Pompeyexile shades of coffee? He’s like the pied piper of the gaggia classic! Makes a very famous PID plus a load of accessories.
https://www.shadesofcoffee.co.uk/
Not sure it’ll work for the sage?

Hope I haven’t given you need to visit the shed 😂

    Phew! A Gaggia guru not a Sage…Thank goodness, it’s chuffin freezing in my shed.

    Once you go bottomless… it’s the only way!

    Yep, bottomless is my daily driver. Never use the other portafilters, not even sure where they are tbh!

    As per others. Switched a few years ago, never looked back. Only get a spritzer about once a month these days, so mess isn’t really a big issue.

    2 other things which are very useful:

    1. so much easier to clean as you don’t have to try and clean out the spouts of the portafilter with a pipe cleaner or half dunk it in pulycaf
    2. you will have a spare portafilter which you can keep the blank in for backflushing

    Bottomless is the default for most of us!

    I have a Gaggia Classic with MrShades PID that I’ve had for many years. It’s waiting for me to give it a good scrub and put it up for sale, now that I’ve upgraded to a Bianca.

    Thanks for all the great responses! I’ll order one this weekend and report back! Better get a WDT to up my puck prep game as well 😁

    They are an essential piece of kit for anyone who is serious about seeing what their puck prep is like. And BTW there are bottomless baskets and then there are bottomless baskets (i.e. they vary in quality). Get a good one, ask some of the more experienced members here but it’s not an item to scrimp on. I like the Decent and IMS baskets.

      I always use bottomless, the spouted PF now has the blank basket in for backflushing.

      Ian

      tompoland am thinking this for the portafilter https://www.shadesofcoffee.co.uk/bottomless-portafilters/bottomless-portafilter-with-walnut-wooden-handle-smooth---for-gaggia-classic-classic-pro

      And this for the basket
      https://www.shadesofcoffee.co.uk/barista-tools/ims-baristapro-precision-filter-basket-58mm

      Probably the 18g standard basket unless people think the nano coating is worth it?

      Keeping the old portafilter as my blind holder is a great shout. I try and back flush after each round of coffees and this will make the workflow so much nicer.

          Baldrick they look good to me. What dose size do you prefer? And do your mostly enjoy light, medium or dark roast?

          Reason for asking is that 18g of light roast will sit in an 18g basket fine but you will want a 20g basket if you want 18g of dark roasts, they are more voluminous.

          No idea what the nano thing is about sorry. Probably a gimmick but others may know.

              tompoland that’s a great tip that I wouldn’t have thought of! I mainly drink medium roasts and dose 16g - because that’s the most I can fit into my current basket without it leaving an imprint on the puck from my shower screen.
              Ideally I would like to dose 18g as this seems to be a bit of a standard? Plus who doesn’t want a bit more espresso in their cup?

                Also 100% on bottomless now, but I must say that depending on your machine it might not work that well. On my prev machine, Sage BE because of the high pressure (14 bar) it was spraying a lot and it made everything very annoying. Spraying coffee on your scale and your white Sunday T-shirt is not fun. But for a well set machine at 9 bar you will not have these issues.

                  @Baldrick sounds like an 18g basket would be perfect for you then. That will sit just a bit lower than the dark roasted beans and being 16g dose, should you wander into darker territory you should be fine at that level too.

                  Oh my yes indeed 14 bar would be brutal on a 58mm puck. Good point. Actually, I don’t think it would be so great for any sized basket. I know I have “fun” sometime with my Izzo Valexia (54mm basket) because the pre-infusion really gushes compared to other machines.

                  Petre I’ve got a pressure gauge coming so I can adjust the OPV on my gaggia to 9bar. Should be here middle of next week if all goes well. I think they come set at 15 so that could have made quite the mess 😅

                    Since having my Sage dual boiler a couple of weeks ago it has not once reached 14 bar, 9 to 10 at most. Maybe they have started sending them out set at the right pressure.

                    Hopefully the bottomless portafilter will arrive this week. In the meantime I’ll look at getting an IMS basket too, although the basket that comes with the Sage when holding it up to the light looks okay.

                      Pompeyexile Since having my Sage dual boiler a couple of weeks ago it has not once reached 14 bar, 9 to 10 at most. Maybe they have started sending them out set at the right pressure.

                      The Sage Barista Express has a different set up to the Dual Boiler.

                        Pompeyexile
                        I think the standard Sage baskets are pretty good.
                        I will check what the pressure goes up to on mine when backflushing- I assume this gives the most accurate idea of what pressure the machine is set to?