IMS Competition B70TH24.5M – Precision Espresso Basket – 12–18 g

☕ A Versatile Precision Basket for Smaller Doubles to Full Espresso Recipes

The IMS Competition B70TH24.5M is one of our favourite all-round precision baskets for 58 mm espresso machines.

Its 24.5 mm height, flat bottom with rounded internal corners, and concentrated 641-hole M-pattern give it enough flexibility for everything from smaller home-barista double shots to more generous modern espresso recipes.

At WB.coffee we position it as a practical:

12–18 g espresso basket

for everyday use.

But coffee density matters.

A fluffy dark roast occupies considerably more basket volume than a dense light-roasted coffee, so the same basket can sensibly work with substantially different weights depending on the coffee.

That is why we prefer to talk about:

CoffeeNose 👃 recommended dose ranges

rather than pretending that one number printed on a basket applies to every coffee.

📋 Quick Menu

• 🧺 IMS Competition B70TH24.5M
• ☕ Practical WB.coffee range: 12–18 g
• 📏 Height: 24.5 mm
• ⭕ Border: Ø70 mm
• 🔘 Tamper: 58 / 58.4 mm
• ⬜ Flat bottom
• ↪️ Rounded internal corners
• 💧 641 precision holes
• 🎯 Concentrated M-pattern
• 🔬 0.30 mm perforations
• 🔘 External retention ridge
• 🫘 Suitable for dark, medium & light roast recipes
• 🧲 Excellent with a 58.5 mm puck screen
• 🌀 Compatible with Duomo & MHW-3BOMBER WDT workflows
• 🔨 Precision spring tamper recommended
• 🧼 Compatible with professional automatic portafilter-cleaning workflows
• 👃 CoffeeNose dose & headspace guidance
• 🏢 Café recipe & workflow consulting
• 💶 Bulk pricing from 2 baskets

⬜ Flat Bottom with Rounded Internal Corners

The B70TH24.5M differs fundamentally from the convex IMS B70 2TC H24 E.

This basket has a:

flat bottom

combined with:

rounded internal corners

where the basket wall transitions into the bottom.

IMS describes this rounded internal geometry as concentrating extraction toward the useful central portion of the coffee puck while avoiding poorly utilised coffee around sharp basket corners.

The result is a geometry that feels more conventional than the convex H24 E, while still being distinctly different from a basic stock basket.

💧 641-Hole M-Pattern

The bottom uses:

641 precision holes

arranged in IMS's concentrated:

M-pattern

within approximately:

Ø44 mm

of the basket floor.

IMS specifies a 0.30 mm hole diameter, with the complete perforated area contained within the Ø49 mm basket extraction zone.

The M-pattern deliberately places a greater concentration of openings toward the central area of the puck.

This combines well with the basket's rounded internal corners to encourage controlled central extraction.

⚖️ CoffeeNose 👃 Recommended Dose Ranges

There is no genuinely universal gram rating for an espresso basket.

Coffee volume changes with:

🫘 Density

🔥 Roast development

⚙️ Grind size

🌱 Variety

💨 Bean porosity

📏 Desired headspace.

Our practical recommendations for the B70TH24.5M are:

☕ Smaller double / home-barista recipe

12–16 g

Useful when you deliberately want a lower coffee dose.

We strongly recommend checking headspace and considering a puck screen in this range.

🔥 Dark roast

12–16 g

This is probably the basket's natural sweet spot for many traditional espresso blends.

Dark-roasted beans are relatively expanded and porous, so they occupy more basket volume per gram.

☕ Medium roast

15–17 g

A very useful range for contemporary espresso blends and medium-roasted specialty coffee.

🌸 Light roast

16-19 g

Dense light-roasted coffee occupies less volume per gram.

Consequently, substantially more coffee by weight can fit while retaining sensible puck depth and headspace.

These CoffeeNose ranges align with the physical capacity behaviour documented for this basket geometry by IMS, but we prefer to present them as practical brewing guidance rather than absolute rules.

