The details
This answer covers the CASABREWS CM5418 and the 5418 Pro, which share the same 51mm portafilter platform with the CASABREWS 3700 series (3700Essential, 3700Gense, 3700Pro).
- The stock portafilter is 51mm with a three-ear (three-lug) mount and ships with pressurized (dual-wall) baskets.
- CASABREWS sells its own 51mm bottomless portafilter and 51mm accessories listed as fitting the CM5418, 5418 Pro and 3700 series. These are the safest buys.
- Third-party 51mm bottomless portafilters that name the CM5418 in the listing are widely used by owners.
- 51mm is a common small-machine size, but it is not one single standard: basket depth, ear spacing and gasket dimensions vary between brands. A 51mm part made for a De'Longhi or another brand is not guaranteed to lock into the CASABREWS group.
Why the size matters
Portafilter size decides your entire accessory ecosystem. At 51mm the CASABREWS sits in the compact class, which means a smaller basket bed than 54mm or 58mm machines and a dose ceiling to match. Owners moving from recipes written for bigger machines should expect to dose less than those recipes state and dial in from there rather than forcing a large dose into the small basket.
The stock pressurized baskets are forgiving with supermarket grinds but hide puck problems. The common upgrade path is a 51mm unpressurized basket or a CM5418-compatible bottomless portafilter, which only makes sense once you have a grinder capable of espresso-fine adjustment.
What owners actually do
The typical CM5418 upgrade sequence in owner communities: first a proper 51mm tamper to replace the plastic stock one, then a 51mm puck screen, then the bottomless portafilter with an unpressurized basket once a real grinder arrives. CASABREWS' own bottomless kit ships with a basket and puck screen sized for the machine, which sidesteps the mix-and-match fit questions entirely. Owners who buy generic 51mm parts report checking two things before purchase: that the listing names the CM5418 or 3700 series, and that the basket depth matches their target dose.
The trap to avoid
The trap is assuming "51mm" means universal. It does not. The ear pattern that locks the portafilter into the group head is brand-specific, so a 51mm portafilter made for another manufacturer can fail to rotate into the CASABREWS group even though the baskets share a diameter. Baskets are more interchangeable than portafilters, but depth still varies. When in doubt, buy parts that name your exact model, and keep the stock portafilter as a fallback.