FENSIDEN 51mm Premium Espresso Coffee Tamper - Calibrated Spring Loaded 30lb Hand Tamper with Stainless Steel Ripple Base, Fits for Various Types of 51mm Portafilter Baskets

This is a fantastic very heavy and sturdy double-spring coffee tamper for only $15 (on sale). The 58.35mm tamper weighs 1.2 lbs. all on its own. Prior to applying any pressure at all for the tamp, its weight and full 9mm thick base-plate make it usable as a makeshift coffee grind leveler/distributor by spinning it in the filter-basket while the tamper's leveling-plate is aligned with the filter-basket rim. Its very large gently domed flat-topped handle is a prefect ergonomic design for applying pressure with the opened palm of the hand. The flat-black anodized all-metal tamper body is very well finished and gives the tamper a beautiful modern design. The included silicon rubber storage base may also be used as a tamping block so that the portafilter spouts do not damage the countertop.Note: As with all leveling 30lbs calibrated spring tampers except for triple-spring "percussive" tampers, if you want to achieve the tamper’s maximum calibrated tamp pressure when performing a full “proper tamp”, you must appropriately dose the filter-basket with sufficient coffee grinds to get the compressed puck as close as possible to the tamper’s minimum tamp-depth without overfilling (assuming your espresso machine can accommodate the tamper's minimum tamp-depth, see "Cons").Details:It is an excellent tamper that is solidly built and the base-plate bottom has 18 very precisely machined concentric fine-edged ripples (not a "convex bottom" as incorrectly stated in one of the product images). The tamping base-plate can be unscrewed off the tamper for cleaning by simply holding the handle while turning the base-plate counter-clockwise. The stated base-plate diameter is accurate at 58.35mm and it has the standard 9mm base-plate thickness (measured with digital calipers). The base-plate diameter is a very good match for use with Gaggia Classic filter-baskets. The base-plate minimum depth is not user-selectable and so the bottom of the base-plate is by default a fixed 9mm minimum depth below the tamper leveling-plate.Cons:As with any leveling tamper that has a fixed minimum 9mm tamp-depth, the 9mm tamp-depth can cause occasional filter-basket overfill problems with espresso machine groupheads that have a 9mm or greater puck clearance requirement (e.g. Gaggia Classic, see "Boundary Case" for details). If you always accurately weigh your filter-basket dose with a coffee scale, you can easily lower your coffee dose to avoid this issue. However your tamp-depth will now be slightly greater than 9mm and the "proper tamp" pressure will be less than the tamper's calibrated maximum (see "Tamp Pressure" for details).Pros:If you don't very accurately control the filter-basket dose (e.g. I only use a grind timer, which is not as accurate as a coffee scale to control the dose), an alternative is to modify the tamper so that the minimum tamp-depth is increased. Fortunately the design of this tamper easily allows adding base-plate shim washers to increase the tamp-depth and avoid grouphead overfill issues (see photos). Appropriate shim washers are readily obtained at a good hardware store (see "Modification" for details). This tamper can even be converted into the equivalent of a hybrid "Depth-Adjusted Double-Spring Leveling Tamper” (see "Hybrid" for details)!ADDITIONAL DETAILS FOR DIEHARD "COFFEE AFICIONADOS":(Read The Following Only If You Are "Extremely Nerdy",And yes I have way too much spare-time!)Tamp Pressure Details:Calibrated springs have proportionally more spring tension when they are more compressed. This double-spring tamper (main-spring + leveling-spring) is capable of a puck tamp-depth ranging from 9mm to 19mm which is a mazimum of 10mm spring compression. The measured maximum spring tension pressure is close to 28lbs when the main-spring is fully compressed at the tamper handle’s maximum bottom-out plunge-depth of 10mm (the weak leveling-spring is not compressed at all in this case). When the 1.2lbs weight of the tamper itself is added to the maximum measured spring tension pressure of ~28lbs, the maximum coffee puck tamping pressure is a little over 29lbs. This only occurs when the compressed coffee puck is at the filter-basket minimum puck tamp-depth of 9mm.Note as the compressed puck tamp-depth increases, the leveling-plate collar is moved higher inside the tamper. This decreases the main-spring