E61 Precision Group Shower Screen by IMS

This will be short and sweet. Other shower screens on the market are a solid piece with holes punch in it and a screen that is underneath that. These are two separate pieces and coffee gets stuck in between them. When this happens it messes up how the water distributes through the screen.With this shower screen design it is one piece that has small holes drill out of it to form a screen in the single piece. No coffee to get stuck in between to pieces. This is great because it forces the water to flow through these holes instead of flowing in-between the two piece being pushed apart via the coffee that is stuck, thus a more even distribution of water through the filter basket creating a more evenly extracted shot.This solves water distribution and even extraction problems, now you just need to dial in the perfect grind size and perfect the tamp technique.

This shower screen is one of the best upgrades you can make to your E61 group machine. I installed this on my Profitech Pro 500 PID. I was skeptical of this actually helping but it really evens out the water dispersion and helped my naked portafilter shots come out more even and caused the stream to come together faster.It also cleans up much easier than the stock screen, if any coffee from the puck stays on the screen there is much less of it and it comes off super easy.

I hadn’t been getting great water flow and it wasn’t evenly dispersed. Finally hit me the oils from the coffee could have caked up and that’s what it was. Changed it out and instantly had so much water output. Chose this one instead of the nano coating because I’ve heard of the coating coming off when back flushing and I don’t want that in my machine.

I bought the IMS Shower Screen for my Rocket Giotto espresso machine. The dispersion is so even, much better than the stock shower screen. I installed it with a new Cafelat silicone gasket. Works great!

I'm skeptical about claims that a part costing less than $20 would make much of a difference to the quality of shots from my Rocket Giotto... but I have to admit I was wrong - this screen really does do a far better job of distributing water than the factory-supplied one. Shots come out more evenly using my bottomless portafilter, and the result is a tastier and fuller-bodied coffee. I should have done this years ago!

I was so excited to receive my new IMS shower screen to replace my generic e61 screen. I plucked out my old shower screen, crusted with the week's coffee debris, delighted that there would be no soaking this round. But a week later I found myself SHOCKED and appalled that the IMS screen does not have a ridge. In the photo there appears to be a ridge, but NO, no ridge for leverage when tugging the screen and gasket out of the machine for daily/weekly maintenance. Now I find myself ordering DENTIST TOOLS just to remove my shower screen for a routine washing. I doubt I will use this screen very long in spite of spending 3x more than the cost of a generic screen which provides the same flavor and effectiveness, if not better due to the regular scrubbing of the dispersion screw and screen soaking. I'm also frightened that I will harm my gasket in the process of removal. A screen that doesn't get a good washing will just result in bitter espresso, so I am really irked. Unless you like playing dentist and painstakingly picking out your machine gaskets, you may want to pass and order a good ol' 6 dollar screen of your liking WITH a ridge.

I replaced a gasket on a Rocket R58 and decided to replace the shower screen as well. This head is better than the factory original. Noticeable taste difference and much better saturation. Well made and very easy to install.

I'm not sure it did anything for the flavor of my espresso, but the hydrophobic coating and very small holes in the screen make it a breeze to wipe off between shots! I can get it so much cleaner now before back flushing that I don't have to use soap as often. That's nice because after I use soap on my E61 I have to take the valve apart to re-grease it. It's a time saver!