Silicone Group Gasket (La Marzocco Blue)

I just replaced the Cafelat green gasket on my 22 year old Rancilio Silvia after 5 years of daily use. It remained soft, pliable, and free of leaks. I replaced it only because I had the machine on the bench doing other maintenance and it seemed like a good time to do so. The silicone gasket was much easier to remove than the older hard rubber gaskets.

I used this on a Profitec Ride. The original gasket is an ECM 8.5mm. I ordered the Cafelat 8.5mm.

Great, replaces my lelit victoria gasket that was getting old and tough. The seal is now much better!

Perfect

I replaced my original rubber gasket with this silicone one on my La Marzocco Linea Mini. The old one occasionally leaked and so it was clearly time for a new gasket. The old lasted than a year for me. It installed easily. To remove the old gasket, I made a tool: I just bent a nail with pliers so that it is hook-shaped. I unscrewed the shower screen. Then I used the hook to grab the old gasket and pull it down and off of the machine. It's not needed, but I used some food grade grease to lube the new gasket before pushing it on. Replaced the shower screen and was done. Took about 10 mins. The portafilter snugs up smoothly to the new gasket and I tried the blind, and it didn't leak. All good.

I had one of these on my old Expobar Office machine for several years, now just replaced the OEM gasket on my Profitec Pro 500 with this. The feel is a little different than the stock gasket; this new one is a little softer, and if you want to you can force the portafilter handle past straight out, but you don’t need to to keep it from leaking. This gasket has never leaked on either of the machines I’ve used it on, and based on my experience using it on the old machine, I expect it to last basically forever.

This is the second one I have bought; the first Cafelat silocone gasket was for Gaggia Coffee.I have installed it yesterday. Despite what some folks have said (and even Espressoparts, if my memory is not failing me, said "this is not the one we recommend") these work well for me.Fact is, when my Silvia was just bought, the gasket required realy, really superstrong tightening of the portafilter or it leaked. Eventually when 3 years ago I decided, after some more than 10 years to replace it, I bought the original gasket again. Sure enough, it is tough, not soft at all, and required lots of strength to tighten and kept leaking. And recently, after less than 3 years, I have not enough strength to tighten it.So, remembering my experience from 4 years ago when I replaced the gasket on my Gaggia Coffee (which I am sure was ... 20 years old and the extraction really took some doing) and was impressed with the results: the tightening required normal effort and no leaking was observed, I bough the same for the Silvia, in spite of the Espressoparts recommendation.Well, I am happy: I duplicated the Gaggia result: the tightening requires just a normal human effort, and no leak is observed. I know that over one year of constant use my Gaggia did not develop any leaks (I stopped as it was my office machine and during the pandemic I have been working from home). And then I kept using it intermittently (took on trips in a car) and it was, and still is fine - I have just resumed normal use by having returned to the office full time.So. Not sure what is expected, life-wise, from a 10-dollar gasket, but to me it is totally worth buying and is, in my opinion, better than the original

This is a long term review. I have had my Gaggia Classic Pro since 2019 and several Gaggias before that. I replaced the stock gasket when I got my machine and use a naked portafilter (was using an OEM Gaggia one, but have since upgraded to the normcore -- highly recommended). My family and I make around 3-4 double shots per day. I finally had to replace this gasket because I was deep cleaning my machine and noted that it was breaking down, but not for any failure. I think the breakdown was because the brass of the Gaggia filter tabs that lock into the started wearing out and the lip of the filter basket kept riding higher and higher (hence replacing the filter for the normcore model which is stainless), thereby putting more and more pressure on the gasket. As the maintainer of our machine, I self-admittedly don't maintain the machine as the manufacturer intended (I find it easier to replace parts or the whole machine if it fails catastrophically) and we often leave a used filter/puck in the machine with it turned on for hours which I'm sure isn't great for corrosion of parts like the screen holder and gasket. Installation is incredibly easy as is removal. I use an icepick to remove and just press in with fingers to install. All this said, I keep two of these on hand at all times in case they need replacing and for the price, this is no big deal.