Rancilio Silvia Bottomless Portafilter - Version 3

It's a nice looking portafilter, and I mostly love it. I like to use this portafilter, not because I want to see my pour, but because there's no spout to get grungy and require clean up. My espresso comes out nice and clean from the filter every time. Sometimes the filter sprays a little when I mess up my tamping --- that's the nature of a bottomless filter. To counteract this, I put my mug/glass/whatever directly under the portafilter to catch the spray. Sadly, because the handle goes all the way down to the bottom of the basket holder, I can't lift the mug up higher than the bottom of the basket holder. That's MOSTLY ok, but if the handle were attached higher, I could fit the bottom of the filter slightly INSIDE the mug, and that would help keep coffee from spraying out even more. Of course, every OTHER bottomless portafilter attaches even LOWER than the Silvia. so I can't complain. 5 stars. 5.5 stars if they leave a little gap between the bottom of the basket holder and the handle in the next version.

I got my Rancilio Bottomless filter today and tried it out right away. I put in double shot basket (18g) since I didn't want to do a triple shot. The basket fit just fine into the porta filter and into the Silvia. Got a great shot out of it. Overall I think it's a great Bottemless filter. The metal around the portafilter feels solid and looks great. The handle is good but there area where you find the Rancilio logo has some plastic edges that stick out and feel a little sharp, but not a deal breaker. I think if you want to get a bottomless portafilter, highly recommend getting this one to improve your espresso game.

I purchased this from wholelattelove through amazon a whopping $10 more than other websites 1. For "Prime" convenience, and 2. Most importantly because wholelattelove gives a lot of free information on their website and YouTube. Shipping and delivery was prompt and packaging was excellent. This triple shot basket and bottomless portafilter works excellent and has that wow factor as you watch your liquid black honey pump into your cup. A majority of the time I drink my espresso straight up black, so having a bit more to sip on is a welcome addition compared to my smaller filter. Also making one extra macchiato at a sitting helps saves time and increases work by 50 percent compared to the double shot. BONUS! It does feel a bit lighter than the original filter due to the missing spout, but none the less, it feels very durable. The basket itself lodges inside the filter very snug and can be a bit difficult to remove by hand if you try to grab the lip. The engineer in me took a few minutes and realized, just flip it over upside down, and push the filter out through. Way easier! The only slight downside is since it doesn't have the spout, so it can't sit on my rocky grinder hands free. Typically I allow my spouted one to sit there while operating/cleaning/drying my espresso machine. No bid deal I suppose; just leave it on the counter. I am glad I made the extra purchase for this portafilter and believe that if you have a rancilio espresso machine, you won't regret it.

There is nothing outstanding about this portafilter, but I don't have any reason to knock off stars, so it gets 5. It's sturdy, seems well-made, and it fits my Silvia and my VST basket. The bottomless design enabled me to diagnose puck uniformity issues that I was not aware of. I saw spurting and basket holes with no flow coming out of them. Fixing my grounds distribution (in part by buying a new grinder that doesn't clump) resulted in a significant flavor improvement. I'm glad I bought the bottomless portafilter!

I'll give this 5 stars based on construction. This one shipped with the filter basket as well. It came quickly and was sold by Kanen Coffee LLC through amazon. I'm still figuring out the world of espresso makers. I have a Gaggia Classic and the only bottomless portafilter that I've found so far for my machine isn't made by the manufacturer. I thought I'd try the Rancilio version when I read that it was very well made. Indeed, this looks and feels very well made. Holding this portafilter and my Gaggia portafilter I must admit that I liked the Rancilio version better. Holding the two filters sided by side the Rancilio basket rim looks more robust and it looks a bit larger than the Gaggia version. In the picture I think the Rancillio basket looks a bit smaller only because the spout on the bottom of the Gaggia filter raises it up closer to the camera. Note the difference in the angle of the tabs on the side of the filters relative to the handle. Since I thought the connection was fairly standard so I decided to give the Rancilio a try. The tab angle would have been no problem if it fit otherwise--I wouldn't mind that much if the handle didn't stick out at the same angle. Well--it doesn't fit the Gaggia Classic because the diameter is slightly too large.

Fits perfectly and performs as advertised. Learned a lot about how my shots were being pulled. It is much lighter than the stock portafilter but is quite sturdy. And it looks a lot like the stock portafilter compared to others I've seen on the market. Very happy with my purchase.

I bought this for my Sylvia and it came on time and as advertised. It’s a little pricy but definitely the great quality and solid construction that I would expect from Rancillio. I much prefer the naked portafilter to my original double spout as it lets my troubleshoot my shots plus there’s less to clean and there’s no risk of running a shot through a dirty spout. As an added bonus it comes with a filter basket that’s even nicer and bigger than my triple basket.

If your coffee beans and/or grinder differ from mine then you might see evidence of "channeling" with this. I've been lucky and have so far not experienced channeling problems. When I eventually have channeling this will be ready to help me diagnose and fix. Note that I am meticulous about 1) not over or under filling the filter basket (21g +/- 1g and 18g +/- 1g), 2) declumping the grinds (MATOW mini wisk or just make a wine cork plus wires and save the money), distributing the grinds (Apexstone Distributor tool), and consistent tamping (Espro 30lb tamper); so it's not all luck.