IMS Big Bang Precision Filter Basket for 58mm portafilters, 20-22g. double espresso (h25.5)

For a couple of bucks more, you can get an IMS Big Bang basket! Why is it better? It’s made by IMS, one of the best espresso basket makers (look it up on Wikipedia). The sides and bottom of the baskets are flat making them a tighter fit in your portofilter, the holes are uniform and cut even for a better flow. These are the real deal - competition grade. Every new espresso machine should come with an IMS Big Bang basket, old machines too!

Works as described, easy to remove from the portafilter and clean. Easily holds 18 grams of coffee.

Such a great basket! Easy to clean as usually my puck leaves no residual grounds in the basket. I feel as if my shots are more consistent based on the reduction in channeling that I am witnessing. My only complaint is that my magnetic dosing collar doesn’t really stick to this basket which can be a pain. I sorta just hold my collar on with my thumb while dosing to keep it on there

While cleaning my Isomac Millennium (E61) I decided, after 20 years of use, to try one of the puck screens folks are using these days. The puck screen on the Millennium is not at all easily removable so cleaning it well is a real pain involving tons of backflushing. When the puck screen came, I realized it wouldn't fit in the tapered OEM basket, so that led me down the path of getting a new basket with straight walls that would fit my portafilter. I'm happy to say that this basket fits perfectly in my portafilter and also accepts my 58.5mm puck screen (which does indeed help a lot with the grouphead screen staying clean). My espresso is also notably sweeter, though I'll have to spend more time with this basket before I can say it wasn't due to my latest cleaning. I did have to grind a bit finer with this basket, so I would expect some impacts to flavor. My tamper is 58mm, so it does leave a few fines around the edge, so I'll probably upgrade my tamper to 58.5mm next. Overall, the basket seems well made, looks cool if that's important, and my espresso tastes great.

Works well. Does not have nano tech coating so puck does stick a little when knocking out.

This basket is a good, general purpose basket that's good at creating "pretty" shots with the classic rat tail visual, due to its unusual hole distribution. It's also (purposely) not a high flow basket, so it's good at doing flow profile shots or darker roasts. It fits a variety of portafilters, and is easy to clean. A great basket if you need the features.

I purchased this basket for use with a Gaggia Classic Evo Pro. Right now, this is a mostly stock unit (no adjustments to the OPV, no PID) and the only modifications performed has been switching from the stock shower screen to an IMS GA200IM and the use of a bottomless portafilter. Compared to stock baskets, the big bang offers a number of advantages. First, this is a straight wall basket which I definitely prefer over the curved basket included with my portafilter and the unit itself. For dialing in, this was relatively easy and only took 5 adjustments on grind to get a very workable and consistent extraction. In terms of flavor, it does seem to offer a different level of extraction than possible from the traditional "competition" straight wall basket, but seems a lot easier to dial it in. I forsee this will become particularly useful when trying new coffees, as it is certainly frustrating to go through 20% of a 12oz bag of coffee just to get the grind dialed in.

I was so looking forward to having a quality filter basket. After looking at which ones were better than the average, this one stood out to me. Using it, however, was a challenge. It is first a filter basket WITHOUT a ridge. Which means that it is held in place by friction only. The first few times of use I had to 'fish' it out of the garbage when emptying the coffee puck. I then used a knock box (not a good one by the way) I had the reverse situation. Getting the coffee puck out of the basket. It took some thinking, but I managed to get it to work or work good enough to use on a daily basis. The other issue was, if you are into serious coffee making and grinding your own coffee, you will have to play with the grinds to get the right consistency where it is not too fine that the water will not pass through or too course where it comes out like a waterfall. Again, a few trial and errors I managed to get it just right. But that was for one type of coffee. The next package took that same process. The basket was the issue with the holes, which was what this was designed to do. Overall? This is, as the literature attests too, is a great precision basket and well worth having it. The one star down grade is because of not having the normal ridge, but that's about it. I was told that a filter or filter paper will help, we'll see should I decide to get one.