Eureka Atom

[Mesmer]

Thanks, already saw that video, but i take it with a pinch of salt since it's from the manufacturer
Wondering how it works from end user perspective, how much of the coffee does it clear, how easy it is to get it off

[Dodgy-Account-Grillsy]

That is one amazing idea. Very cool and very innovative Eureka.

[level3ninja]

The unfortunately titled system is installed on my Atom as of Wednesday morning, and has been undergoing testing with my regular usage. Tomorrow I plan to do a full clean of the Atom internally and then start weighing inputs and outputs. Given that (according to a quick google) this may well be the first public review of the system (in English at least) I want to be thorough and not give anything away until I'm satisfied I have all the information I'm going to get in a short term trial. Stay dialled.

Edit: this isn't trying to soften the blow for a negative review to come, just want to have a complete picture before I draw any conclusions.

[crazyhakins]

Hi all,

I just got my hands on a 2nd hand Atom at an unbelievable price. It hadn’t been cleaned before I got it and was quite clogged up. I’ve done a quick clean and it’s working fine now except that there’s a lot of static in the grind. It’s clumping and going all over the place. Any ideas how to reduce the static?

[matth3wh]

Hi all,

I just got my hands on a 2nd hand Atom at an unbelievable price. It hadn’t been cleaned before I got it ... It’s clumping and going all over the place. Any ideas how to reduce the static?

At the top of the chute should be a clump busting screen for the coffee to pass through. Can you remember seeing it during your cleaning?

I think there’s a picture of it in another Atom topic here where we pulled it apart looking at coffee retention.

Here you go... from Tridoros post #17 -> https://coffeesnobs.com.au/attachmen...m-dscf3799.jpg
..
More recent model of the anti clump screen and more cleaning related DIY single dosing posts here
..

[338]

The early Atoms had a less effective anti static/ anti clumper. I believe these can be upgraded, not sure how but I have seen threads before. From memory the change happened in 2017

[338]

Further from Mathew post, I think you recognise the change by the metal tab on the outside. At least you have something to google on.

[matth3wh]

The early Atoms had a less effective anti static/ anti clumper. I believe these can be upgraded, not sure how but I have seen threads before. From memory the change happened in 2017

Yes, looks like the clump buster changed from plastic to metal.

Reminds me, I'm probably well overdue to give the grinder a deeper clean and vacuum.

[crazyhakins]

Mine has the metal tab. The anti static thingos are black on mine from memory. I’ll have a look tonight to see what they’re made of and check that thread. Thanks guys.

[crazyhakins]

I pulled it apart properly this time and gave it a good clean. The zig zag prongs were bent forward, probably from when it was clogged and coffee forced them. They may not have been working very effectively bent out, so straightened them and I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. There was also quite a lot of grind in the bottom of the grinder so cleaned that out, it seems quite easy for grind to escape past the chute or spill over the grinding barrel.

It truly is a joy to play with though. The build quality is so good. I almost want to give it a cuddle goodnight!

[level3ninja]

Eureka Blow Up

My week with the rubber addition has come to an end as I'm posting it back to Anthony tomorrow, and I'm mostly disappointed in myself for running out of beans! A delivery I was expecting had been pushed back a week and I forgot to order more in time to use them. Because of that this review is less scientific and numbers based and more about my observations while screwing around. I'm also moving house in a week so hanging on to it longer (and depriving the other eager souls) won't allow me much more time to experiment anyway. Disclaimer- I was not paid for this, and actually bought a round hopper and paid postage both directions for the privilege of being what turned out to be the first in line to have a look at this new system. Something I would happily do again.

Observations:
Going from the standard Atom hopper to the round hopper with the Blow Up installed took a couple of days to get used to as the standard hopper has a clear lid, while the round hopper has a black lid and the bellows are black rubber, so lots more black and increased overall height changes the appearance noticeably. After a couple of days though it felt like any other part of the kitchen.

Using the bellows with the gate open and more than half full hopper doesn't do much, the air all gets out around the gate holes, as the gate is curved on the internal side to match the curve of the neck on the other side, the gate hardly blocks the holes at all. When I blocked those holes with my fingers and the hopper was more than half full the air mostly got out around the neck of the hopper. To fix both these problems I used masking tape, two layers around the neck (that became surprisingly invisible once the hopper was installed, note also the holes next to the curved end of the open gate in the second photo), and then I removed the gate and put tape over the holes.


