

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## RSRoss (Feb 3, 2018)

Thanks for the responses all.

I've spent the past couple of days (whilst waiting for my Rave beans to rest and cleaning my Mazzer SJ) having a practice with the DTP using some pre ground beans.

From what I've read so far, most would recommend using the unpressurized double shot basket regardless of whether they are making a drink using one shot or two.

If I want to make two single shot drinks and using two shot glasses under the PF should the flow be fairly even between the two? If it's not I'm guessing my tamping needs some attention?

I did notice when running water through the group head without the filter that there's a lot more falling from the right hand side.

Also am I right in thinking around 18g in the double basket and aim for 36g out?


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