Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

[Zaneus]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Thats an amazing deal. I paid $280 i think 5 or so months ago.

[atbialek]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I just bought a Breville Smart Grinder from some non-sponsor(Osborne Park, WA) for $120. It was marked down from $299 to $130 and was offered a cash price of $120.

I just called all 3 of the majors in Osborne Park. The two that actually had them in stock told me they were marked at $259. Needless to say they were pretty surprised at the suggestion of someone getting one for $120

Either way, Ive PMd you requesting the details because if the deal really is out there, I definitely want in   

[neurosis]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Phew, all PMs replied.

[Bames]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

After a light roast jammed, or just generally, has anyone noticed their BCG800 burrs oscillating instead of spinning and grinding straight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YNL2Fcbko&list=UUoD6VGzVQ1ooL4o0xxELHpg& index=1&feature=plcp
If you watch closely you can see the burrs and burr carrier moving. Would this cause uneven grind size?

[Dennis]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

If you watch closely you can see the burrs and burr carrier moving. Would this cause uneven grind size?

Yes, thats quite a wobble and it would definitely produce uneven (and undesirable) particle sizes.

[Ilgattonero]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Are you sure no shims got stuck inside the upper burr when you removed it, then dropped out somewhere?

Happened to me, and I only noticed as I knew the number of shims installed in total after the shimming, so kept looking for the missing one!

Cheers

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I was fairly careful, actually looking to see if there were shims installed at the time, as I knew it was common to have shims after reading this thread.

Anyway emergency averted, resorted to using my old grinder and after a short period dialling it in was getting really good shots once again. 

So I ordered a shim kit but not rushing to go through the dial in process all over again. Maybe I will reserve the bcg for plunger leaving it as it is...

Cheers

[LaughingAtFate]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Hmm, Id go so far as to even suggest you might have a bent shaft, if this is the case, Shims wont do much to solve the oscillation problem...

[dabbler]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

After a light roast jammed, or just generally, has anyone noticed their BCG800 burrs oscillating instead of spinning and grinding straight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YNL2Fcbko&list=UUoD6VGzVQ1ooL4o0xxELHpg& index=1&feature=plcp
If you watch closely you can see the burrs and burr carrier moving. Would this cause uneven grind size?

Hi jb,
Dont know if I missed something further up the thread but how did you get your BCG800 to grind without the hopper ?

Ive only had one split-second unusual noise (Beanbay Espresso Wow), but seeing as Ive just begun my roasting journey Im wondering if I might get more. Id certainly like to do a visual check.

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

apologies in advance if this has already been discussed, but this thread has become huge and i have fallen behind in reading it...

has anyone done any testing with a digital scale as to how repeatable the smarties auto-shutoff feature is?

for example, say you want 17g of coffee (perfect for the stock basket of the BDB), will the smartie grind out 17.0g every time? or will it be 16.5g sometimes and 17.5 other times? or worse?

-peter

[Randy_G.]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

The grinder doses by time and not weight. It will be close, But I would consider the way it works to be more of a coffee-saving feature than an accurate dose control. The dose adjustment, according to the owners manual, is in 5% increments, so for a 16 gram dose adjustment, the steps would be approximately :
15.2 - 16.0 - 16.8

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

thanks for that.  i didnt expect it to dose by weight.  what i meant in my question was, how repeatable is it?  iow, if a certain setting gives you a 16.0g dose as measured on your gram scale, will the next dose also be 16.0g?  or will it just as likely be 16.8g, or 15.5g?

this of course would require someone to actually do the tests... like a mark prince or a dan kehn might do.  i just wanted to know if someone had done this kind of test.

-peter

[Bames]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Hmm, Id go so far as to even suggest you might have a bent shaft, if this is the case, Shims wont do much to solve the oscillation problem...

Yeah mine has always done this, its only gotten worse recently after installing shims to get it to grind finer. Maybe it needs to be replaced!

After a light roast jammed, or just generally, has anyone noticed their BCG800 burrs oscillating instead of spinning and grinding straight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YNL2Fcbko&list=UUoD6VGzVQ1ooL4o0xxELHpg& index=1&feature=plcp
If you watch closely you can see the burrs and burr carrier moving. Would this cause uneven grind size?

Hi jb,
Dont know if I missed something further up the thread but how did you get your BCG800 to grind without the hopper ?

Ive only had one split-second unusual noise (Beanbay Espresso Wow), but seeing as Ive just begun my roasting journey Im wondering if I might get more. Id certainly like to do a visual check.

I just pushed the button that locking the hopper pushes with a cake tester... BUT be SUPER careful if you try it, dont grind your finger off.

[pcrussell50]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I notice there is quite a bit of clumping with mine, is this normal with this grinder?

while i cant say for 100% sure, the burr set on the smartie looks just like, (as in exactly) like the $150-$200 class Baratza grinders we have here in the us. the Baratza grinders, though they are not ideal for espresso, can be shimmed and modded so that they can grind fine enough for proper espresso, the tradeoff being that the grinds do come out clumpy. just based on looking at pics of the smarties burr set, i would expect this as well. if you are willing to do the weiss distribution technique, (called wdt, in the forums), that will break up the clumps. using wdt to break up clumps, if you are willing to do it, is a great way get decent espresso with an inexpensive grinder like the smartie and the others with that same burr set.

-peter

[Ausnadian]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I have had one for a couple months, and while it is a nice grinder, I have 3 shims installed (1 fat, 2 slim) and I am still on the finest grind it will go. May have to sell it or trade it for something more suitable. I only drink espresso, with occasional french press, and it is great for the press, just not good for my machine.
What bugs me the most is my grind which is too coarse for my Ms Silvia, chokes my brothers Breville.

As for the WDT, I do that with both my grinders and you are right, it does help with extraction, but also one of the reasons one coffee takes me so long to make!

[TC]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I have had one for a couple months, and while it is a nice grinder, I have 3 shims installed (1 fat, 2 slim) and I am still on the finest grind it will go. May have to sell it or trade it for something more suitable. I only drink espresso, with occasional french press, and it is great for the press, just not good for my machine.
What bugs me the most is my grind which is too coarse for my Ms Silvia, chokes my brothers Breville.

As for the WDT, I do that with both my grinders and you are right, it does help with extraction, but also one of the reasons one coffee takes me so long to make!

Hello Ausnadian,

The Silvia ships with a nominal 12g double basket thimble. If you havent already dumped it, you should!

Get a standard double (14-16g) into which you will find you dose more like 18-19g and I suspect you will find that all is well.

Good luck!

Chris