maximum plunge-depth which in turn lowers the maximum main-spring tamping pressure until the main-spring cannot be compressed at all at the 19mm tamp-depth. At the maximum puck tamp-depth of 19mm only the weak leveling-spring has been compressed 10mm and it will produce a maximum of about 3lbs tension pressure. A compressed coffee puck at the19mm tamp-depth will have a total tamped pressure of only about 4lbs (~3lbs leveling spring + 1.2lbs tamper).For all tamp-depths between 9mm and 19mm, both springs are being compressed and the tamper's double-spring pressure will produce a total corresponding puck tamp pressure ranging from 29lbs to 4lbs. This 25lbs tamp pressure variance is distributed across the 10mm spring compression range. Because calibrated springs are used, this results in a consistent additional 2.5lbs of pressure per each additional 1mm of double-spring compression (e.g. 25lbs = 2.5lbs x 10mm).Note, as with all leveling 30lbs calibrated spring tampers except for triple-spring "percussive" tampers, the maximum 29lbs puck tamp pressure only occurs at the minimum 9mm compressed puck tamp-depth. The smaller the coffee dose, the more the compressed puck tamp-depth is deeper than 9mm and this lowers the maximum combined double-spring pressure. The rate of pressure change is 2.5lbs decrease in double-spring pressure per 1mm puck tamp-depth increase. For example a 10mm compressed puck tamp-depth would only have about 26.5lbs total puck tamping pressure (26.5lbs = 29lbs - 2.5lbs). Though the tamp pressure for a given coffee dose may not reach the ideal 30lbs tamping goal, the tamper will ensure a consistent tamp pressure at a given puck tamp-depth. Achieving consistency of tamp pressure for a given filter-basket dose is a significant goal of proper tamping and eliminates a major factor in variability of espresso shot extraction quality.Grouphead 9mm Clearance Issue:Though it is a good habit to weigh the coffee grinds for exact dosing, after 40 years of making multiple daily espresso I no longer needed to weigh the coffee dose on my Gaggia Classic when using my old standard convex tamper (has no spring or leveling-plate) and instead I just use a grind timer. I never tend to under-dose and instead I maximize the dose for the corresponding bean type, grind, and filter-basket capacity (e.g. double-shot vs. triple-shot filter-baskets). Most 58mm espresso machines, such as the Gaggia Classic, require a 9mm or greater grouphead coffee puck clearance (measured from the rim of the filter-basket to the top of the compressed puck). After years of practice, my old tamper's lack of a leveling-plate made it easy to tell, simply by looking at the tamper base while performing a proper 30lb tamp, if an overfilled puck was not deep enough to meet the 9mm grouphead clearance .Though it was nice to upgrade to a leveling double-spring tamper, the only way to ensure the tamped coffee puck meets the grouphead clearance requirement is if the tamper initially fully bottoms-out while the leveling-plate is in contact with the filter-basket rim (a “proper tamp”). But this tamper's fixed minimum 9mm tamping depth causes occasional grouphead overfill "boundary case" problems on the Gaggia Classic even for a “proper tamp”. Because the tamper's leveling-plate blocks the view of the base-plate, I could not tell the overfill "boundary case" problem had occurred until the overfilled puck gets mangled by the grouphead. I was forced to resort back to weighing the grind dose in order to ensure the dosage was less than the grouphead overfill "boundary case". See "Modification" for a custom tamper fix to this issue.Details of 9mm Grouphead Filter-basket Overfill "Boundary Case":The Gaggia Classic Pro espresso machine has a grouphead coffee clearance that only allows a minimum coffee puck tamp-depth of 9mm below the filter-basket rim. The tamper base-plate thickness of 9mm is measured from the base-plate's top to the tip of the ripple-peaks on its bottom. At a thickness of 9mm, a tamped coffee puck may still be mangled by the Gaggia Classic grouphead brew screen in a specific circumstance. A 9.5mm thick rippled tamping base-plate (0.5mm thicker) would have easily avoided this.If the filter-basket is maximally loaded with coffee grinds (the overfill "boundary case") and the tamper leveling-plate is in contact with the filter-basket rim when the tamper bottoms-out, the coffee puck may still be slightly touching the Gaggia Classic grouphead. This boundary case is aggravated by the fact that