Rant: Dropped $600 on a new grinder that could barely handle light roast

I bought a Baratza Virtuoso+ back in March thinking it was the upgrade I needed for my home setup. First week, it clogged on a batch of Ethiopian beans from a local roaster. Sent it back and went with a used Mazzer Mini for $450 off Craigslist instead. Has anyone else had luck with commercial grinders for home use or am I just making more work for myself?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagew501mo ago

My buddy from the home barista meetup bought a Mazzer Super Jolly last year for $300 off some restaurant closing down. He literally keeps it on his kitchen counter and it looks like a car engine block but that thing chews through anything including those oily dark roasts that clogged my old machine. He did have to buy a different burr set and made a little funnel thing for the doser since it just dumps grounds everywhere. The static is insane though he says he loses like 2 grams every shot to grounds sticking to the chute.

gavina731mo ago

... but that's exactly the kind of beast you need for those dark roasts, right? @sagew50 I did the same thing with a used Compak K10 a while back and it's just sitting on my counter like a monster truck on pavement. The static thing is no joke though, I ended up ordering a little anti-static spray off Amazon and it helped some but I still wipe the chute out with a wet finger after every grind. And yeah, losing that much coffee to grounds stuck everywhere drives me nuts but you can't beat the build quality on those old commercial grinders.