Coffee - Show us your set up

Long time ago…
I dont know who, told me, maybe I read this somewhere…
That the grinder should be about 1/3 of the price of the machine.

here is the thing…
there is a huge difference between, say a $200 grinder and a $600 grinder.
But most of the differences will be automation features, motor quality, noise levels, burr quality/size.
But once you get pass the 600-800 mark the changes become a bit more blur IMO.
What you really want on a grinder is consistency… meaning that the grounds are ALWAYS the same size.
The cheaper you go, the harder it will get.
My grinder is not expensive…
Its a huge pain in the ass not having a manual operation mode.
But it does grind well and it seems to be on point every day. So I exchange good grounds for quality of life… and now I am not sure i like that…

IF you get a good, quality grinder, than can be fixed if the burrs break, you will probably get a longer use period than if you get something cheaper, made out of plastic.

The Sette is plastic but the plastic parts aren’t expensive to replace either, but like you said before may not work the same after. :disappointed:

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exactly my point… they can make it cheap-ish because is mostly plastic…
if they make the same grinder with non plastic parts, it would cost 2x the amount… and it would probably be better

It does seem to produce great grinds though so it’s very tempting especially for the price. Baratza service also seems very very good in and outside of warranty. It’s tempting because it seems like it does everything well aside from longevity then again if it works fine for 2-5 years and then craps out it’s not the end of the world at that price

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I agree… its a gamble.
Mine (preciso) lasted a solid 6 (almost 7) years.
My brother’s (preciso) little more than a year.
My friend’s (a vario I think) lasted about 3 or 4 years.

ok. after scrolling a little bit, i can see that my keurig won’t fit in… lol

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Mignon looks good from a quality standpoint but lacks a timer or any kind of dosing setup so adds a step. Sette is loud but fast so it will make more noise for a shorter period

This shouldn’t be so complicated :exploding_head:

I saw your analogy but its not exactly the same as good tires on a low end bike. The grind consistency is a critical component for making consistently good shots of espresso, and similiar with pour over albeit slightly less critical.
Having a relatively good grinder actually makes low end machines pull decent shots because one of the biggest variables is consistent. Yes lower end machines can be annoying to work with, but things like water temp stay consistent (even if they aren’t accurate to what they say), and brew time you can handle manually to be consistent. So it allows you to really up the game from the machine.

COVID has seen grinders go up in price. More people are wanting better stuff at home, and when you combine it with supply chain disruptions you’ve got what we currently see. This too shall work itself out but it will take time, and by then you might just be buying coffee at work again so not want nice stuff at home anymore who knows.

Used if you go to reputable forums you can get good stuff for decent pricing. Places like FBM are a shitshow and you need to know what you are looking for and what to check.

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We’ve got a return to office plan around Labor Day but I never have and will not buy coffee at work. If I had a machine at home it would be nice to start my morning with an espresso and then brew a pourover for the drive in. The wife is not a fan of my pourovers she prefers the watered down Keurig brewer with Cafe Bustello in the pod, but might get her to enjoy some milky drinks if I can make them well

I think you will be very happy with the mignon…
I should have listen to my brother when he told me to get one…
But I was focusing on price point and ignore the rest…
huge mistake…

Wonder how it would do single dosing as far as retention. Lack of a timer makes grinding a full hopper seem kinda wasteful since I’d most likely be taking out and throwing out extra grounds every morning.

Which Mignon did you have your eyes on? The Notte is 329 through Seattle, Facile is 399 through WLL, and the others go up from there

Eureka makes the rocket faustino, and it can defenitly be used for single dosage…
it does have a bit of retention, but not too bad

I’ve been sampling a number of (es[ressp) coffees (Fieldheads, Anchorhead Leviathan, Bear Hug) for my home set up, but I keep coming back to Intelligentsia’s Black Cat. Anybody have suggestions similar to Black Cat’s taste?

Black cat from where?

I do drink black cat, but almost certainly is not the same as you

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https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/intelligentsia-coffee-black-cat-classic-espresso

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Did someone say Latte Art? Cause I didn’t :smile:

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FINALLY on my way. Found this whole setup used on Craigslist: Gaggia Classic (with what I think is a Rancilio v1 wand), Gaggia MDF grinder, Gaggia Classic Tray/knock box. Came with a second PF (not bottomless) and a nicer tamper, all for $300 USD. He also included a bag of beans “best by 12/31/2015” which I’ll be using to dial in. Nice elderly man who developed tremors and was told to not drink coffee, and I don’t think he’s cleaned it since those beans expired. Didn’t take many detailed pics but I did a ton of scrubbing, the shower head was spraying hard because all of the holes were clogged but here’s one that should tell it all. The water tank had hard sand like buildup throughout

image

Gotta give a huge shoutout to @Joelrivera who has been helping me through PMs for months about this stuff and I was aiming to buy his brothers PID Gaggia and a Eureka Mignon Silenzio/Specialita but this local deal came up and just too good. I was going to try the sell the grinder and tray for $100 and just have myself a $200 Gaggia

The grinder seems actually kind of ok, I did a few test shots and it can definitely get into the right range but the disposal mechanism sucks (and sticks) and it seems like it would retain a ton, but on the plus side the hopper seems very airtight, it’s slow but quiet, but likely needs a deep clean and disassembly ASAP.

Goal is to take that big ass bag of old beans and dial in dose and grind after I descale the whole thing and then make small adjustments for my real beans once I get the hang of how the process works.

Thinking 9bar spring mod right away and then just try to learn before I get the better grinder.

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Great find!
Welcome to another money sink hobby… :laughing:

The old beans will help a bit, but they are so old they might not be even close to here you need to be…

At least you will get it to the right range and you can fine tune once you get fresh beans…

Nice setup! That is exactly what I started with! The Gaggia grinder didn’t last too long for me but it certainly did the trick. I often found myself in the 3 or 4 setting and noticed that changing just 1 notch on the grinder could change my brew time by 10+ seconds (for 18g in and 36g out). I ended up selling mine for $100 and using the proceeds to fund a Barazta Sette 30 which has been significantly better.

Pretty cool that your Gaggia already came with the Rancilio wand, I ended up doing that upgrade myself. Does your wand tend to leak a bit after using it?

As for more upgrades, I’d recommend a bottomless portafilter and a nice VST or similar quality basket. It’s really fun to watch the shot and see how it extracts.

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Yea it drips a little bit after. I already listed the grinder and base locally so hope they sell quick because the grinder is a mess anyway and I hate the disposal mechanism. This guy NEVER cleaned his stuff

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