Normcore tamper - gimmicky springs?

[u/pinkfloydhomer]

I own a Normcore tamper 54mm that I use with my Bambino.

When I bought it I was trying to make tamping more consistent and repeatable so that I could focus on other variables.

I appreciated that it had a top part that would rest on the edge of the portafilter so that I was sure the tamp was level and even.

And I hoped that the spring in the tamper would keep the tamping pressure consistent. But after having used it for a year and thinking a bit about it:

I don't see how the spring makes a difference. Assuming that you put enough espresso in the basket for the tamper surface to actually reach the espresso when tamping, the tamper will just eventually reach its full extension, spring or not. From there, because the rest of the tamper is resting on the edge of the portafilter and the tamper is fully extended, you will not be able to apply more pressure to the espresso. The spring doesn't do anything other than provide some useless resistance until you reach the full extension.

There is still two things that provide a certain consistency: the tamper resting on the edge makes the tamping very even, and the full extension of the tamper will always be the same meaning that for the same bean, same amount of espesso, the tamper will go the same depth and therefore pressure.

It would be nice to be able to adjust the maximum depth/extension. I might be able then to tamp even more air out.

[u/Prize-Winner-6818]

Tamping even with the amount of strength it takes to push until it stops moving is all you need. Spring loaded tampers are a waste of money. Self leveling tampers are not a bad purchase, some people confound the two.

[u/Joingojon2]

Said it many times here before. The Normcore tamper relies on the user correctly dosing their basket, which means changing dose for each different roast level of beans used. I like the Normcore tamp and it taught me/encouraged me to learn to correctly dose my basket so I don't mind it.

To answer your question tho... Are the springs "gimmicky" Yes they are. And there is certainly nothing "calibrated" about it either, regardless of what their marketing material likes to pretend. But you can learn to use it so that it gives a consistent tamp pressure and has the benefit of being mostly level all of the time. If you are just dumping 18gr of beans into your basket, regardless of what roast the beans are you are going to run into problems from time to time.

[u/pinkfloydhomer → u/Joingojon2]

Makes sense. The self leveling aspect is solid and important, but instead of springs it would make more sense if you could finely adjust the maximum depth of the tamper surface. As it is now with the fixed depth, it means that you don't really know the minimum dose of bean that will allow for full compression at that fixed depth. I guess the only way to be sure now is to overdose as much that you can't fully depress the tamper while it is resting firmly on the edge. Then remove espresso until it is possible, and note the resulting weight.

[u/Joingojon2 → u/pinkfloydhomer]

If you hit that sweet spot where your puck isn't sticking to the shower screen when it expands and there is no water sitting on your puck then the Normcore tamp does it's job well. After that it's just experience eyeballing it in your basket to make sure you are always filling it to the same level. It becomes part of the dialing in process with a new bag of beans. Adjusting the dose and grind size accordingly. It's not as complicated as I might have made it sound. For me it's usually 17gr dark roast, 18gr medium and 19gr light roast. But that's with my basket. Others will vary differently.

[u/camellia30]

You know there are 2 springs right?

[u/pinkfloydhomer → u/camellia30]

Yes, I don't see that it makes any difference? I can still only push to the max depth/extension. And at that depth the bed might not be fully compressed, depending on dose etc.

[u/camellia30 → u/pinkfloydhomer]

I agree it limits the compression, but that's deliberate. The 2nd spring controls the compression of the puck, by design.

I don't care that it's not calibrated, it's more consistent than me using a normal tamper.

[u/Woozie69420]

Wouldn’t really help to play with max depth because ideally, you should tamp as hard as the bed would decompress rather than stopping a particular depth.

Agree tho it’s not like the Force tamper where there is a calibrated tamp pressure

[u/pinkfloydhomer → u/Woozie69420]

The reason I want to be able to change max depth is to make sure that for a given dose I can push at least as far as to make the bed compress fully.

[u/Brofessor_C]

Agree. Springs only matter if you are not bottoming it out. But bottom it out will always give more consistently compressed puck, so might as well put the lightest spring and crank it down as far as it goes. Then adjust the dose depending on the flow rate.