only the coffee puck's ripple-valleys, which correspond to the base-plate ripple-peaks, are at the 9mm tamping depth. The puck's ripple-peaks are at a tamp-depth slightly less than the 9mm minimum and are mangled by the grouphead shower screen!This is a problem that may not occur on other brands of espresso machines that have a grouphead puck clearance requirement less than 9mm. But if your espresso machine grouphead requires a clearance of 9mm or greater, you will encounter this problem and can overfill the filter-basket right up to the grouphead even though the tamper leveling-plate is in contact with the filter-basket rim when the tamper bottoms-out. The only way to prevent this without modifying the tamper is if you weigh the grinds to avoid the maximum filter-basket capacity for your machine's grouphead and filter-basket size. See "Modification" for a custom tamper fix to this issue.Modification for Overfill on Large Clearance Groupheads (See Photos):An ideal tamp-depth solution would be to make the base-plate itself thicker so that the maximum main-spring plunge-depth remains the same and the maximum spring tamping pressure remains unchanged. This ideal solution would still keep the same maximum puck tamp pressure but it would now be applied to the increased minimum tamp-depth.Fortunately the design of this tamper allows the next-best alternative solution by increasing the separation between the base-plate and the leveling-plate. The separation can be very easily increased to a fixed custom depth by unscrewing the base-plate and incrementally adding thin washers as shims around the base screw's hexagonal collar. This raises the leveling-plate inside the tamper and increases the minimum distance from the leveling-plate to the base-plate's bottom so that you can set the minimum filter-basket tamp-depth slightly larger than the grouphead clearance requirement. Note the washers go around the hexagonal collar (14mm diameter), not the screw itself, and they don't interfere with the base-plate securely threading back on to the screw. (See Photos)This modification reduces both the maximum main-spring tamp pressure by 2.8lbs and the maximum leveling-spring pressure by 0.3lbs for each 1mm increase in shim depth. This is because the shims have raised the leveling-plate collar inside the tamper and this decreases the maximum spring compression length which in turn lowers the maximum tamping pressure of each spring (see "Tamp Pressure Details" above).For example a modified 1mm shimmed tamper will only have a 9mm tamp-depth range from 10mm to 19mm and a total corresponding puck tamp pressure ranging from 26.2lbs (26.2lbs = 29lbs - 2.8lbs) to 3.7lbs (3.7lbs = 4lbs - 0.3lbs). This 22.5lbs tamp pressure variance is distributed across the modified tamper's 9mm spring compression range. Note the tamp-depth pressure rate of a modified tamper will always still be the same calibrated 2.5lbs decrease per 1mm tamp-depth increase for coffee doses that are less than the new lower maximum dose (e.g. 22.5lbs = 2.5lbs x 9mm).This solution is not the ideal because the maximum "proper tamp" puck pressure is now lower for the modified tamper. However for shims of 2mm or less, the maximum puck tamping pressure at the modified minimum tamp-depth is within 2% of what you would have experienced with an unmodified tamper (e.g. modified 10mm tamp-depth @26.2lbs vs. unmodified 10mm tamp-depth @26.5lbs). The modified tamper will eliminate the overfill "boundary case" problem without any significant change to the tamper's normal pressure at the selected tamp-depth.The best washers to use are 0.5mm to 1.0mm thin nylon washers with exactly a 14mm inner-diameter and at least a 22mm outer-diameter. Nylon washers avoid any possible scuffing of the leveling-plate bottom. A 0.5mm thickness washer will most likely be all that is needed to avoid the 9mm grouphead filter-basket overfill "boundary case".Grouphead Clearance "Proper Tamp”:Once the tamper is shimmed to accommodate your particular espresso machine's grouphead clearance requirement and avoids the overfilled "boundary case", a “proper tamp” assures you the coffee puck will never touch the grouphead brew screen. In a proper tamp, the plunger initially bottoms-out while the tamper leveling-plate is touching the filter-basket rim.In contrast, a filter-basket is overfilled for your espresso machine grouphead if the tamper initially bottoms-out without the leveling-plate touching the filter-basket. If you continue applying increasing significant