Unsurprisingly using the bellows while the burrs aren't moving does nothing. The level of hole sealing done determines how hard it is to push the bellows down and how fast it rises back up, but no air comes out the grinds chute unless the static removing lighting bolts have been cleared of coffee.

Single dosing is not something I've seriously attempted before, I've done it a couple of times but never got into it. As this system is designed or single dosing I thought it would be unfair not to try it, so I cleaned out the grind chamber, anti-static guard and gave it a whirl. As my house is largely packed up the neatly fitting grinds container that comes with the Atom was not to be found, so I just used the portafilter. (Excuse the oven cleaner, i hadn't noticed it had been placed in frame until a couple of photos later.)


Continued below...

[level3ninja]

Those of you who appreciate some good schadenfreude watch this video before continuing: https://youtu.be/DUYkFhgtaoc

As can be seen from the video above and aftermath photo below, the removal of grinds from the anti-static guard and addition of air movement into a portafilter filled with finely ground coffee makes for an interesting study in the effects of static on fine powders.

It struck me that this was probably going to be the best time in my life to have my first time trying RTD, and using a milk jug instead of the portafilter, the whole thing seemed to work a bit better.

20g in 15.8g out. Not great, but not too bad. I feel like most of the missing part are just filling up the dead spots in the grind chamber or behind the anti-static guard. I can tell you that if you clean the grinds chamber out and try single dosing you'll get about 3g out for the first 20g in, so the bellows are definitely having an effect there.
Second attempt yielded a more promising result 20g in 19.6g out:

Popcorning is still a massive issue, and in the photo above three beans had jumped through the slot in the closed gate to sit on top of the gate, so it may have been 19.7 or 19.8 had that not been the case. Grind quality does not appear to have been affected.

So I moved back to my normal style of having the hopper with enough beans to add some weight and tried pushing on the lid to see what it would do. I normally purge 3.5s before a coffee making session and I was hoping that the bellows would allow me to reduce this time by leaving less in the grinding chamber.
With the round hopper I was typically grind 14.5s to get close to 19g out and then topping up to 20g. Pushing on the lid at a rate of around 1Hz while grinding gave me between 21-22.5g out in the same 14.5s. However if I then didn't push on the lid I would then get a bit over 16g out in 14.5s. The bellows are shifting the output from the next shot to the current shot, but it's hard to be consistent.

You can see the effect of the bellows on the stream of ground coffee in this video: https://youtu.be/QOxYWmVLCho

Unfortunately this is where I hit low bean warning levels and wasn't able to properly test if it would allow me to reduce my purging. I would like to keep testing this over 3-6 months as I don't have an inkling either way yet. I am curious on the effect of the vacuum pressure with the lid rises back up again. I don't think it has a large effect on grind size coming out, but I'm not sure either way whether it has a noticable effect.

So would I buy one? Depends largely on price, I'm keen to keep playing with it long term as I mentioned above.

[338]

Thanks Ninja for the write up, seems like a kilo of beans and a spare day are needed to work this device out.

[level3ninja]

Thanks Ninja for the write up, seems like a kilo of beans and a spare day are needed to work this device out.

Yeah I agree. It seems that what they advertise it for, single dosing and cleaning at the end of the day once you've run the last of the beans through, are things it will do. Beyond that I dunno yet.

[matth3wh]

Those of you who appreciate some good schadenfreude watch this video before continuing: https://youtu.be/DUYkFhgtaoc

You can see the effect of the bellows on the stream of ground coffee in this video: https://youtu.be/QOxYWmVLCho

Unfortunately this is where I hit low bean warning levels and wasn't able to properly test if it would allow me to reduce my purging. I would like to keep testing this over 3-6 months as I don't have an

Thanks for the review. Appreciate your efforts to document things as you go.

Based on the videos the taping definitely maximised air flow through the coffee pathway.

That first video is now my favourite video on youTube. :-D

After watching both videos I'm thinking that the blower would be a useful as an end of day clean out the de-clumper / exit shute without necessarily unscrewing the top panel. (cafe/workplace scenarios)

Then again, this grinder is relatively quick and easy to take apart so that may be more beneficial to quickly remove panelling and vacuum it all out.

Will be interesting to see pricing and further posts if others are trialing this next.

Might look out for an Owlee style cake bellows as well from post #252 above