Lelit Bottomlesss Portafilter

The Lelit range of 58mm bottomless portafilters offers significant advantages for both visual and technical mastery of espresso extraction, which is why they're favored on many of Lelit's higher-end machines.

The benefits are essentially two-fold, combining the advantages of the 58mm commercial size with the bottomless ('naked') design.

Benefits of the Bottomless Design (The 'Naked' View) 

• The primary benefit of a bottomless portafilter is that it provides unobstructed visual feedback during extraction, allowing you to instantly diagnose and correct puck preparation issues.
• Instant Shot Diagnosis (Troubleshooting): You can see the espresso flow from the moment it leaves the filter basket. This transparency immediately reveals flaws in your technique:

• Channeling: Water creating small, fast streams or "channels" through the puck (often causing sprays), indicating poor distribution or tamping.

• Uneven Extraction: Espresso emerging from only one part of the basket, or a "donut" extraction where the center remains dry, indicating inconsistent tamping pressure or dosing.

• Enhanced Technique: By showing you exactly what happens under pressure, the bottomless portafilter forces you to refine essential skills like grind consistency, dosing, and tamping until you achieve a perfectly centered, even stream.

• Increased Crema: Without the spouts and restricted channels of a traditional portafilter, the espresso oils and gases are less agitated, often resulting in a thicker, more velvety crema layer.

• Easier Cleaning: The open design eliminates the hard-to-reach areas under spouts where coffee residue and oils often collect, making cleaning much simpler and more sanitary.

• Mug Clearance: The lack of spouts provides more vertical space, allowing you to easily fit taller mugs or place a digital scale directly beneath the portafilter on the drip tray.