👃 CoffeeNose – Why We Still Call It a 12–18 g Basket

Because that is how we expect most WB.coffee customers to use it.

For:

☕ Home espresso

🥛 Cappuccino

🤎 Flat white

🍫 Medium and darker blends

a working range somewhere between:

12 and 18 g

covers an enormous amount of useful territory.

The higher light-roast recommendations don't contradict that.

They demonstrate why:

basket capacity should be judged by puck volume, not grams alone.

A dense 21 g light-roast puck may occupy similar physical space to 17 g of a developed espresso roast.

📏 Headspace Matters

A precision basket works best when the puck fits the brewing chamber correctly.

Too much coffee can force the dry puck against:

🚿 the shower screen

🔩 the group screw

before brewing even begins.

Too little coffee can create excessive:

↕️ headspace

and a shallow puck that is more vulnerable to disruption when the group fills with water.

So don't chase:

maximum grams

or:

minimum grams.

Choose the dose that creates a sensible puck for:

your coffee + grinder + basket + espresso machine.

🧲 Smaller Dose? We Recommend a Puck Screen

For home baristas deliberately using this basket for smaller double shots around:

12–15 g

we particularly like using a:

58.5 mm puck screen

provided your machine has enough clearance.

Why?

A puck screen can:

💧 soften and distribute incoming water

🛡️ protect the surface of a shallower puck

🧼 keep the shower screen cleaner

♻️ reduce coffee residue reaching the group

📏 occupy a small amount of otherwise unused headspace.

This makes it particularly attractive when using a 24.5 mm basket at the lower end of its dose range.

⚠️ A Puck Screen Is Not a Fix for Extreme Underdosing

There is an important distinction.

A puck screen can make a sensible smaller-dose recipe work beautifully.

It does not magically turn:

far too little coffee

into:

the correct basket size.

If the puck is extremely shallow, choose a shallower basket instead.

Think of the puck screen as:

a useful brewing and cleanliness tool

rather than a spacer whose job is to compensate for an inappropriate basket.

🌀 Puck Preparation Matters

Once you move from a generic stock basket to a precision basket, puck preparation becomes more—not less—important.

Precision baskets provide relatively predictable water flow through the bottom.

That means inconsistencies higher in the puck can become easier to expose.

You still need to control:

⚖️ Dose

⚙️ Grind

🌀 Distribution

🔘 Tamping

📏 Headspace.

A precision basket cannot repair:

❌ Large clumps

❌ Uneven density

❌ Crooked tamping

❌ Poor grinder alignment.

👃 CoffeeNose Puck Preparation Workflow

Our preferred home-barista workflow:

1. Grind accurately

Use a grinder capable of producing a consistent espresso grind.

2. Dose consistently

Weigh the coffee.

3. Distribute

Use WDT to break up clumps and distribute grounds through the puck.

4. Tamp

Use a level, repeatable tamp.

5. Add puck screen where appropriate

Especially useful for lower-dose recipes.

6. Brew by ratio

Measure beverage weight.

7. Taste

Then change only one variable at a time.

🌀 Compatible with DUOMO The Eight WDT

The B70TH24.5M is a 58 mm-class basket and works very naturally with:

DUOMO The Eight

The Eight is designed around 58 mm portafilters and offers adjustable needle depth, making it suitable for different basket depths and coffee doses.

That adjustability matters here because the B70TH24.5M can be used across a very broad dose range.

Set the needles so they distribute:

through the coffee bed

rather than simply scratching the surface.

For very small 12–14 g doses, take particular care to set the needle depth appropriately for the lower puck height.

🌀 Compatible with MHW-3BOMBER Cyclone WDT

Another excellent pairing is the:

MHW-3BOMBER specifically designs this tool for 58 mm baskets and gives it adjustable stirring depth so it can be matched to different:

🧺 Basket sizes

⚖️ Coffee doses.

Its magnetic base helps locate the tool on the basket while the adjustable needle system distributes coffee throughout the puck.

For a basket as versatile as the H24.5M, adjustable-depth WDT makes much more sense than a fixed tool designed around one single puck height.

