Normcore V4 Coffee Tamper 53.3mm - Spring-loaded Tamper – Barista Espresso Tamper with 15lb / 25lb / 30lbs Replacement Springs - Anodized Aluminum Handle and Stand - Flat Base

Good

Top 1 in tamping

1. The quality of the machining is pretty good for this price. 2. The shape of the handle is a bit odd with a flat top but I'm only pulling a few shots a day so there's no issue there. 3. The levelling ability is reasonable. There is a slight bit of play between the inner shaft and the leveling flange but it does keep the tamp level. 4. Now the bad. There are actually two springs in this tamper. One which puts pressure on the flange which can be changed, and one which put pressure on the tamper which cannot be changed. The tamp pressure roughly measured on scales is 9 kg.. not enough to for me to get full compaction of grounds. The adjustable three springs just changes the pressure on the leveling flange so probably the lightest one is best. I think I'll pull mine apart and see if it's possible to remove the inner spring so I can get a slight bit more pressure to fully compact the puck. I know there's a bunch of peeps who measured tds at different tamp pressures who say it doesn't matter...well maybe for them in their situation. But for me in mine, there is absof*ckenlutly a difference with different tamp pressure. I've found that it's best when grounds are fully compacted...whatever that pressure emay be.

Ürün bütün espressolarınıza eşit tamperleme sunan yaylı bir mekanizmaya sahip. Bunu gerçekten eşit bir biçimde uyguluyor. İçerisinden birden fazla tamper yayı çıkıyor bunların yaylarının uyguladığı kuvvetler farklı. İsteğinze göre değiştirebiliyorsunuz. Böylelikle kahveye uygulanan kuvvet değişiyor. Hepsinde size kahvenize net bir standart getirmiş oluyor...

I have a very nice, heavy tamper that I've used for 19 years. Recently I got intrigued with the idea of a spring loaded tamper because I never had any idea what force I was using manually. This particular tamper is costly but well worth it, in my opinion because of how it's made and because it also had 2 springs, as well as a total of 3 inner springs to determine tamp pressure. Beautiful, heavy, solid construction. The 25 lb spring that comes pre-installed works best for me and I don't see myself changing it. The design with the leveling plate makes it all quite easy to press down enough. Some reviews complained about the lack of an audible "click" but that isn't necessary. With the leveling plate on top of the filter basket, you just press down the entire distance that you can push and that's it so no click needed. What I've realized though all this is that I was never tamping hard enough with my manual tamper. In addition, when I would press it down hard the tamp would not be even, and one side would usually end up higher than the other, and this led to channeling. It's important to properly prepare the puck. I measure bean weight and grind into the portafilter basket. I use a funnel collar and and WDT tool to distribute the grinds well and break up clumps. I then use a distribution tool, which smooths everything out before the final tamp. Then comes the tamping which I can now do with a consistent, level pressure. I have my grind fineness pretty dialed in at this point and haven't needed to change that up much. Since implementing the puck prep described above, every single time my coffee has turned out perfect. Before doing things this way and without my new tools (i.e. previously using only finger smoothing and tamping with a manual tamper) I had a lot of misses and wasn't usually happy with the espresso I got. I'll say it again....the quality of your shots depends on good, consistent prep of the puck. This tamper is a very necessary part of that prep, I now realize. I recommend this particular tamper very highly. Last comment: You can get the same tamper with a circular ridged bottom. I can't see there would be much advantage to that, and the ridged bottom would definitely catch coffee in the ridged areas, making cleanup a bit more annoying. With this smooth tamper, all it requires is a quick wipe on the bottom (usually nothing there anyway) and then there is a nice little matching cup to set the tamper in.