An espresso puck sits firmly in the basket after the shot: wet, pressed together under pressure, and with a spoon you only get it out in pieces. The usual way is a knock, and the only open question is what you knock against. For the DLSC084, De’Longhi answers it in a single sentence, namely a knock box for your coffee grounds at home. The product page has little more text than that.
On Amazon.de the box costs approx. €20.99 (as of September 2026). We have not handled the DLSC084 ourselves. No weight on a scale, no knock on a worktop. What follows in numbers and material details therefore comes from three sources: delonghi.com, the Amazon catalogue data (both retrieved on 7 September 2026) and the manufacturer’s official product photo.
Manufacturer information and catalogue data
De’Longhi lists exactly four features for the DLSC084: strong and sturdy, a polished stainless steel surface, a non-slip rubber underside and a removable holder that is meant to make cleaning easier. The Amazon listing from the same manufacturer says the same in other words and adds a stainless steel housing and a removable knock bar, plus a note about compact dimensions for storage. The listing’s bullet points also advertise spacious capacity, dishwasher safety, a high-gloss design and daily use by hobby baristas, but none of them gives a figure.
Figures only come from the Amazon catalogue. It gives the item dimensions as 5.83 x 4.25 x 5.55 inches, converted 14.8 x 10.8 x 14.1 centimetres. These are overall dimensions, not a statement of shape. The De’Longhi product photo shows a round stainless steel body with the black knock bar lying across it, its knob sticking out beyond the body on one side. This overhang explains why the length is four centimetres more than the width. The item simply carries DLSC084 as its model and part number; in the manufacturer’s shop it also runs under the number AS00008447. That helps when searching, because De’Longhi has two knock boxes with almost identical names in its range.
Two further catalogue fields are revealing, though not in the way intended. The size field contains the entry removable knock bar instead of a measurement, and as its product group the box is filed on Amazon under household goods. De’Longhi itself sorts it more finely, under coffee, accessories, coffee accessories and there into the group coffee tamper and knock box. Behind the brand name stands De’Longhi Appliances S.r.l., based in Treviso in northern Italy; in Germany the company is De’Longhi Deutschland GmbH in Neu-Isenburg.
In detail: where the energy goes when you knock
The puck sticks to the basket wall because it was compacted under pressure and because the residual water acts like glue. When you knock, you move portafilter and puck downwards together and then brake the portafilter abruptly. The puck has no such brake, so it comes loose and falls. The energy released has to go somewhere, and that is exactly the work a knock box does.
Against what else? At the bin you knock against a thin, springy rim. It gives way, absorbs part of the blow, and you knock more often until the puck falls. The bar in the knock box sits firmly in the body, and the body stands on rubber. That is why more of the blow ends up where it should.
Two quantities decide whether the box takes the blow or gives way. The first is mass, the second is the friction between the base and the worktop. For both, De’Longhi sticks to adjectives: no weight appears on the product page or in the catalogue data, and the rubber compound is called just rubber in both sources. Mechanically, the same applies here as for any other box. A heavy body moves less than a light one, and the better the underside grips, the less it wanders across the worktop when you strike.
Then there is the overall height, which data sheets like to treat as a pure question of space. It is also a question of leverage. The blow hits the bar at the top, the box stands on the bottom, and the greater the distance in between, the more likely it is to tip rather than just slide. The catalogue data give a height of 14.1 centimetres at a width of 10.8 centimetres, so the box is taller than its body is wide. Only the product photo shows at what height the bar sits: close under the top rim. Whether the DLSC084 is more likely to slide or to tip under a hard blow cannot be derived from these dimensions.
What the manufacturer does not state
Bundled together, because there is quite a lot: De’Longhi states a capacity in litres or grams neither on the product page nor in the Amazon catalogue; instead there is the statement that the box has room for plenty of espresso leftovers and that you need to empty it less often. Also missing are the weight, the wall thickness, the width of the opening, a list of compatible portafilter sizes, any material information on the knock bar and underside beyond the words stainless steel and rubber, the scope of delivery, the heat resistance, the EAN and the country of manufacture. A replacement knock bar is not listed as a separate part in the manufacturer’s shop.
Meanwhile, a weight of 474 grams, a capacity of 250 grams and dimensions of 10.5 x 13.5 centimetres circulate at retailers and price comparison sites. None of these figures appears at De’Longhi, and the dimensions contradict the catalogue data. We therefore do not adopt them, even though they would fill a data sheet table more prettily.
Does the box fit your portafilter?
This cannot be said for certain, and the basket diameter is the wrong question anyway. Only the puck falls into the opening; the portafilter does not rest anywhere and is not clamped. Whether your basket measures 51, 54 or 58 millimetres makes no difference. What counts is the width of the opening in relation to what you hold above it.
De’Longhi does not state exactly this width. The body is round, the catalogue width is 10.8 centimetres, and the surrounding rim still has to be deducted from that. A 58 mm basket measures just under six centimetres on the outside, plus the portafilter itself and, depending on the model, a double spout that hangs below the basket and needs room when you position it.