🔨 Finish with a Precision Spring Tamper

After distribution we recommend:

a precision spring tamper

around:

58.4–58.5 mm

for a close edge-to-edge fit in IMS 58 mm baskets.

IMS itself recommends precision tampers around this diameter for its 58 mm precision basket platform.

A spring-loaded tamper offers two practical advantages:

🎯 More repeatable force

📐 Easier level tamping.

For home baristas, consistency matters far more than trying to achieve an arbitrary heroic tamp pressure.

Once the coffee is fully compressed:

additional force doesn't improve extraction.

A repeatable, level tamp does.

🆚 B70TH24.5M vs B70 2TC H24 E

These are close in height.

They are not the same basket.

⬜ B70TH24.5M

Flat bottom with rounded internal corners

Choose it for:

✔️ Broad dose flexibility

✔️ Practical 12–18 g home use

✔️ 16–18 g darker espresso

✔️ Larger medium/light-roast recipes

✔️ M-pattern extraction

✔️ More conventional puck geometry.

🥣 B70 2TC H24 E

Convex bottom

Choose it for:

✔️ Smaller practical doses

✔️ 12–16 g recipes

✔️ Ridgeless design

✔️ 715-hole E-pattern

✔️ Distinct convex extraction geometry.

CoffeeNose choice 👃

Want maximum versatility?

H24.5M

Want the smaller convex IMS?

H24 E

🆚 B70TH24.5M vs VST 15 g

The VST 15 g is a more narrowly focused basket.

VST positions it around:

14–16 g

and puts particular emphasis on extremely controlled manufacturing tolerances and individual basket inspection.

The IMS H24.5M gives you:

more dose flexibility.

The VST 15 g gives you:

a tighter reference dose and QC philosophy.

For a home barista who may want to brew:

14 g today

and:

18 g tomorrow,

we would normally choose:

IMS B70TH24.5M

For a café wanting several tightly matched dedicated 15 g baskets:

VST

becomes very attractive.

📊 Which Basket Should I Choose?

IMS confirms the H24 E's convex 715-hole design and the H24.5M's rounded-corner 641-hole M geometry. VST specifies its 15 g EU basket at 14–16 g, 22 mm high, with a 58.4 mm flat-face tamper.

☕ Starting Recipe – Straight Espresso

For medium / medium-dark specialty espresso:

Dose

17 g

Beverage

34–38 g

Ratio

Approximately 1:2–1:2.25

Use extraction time as diagnostic information.

Then taste.

A straight espresso recipe should prioritise:

✨ Sweetness

🍋 Balanced acidity

👅 Texture

🌰 Finish

rather than simply hitting a predetermined number of seconds.

🤎 Recipe Direction – Flat White

For flat white we usually want enough concentration to remain clearly identifiable through milk.

A good starting direction:

Dose

17–18 g

Espresso

32–38 g

This gives you a relatively concentrated espresso base while still allowing:

🍫 sweetness

🌰 body

🍮 caramel character

to remain present through a smaller milk drink.

🥛 Larger Milk Drinks

A larger:

☕ Cappuccino

🥛 Latte

🥤 Large flat white-style drink

may benefit from either:

• a slightly larger dose
• a slightly shorter beverage ratio
• a more developed espresso roast
• a blend engineered to retain intensity through milk.

This is where simply copying the same espresso recipe for every drink often produces mediocre results.

🏢 We Help Coffee Bars Build the Complete Recipe

For cafés, choosing the basket is only the beginning.

At Amsterdam Coffee Lab / WB.coffee, we help coffee bars optimise the complete espresso system:

Basket

Which volume and geometry matches the intended drink?

⬇️

Coffee

Single origin or blend?

⬇️

Grinder

Which grind range gives the required flow and flavour?

⬇️

Dose

How much coffee fits the basket and recipe?

⬇️

Beverage ratio

How much espresso should reach the cup?

⬇️

Puck preparation

WDT, distribution, tamping and consistency.

⬇️

Workflow

How quickly and repeatably can the barista execute it during service?

