You are reading a single comment by @youClown and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
I actually had to pay for the assembly for mine because it was long out of warranty - how did you manage to get it free? Also I just think of it as a machine that has a 45 quid consumable every 4 years; if you save 240 over a niche zero for similar quality (and arguably better workflow since you grind right into the portafilter) you buy the assembly twice, it lasts a decade, and you've still saved 150... Also given how they've upgraded the burrs, who's to say if they manage to find a different composition of plastic tough enough for the job.
youClown
Howard
On the one hand it was easy for me to do as I have the tools and am happy working around appliances. It also cost me nothing - other than time / hassle - because they give the assemblies out free because they know they fucked up with them.
On the other, it's a bit shit because ours wasn't even used daily until the pandemic (but I guess that's now most of its service life).
Maybe for the money we can't expect an all-metal drive assembly that lasts for a decade, but I don't think an all plastic assembly that fails so predictably is a good price / quality compromise.