Hi,
I’ve been using an unpressurised after market basket and handle with my Delonghi Dedica for a while. It makes just OK espresso. I dont think my grinder is up to scratch tbh.
I thought I’d try a pressurised basket, but for some reason the espresso sprays out of the spouts laterally, making a huge mess, as pictured. Obviously this didnt happen before.
Any idea why? I tried a finer grind, distributing the coffee better, and tamping harder and more evenly. No cigar.
(Why a pressurised basket? The best espresso I’ve ever had out of this particular machine was with the stock handle and stock pressurised basket. Why not use those then? Because the stock basket doesnt grip the handle well. It falls out into the knock box when you bang it. I hate this with a passion)
So I’m currently engaged in a little wake n bake with the morning coffee and when I opened that picture, that definitely looked like pasta dough extruding out and my first thought was “well that’s definitely not right, why is it coming out like that?”. Might be time for new glasses
Sounds like some weird channeling problem to me. You could try going coarser, like others have suggested (since you prefer pressurised baskets) and try a needle distribution tool to even out the coffee grounds before tamping. Also there is no need to tamp it with excessive force, especially with a pressurised basket.
The “pressurised” basket is not for making a “real” espresso, it has a tiny hole that generated foam under not that big pressure.
So the spraying is supposed to happen, but it should only happen under the basket.
Did you change the handle? If so, I’d wager the original one has some sort of containment mechanism that forces the spray to stay indoors :-)
Please post your findings!
It is an aftermarket handle yeah. But the basket is designed for it.
Im going to try going more coarse as the others suggested.
Failing that, back to the unpressurised basket I was using before.
My brother in law had this exact same problem with his breville. Cheater cup with aftermarket handle.
The problem is because the pressure is created by forcing all the water through the one tiny hole at the bottom, so it comes out at high velocity. The normal holder is designed to contain this, collect it, and let it run down into the cup.
The aftermarket one isn’t designed this way, so the high pressure steam hits the bottom of the diverter and shoots out to either side.
It doesn’t matter how much coffee or how you grind it. The pressure will be the same.
The solution is to not use the cheater cup (I use it exclusively). Or get the original handle and use that.
Or maybe you could put a bit of steel wool up there? Anything to break up that stream.
Hope you get it figured out.
Using the metal screen i posted yesterday, much less spluttering (although still a bit). But this confirms.the theory. It needs to be diffused.
Ah hah! I see now. The stock handle has this convoluted “gutter” to diffuse the jet of espresso flying out the hole.
Well. You gave me an idea…
I’ll try this tomorrow.
This won’t make foam IMO, better go with the original anti-splatter if you want foam I think.
Original tasted better.
So if the espresso hits the drip mechanism and sprays everywhere the pressure is too high.
Like the other answer says you can use a coarser grind and this might work. But if you look at the stock dedica handle it’s actually got a weird drip mechanism to stop spraying.
Try putting the new basket in the stock handle and hope that it doesn’t drop out when using the knock box?
Thanks. Sadly the new basket is too deep for the stock handle.
I’m by no means an espresso expert ( I currently don’t actually own an espresso machine … )
But I believe pressurised baskets are meant to account for coffee that isn’t ground fine enough, the added pressure is making up for a puck that doesn’t provide enough resistance to the water. It may be that you’re able to grind fine enough that the added pressure from the basket is causing water to/ coffee to escape out the sides.
Maybe try grinding courser ( like pre-ground / pour over course )?
Ill give it a shot, thanks.
