I have a puck prep question

[mjcmt]

A little history to qualify my question:

I'm not a sophisticated espresso connoisseur, but do enjoy espresso, Lungo, Americano, and an occasional Macchiato (no other milk based espressos).
I use pretty good quality gear with Rancillio Silva v4 machine w/ PID and a Fellow Opus grinder, plus a good tamper and distribution tool, to keep it simple for expediency.

I've been using the stock Rancillio spouted portafilter and stock 14gr basket for years.
I finally purchase an 18gr basket (largest my portafilter will accept) to make espressos & lungos for my wife and I at the same time.

So I purchase a Normcore 18gr high-extraction basket because it was on a big sale, which included a puck screen (should keep my group head cleaner...woo hoo).
I read you have to grind finer with this basket and is harder to clean. Definitely requires a much finer grind, which I'm still dialing in.
I now notice that a fair amount of water sits on top of the puck screen and there is now more water in the drip trip after pulling a shot.

Are these normal occurrences and should I worry about it?

 

[daelric7]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown didn’t know about the extra water with high-extraction baskets!

 

[Noah_da_Roastah]

It may not be an effect of the high-extraction nature of the basket, but rather the basket size. MJ, did you make any other adjustments to your recipe besides grind size? Since you went to an 18g basket, did you also increase the amount of coffee you're dosing into this basket?