# Lower dose basket for Sage DB



## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm looking for an alternative lower dose basket for my sage DB.

18g VST covers most 90% of my shots and is excellent. The 20g VST is really good too, but I struggle lots with the 15g VST.

Does any one know if something like a stock gaggia Classic basket would work with the sage for the 14-16g range?


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Fracino 12g works well for me. Dose depends on beans and getting pucks that don't stick. MM comes out at 14 to 14.5g others and more usually up to 15.5g but that's with the shower screen I have fitted. Will probably be a bit higher with the standard Sage one.

It's a ridged basket so needs an Amazon filter basket extractor tool to get it out easily. I bought the basket from Fracino as lots are clones and may not be the same.








Pucks not sticking seem to need a dose that's consistent to better than 0.2g and it's a pain to sort out on a new bean and odd ones may still do it. Achieving this may be easier with the screen I'm using. It's penalty is grinds sticking to it so I flush after a shot and brush and flush when ever the machine has heated up from cold. My pucks more or less just drop out so are fairly loose. Patches of it may stick leaving a result that looks like channelling. Flow etc says it isn't.

John

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## kennyboy993 (Jan 23, 2017)

urbanbumpkin said:


> I'm looking for an alternative lower dose basket for my sage DB.
> 
> 18g VST covers most 90% of my shots and is excellent. The 20g VST is really good too, but I struggle lots with the 15g VST.
> 
> Does any one know if something like a stock gaggia Classic basket would work with the sage for the 14-16g range?


Can I ask why you're using the vst 18g urban - is it because the stock double requires too big a dose?

I've been trying to put between 18 and 19g in the stock double though it's really not liked it - my grinder is the niche.

Tried 20.5g today and pulled so much better - but that's too big for me, would prefer 18g or less sometimes.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

kennyboy993 said:


> Can I ask why you're using the vst 18g urban - is it because the stock double requires too big a dose?
> 
> I've been trying to put between 18 and 19g in the stock double though it's really not liked it - my grinder is the niche.
> 
> Tried 20.5g today and pulled so much better - but that's too big for me, would prefer 18g or less sometimes.


Sorry for the tardy reply I've been away for a few days.

I've used 18g VSTs for years with several machines and I really rate them. They are better than the Sage stock IMO.

I was actually after a lower dose basket for the sage (approx 15-16g) and the 15g VST can be a cruel mistress.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I'm surprised that a 15g vst can be used on a DB with 15g in it. It probably holds circa that with the usual range of basket fill heights and Sage seem to use higher on all of their machines. Fracino seem to be a touch higher than other machines that use 58mm baskets. I tried a rancilio 12g and that seems to hold more, a genuine one as well.

My biggest beef with the machine is pucks sticking. No problems now on my MM but I recently used up 1kg of Guatemalan elephant and every shot resulted in a sticking puck over a whole range of fill weights. I didn't have experiences like that on either the BE or the Piccino.








So back to the Sage shower screen for a while to see if I find things different. When I fitted the Gaggia IMS woven one there did seem to be an improvement - less sticking pucks.

John

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