If you want to settle this before buying, there is a workable way. Hold a ruler against your portafilter, measure the width across the spouts, and compare it with the product photos, in which the opening can be seen in relation to the body. The 10.8 centimetres from the catalogue data are the upper limit you have to stay under.
Cleaning, and what belongs in it
The removable holder is the reason this section is short. De’Longhi explicitly names easy cleaning as the purpose of the removability, and the place where the bar sits in the wall is also the place where coffee grounds settle. The manufacturer approves the box itself for the dishwasher. If the bar stays inserted, no water reaches its socket. So take it out before the wash cycle, because that is exactly what it can be removed for.
Wet coffee grounds do not dry through in a metal container. They lie compacted, release water upwards and remain a breeding ground for as long as they stand there. How quickly they turn depends on the kitchen temperature and not on the container. Our advice is therefore to empty it before it gets full rather than when it is full, and into the organic waste bin. The sink trap speaks against the sink: coffee grounds settle there together with fat and over time build up a plug.
Price, warranty and running costs
In De’Longhi’s online shop the same box is priced at €25.00, shown as an offer against an original price of €29.90 (as of September 2026). Compared with the Amazon price above, that is a gap of a good four euros for the same item with the same model number. Incidentally, the sister model DLSC072 carries the €29.90 in the same shop as its regular price, which is easy to mix up when comparing.
The product page also shows a full manufacturer warranty, and in the support centre the DLSC084 has its own page where the product can be registered. What the warranty covers and what it does not is not stated there, but in the brand’s general warranty terms. For an accessory in this price class, that is more a formality than a safety net.
After that, the box costs nothing more. There is no filter, no descaler, no capsule and no cleaning agent prescribed by the manufacturer. Whoever buys this box pays for it once, and after that it just stands there.
What else comes into question?
A knock box rarely competes with another knock box. It competes with the accessories that fight for space on the same worktop within the same budget. Three items from our catalogue realistically stand next to it, and only one of them does the same job.
| Model | The difference | Price | Our rating | Choose this one if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De’Longhi DLSC084 (this one) | Compact dimensions (14.8 x 10.8 x 14.1 cm according to catalogue data), capacity not stated | approx. €20.99 | 8.8 | you knock out one or two portafilters in the morning and have little space |
| MHW-3BOMBER GB5967B | 1.2 litres stated, up to approx. 15 pucks according to the seller in the Amazon listing | approx. €27.99 | 8.5 | you brew several times a day and want to empty it every few days at most |
| Normcore WDT tool V2.1 | Works in the ground coffee before the shot instead of in the waste afterwards | approx. €25.99 | 9.4 | your espresso runs through unevenly and disposal already works |
| scarlet espresso tamper mat | Natural rubber mat, does not catch any grounds | approx. €14.99 | 8.6 | what you lack is grip when tamping rather than a target to knock against |
The prices apply as of September 2026; the ratings are our editorial assessment based on the available data and equipment and do not come from a measurement series. Two of the three alternatives also solve a different task than the DLSC084: the table sets purchase options for the same budget side by side, not designs. The whole class is in our best-of list barista accessories.
When this box, when another
Four questions decide it.
How often a day do you brew? With one or two cups, it is not the volume that determines when you empty it but hygiene: the grounds should go before they start to work, so every few days. With five or six shots it turns around, and then you want to know in advance when it is full, and exactly this figure is at the top of the list of gaps. The only box in our catalogue that states one is the MHW-3BOMBER.
How much space do you have? A footprint of at most 14.8 x 10.8 centimetres according to the catalogue data is the value you hold against the free corner next to the machine. If the box moves into the cupboard, it loses its purpose, because the way between the shot and the disposal then becomes longer than the reach to the bin.
What does your kitchen look like? High-gloss polished stainless steel suits stainless steel fronts and machines with a polished housing. In front of a matt front or wood, it is a shiny counterpoint, and whether that bothers you is a matter of taste. It is hard to hide, because this box stands in plain view, otherwise it does not serve its purpose.
That leaves the order. If grinder, tamper and distribution tool are already there, the box is the next sensible step. If any of those is missing, we would turn it around. An unevenly extracted espresso does not get better because the grounds are disposed of more cleanly afterwards. Which parts help in which order is sorted out by our guide to barista accessories essentials.
Who is it for?
The box is wrong for two groups that are easy to name. A bean-to-cup machine produces no puck that has to be knocked anywhere. The machine drops the spent grounds into its own container inside the housing, and that is tipped out. With a French press, pour-over and a Karlsbad pot, the grounds are wet and loose, and are rinsed out or go in the bin with the filter paper.
That leaves the portafilter. Here a restriction applies that gets lost in the table above: if you run two machines side by side or two of you brew one after the other in the morning, you knock into the same box, and then it is full twice as fast. In our category barista accessories, the DLSC084 is therefore the item for the one-machine household. That is also how De’Longhi describes it in the Amazon listing, as designed for daily use, intended for hobby baristas and for keeping the coffee station clean and tidy.
