The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

Just a note to say the Cafelat grouphead brush

http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/hom ... aningbrush

Which is not available in la Spaz size, can be modified to fit in a few minutes using a pair of vice-grips. Very handy! - Steve

Have you used a Pallo brush, http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/hom ... coffeetool and if so, how would compare the two?

I own both brushes & find that I use the Pallo style brush throughout the day but seldom pull out the Cafelat. The Pallo is much more versatile whereas I find the Cafelat awkward for cleaning the screen & useless for scrubbing baskets. It does one thing well, clean the gasket but the Pallo will do that also.

I've not been happy with the small, round grouphead brushes I've tried. Some have a straight handle, which means you get burnt if you flush while scrubbing. Others have "bristles" that distort in hot water (surely a design flaw) and some are too stiff while others I've tried are too soft. In general I find the round brushes tend to push the grounds around rather than dislodge them. My technique now is to use a cloth to wipe the screen, then the Cafelat to dislodge any grounds around the gasket and then flush. I then rinse the Cafelat brush and it is ready for the next use.

We each have our preferred way to clean, but if (like me) you have other machines where the Cafelat fits standard and liked it, the lack of a LaSaziale fitting option was unfortunate. If not a brush style you prefer, then irrelevant, I guess.

I just wipe the screen once a day (with my microfibre steam rag) and swap my screens and dispersion puck every week (no brush). There is always a thin film of coffee and oils on the back of the screens and side of the dispersion puck. I own a Pallo brush but I don't use it much since it doesn't do an adequate job of cleaning the sides where most of the coffee collects. Once the brass dispersion screen is out, the inside of the grouphead and gasket wipes up easily with the microfibre cloth.

Buying an extra dispersion puck from CC to go with the extra set of screens is the way to go (IMO). I strongly recommend getting one when purchasing the machine.

Endo wrote: I own a Pallo brush but I don't use it much since it doesn't do an adequate job of cleaning the sides where most of the coffee collects.

i've found the pallo brush works better after it's been used for a while. once the bristles get all smashed up they spread out and form to the group nicely. at first i was doing a rag wipe after the brushing to get the ledge where the ears lock in clean, but now the brush does the job no problem. i'm almost afraid to put a new head on the brush because i don't want to go through the break-in period again.

We could all send our smashed up and spread out bristle heads to Bitches_Brew when we put a new one on.

By dispersion puck, I'm guessing Endo means the brass piece right above the two screens, yes? Next order to CC, I'm going to pick one up.

peter wrote:We could all send our smashed up and spread out bristle heads to Bitches_Brew when we put a new one on.

they probably wouldn't be smashed to my specifications.