👃 One Espresso Recipe Does Not Suit Every Drink

A straight espresso may taste fantastic at:

18 g → 42 g.

Put that same espresso into a:

300 ml milk drink

and it may disappear.

Conversely, an intense:

18 g → 30 g

blend-based espresso can be excellent in milk but overly concentrated as a straight espresso.

We help cafés develop recipes specifically for:

☕ Straight espresso

🤎 Flat white

🥛 Cappuccino

🥤 Larger milk drinks

rather than assuming one recipe is perfect for everything.

🌍 Single Origin vs Blend

Basket and recipe choice also depend on the coffee.

🌍 Single origin

May benefit from:

🌡️ Higher temperature

☕ Longer beverage ratio

⚙️ Different grind

⚖️ Higher dose for very dense light roast

to maximise:

🌸 Aroma

🍓 Fruit

✨ Clarity.

🍫 Espresso blend

May instead be designed around:

🌰 Body

🍫 Chocolate

🍮 Caramel

🥛 Milk compatibility

and perform beautifully at a shorter, more concentrated ratio.

The basket is only one component of that recipe.

🧼 Compatible with Kaffee Klar Portafilter Cleaning

For commercial coffee bars, the B70TH24.5M can be integrated into an automated cleaning workflow with systems such as:

Kaffee Klar T1

Kaffee Klar supports 58 mm single and double portafilters and offers dedicated cleaning heads, including heads designed for flat-bottom double baskets.

For this IMS basket, use the cleaning-head geometry appropriate to the flat-bottom basket.

The system can remove spent grounds in approximately:

3 seconds

without repeatedly banging the portafilter against a knock box.

That can mean:

🔇 Less noise

🧹 Cleaner bar

⚡ Faster workflow

🖐️ Less repetitive impact on the barista.

🧼 Compatible with QuinSpin Workflows

The QuinSpin automatic portafilter cleaner is another excellent café workflow option.

QuinSpin uses:

1. A drill-style head to remove the bulk of the puck.
2. A brush head to remove remaining coffee particles.

It is designed around double espresso baskets, with cleaning heads matched to specific basket geometry.

When ordering or configuring QuinSpin for the B70TH24.5M:

choose the cleaning head for the correct basket geometry.

That matters because QuinSpin's drill head is deliberately matched to the basket rather than using one generic shape for everything.

👃 Why Automatic Basket Cleaning Matters

A café might produce:

200

300

or:

500+

espresso pucks per day.

Saving only a few seconds per puck becomes meaningful.

But workflow speed isn't the only advantage.

Removing spent coffee consistently also helps prevent:

☕ old grounds

🟤 residue

🧈 oxidised coffee oils

remaining in the basket before the next dose.

Clean basket.

Fresh dose.

Repeat.

🧼 Deep Cleaning Still Matters

Automatic puck removal does not replace proper chemical cleaning.

During service:

🧹 remove the puck.

Periodically:

🧼 remove coffee oils.

Rinse baskets with hot water regularly and use a suitable:

espresso & coffee-oil cleaner

when required.

Browse our:

espresso baskets

for alternative sizes and geometries.

🫘 Find the Right Espresso

For milk drinks, try:

CN – Chocolaty & Nutty

with:

🍫 Milk chocolate

🌰 Nuts

🍮 Caramel

🍯 Brown sugar.

Or:

VC – Vanilla & Caramel

for a softer, sweeter profile.

Not sure what you like?

Start with our:

Espresso Tasting Set.

🎓 Want to Make Better Espresso?

At Amsterdam Coffee Lab in Weesp, we teach you to connect:

⚙️ Grind

⚖️ Dose

🧺 Basket

📏 Headspace

🌀 WDT

🔨 Tamping

💧 Beverage ratio

⏱️ Flow

👅 Taste.

Choose from:

🎓 Espresso Essentials for the Home Barista

🧪 Advanced Barista Masterclass

🏠 Private home training

🏢 Office training

☕ Professional café consulting.

The goal is not to copy our recipe.

