Great tips! It works well! Thank you!

Probably it was not “time it”, but “tamp it”? With pressurized filters tamping is not necessary, however it’s better to tamp.

Overall the proccess of pulling a shot with PF and unPF is the same. However the latter one requires more skills – with unpressurized baskets you should choose the correct grind level and tamp the coffee in such way that the coffee puck itself would limit the pressure (because you don’t have a magic pressure limiter in the filter anymore). The trick is to create a bed of coffee with even density. Otherwise the water will run too fast or not through all coffee and espresso would be spoiled.

Hah, Ed, somehow your comment is the only one that triggered an email notification to me in all these years. I couldn’t remember ever writing about the portofilter mod until I followed the link back here. I thought it was odd because I just got my new steam wand in the mail today. Anyway, Kudos to Ethan for posting this in the first place

We’ve been using our same machine since back then. We still have the bent disc but don’t use it. In fact, we went back to the stock pressurized setup because we realized our coffee and tamping technique were still the bigger variable.

To tell the truth, the biggest difference came from changing coffee (and I’m ashamed to admit that we’ve settled on Lavazza but it’s really the best coffee we’ve found), and storing it in a true vacuum pump sealed container.

As I mentioned, we’re just now considering getting into tweaking the machine again, and I’m starting with the steam wand since the aerator tube is lost anyway.

As for the naked portofilter, I’m thinking about trying the mod with the disc flipped upside down and cutting down the extra rubber flap (a true permanent mod). It might be nice to increase the volume of the small basket this way too.

UPDATE: I’ve run into the same problem as 2 earlier reviewers had using the ‘temporary’ method getting little crema & a bad taste. I believe what ‘GvySmily’ said about the screen warping was correct. Apparently the rubber gasket doesn’t allow a flat surface because it has a lip that holds the screen. So using the plastic plate for support is necessary so the metal screen won’t warp from pressure. Yet watching YouTube I see them using the ‘temp’ method & pulling award winning shots. – So go figure!

I inherited the EC155 for free and bought myself a nice grinder (used mazzer mini) to start my espresso journey. I knew that the pressurized PF would not be the best option, but for free I took it and made the modifications here (the permanent one). I am very new to pulling espresso. How do a alter how I use the machine now that it’s not pressurized? Before it was on, wait for the temp., and turn it on to pull until the volume I wanted was there. Now that it’s not pressurized, do I have to “time it”- what does that mean? I watch a lot of coffee gear videos and keep hearing that with pressurized PFs you don’t have to “time it”, so now that it’s not pressurized- what do I do?!

Thanks Ethan for this helpful article you published back in February of 2010. Nice that you still have it posted for others like myself

Would anyone try the basket of Ecp31.21 ??
I saw it comes with three baskets one of them is pressurized like ours

Glad this guide was still useful for you! I got rid of my EC155 a few years ago, but got some surprisingly good results with such an inexpensive machine and this mod.

I use simply the lavazza that comes in black cans, nothing fancy.

Thanks a lot for this great mod instructions, I was about to sell it and go back to a stove bialetti.