pressure on a bottomed-out tamper to force the leveling-plate into contact with the overfilled filter-basket, you may be over-compressing the coffee puck beyond 30lbs to meet the grouphead clearance requirement. As an alternative, you can decrease an excessively dosed filter-basket until the leveling-plate makes contact with the filter-basket rim when fully tamped again and avoid over-compressing the puck.Note because this tamper modification results in a lowered “proper tamp” maximum pressure, forcibly adding only an additional 3-4lbs of tamp pressure to correct a very slightly overfilled filter-basket may effectively compensate for the lower calibrated spring tamp pressure. The total puck tamp pressure may end up very close to the ideal 30lbs target goal while ensuring the slightly overfilled puck now has the desired safe tamp-depth.Hybrid "Depth-Adjusted Double-Spring Leveling Tamper”:Instead of modifying the tamper to simply avoid the overfilled "boundary case", you can shim all the way down to the filter-basket tamp-depth of your preferred coffee puck dose. For example the maximum filter-basket dose to safely avoid the grouphead might be 16.7g of coffee but you may prefer to use a rounded-off 16g dose for a double-shot espresso of your particular bean and grind (see photos for example of a 1mm shim, 10mm tamp-depth). When modified to shim to your your preferred dose, the tamper will be effectively functioning as if it were a depth-adjustable leveling tamper (e.g. Coosigar Adjustable Depth Palm Tamper). Currently no tamp-depth adjustable leveling tampers also feature a calibrated 30lbs tamping spring and conversely no double-spring calibrated 30lbs leveling tampers also feature adjustable tamp-depth. This modified tamper combines the best features of both.It is an absolute requirement to very accurately weigh the coffee dose when using standard depth-adjustable leveling tampers that have no calibrated tamp pressure main-spring. The slightest variation in coffee dose will significantly change the puck tamping pressure when they bottom-out on the filter-basket rim, especially if under-dosed. However extremely accurate filter-basket dosing is no longer needed with this hybrid tamper in order to get a properly tamped puck, albeit the maximum consistent tamp pressure will be less than the ideal 30lbs (e.g. a 10mm tamp-depth modification has a maximum puck tamp pressure of about 26.2lbs).The calibrated main-spring is forgiving and allows leeway in the dose by providing a reasonably compressed coffee puck even if the dose volume is slightly less than the target maximum. If the dose happens to significantly overfill the filter-basket beyond the tamper's maximum dose volume, the leveling-plate will not make contact with the filter-basket rim when the tamper initially bottoms-out at its maximum pressure. So you will be warned if the filter-basket is dosed beyond the target maximum volume, unlike standard depth-adjustable leveling tampers which give no overfill warning (i.e. they have no tamp main-spring that bottoms-out, see "Proper Tamp" above).Summary:In my particular case, I can now go back to only using a grind timer to produce a coffee dose for my Gaggia Classic. (BTW - I use a Baratza Encore grinder that has been modified for an additional range of extra-fine grinding.) Though the dose may vary slightly for a constant timer setting, this customized dose-adjusted tamper can easily handle the slight variations. The modified tamper allows me to very reliably produce a compressed coffee puck that does not exceed my desired tamp-depth and has an appropriately consistent tamp pressure. And I get the added bonus of using the tamper as a makeshift coffee grind leveler/distributor!

Very heavy and works perfectly for what I needed it for.

This tamper also works great as a distributor. 2 for 1 value. Simple to use. Just twist & tamp. Good quality & reasonably priced also. Recommend.

Works great for me and fits perfectly with my breville bambino portafilter.

This is a nice little tamper. It's simple to use; just push down on the coffee grounds until the handle compresses down completely then lift it off. I like that it leaves a little zen-like circle on the puck. Not sure if that really changes anything as far as pulling a shot or the flavor but it looks nice! Comes with a little silicone base for it to sit on as well which is nice.

No need to spend more money on other well known brands

Works great! Glad I purchased this!

Very good quality and fair price!