It is to understand how to build:

your recipe.

For cafés we strongly prefer keeping:

matched basket geometry

across multiple portafilters.

That makes it much easier to transfer:

⚙️ Grinder setting

⚖️ Dose

☕ Beverage ratio

from one group to another.

🔧 Technical Specifications

Product: IMS Competition Precision Basket

Model: B702TH24.5M

Type: 2-cup / double basket

WB.coffee practical range: 12–18 g

Geometry: Flat bottom with rounded internal corners

Height: 24.5 mm

Border: Ø70 mm

Internal body: Approx. Ø59 mm

Tamper: 58 / 58.4 mm

Ridge: External Ø60.5 mm

Hole pattern: M-pattern

Number of holes: 641

Concentrated pattern area: Ø44 mm

Perforated basket area: Approx. Ø49 mm

Hole diameter: Approx. 0.30 mm.

👃 CoffeeNose Recommended Doses

Smaller double

12–16 g

Use sensible headspace and consider a puck screen.

Dark roast

12–16 g

Ideal for many classic espresso blends and milk drinks.

Medium roast

16–18 g

Excellent general specialty-espresso range.

Light roast

17–19 g

Dense coffees can fit considerably more mass into the same basket volume.

These are starting ranges—not rules.

Always verify:

actual puck height and flavour.

✅ Perfect For

The IMS B70TH24.5M is particularly suited to:

✔️ 58 mm espresso systems

✔️ E61-style machines

✔️ Home baristas

✔️ Specialty cafés

✔️ 12–18 g everyday espresso

✔️ Smaller doubles with puck screen

✔️ Medium and dark espresso blends

✔️ Higher-dose dense light roasts

✔️ WDT workflows

✔️ Precision spring tampers

✔️ Bottomless portafilters

✔️ Automated café portafilter cleaners

✔️ Recipe-development and training environments.

❤️ Why We Like It at WB.coffee

This is probably one of the more versatile IMS basket sizes.

The B70TH24.5M gives you enough volume to explore modern espresso while still allowing sensible smaller-dose recipes.

Its:

⬜ flat bottom

↪️ rounded internal corners

💧 concentrated 641-hole M-pattern

📏 24.5 mm depth

create a very useful middle ground.

For home baristas, we especially like the combination:

smaller dose + good WDT + precision spring tamper + puck screen.

For cafés, the same basket can form part of a much more developed workflow incorporating:

🌀 DUOMO / MHW-3BOMBER distribution

🔨 repeatable tamping

🧼 Kaffee Klar / QuinSpin cleaning

⚖️ weight-controlled recipes

☕ drink-specific beverage ratios.

CoffeeNose verdict 👃

Don't ask:

“How many grams is this basket?”

Ask:

“How many grams of this coffee give me the correct puck volume and the espresso I want?”

For a dark espresso blend that might be:

12–16 g.

For a medium roast:

15–17 g.

For a dense light roast:

17–19 g.

And if you're a home barista deliberately making a smaller:

12–15 g double,

use good puck preparation and consider a thin puck screen to make the most of the additional headspace.

Basket size is only the beginning.

The real recipe is:

coffee → grinder → dose → distribution → tamp → basket → yield → milk → workflow → taste.

📍 IMS Precision Baskets & Espresso Workflow in Weesp

At WB.coffee / Amsterdam Coffee Lab in Weesp, combine your IMS basket with:

🌀 DUOMO & MHW-3BOMBER WDT tools

🔨 Precision spring tampers

🧲 Puck screens

🥤 Dosing cups

⚖️ Espresso scales

🪞 Bottomless portafilters

🧼 Kaffee Klar & QuinSpin café workflow solutions

🧽 Professional espresso-oil cleaners

⚙️ Espresso grinders

🫘 Fresh espresso blends & single origins

🎓 Home Barista workshops

🧪 Advanced Masterclasses

🏢 Café workflow & recipe consulting

🥡 Specialty coffee from the tasting menu @ Amsterdam Coffee Lab

From basket selection to the final drink:

we help you build the complete espresso recipe.