Coffee Appreciation

When I read this first I thought you might be parodying me... :-)

This is exactly the situation I am in. Well, sort of. I have the same machine. If you unscrew the bottom you can remove the pressurised part of the filter basket, the good news being that it is the basket that is pressurised rather than the portafilter itself.

The trouble you might then find (this is where I am at in the process) is that while the basket looks like a 53mm diameter (fairly standard for domestic espresso machines) the basket seems to be tapered so a 53mm tamper won't fit in (after the first 1mm depth). And if you don't get a tamper you won't be able to make espresso without the pressurised basket.

As far as I can make out, if you can find a basket to fit the portafilter and a tamper to match the basket you will be fine. See bombcup's post on this page regarding 53mm baskets that might fit. However the thing I haven't yet figured out is if they will actually fit- the standard abskets that come with the machine have a flat lip at the top whereas the replacement that bombcup highlighted looks to have a curved lip. I'm not sure if it will be able to sit properly in the PF and so if it sits a bit high, the PF might not lock into the machine properly, or maybe it will but the edge of the basket might hit it.

Sorry for the slightly long and perhaps confusing post. Have a browse back a few pages and pretty much everything I've posted is regarding the issue you're having. Once I have a replacement basket that works I will happily let you know. If I can't get one then I'm probably going to buy a new machine. I got mine as a gift too and I didn't know too much about espresso prep at the time.

If anything I've said is way off the mark then more knowledgable people should feel free to correct me, ta.

I'm writing this in the hope that I won't get completely shot down about the quality of equipment that I have. I'm using a Delonghi Icona Espresso machine due to 2 things. Firstly, we can't afford better, secondly, it was a wedding gift. That out of the way I'd like to ask some advice if anyone knows anything about it:

They use strange baskets, which I've never seen before. On their website it's described as a '2 in 1 crema filter holder suitable for ground coffee or e.s.e. pods'. I get that the idea is for it to be usable for pods, if you so despicably choose, but I'm not sure if that's affecting my normal espressos (from espresso ground coffee) and whether I can swap the baskets for standard ones. They have a rubber seal and then, what looks like, a pressure fitting. What I'm wondering is whether this type of basket is a necessity to gain the correct pressure to produce an espresso with my machine. Here are a couple of pics of the basket.