# Soggy puck



## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

So I've just stripped & rebuilt my Gaggia Classic (with quite a bit of sound insight from old posts here, thanks!) And pulled my first couple of shots which taste pretty decent to my untutored pallette









My issue is I have quite a bit of water sitting on top of the puck when I remove the pf. The solenoid valve pops off when I kill the brew switch and I've noticed that there's quite a large gap between the top of the puck and the top of the basket with an 18g dose which makes me wonder if the basket is actually a triple basket?

Can anyone give me a top to bottom measurement for a double basket for a classic, or am I barking up the wrong tree?!


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

In itself a soggy puck isnt a terrible thing , could be a function of a darker roasted bean for one ...

How does the coffee taste ?


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Coffee tastes good to me (but bear in mind my benchmark is aldi ground coffee at the moment!)

Just makes a bit of a mess on the way to the bin


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Have you got a pic of the basket...

Where did the basket come from ?

Whats the coffee your using ? ( you are using a grinder ? )


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Don't have a pic of the basket with me just now, it came with the machine and I think it's the double shot basket but not 100% sure..

Coffee is beans from a local shop ground in a hario mini on 2 clicks from the finest setting


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## timmyjj21 (May 10, 2015)

The standard gaggia basket will fit 16 to 17g without issues depending on the beans, but would-be surprised if you could push it to 18 and still have room for water to pool. I suspect it may be a larger basket?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Or your overloading it and that's causing the soggy puck


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Hmmm so maybe try reducing the dose? Will try to get some pics in a bit of the 2 baskets I have - all thoughts welcome!


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Here are the 2 baskets I have I've been using the larger one.


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

If it's any consolation I tend to give my classic 5 minutes to dry out before shifting the puck as it can be wet on top. Can't see a pic


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Ack! Thought the pics had gone up... Hopefully you can see these


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## GCGlasgow (Jul 27, 2014)

Looks like a standard double to me. I found with the classic that some coffee's tended to leave a wet puck, see if it still happens when you change coffee.


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## destiny (Jun 4, 2015)

I get either a soggy puck or >50% of the puck is stuck to the group... even if Im dosing only 14g. I sidnt have this with a different coffee nor with that one back a few weeks ago when dosing 18g.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Andy882 said:


> My issue is I have quite a bit of water sitting on top of the puck when I remove the pf. The solenoid valve pops off when I kill the brew switch and I've noticed that there's quite a large gap between the top of the puck and the top of the basket with an 18g dose which makes me wonder if the basket is actually a triple basket?
> 
> Can anyone give me a top to bottom measurement for a double basket for a classic, or am I barking up the wrong tree?!


I cant see a triple basket being able to fit a standard gaggia portafilter, i thought you needed a naked for those to work.

20mm is the depth of the standard gaggia OE basket.

I wonder if the basket you are using is pressurised as this may cause the water to sit on the puck.

You mention there is a big gap between the puck and top of the basket.

You should have an imprint of the shower screen screw, but not the shower screen on the puck after you have pulled a shot.


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Thanks for the advice all, it seems that it's not that uncommon! The measurement of the basket from to to bottom is 24mm so I'm thinking it's a double.

I think the pressurised baskets only have one hole in the underside - is that right? This one has many holes, although when I run water through the empty basket there's always about a tea spoon of water that sits in the basket.....

The water sitting on top of the puck means that there's no impression of any sort... Guess I'll have to wait until I change coffee to see if that happens.

Who'd have thought you needed highly developed detective skills to make coffee?? I love it!


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

Have you held the basket up to the light to check its clean? Just wondering if some of the holes are blocked up...


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

I did Missy, all clear (stripped and refurbished the whole machine when it arrived). Just pulled another shot with the same issue... Coffee tastes good to me though!


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## GCGlasgow (Jul 27, 2014)

If the coffee tastes good, i'd stop worrying.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

The standard double basket is 24 mm O/A depth, the one in your photo appears to be the same as mine. The second one in the photo I think you will find is NOT a single but for use with pods. Look around the top vertical part of the basket on the inside, you should find a letter "C" stamped there.

Wet pucks are not uncommon with the classic but it does seem to vary with different coffee's.

Just enjoy your coffee


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

I think you have a bigger basket than a double.

I also think if you upped the dose you would be rid of wet sloppy pucks.

Here is my standard official gaggia basket. It looks different to yours and can assure you is 20mm deep.

These pucks where both produced using my 15g VST on my gaggia classic, the one on the left had 17.6g in, the one on the right had 17.4g in.

You can see the difference just .2gs make when you are at what I consider the right fill level (the weight differs with each bean), the screw imprint is deeper on the +.2g puck

If i had put 15g in i can assure you there would have been no imprint of the screw and a pool of water on top of the puck.


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## destiny (Jun 4, 2015)

Do you have a standard shower plate?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

destiny said:


> Do you have a standard shower plate?
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk


Me ?

Yes I do.

And through experimenting with weight dosage have seen the whole impression of the screen clearly on pucks


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

Jumbo your basket looks different to mine...


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## Andy882 (Mar 30, 2016)

Thanks all for suggestions, have started some new coffee this morning and (as suggested by a few ) the puck is a lot drier!


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