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Helps with de-clumping but my grinder's pretty good at providing 'fluffy' grounds.
I normally just tap the portafilter a few times to level the heap, gently press the tamper down (bit of turning to assist levelling). Seems to provide a pretty even extraction, flow tends to come in a single stream from the centre pretty much every time.
mmccarthy-
I do a sort of 360 pivot/spin manoeuvre with the tamper held at an angle which seems to mimic to my eyes what those ‘distributors’ do. Use bottomless filter, rarely have issues with channeling. Do sometimes side tap though, so ingrained is it in my muscle memory - uh oh…
Always tell myself I’ll give a distributor ago, but haven’t bothered yet. Have always fancied a flat topped tamper though.
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Pretty much this for me too, though I use only the weight of the tamper with a spin, tap the top of the (very deep Robot) basket and repeat.
kkg337
withered_preacher
Safety pin, stir. Low cost & low effort.