JHCCoffee I use the Normcore puck screen. Its about 1.5 mm thick, more or less.
I don’t know whether its sintered or not. Perhaps @DavecUK could shed some light on whether it is, and why
link to the exact one as they do a number of different screens.
The one I have is described thusly: Shakeel Espresso Puck Screen 53.5mm, 1.7mm Thickness 150ÎĽm Reusable Coffee Filters Mesh, 316 Stainless Steel Coffee Accessory, Coffee Lower Shower Screen
They are commonly called sintering, due to a mistaken interpretation of the sintering process, where they fuse a number of screens together to make a thicker screen and a very fine filter mesh. Normcore do one exactly the same as this, and I would imagine they are all made in the same Chinese factory, then branding and cost added.
I like it for 2 reasons
- It adds some resistance which means dropping the coffee dose to fit the screen has not needed a change in grind fineness, so conversely if I don’t use the screen and add back the coffee I down dosed, I won’t need to change the grind
- It really doesn’t allow much to pass back, apart from the edges, where it’s a very close fit, but clearly can’t be an interference fit.
- The puck drops out super clean and super easy, amazingly so!
Cons:
- It’s a little bit more needy for cleaning once per day
- I would imagine it would not be good if you left it a week between cleaning and might become impossible to clean properly?
- It’s a little more work to pick the screen off and rinse it…but I might do a vid for that on the Evo and how I do it, using tea bag squishers. I also use the water from the cleaning flush to rinse it with.
I use one all the time now