Coffee Appreciation

I’m thinking about moving my Rancilio Rocky on. I’m being tempted by an on demand grinder which would mean not having to endlessly weight coffee out.

What are the draw backs of on demand grinders

Is it worth trying to pick up a spares/repair model that comes with the doser and just swap it over?

I thought the dosers were seen as unreliable and inconsistent

Assuming you're talking about grind by time/weight, grind by time works best if you generally use the same type of beans and use them fairly quickly (I find myself having to tighten grind as my beans age across the course of two weeks which will throw off your set timings if you want a constant weight out).

If you're going for GBW, as previously discussed you have a choice of the Sette 270Wi, Eureka Libra, maybe a Fiorenzato also around 500gbp, and everything else is going to be pretty expensive.. Have heard adjusting the grind settings on the Eureka can only be done with motor running which will waste beans if you want to keep hopper full. Sette Wi aside, most of the low-retention grinders tend to be single dose/non-weighing. I will always recommend the Sette but it can be noisy plus you have to be willing to change out the gearbox once every few years (though Baratza is good with spare parts!).

I’d put a small hopper on it. I just think it would be more convenient.

I tend to stick to the same beans unless I happen to buy some if I’m away somewhere.

No idea on that to be honest, all my at-home grinders have been single dose.

Personally I wouldn't bother with a grinder with a hopper for home use.

They tend to retain more grounds which means you'll have some stale coffee in each shot (assuming you're having 1 or 2 per day), and any grind changes will need purging of old grounds to ensure you get a representative shot (though if you're using the same beans, this likely won't significant factor).

If you're measuring by time, you'll need to compensate in dose for any times you're adjusting the grind fineness, as a coarser grind setting will result in larger dose for a given time (and vice-versa of course).

The weight-based ones (such as the Sette 270wi) do seem to be pretty accurate, but I'd always be wary of the weighing mechanism/software being a failure point (no data to back that up of course!)

Grinding coffee is such a minefield.

In other news, I’m going to get some coffee scales. I have a Rancilio Silvia and don’t want to spend a lot. Are there any scales on Amazon or Temu that are worth a punt?

I've found basic 'jewellery scales' from Amazon or similar to work perfectly fine, mainly use one of these now: https://rhinocoffeegear.com/rhino-coffee-gear-brewing-scale-3kg.html

Think it cost around £30 or so

For scales I'd recommend either buying the cheap stuff (<15) or get something actually decent (but will cost more). Have bought the former twice (in multiple guises) and had both fail on me after a year and a bit (hot liquid, spills, etc - not unexpected); now have a Timemore and hopefully it'll go for longer (but only had it for a couple of months so time will tell). The increased sensitivity is a massive plus though, in addition to my hoped-for longevity.

I use a Libra, it works great. I think the story about adjusting the grind while it’s running comes from making a big adjustment finer and clamping the stationary beans between the burrs - which will happen to any grinder. Never been a problem for me.

Libra?

Bless you.

Thank you

Any recommendations for a cafe near Victoria / Kensington? Google is saying Caravan and Amar Cafe.

Iris & June

Lift coffee

Marginal gains I'm sure, but does it matter if ground coffee is kept in a clear glass jar on the countertop as opposed to in an opaque bag in a dark cupboard?

I would think so, though if you're using ground coffee not sure how much you can save (then again you could argue the other way and if you're using ground coffee you want all the marginal gains you can get). Light degradation is a thing, but also you can't squeeze all the air out of a glass jar the way you can an opaque bag - not sure if that affects rate of oxidation (which is the other thing that damages coffee quality) but can't hurt?

Cheap jewellery scales, 4 years and counting.

I'd agree with the points that @youClown made, but really the only way is to do a proper test.

Maybe split the bag into bag & jar, and either have one of each each day, or alternate on which you use each day?

I could be wrong, but I don’t feel like there could be that much difference in taste. I can only use my own experience but unless you’re buying a kg at a time, you’re going through coffee beans so quickly I can’t see it degrading significantly.

Special Guests probably worth the walk.

I'm looking to put my DF64 grinder on a silicone / rubber / foam matt to see if it makes it any quieter. Has anyone doe this successfully?

Coffee loving electricians?

TL;DR Can bad earth in the mains or even magnetic interference cause grinder static issues?

I’ve got a customer I supplied with a E65S GBW. It kept going out of control - over running, spraying coffee all over the place. Removing the lid, cleaning the clump crusher, vacuuming the grind chamber, resetting, recalibrating blah blah would sort it but only for a few hours.

Understandably she got the hump with that. I replaced the machine, took hers back to my place where it has worked flawlessly for dozens of shots.

Now the replacement machine which I tested before installing is doing the same thing after a couple of hours use.

So is the static not being dissipated through the chassis earth to the mains? Also there’s a router right next to it. Could it be magnetic fields or RFI from that? I’m convinced it’s something to do with the infrastructure or environment there.

Sounds very plausible. Clearly nothing wrong with the machine which can only poin…..

I’m literally making this up.